The Urgency on Job Creation

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 30th, 2009 @ 08:34:13 am , using 662 words
Category: Commentary

Krugman on jobs this am in NYTimes makes sense as ever. If the stimulus had done more job creation, this wouldn't be such an imperative. But it is time to focus on job creation; again, the WPA idea has some validity and one hopes that the emergency of on… more »

Falling Deeper in the Hole

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 28th, 2009 @ 10:35:49 am , using 621 words
Category: Commentary

Bob Herbert in today's NY Times with a poignant take on how this recession is affecting kids and the poor.  The urgency Herbert talks of becomes more dire as the unemployment rate stays high and people are suffering. The tragic overspending on wars and w… more »

Krugman on Economic Revcovery and Fear from Wall St.

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 23rd, 2009 @ 07:59:09 am , using 664 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Kr;ugman in today's NY Times about the need to do more to get the economy moving, quoting Summers in an earlier take which Krugman says is even more the case today.   But in a recent interview with Fox News, the president sounded diffident and nervou… more »

You Can't Look Weak

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 22nd, 2009 @ 02:21:54 pm , using 419 words
Category: Commentary

Just watched extraordinary Moyers Journal reviewing Johnson's conversations just after JFK assassination re Vietnam and it is chilling. He doesn't know what to do. Goldwater wants to 'bomb 'em off the moon,' in LBJ phrase and Johnson has to decide what t… more »

Economy, Stupid

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 21st, 2009 @ 08:51:07 am , using 461 words
Category: Commentary

The following from Nate Silver, Five-Thirty-Eight talking the realpolitik of jobs and the what the Dems must do to stop the poll drop. Makes sense and probably will have to be acted upon soon, as the perceptions--especially on the right--is that the stim… more »

Obama and Afghanistan

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 19th, 2009 @ 07:17:36 am , using 802 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

  NY Times editorial this am, asking what the task is for Obama in Afghanistan as this long deliberation continues. He inherited this from the Bush team but now he has to make a move with it. Are there any good options? Will this war define and ultimate… more »

DOWN BY CONTACT

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 18th, 2009 @ 08:22:27 am , using 545 words
Category: Commentary

My friend Betsy wrote from Boston that she was enraged by Belechik's decision that the Patriots go for a first down deep in their own territory and blew the call, as the Colts took over from there, Manning throwing deep and Addai taking it in to give the… more »

The Guy's No Hegel

Posted by: Bill Dodd
Published on November 17th, 2009 @ 09:47:15 am , using 183 words
Category: Commentary

The Guy's No Hegel   In a recent London Review of Books article titled "Post-Wall," Slavoj Zizek (I'm omitting the language accents here for nearly everyone's convenience), an individual described in the Wikepedia as a "Slovenian philosopher and cult… more »

Shoreward Drift

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 13th, 2009 @ 04:09:35 pm , using 344 words
Category: Poetry, Commentary

What a tough slog all this is. Obama came to office with bright ideas, and look at the mire, the vortex of impossibilities he is in. More power to anyone who wants to weather the straits of that office! It seems to exhaust everyone if it doesn't kill the… more »

from Standing Tall In Harm's Way

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 11th, 2009 @ 04:16:10 pm , using 456 words
Category: Commentary

The following from David Ignatius in today's WaPo and a good homage to the troops working overseas these days. My friend Bill Told said the other day that the military is where the work is these days, and it looks like the troops are hanging together pre… more »

Rage, Therapy and Evil in the Ft. Hood Massacre

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 10th, 2009 @ 11:43:43 am , using 394 words
Category: Commentary

David Brooks in his Rush to Therapy article in NY Times Opinion today says the following at the end of the piece:   The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It igno… more »

The Shrinks in The Field

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 7th, 2009 @ 05:26:04 pm , using 787 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

  This from a NY Times posting today, 11-7-09: Many of the patients who fill the day are bereft, angry, broken. Their experiences are gruesome, their distress lasting and the process of recovery exhausting. The repeated stories of battle and loss can… more »

Killings at Fort Hood

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 7th, 2009 @ 08:35:41 am , using 421 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

Below from filmmaker Kamran Pasha in today's Huffingtonpost.com. He interviews a Muslim soldier (anonymity required) about Hasan the Fort Hood killer and the subject who knew him as a fellow of the same Texas mosque he attends, tries to understand the si… more »

Assessing Obama after a Year

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 5th, 2009 @ 09:03:32 am , using 891 words
Category: Commentary, Repetitions

This from Chris Weigant, Huffington Post, assessing some of Obama's first year.   Which returns us to our primary question: "Has Washington changed Obama, or has Obama changed Washington?" I would answer this in two ways. The first is to state that… more »

Unhealthy US

Posted by: Bill Pearlman
Published on November 5th, 2009 @ 08:16:37 am , using 679 words
Category: Commentary

The recurring pronouncement from the right is that Reform will dismantle the 'best health care system in the world' which brings us to Nicholas Kristof's piece in today's NY Times. Nowhere do entities like US insurance companies deny coverage that is nec… more »