Juan Cole and Katrina vanden Heuvel: Do We Belong in Libya?

The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel speaks with Middle East scholar Juan Cole about his open letter to the left on Libya.

The failure of shareholder capitalism

Companies exist for their workers and their communities -- not just their CEOs and their investors

by Michael Lind
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Losing Our Way

By BOB HERBERT

The U.S. can find the resources for endless warfare, but not for nation-building here at home.

Wall Street

Billionaire self-pity and the Koch brothers

The libertarian tycoons explain why they are the True Victims of America's political culture

by Glenn Greenwald

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Hypocrisy breaks out all over on Libya
Ignoring Congress makes Obama's war look like Bush's. But the right reacts in ways it used to consider traitorous
by Joan Walsh

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What’s So Scary About NPR? By Joe Conason —
Somehow nobody asked the most obvious question: If NPR were truly slanted toward the liberal side, why would a phony tape of a private conversation be needed as proof?

Why the Republicans Hate NPR
by Robert Creamer
Political organizer, strategist and author
Yesterday, Republicans in the House passed a bill with no Democratic support to cut off funding for NPR altogether and to restrict local public radio stations from using federal funds from buying programing from NPR.
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PAUL KRUGMAN Another Inside Job
More from the abusive bankers and their political friends.

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Pro-Worker Movement Power in Wisconsin: What's Next?
by John Nichols
Governor Scott Walker has unintentionally created a powerful movement. Now that Walker has got his bill, how will the pro-union forces push back? General strike? Break the banks? Recall? All of the above?
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How Not to Fight Terrorism
By Joe Conason —
Stigmatizing Muslims and their faith may win airtime for Rep. Peter King and draw cameras to his committee, but it does nothing to advance the security of the United States.

What Wisconsin Can Teach Washington
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
Consider the contrast between two groups of Democrats, in Wisconsin and in the nation’s capital, and the reaction of voters.
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Why the Fate of Democracy is at Stake in Madison

by Noam Chomsky Democracy in the U.S. has taken a different turn. After World War II the country enjoyed unprecedented growth, largely egalitarian and accompanied by legislation that benefited most people. The trend continued through the Richard Nixon years, which ended the liberal era.

Peter King's Modern Day Witch Hunt
by Eugene Robinson
Rep. Peter King's witch hunt against Muslim Americans.
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Wisconsin GOP Senators Pass Anti-Union Bill Without Democrats Present

Labor Vows To Step Up Recall Effort Against Wisconsin GOP

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Has Walker's Giant Overreach Screwed Republicans? 3 Major Mistakes That Might Sink the GOP in November
By Robert Creamer
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The GOP’s Ingenious Madman Strategy
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
Richard Nixon espoused what he called “the madman theory.” It’s a negotiating approach that induces the other side to believe you are capable of dangerously irrational actions and leads it to back down to avoid the wreckage your rage might let loose.
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Flailing After Muslims
by Bob Herbert
This week’s scheduled hearing into the Muslim community is an affront to America’s most precious ideals.

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Why Wouldn’t the Tea Party Shut It Down?
by Frank Rich
This battle, ostensibly over the deficit, is so much larger than the sum of its line-item parts.
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Why Wisconsin matters
E.J. Dionne Jr.
A 1950s standoff sets the stage for Scott Walker's current confrontation.
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Rupert Murdoch and David Koch Collude Against Wisconsin Workers
By Adele M. Stan / AlterNet

Confirmed: Union-Bashing Right-Wing Media Stars Hannity, Limbaugh and O'Reilly Are AFL-CIO Union-Affiliated Members
By Ted Cox AlterNet
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The Wisconsin Lie Exposed - Taxpayers Actually Contribute Nothing To Public Employee Pensions blogs.forbes.com
Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, has written a brilliant piece for tax.com exposing the truth about who really pays for the pension and benefits for public employees in Wisconsin.
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Yes, America Still Needs Unions
By Joe Conason —
Even in its terribly weakened condition, the labor movement remains a bulwark against the kind of corporate tyranny that would swiftly make serfs of the rest of us.
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George Soros – He’s No Koch Brother: Infographic
These days "George Soros!" is the right-wing equivalent of "Na-na-na-na-na!" But which billionaire is better for America: Soros, or David & Charles Koch?
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Fake "Koch brother" calls up Wisconsin governor
By Alex Pareene

Scott Walker to 'Koch Caller': Thanks For All the Support
by John Nichols

Overpaid columnist: Teachers are overpaid
The Washington Post's Richard Cohen is also upset that retired cops make nearly as much as he does
by Alex Pareene

Wisconsin governor's weak "fireside chat"
Scott Walker claims to not be at war with unions, argues that collective bargaining increased the deficit
by Alex Pareene
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Scooter Steps In It
Much like Scooter didn't finish college, his plan didn't quite go off as well as he hoped. Actually, it hasn't gone well at all.


