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This Week in World War I, August 8-14, 1914
French Soldiers in Traditional Uniform, August 1914 Opening Moves When war broke out in August 1914, both sides expected that it would end relatively quickly. Each side had optimistically proclaimed...
View Article'Torture' No Longer a Four-Letter Word?
By Laura Pitter Is some sense of sanity finally slipping into the torture debate in the U.S.? Yesterday, after years of criticism for failing to call it by its name, the New York Times finally decided...
View ArticleThe Nixon That Watergate Exposed
In the decades following the national convulsion over Watergate, Richard Nixon has had not only something of a fond revival but a near rehabilitation. He is revered in some circles as an enlightened,...
View ArticleWhy Airstrikes in Iraq Are a Mistake
As America goes back to war in Iraq with airstrikes, here's what to know and do instead: -- This is a slippery slope if those words have any meaning left. Airstrikes are in part to protect American...
View ArticleYou Break It, You Bought It!
I opposed Iraq 1 and as a Virginia resident told Senator Chuck Robb that I could never again cast a vote for him because of his support for that adventure. I vehemently opposed Iraq 2 as an...
View ArticleWhy We Still Need the Voting Rights Act
In a democracy, a person's vote is their voice. For much of our history, however, not everyone's voice was welcome at the voting booth. It was not until 49 years ago with the signing of the Voting...
View ArticleThe Accidental Lions and How They Change Culture
There are moments when a shot is heard around the world and lions are born. On March 30, 1980, James Brady became one of those lions. Not by choice, but by destiny. He didn't volunteer for this...
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Renewing the Spirit Behind Gingrich's 'Contract With America'
As the 2016 presidential election approaches, I feel uninspired by the Republican candidates who appear most likely to be pursuing the nation's highest office. With Democrats having at least one...
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Watergate: American Democracy's Finest Hour
"Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here." -- Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert When was NASA's finest hour? Most would say, "The Apollo moon landing." As a bit of an insider, I have a different take....
View ArticlePresident Obama Is Right to Block the Genocidal ISIS and Hold the Kurdish...
Any reasonable person should be deeply alarmed by the recent and current events in northern Iraq involving the brutal group ISIS, religious minorities, and the receding defense lines of the...
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Friday Talking Points -- Past, Present and Future
We've got a lot to cover today (as that headline should evince), but before we begin examining the anniversaries, elections, and politics of the week, I'd like to begin instead by promoting a video....
View ArticleThe Obama Doctrine
President Obama's announcement that the United States' will protect 40,000 Yazidis trapped on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq is a decisive and timely response to an unfolding humanitarian disaster....
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A Bittersweet Ending to The Official Story, Loaded With Learnings for the...
Credit: Mónica Hasenberg via Wikimedia Commons The miraculous finding of the kidnapped-at-birth grandson of the head of a leading Argentine human-rights organization is worthy of noting not just for...
View ArticleWhat We Need to Learn From the Ebola Epidemic
Luckily, the two Americans who received ZMapp, the new experimental drug for Ebola, seem to be improving, which holds great promise and hope for thousands of other people but also raises broader...
View ArticleAugust 8, 1974
The Seeds of Reality Check Richard M. Nixon, August 8, 1974, speaking from the Oval Office: I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is abhorrent to every instinct in my...
View ArticleObama's Irrelevant Air Strikes
After months of temporizing analysis, President Barack Obama re-engaged militarily in the fading colonial construct known as "Iraq." That he has done so in limited fashion is to be commended, though...
View ArticleA Dream We Are ABLE to Enact at Last
Last week, disability activists across the United States, including myself, were greatly encouraged as the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act moved one step closer to passage in Congress,...
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Three Charts to Email to Your Right-Wing Brother-In-Law (Updated)
Problem: Your right-wing brother-in-law is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh lie machine, and keeps sending you emails about "Obama spending" and "Obama deficits" and how the "stimulus" just made things...
View ArticleInsights From a Month in Mississippi
Like many Southerners my age, I've long been fascinated by the Civil Rights Movement. Growing up in the 1970s, I was too young to experience the movement directly, but old enough that I could not...
View ArticleJim Brady, My Hero
I first met Jim Brady when he was recruited to be Press Secretary to Gov. John B. Connally in Connally's ill-fated bid for the White House in 1980. During the early campaign committee's senior...
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