BY FROMA HARROP Even in this awful economy, the voters seem content to toggle between the two main political parties. If Republicans aren’t doing the job, then let Democrats try. Barack Obama? He seems competent. There’s little agitation for a radical third-party response. That was not the case in 1933, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt became […]

BY JOE CONASON Would it be rude to ask whether the Republicans have any new proposals to save the country from this worsening recession? The question arises not because anyone expects the minority party to burst forth with creative ideas, but because conservatives in Congress and the media seem so determined to thwart or stall […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER After Bernard Madoff confessed in December to looting some $50 billion from investors through a long-running, widespread Ponzi scheme, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., complained that this massive fraud “fell through the cracks of our regulatory system.” Indeed it did, but let’s be blunt – there are now a lot more “cracks” than […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH I don’t hate George Bush. I never have. I voted against him twice. I disagree with him, sometimes passionately. I think the country is in worse shape now than it was eight years ago, and that history will not be kind to him. I think America’s standing in the world has dropped […]

BY FROMA HARROP During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama portrayed his tax plan as a way to help “spread the wealth around.” That was an unfortunate choice of words, though not as silly as the “conservative” formulation that raising taxes “punishes success.” The object of taxation is not to spread the wealth and certainly not […]