State of Change

Taking on Wartime Contracting

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Three years ago I proposed that we needed an independent war profiteering commission--modeled on the Truman Commission--to expose and eliminate the staggering waste, mismanagement and corruption of Iraq Reconstruction under the Bush Administration. Monday, the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan held its first hearing in the same room where the Truman Commission did its historical work.

The first panel of witnesses included Senators Jim Webb and Claire McCaskill who introduced the legislation to create this bipartisan commission made up of non-elected officials. In his opening statement Senator Webb said:

Let's start with the premise that every interested American knows that there was rampant fraud, waste and abuse following the invasion of Iraq. They all know it. And they want us to demonstrate that we're willing to do something about it, not simply in terms of process, but in terms of accountability.

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February 2, 2009

A Transformational Moment

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

A troubled nation yearning for change has elected a Democratic president and a newly energized Congress. Transformation, we hope, is at hand--and The Nation is poised to participate in the process.

As a an independent voice for progressive values, The Nation--in the pages of the magazine and on this website--will continue to make bold proposals, ferret out the truth, expose corruption and hold our politicians accountable. And while we may not agree with everything President Obama does, we recognize that he has the capacity to be a transformative leader.

As of today, Campaign 08, the blog you've been following since the start of the Presidential race, undergoes its own transformation. Today Campaign 08 becomes State of Change, The Nation's new group blog focused on progressives, politics, the Obama Administration, and a nation in transition. Joining me as contributors to State of Change are Washington DC Editor Christopher Hayes, Washington DC Correspondent John Nichols, contributors Ari Berman, Ari Melber, Laura Flanders, Max Blumenthal and Leslie Savan. We're also thrilled that Publisher Emeritus Victor Navasky will weigh in from time to time. The impressive posts this team contributed throughout the campaign are archived on State of Change.

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November 7, 2008

McCain: A Neocon Realist?

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

John McCain's widely-touted speech on nuclear security has been treated by the mainstream media as a major break with Bush Administration policy. And while there are elements which diverge from some of Bush's destructive politics and policies--it is, after all, an Administration which has shredded several decades worth of bipartisan arms control agreements with the Russians-- it's also important to understand that McCain continues to define the problem through the prism of the Bush Doctrine.

How, for example does McCain, who seeks to expel Russian from the Group of Eight industrialized countries, anticipate negotiating successful arms agreements with the expelled country? How does a candidate whose neocon "League of Democracies" proposal--which would exclude Russia and, in doing so, undermine any role that country could play in dealing with Iran and securing weapons of mass destruction--expect Moscow to be receptive to real efforts on nuclear cooperation? Instead of hailing McCain's stance as a sign of his newfound realism --and a Johnny-Come-Lately break with the neocons-- it's critical to put McCain's remarks into a larger context.

I asked Joseph Cirincione, president of the respected Ploughshares Fund and author of Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, for some deeper analysis of McCain's speech:

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May 28, 2008

Hillary Clinton --Please Exit, with Dignity, June 4

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Check out CNN.com for Bill Clinton's vent about how a "cover up " is hurting Hillary Clinton's chances of becoming the Democratic nominee. This is a man who has trampled on his spouse's voice every time, in this campaign, that she's found it.

The women of The Nation are the first to deplore the sexism in media commentary this primary season, but a "cover up"?

Hillary Clinton started this race last year as the one to beat--she had the money, the machine and the name recognition that assured her of quasi-incumbent status. And, indeed, she ran as a quasi-incumbent, an establishment candidate in a change- year election. Yes, there were the Chris Matthews and the Tucker Carlsons and the Mike Barnicles and the Rush Limbaughs and the women who were working out their Clinton hatred through Hillary's candidacy.

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May 26, 2008

Obama --Let's Challenge the Murdochization of Our Media

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

In a speech Sunday, Barack Obama said he would pursue a vigorous antitrust policy if he becomes U.S. president and singled out the media industry as one area where government regulators would need to be watchful as consolidation increases.

His statement signals a key opening for media and democracy reformers and the movement they have spawned in this last decade--a movement The Nation has been centrally involved in ever since we launched our National-Entertainment series (complete with glossy centerfolds) in 1996. Working with this movement, an Obama Administration could effectively challenge the destructive and concentrated attack by corporate media consolidation on the integrity of our democracy.

Obama will have smart allies among this movement, such as the media advocacy group Free Press. He will also find allies in the current Congress and in the two Democratic Commissioners on the FCC, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, who are committed to defending a free, independent and diverse media.

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May 19, 2008

Bush Defames Obama on Middle East

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

The Commander-in-Chief is now the Smearer-in-Chief. In Israel to celebrate the country's 60th birthday, President Bush chose to debase the event with the defamatory suggestion, made before the Israeli Knesset, that Barack Obama would appease terrorists by talking to Syria and Iran.

Obama moved quickly to call it a "false political attack" by a president whose failed policies have "strenghtened Iran.'"

I would go on to point out that when it comes to talking to Syria, Israeli leaders would seem to agree with Barack Obama and not President Bush. As the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported, Israel and Syrian negotiators met in secret from September 2004 to July 2006 and reportedly agreed on the main points of a peace agreement. And there have been reports of interest on both the Israeli and Syrian side to meet to conclude a formal agreement this year. The Bush administration has actively opposed these talks and has discouraged Israel from moving forward with final negotiations on a peace agreement. Obama might well ask the failed Bush Administration: Would Israel (and the United States) be in a stronger position vis a vis Iran, if it made peace with Syria?

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May 15, 2008

'A Change is Gonna Come'

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

American Idol finalist Syesha Mercado had just finished singing Sam Cooke's 1964 classic "A Change is Gonna Come" when Obama strode onto the stage in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Syesha wept, as she reminded Randy, Paula and Simon of the civil rights movement which fueled Cooke's song, life and power.

Obama spoke of the change that was coming --the attacks, the rightwing playbook, and he worked to inoculate himself with power, passion, and words that soared.

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May 6, 2008

Bill Moyers: Jeremiah Wright, Double Standards & The Media

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Beware the Terrible Simplifiers

By Bill Moyers

Bill Moyers Journal

May 3, 2008

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May 4, 2008

Fox, Netroots & the Dems

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Matthew Yglesias explains difference between Fox and The Nation:

Peter Suderman doesn't understand why netroots types get so upset when Democrats go on Fox News:

Perhaps I'm not enough of a partisan, but I wouldn't be bothered -- in fact, I'd be rather thrilled -- to see any conservative candidate, especially one I particularly liked, do an interview with Keith Olbermann, or even, say, a sit down with The Nation. The difference between Fox and The Nation is that The Nation makes no pretense of being anything other than what it is.

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May 3, 2008

We're Number One! America Leads the World in Prison Population

By Katrina vanden Heuvel

Last night, after losing the Pennsylvania primary, Barack Obama said some wise things. He spoke of of how easy it is, "after 14 long months... to lose sight of the fierce urgency of this moment." He spoke of how easy it is "to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit-for-tat that consumes our politics that none of us are immune to" and how that "trivializes the profound issues" which we confront at home and abroad.

Those words were quickly drowned out by the relentless stream of slicing and dicing on the cable shows. It took a front page New York Times article the morning after to refocus my attention on just what Obama was talking about--a profound issue that has failed to get attention in the campaign so far.

According to the Times, the US is Number One when it comes to the numbers of prisoners--2.3 million-- in our jails and prisons. We now surpass China, which is four times more populous than the US, and a distant second with 1.6 million in prison.Our lockup rate, according to a criminologist quoted in the article has made the US a 'rogue state, a country that has made a decision not to follow what is a normal Western approach."

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April 23, 2008