September 1, 2008 Issue

Cover art by: Cover design by Gene Case & Stephen Kling/Avenging Angels from the poster by Shepard Fairey

purchase current issue

Feature

A Look at Tulane University’s Service-Learning Post-Katrina

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University thrives, due in part to its revamped commitment to community.
Elizabeth Giegerich
The Nation Does Denver

The Nation hosts thought-provoking discussions and events in Denver during the DNC.
The Nation
Sex and Violence

This Week: Things get all twisty as Kang makes some moves her own damn self, and her slacker brother contemplates the Big Wave.
Gary Phillips
FBI Seeks Sweeping New Powers

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is poised to implement new rules that will create a new surveillance state.
Aziz Huq
What Would Mao Think of the Games?

He’d feel bad that the whole Communist era was airbrushed out of the Olympic spectacle. But he’d probably like the swimming.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Warning to Obama on the New Cold War

McCain and the neocons are heating up a conflict in the Caucasus; it’s up to the peace movement to keep Obama from signing on.
Tom Hayden
Obama Nation Author Jerome Corsi’s Racist History Exposed

How a racist, conspiratorial crank became the Republican attack machine’s anti-Obama point man.
Max Blumenthal
Will Youth Activists Recreate ’68 At This Year’s Conventions?

Thousands of young activists are poised to protest at the Democratic and Republican conventions. In the age of Obama, is street protest still relevant?
Michael Gould-Wartofsky
After Musharraf

Pervez Musharraf is history, but his opponents seem unable to agree on what to do next. After so many disappointments, can Pakistan rise to the occasion?
Barbara Crossette
Death and Dying

This Week: Congresswoman Kang hangs out in the loo, wide stance and all.
Gary Phillips
New Era for Pakistan–and Kashmir?

The resignation of Pervez Musharraf and a looming election in India offer hope that with the right leadership, the sixty-year faceoff over Kashmir might finally be resolved.
Barbara Crossette
Six Questions About Anthrax

And one answer: Bush’s global ‘war on terror’ operates on a double standard.
Tom Engelhardt
Obama and King

As Obama accepts his party’s presidential nomination on the forty-fifth anniversary of King’s most famous speech, a historian looks beyond the obvious analogies.
Adele Oltman
Ceasefire and Chaos in Georgia

Once geopolitical lines are redrawn, the question must be answered: who started this war?
Margarita Akhvlediani
Bolivia Gets the Change It Asked For

Evo Morales expanded his mandate with a landslide victory in a referendum last week. But the Washington foreign policy establishment still won’t acknowledge he’s delivering on his promises.
Mark Weisbrot
The Defunding of the Peace Movement

If millions are to be spent on an anti-Iraq, anti-McCain message, the money will come from the Obama campaign or not at all.
Tom Hayden
Community Organizers Discuss Obama’s Role as an Activist.

Five community organizers from across the country assess the impact of Obama’s history as an organizer.
The Nation
Obama’s Voter-registration Drive

Obama’s voter-registration drive could be the change America’s been waiting for.
Chris Hayes
Growing Demographic Groups Could Provide Obama Victory

No matter who wins in November, demographic trends indicate that the era of backlash politics is over.
Chris Bowers
What Obama Needs for Progressive Reform

Here’s how progressives can ensure Obama’s success.
Katrina vanden Heuvel and Robert L. Borosage
Dollars for Donkeys (Chart)

The Nation

Editorial

Making History

Progressives are saying this is a moment of transformational politics. Is the party leadership listening?
Victor Navasky
Have Pantsuit, Will Travel

Hillary’s signature attire is one phase in women’s power-dressing; Michelle’s sheath is another. But the shoes…
Patricia J. Williams
Media Gone Mad

The national news narrative from Denver is completely nuts: consider the unsourced myth of the Clinton-Obama feud.
Eric Alterman
From King to Obama

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.
Steve Cobble
The Illusory Middle

Undecided voters don’t care about left or right: they simply want a candidate they can trust. As he shifts to the center, Obama risks losing his greatest asset–authenticity.
Victor Navasky
The Hillary Diehards

If there were any real news here, 15,000 journalists would be reporting it. Instead, they gather soundbites from a few nut cases who consider politics a form of therapy.
Eric Alterman
From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.
John Nichols
Guilty of Driving a Truck

Salim Hamdam’s conviction and short sentence does nothing to repair the damage the Bush Administration has done.
David Cole
Obama and the Sisters

His convention speech should draw from the wisdom of black women activists who were the prophets of American democracy.
Melissa Harris-Perry
Noted.

