June 8, 2009 Issue

Cover art by: Cover art and design by Doug Chayka

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Feature

The Border Violence Myth

The national media have invented a drug-related crime wave that officials and local journalists say just isn’t happening.
Gabriel Arana
The Silence of MoveOn

MoveOn, once the most powerful grassroots peace organization, has rendered its members voiceless on the expanding wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And that silence sends a message.
Tom Hayden
Steve Earle’s Labor of Love

The music on Townes, Steve Earle’s tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.
Charles P. Pierce
The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold

How the financial bailout scams taxpayers, subsidizes Wall Street and props up our broken financial system.
Andy Kroll
$1 Trillion and Counting…

The $1 trillion we have spent on war since 9/11 has placed enormous stress on our recession-struck economy.
Jo Comerford

Editorial

Nation Forum: Sotomayor’s Judicial Style

Three legal scholars assess the impact of Obama’s nomination of Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.
Various Contributors
Pakistan’s Missing Peace

There’s a hole in the heart of our Af-Pak policy. It’s called peace between Pakistan and India. And no amount of aid will fill it.
Graham Usher
Noted.

After insulting veterans, Homeland Security gets a do-over on a report on right-wing extremism; mass transit comes to small towns.
The Editors
Healthcare Bottom Lines

A realistic public healthcare plan should rein in costs, fix uncompetitive markets and change the way medicine is practiced.
J. Lester Feder
Bankers’ Paradise

Congress, at the behest of the banking industry, has changed accounting rules to make company balance sheets even more opaque. How is that going to help?
Chris Hayes
Obama’s Tortured Turn

Obama’s reversal of the decision to release photos of detainee abuse is unsettling and wrongheaded.
The Editors
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Column

California Budget Blues

If Citigroup is too big to fail, isn’t the state of California? How the national economy can snap back to health if the federal government refuses to help?
Robert Scheer
New Orleans’s Not-So-Super Bowl

Millions will be spent to bring the biggest event in sports to the Superdome, while the victims of Hurricane Katrina remain on the sidelines.
Dave Zirin
London Falling

New Labour is finished. What replaces it will certainly be worse.
Gary Younge
Do ‘Better’ With Less

Shortcuts, blindness and downright dishonesty in the rapidly imploding mainstream media.
Eric Alterman
On Accusations That Nancy Pelosi and Others Were Briefed on Bush Administration Torture

Eventually, instant karma’s gonna get you.
Calvin Trillin

Books & the Arts

Steve Earle’s Labor of Love

The music on Townes, Steve Earle’s tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.
Charles P. Pierce
Chop Shops

Over a decade ago, in his novel The Ax, Donald E. Westlake captured the ruthlessness and anomie of economic Darwinism.
Charles Taylor
The Long Goodbye? The Book Business and its Woes

Book publishers have always predicted that the end was nigh. When it does come they will have only themselves to blame.
Elisabeth Sifton
No Ideas but in Crowds: Baudelaire’s Paris Spleen

In Paris Spleen, Charles Baudelaire crystallized a new feeling: the private life of the public turn.
Joshua Clover
Comfort and Agony: Jennifer Moxley’s Clampdown

Instead of offering healing or empowerment, the poetry of Jennifer Moxley explores vulnerability and “wrong life.”
Ange Mlinko
Back Talk: Philip Alcabes

Epidemiologist Philip Alcabes discusses the social fears surrounding epidemics and why risk can’t be eliminated from life.
Christine Smallwood
Adaptation: On Literary Darwinism

If art is a product of the mind, and the mind a product of evolution, is art a product of evolution?

William Deresiewicz
Toad Skin? Fernando del Paso’s News From the Empire

News From the Empire hacks out a sinuous, branching path that connects fantasy with fact and allegory with analysis.
Lorna Scott Fox
Puttin’ on the Glitz: José Manuel Prieto’s Rex

Set in the glossiest of sanctuaries, Rex is a complicated and dazzling indictment of contemporary fiction.
Natasha Wimmer
The Kundera Conundrum: Kundera, Respekt and Contempt

How did Milan Kundera’s antipathy toward the media become as curdled as the Czechs’ allergy to his success?
Jana Prikryl
Quarto

Adrienne Rich
Poem

Robin Blaser
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Letters

Exchange

Vivian Gornick and William Deresiewicz

Crossword

Puzzle No. 3172

ACROSS

1 see 10
Frank W. Lewis

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June 8, 2009 Issue

Feature

The national media have invented a drug-related crime wave that officials and local journalists say just isn’t happening.

MoveOn, once the most powerful grassroots peace organization, has rendered its members voiceless on the expanding wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And that silence sends a message.

The music on Townes, Steve Earle’s tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.

How the financial bailout scams taxpayers, subsidizes Wall Street and props up our broken financial system.

The $1 trillion we have spent on war since 9/11 has placed enormous stress on our recession-struck economy.

Editorial

Three legal scholars assess the impact of Obama’s nomination of Federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the US Supreme Court.

There’s a hole in the heart of our Af-Pak policy. It’s called peace between Pakistan and India. And no amount of aid will fill it.

After insulting veterans, Homeland Security gets a do-over on a report on right-wing extremism; mass transit comes to small towns.

A realistic public healthcare plan should rein in costs, fix uncompetitive markets and change the way medicine is practiced.

Congress, at the behest of the banking industry, has changed accounting rules to make company balance sheets even more opaque. How is that going to help?

Obama’s reversal of the decision to release photos of detainee abuse is unsettling and wrongheaded.

GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Column

If Citigroup is too big to fail, isn’t the state of California? How the national economy can snap back to health if the federal government refuses to help?

Millions will be spent to bring the biggest event in sports to the Superdome, while the victims of Hurricane Katrina remain on the sidelines.

New Labour is finished. What replaces it will certainly be worse.

Shortcuts, blindness and downright dishonesty in the rapidly imploding mainstream media.

Eventually, instant karma’s gonna get you.

Books & the Arts

The music on Townes, Steve Earle’s tribute to Townes Van Zandt, is simple and literally homespun. There is sinew to this music, and blood in the words.

Over a decade ago, in his novel The Ax, Donald E. Westlake captured the ruthlessness and anomie of economic Darwinism.

Book publishers have always predicted that the end was nigh. When it does come they will have only themselves to blame.

In Paris Spleen, Charles Baudelaire crystallized a new feeling: the private life of the public turn.

Instead of offering healing or empowerment, the poetry of Jennifer Moxley explores vulnerability and “wrong life.”

Epidemiologist Philip Alcabes discusses the social fears surrounding epidemics and why risk can’t be eliminated from life.

If art is a product of the mind, and the mind a product of evolution, is art a product of evolution?

News From the Empire hacks out a sinuous, branching path that connects fantasy with fact and allegory with analysis.

Set in the glossiest of sanctuaries, Rex is a complicated and dazzling indictment of contemporary fiction.

How did Milan Kundera’s antipathy toward the media become as curdled as the Czechs’ allergy to his success?

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

Letters

Crossword

ACROSS 1 see 10

ACROSS

1 see 10