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- Intro - Watson Competes on Jeopardy

The bigger Clarence Thomas scandal
His ethical blindness is alarming, but it's also common on the Supreme Court -- and there's no way to stop it .
by Ben Adler
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Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions
As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.
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GOP plan to split lower classes exposed: author The labor unrest in Wisconsin exposed the Republican Party's plan to essentially divide-and-conquer the lower classes in America.

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Why Do They Hate Social Security? By Joe Conason —
Among the mysteries of modern politics in America is why so many of our leading pundits and politicians persistently seek to undermine Social Security, that enduring and successful emblem of active government.

Obama and the Failure of the Deficit HawksBy E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
The president has proposed some serious spending cuts and some modest revenue increases to keep things stable. This annoys his deficit-obsessed critics. He should smile, let them rage, and go about his business.

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With AOL's $315 Million Deal: Will 'Huffington Post' Still Be 'Huffington Post'?
What to Make of the AOL Purchase of Huffington Post ... of the Comcast/NBCU deal—AOL’s $315-million purchase of Huffington Post ought not come as a surprise ... with a balance that never was achieved. But this is about a lot more than AOL and Huffington Post . Indeed, it ...
by John Nichols
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Wallflowers at the Revolution
by Frank Rich
Amid the Egyptian crisis, television pundits aggrandized American inventions, Twitter and Facebook.
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GOP Congressmen Get their Government-Subsidized Health Care Today! Still None for You.
By karoli

Kucinich: GOP Healthcare Bill Repeal Brings Us Closer To Single Payer
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The Reagan Ruins

by Robert L. Borosage
Reagan, no doubt, was a transformational president. He was a transformational president who launched America on a misguided, 30-year experiment with market fundamentalism.

Why does the GOP hide its agenda?
by Joan Walsh
Ryan stays mum about his budget-busting "Roadmap" while Bachmann peddles debunked myths in rebutting Obama's SOTU
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If Only We Had More Sarge Shrivers

By Richard Reeves —
If Americans had really understood what was happening with the Peace Corps, we might be a much greater country today and the world might be a better place as well.
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Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds
By SEWELL CHAN
A Congressional inquiry said bankers and regulators could have seen the 2008 crisis coming and stopped it.
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Piven Responds To Beck: "It Only Takes One Person Who Is A Little Deranged"

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The implicit lie the GOP will endlessly repeat
by Jay Bookman
Government spending did not cause the recession. Government spending had nothing to do with the recession. Government spending is not responsible for killing the 8 million jobs that have vanished from this country. In fact, there is no economic mechanism, no plausible cause and effect relationship, by which that can be said to be true.
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Fudging the Facts on Health Care and Deficits
By Joe Conason —
Data sets and out-year projections may make everybody’s eyes glaze over, but without accurate information, the end result of legislation is disaster.

JFK’s Eloquence, 50 Years Later
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
It’s remembered as a day chilled by “a Siberian wind knifing down Pennsylvania Avenue” and illuminated by “the dazzling combination of bright sunshine and deep snow.”
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Was Olbermann's Abrupt Departure From MSNBC Part of a Corporate "Shakedown" Precipitated by the Comcast/NBC Merger?

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Petty Woman
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Palin Fails The Test
by John Dickerson
Sarah Palin's response to the Tucson shooting is defensive, illogical, distracting—and late.
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How We Enable Crimes of Insanity
By Joe Conason —
The law requires us to assess Jared Lee Loughner’s mental state and motivations, but we might do better to analyze our own craziness.

How Violent Talk Blocks Sane Gun Laws
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
The descriptions of President Obama as a “tyrant,” the intimations that he is “alien” and the suggestions that his presidency is illegitimate are essential to the core rationale for resisting any restrictions on firearms.

Words That Don’t Heal
By Ruth Marcus —
Blood libel is a term with a specific and terrible history. It refers to the scurrilous accusation that Jews kidnapped and murdered Christian children to use their blood to prepare Passover matzo.
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Sam Stein: Obama Re-Introduces the Human Element to the Giffords Tragedy
It is when there is a human element to his presidency that Barack Obama tends to stand the tallest. And on Wednesday evening, as he spoke to 20,000-plus at a memorial service at the University of Arizona, there was, if nothing else, an emotional honesty to what he had to say. To a nation looking for clarity, Obama didn't pretend to have all the answers. There is, he noted, a tendency to demand "order" from "chaos," to try and "make sense out of that which seems senseless." Life doesn't always comply.
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Weapon in rampage was banned under Clinton-era law
The now-expired assault weapons ban made it illegal to make the type of magazine used in the Giffords shooting
by Justin Elliott

Gail Collins: A Right to Bear Glocks?
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Comedian Frank Conniff tweeted: "Hey, Sarah Palin, hows that hatey, killy, reloady, crosshairsy thing working out for ya?"

Shame on Sarah Palin
by Matthew Rothschild
She played recklessly with violent rhetoric, and she literally targeted Gabrielle Giffords.
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Matt Taibbi: The Crying Shame of John Boehner

Faux Faithful Abuse Constitution
by James Zogby
This tendency to make "idolatrous worship of the American nation", its rituals, artifacts, and places, is as old as the country itself.
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Health-care melodrama
by Eugene Robinson
The whole idea of repealing the law is theatrical -- and woefully ill-advised.
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Get Ready for a G.O.P. Rerun
by Bob Herbert
The Republican agenda: more riches for the rich, more misery for the rest.
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The New Voodoo
by Paul Krugman
This was a year of spectacular hypocrisy. From politicians (mainly Republicans), that meant you got your money for nothing and your tax cuts for free.