The I-word, back on the table; Fannie Lou Hamer and the Democrats.
The Editors
Blood in the Caucasus

It’s time for the US to dissolve its cold war military alliances and develop realistic new policies toward Russia.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
For a New Economics

The tepid platform Democrats will adopt in Denver isn’t a new social contract, but it does go places Republicans never will. Let’s hope Obama does better.
The Editors
GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Subscribe

Column

The Cold War President

He lacks the chops to deal with our economic crisis, so McCain’s best strategy is to run as the President who’ll fight the next cold war. Scary thing: he might win.
Robert Scheer
Raging Inflation

Our paychecks are disintegrating as we drive them to the bank. Forget hope and change: why aren’t the candidates talking about inflation?
Nicholas von Hoffman
McCain’s Warped Worldview

His irrational mix of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality is proving disturbingly successful with millions of uninformed voters.
Robert Scheer
The 2008 Student Loan Blues

Some 200,000 college students won’t qualify for loans in September, and millions more will pay higher interest rates. Can they count on Obama to help them out?
Nicholas von Hoffman
The Bear Stearns Conspiracy

Americans know all the details of the John Edwards affair. But they remain in the dark about a scandal that affects the livelihoods of millions. Who orchestrated the fall of Bear Stearns?
Nicholas von Hoffman
Obama and the Politics of ‘Presumptuousness’

Dana Milbank’s coverage of Obama in the Washington Post has become a symbol of a press corps that is almost as the Bush Administration.
Eric Alterman
Tested, Tried, Untrue

Critiques of Obama’s suitability for the presidency are bookended by astonishingly contradictory stereotypes.
Patricia J. Williams
Management Styles

A different kind of identity politics.
Calvin Trillin
The Bush Agenda (for 2009)

Idle hands are the devil’s playthings…
Ward Sutton

Books & the Arts

Making History

Progressives are saying this is a moment of transformational politics. Is the party leadership listening?
Victor Navasky
From King to Obama

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.
Steve Cobble
In the Presence of Darwish

A tribute to the premier Arab poet of the past half-century.
Sinan Antoon
What Would Mao Think of the Games?

He’d feel bad that the whole Communist era was airbrushed out of the Olympic spectacle. But he’d probably like the swimming.
Jeffrey Wasserstrom
From Fannie Lou Hamer to Barack Obama

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.
John Nichols
Back Talk: Guy Maddin

The Canadian filmmaker discusses his new film, My Winnipeg, and the importance of cultivating a personal mythology.
Christine Smallwood
Closely Watched Water

Hurricane Katrina seen from an eye in the storm.
Stuart Klawans
The Magic of Baseball Endures

Two new books explore the states of wonder and mortification evoked by baseball.
Andrew Rice
Rick Perlstein’s ‘Nixonland’: A Gripping Look at the Nixon Era

Historian Rick Perlstein explores the resentment and polarization sparked by the Nixon era’s cultural and political strife.
Thomas J. Sugrue
Along With Whatever Has Not Yet Been Named

Take if you will this improbable boy,
skin like August arcing toward its apex,
heat sheen across the highway, hazy
gloss on the way things seem, in transit
Reginald Shepherd
The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

Sign up

Letters

Letters

Readers write back on the subprime crisis, affordable housing, E.L. Doctorow and more.
Our Readers

Crossword

Crossword Classic #13

From the January 17, 1948, issue.
Frank W. Lewis
Crossword Classic #14

From the January 17, 1948, issue.
Frank W. Lewis
Puzzle No. 3134

ACROSS

1 How you might find some stands in the park, if really wild! (4,7)
Frank W. Lewis

Log In

September 1, 2008 Issue

Feature

Three years after Hurricane Katrina, Tulane University thrives, due in part to its revamped commitment to community.

The Nation hosts thought-provoking discussions and events in Denver during the DNC.

