To Comfort The Afflicted
And Afflict The Comfortable
The Price Rises On Houston’s ‘Cheap’ Housing
BY FROMA HARROP As the floodwaters recede, much of Houston’s famously “affordable” housing may seem less of a bargain. We’re not just talking about rising rents, inevitable with so many units destroyed. We are talking about the emotional cost of having to move in with friends, rebuild and buy new furniture more than once in […]
Judicial Politics
BY SUSAN ESTRICH There is a crisis in America’s federal courts that has absolutely nothing to do with politics, although that is its cause. The figures are familiar: One out of every nine seats on the federal bench is vacant. Half of the vacancies are in districts with multiple vacancies that have literally declared “judicial […]
Fix Health Care Now, Remove Warts Later
BY FROMA HARROP “Rome was not built in a day,” Montana Democrat Max Baucus said with resignation after the Senate committee he heads voted to reject a “public option.” A government-run health plan that would compete with private insurers’ offerings, the public option is a means to curb spiraling health care costs. It’s more than […]
The Disappointed Democrats
BY SUSAN ESTRICH It was not supposed to be this way. The power of the president, Richard Neustadt wrote half a century ago, is the power to persuade – sometimes with a carrot, sometimes with a stick, sometimes [as President Reagan did so well] by getting the country behind him, sometimes [as President Johnson did] […]
Obama’s Mountaintop Ambush
BY JIM HIGHTOWER Obama spaketh, and it was good: “We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains,” he proclaimed. And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a […]