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GOP To Filibuster New Year, In Order to Avoid Responsibility of Governing

GOP To Filibuster New Year, In Order to Avoid Responsibility of Governing
By Don Davis
“WE’RE TAKING THE POSITION THAT IT TAKES AT LEAST 60 VOTES FOR THE EARTH TO FINISH ITS REVOLUTION AROUND THE SUN, AND TO PLACATE OUR TEA PARTY REVOLUTIONISTS, WE’LL BE PROPOSING A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO ADOPT THE MEDIEVAL POSITION THAT THE SUN CIRCLES THE EARTH.”

10 Ways Right-Wingers Will Try to Wreck Any Economic Recovery
By Isaiah J. Poole

Sept. 11 Heroes Disdained on the Right
By Joe Conason —
To understand the depths of shame and cynicism in the partisan stalling of health legislation for 9/11 first responders, it is only necessary to recall how eagerly Republican politicians once rushed to identify themselves with New York City’s finest and bravest.
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People, we're in deep trouble
Even compared to the manifest swindles and perversions of the past 20 years, we haven't seen anything like Fox News
by Gene Lyons

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Jesus Is a Liberal Democrat
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog March to Keep Fear Alive

"Don't ask, don't tell": 1993-2010
by Steve Kornacki
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God Bless Bernie Sanders
by Jacob Heilbrunn
Author, "They Knew They Were Right: the Rise of the Neocons"
Sometimes it's worth taking a stand. Sanders didn't just do that. In pointing to the gross disparities in wealth in the United States, he did something else. He told the truth. The contrast with President Obama could hardly have been starker.
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A Vermont Senator Becomes a Twitter Sensation
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Is the Payroll Tax Holiday a GOP Trojan Horse?
Liberals love it, but maybe they shouldn't.
— Kevin Drum

Obama and Bush: A real difference
On safety, health, and environmental regulatory enforcement, this White House takes its responsibility seriously
by Andrew Leonard
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It's Time to Protect and Strengthen Social Security, Not Undermine It
by Gara LaMarche
Widespread claims that Social Security can't pay its bills, or that the trust fund will be depleted by the time today's children are ready to collect their benefits, are false. To the contrary, it's one of the most successful social programs of all time.

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WikiLeaks and the End of U.S. ‘Diplomacy’
By Amy Goodman —
The way the U.S. conducts diplomacy is now getting more exposure than ever—as is the apparent ease with which the U.S. government lives up (or down) to the adage used by pioneering journalist I.F. Stone: “Governments lie.”

Precedent and Prologue by Jeffrey Toobin

Bush v. Gore, ten years later.

Blaming Obama’s America First
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. —
We are about to enter a two-year period in which the Beltway Republicans will always blame Obama’s America first—you know, the America that happens to disagree with much of the conservative agenda, the America from which they want to “take back” the country, as if the rest of us represent an alien force.

Iran’s Best Friends on Capitol Hill
By Joe Conason —
By stalling or killing President Obama’s new START treaty, Republicans would provide moral support to Iran, North Korea and any other rogue regime seeking to arm itself with nukes.
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Why Exactly Is President Obama Acting Like George McFly?
by Bob Cesca
The president looks weaker than at any other time in his presidency. He's completely off the rails, following rules that no longer exist, and well beyond any notion of post-partisanship.

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Justice Stevens vs. the death penalty
The recently retired John Paul Stevens offers rare criticism of former Supreme Court colleagues. Will his argument change the debate over capital punishment?
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The Thanksgiving Wars? No Thanks
By E.J. Dionne, Jr.
Happy Thanksgiving. That is not a political sentiment. Yet this year, everything seems partisan and even this most unifying of national holidays has become an occasion for ideological warfare.
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DeLay convicted in money laundering trial
A Texas jury finds former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay guilty of charges he illegally funneled corporate money to Texas candidates. He could be sentenced to life in prison.
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Repeal health care? Give up your own first!
act.credoaction.com
Tell Congressman Boehner and Senator McConnell if they want to repeal health care, they need to practice what they preach, and give up their own government-sponsored health care first.
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The Hijacked Commission
By PAUL KRUGMAN
A process meant to deal with the nation’s long-run fiscal problems has been hijacked on behalf of an ideological agenda.
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The Origin of America’s Intellectual Vacuum

By Chris Hedges —
The country suffers an impoverishment of ideas and analysis at a moment when we desperately need radical voices to make sense of the corporate destruction of the global economy and the ecosystem.

Sarah Palin's true reality: 'Free' Alaska is a welfare state that ...
by Michael Daly Sarah Palin's true reality: 'Free' Alaska is a welfare statethat enjoys generous federal subsidies.
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