Delphi's bankruptcy is a marker of a new America in which there is no
collective security, no union to make you strong, no government to give
you shelter, in which workers stand alone.
"People power" in the Philippines is running out of steam. The
political system is corrupt, Washington is micro-managing the economy
and civil society, cynicism is rampant. But a fledgling "New Left" offers
hope.
Once seen as the vehicle of hope and reform, California Governor
Arnold Schwarzenegger looks increasingly like an oil-burning jalopy of
politics-as-usual.
While Rahm Emanuel sticks with a "stay-the-course" approach,
despite polls that show Americans want out of Iraq, Carl Levin becames
the latest high-level leader to make a compelling argument for
withdrawal.
It's easy to scoff at a rock star like Bono pairing up with
economist Jeffrey Sachs. But their tireless lobbying for debt relief
for the poorest nations could make a real difference for the 1 billion
people who live on less than a dollar a day.
Companies like Boeing, Dell and Daimler-Chrysler know how to extort
tax cuts and subsidies from states eager to keep jobs from fleeing. But
taxpayers, community groups and even a Supreme Court review are pushing
back on corporate giveaways.
Fitful efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast unfold against a backdrop
of looming economic disaster: rising unemployment and interest rates,
misplaced priorities and a recession that will hurt the weakest most.
War crimes are the darkest expression of the moral degradation that
permeates the White House. Bush's threat to veto the Senate's
anti-torture measure frames a crisis of law and legitimacy.
Student protests against the presence of military recruiters on campus
are on the rise. So are angry--sometimes violent--pushbacks from
conservative students and campus police.
Gas-guzzling can be a revolutionary experience, like puffing
Montecristo cigars, now that Citgo's 1,800 gas stations and eight oil
refineries passed into the hands of Venezuela's national oil company.
Chronicling the final, devastating months of the Civil War, E.L.
Doctorow's new novel, The March, reveals the author's complex
love for an earlier version of America.
In Andrew Jackson: A Life and Times, the frontier president
is cast as a one-man beacon for democracy. But Jackson's core belief
was a fervent defense of land.
The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
expertly balances the roots of a political revolution: the impact of a
few key leaders and the lives and aspirations of ordinary citizens
engaging with the government for the first time.