This Week: Things get all twisty as Kang makes some moves her own damn self, and her slacker brother contemplates the Big Wave.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is poised to implement new rules that will create a new surveillance state.

He’d feel bad that the whole Communist era was airbrushed out of the Olympic spectacle. But he’d probably like the swimming.

McCain and the neocons are heating up a conflict in the Caucasus; it’s up to the peace movement to keep Obama from signing on.

How a racist, conspiratorial crank became the Republican attack machine’s anti-Obama point man.

Thousands of young activists are poised to protest at the Democratic and Republican conventions. In the age of Obama, is street protest still relevant?

Pervez Musharraf is history, but his opponents seem unable to agree on what to do next. After so many disappointments, can Pakistan rise to the occasion?

This Week: Congresswoman Kang hangs out in the loo, wide stance and all.

The resignation of Pervez Musharraf and a looming election in India offer hope that with the right leadership, the sixty-year faceoff over Kashmir might finally be resolved.

And one answer: Bush’s global ‘war on terror’ operates on a double standard.

As Obama accepts his party’s presidential nomination on the forty-fifth anniversary of King’s most famous speech, a historian looks beyond the obvious analogies.

Once geopolitical lines are redrawn, the question must be answered: who started this war?

Evo Morales expanded his mandate with a landslide victory in a referendum last week. But the Washington foreign policy establishment still won’t acknowledge he’s delivering on his promises.

If millions are to be spent on an anti-Iraq, anti-McCain message, the money will come from the Obama campaign or not at all.

Five community organizers from across the country assess the impact of Obama’s history as an organizer.

Obama’s voter-registration drive could be the change America’s been waiting for.

No matter who wins in November, demographic trends indicate that the era of backlash politics is over.

Here’s how progressives can ensure Obama’s success.

Editorial

Progressives are saying this is a moment of transformational politics. Is the party leadership listening?

Hillary’s signature attire is one phase in women’s power-dressing; Michelle’s sheath is another. But the shoes…

The national news narrative from Denver is completely nuts: consider the unsourced myth of the Clinton-Obama feud.

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.

Undecided voters don’t care about left or right: they simply want a candidate they can trust. As he shifts to the center, Obama risks losing his greatest asset–authenticity.

If there were any real news here, 15,000 journalists would be reporting it. Instead, they gather soundbites from a few nut cases who consider politics a form of therapy.

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.

Salim Hamdam’s conviction and short sentence does nothing to repair the damage the Bush Administration has done.

His convention speech should draw from the wisdom of black women activists who were the prophets of American democracy.

The I-word, back on the table; Fannie Lou Hamer and the Democrats.

It’s time for the US to dissolve its cold war military alliances and develop realistic new policies toward Russia.

The tepid platform Democrats will adopt in Denver isn’t a new social contract, but it does go places Republicans never will. Let’s hope Obama does better.

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

Column

He lacks the chops to deal with our economic crisis, so McCain’s best strategy is to run as the President who’ll fight the next cold war. Scary thing: he might win.

Our paychecks are disintegrating as we drive them to the bank. Forget hope and change: why aren’t the candidates talking about inflation?

His irrational mix of patriotic swagger and blindness to reality is proving disturbingly successful with millions of uninformed voters.

Some 200,000 college students won’t qualify for loans in September, and millions more will pay higher interest rates. Can they count on Obama to help them out?

Americans know all the details of the John Edwards affair. But they remain in the dark about a scandal that affects the livelihoods of millions. Who orchestrated the fall of Bear Stearns?

Dana Milbank’s coverage of Obama in the Washington Post has become a symbol of a press corps that is almost as the Bush Administration.

Critiques of Obama’s suitability for the presidency are bookended by astonishingly contradictory stereotypes.

A different kind of identity politics.

Idle hands are the devil’s playthings…

Books & the Arts

Progressives are saying this is a moment of transformational politics. Is the party leadership listening?

Barack Obama stands on the shoulders of many as he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. One set of those shoulders belongs to Jesse Jackson.

A tribute to the premier Arab poet of the past half-century.

He’d feel bad that the whole Communist era was airbrushed out of the Olympic spectacle. But he’d probably like the swimming.

Democrats have come a long way from the first Denver convention a century ago.