In the Public Interest

The global movement to ban cluster munitions received a big lift last month when forty-six nations at the Oslo Conference agreed on an action plan for “developing a new international treaty on cluster munitions by the end of 2008.” Neither the United States, China, Russia nor Israel — manufacturers of cluster bombs — were participants…

On many occasions, President George W. Bush has lectured the American people that “amidst all this violence and bloodshed” in Iraq, “is the sacrifice worth it? It is worth it, and it is vital to the security of our country. Well then, why don’t his daughters, 25 year olds Barbara and Jenna join the armed…

Just as the Democrats could never seem to get a handle on Ronald Reagan in his sixteen years as Governor of California and President, the Republicans cannot get a handle on Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. No matter what they tried—and they were admittedly timid—the Democrats could neither upset, mire, or throw Ronald Reagan on the…

The invasion-occupation of Iraq has been described as a classic case of asymmetrical warfare. Unable to begin to match the modern land, aerial and sea weaponry of the United States, the insurgents are fighting back with roadside IEDs, rifles and grenades to sow chaos, death and destruction. Many of these attacks have been in civilian…

Among the greatest unsung public health advances of recent times is progress made against the global cigarette industry. In the United States, cigarette smoking is finally on the decline. The courts have ruled the tobacco industry to be “racketeers.” Smokefree spaces, including not just workplaces but restaurants and bars, are proliferating, reducing the harms of…

It takes no small amount of hubris for Wall Street hucksters to urge financial services deregulation. But if there’s one thing that the Wall Street power brokers do not lack, it’s audacity. Wall Street leaders have established a series of self-empowered commissions — among them the Commission on Capital Markets Regulation (the “Paulson Commission”), the…

If writers, who lasso injustice and give light to justice, lift up our standards of fair play, then on January 31st, the nation suffered a genuine decline. For Molly Ivins lost her seven year battle with cancer and joined what her friend Bill Moyers called “that great Purgatory of Journalists in the Sky.” Author and…

Among the tens of thousands of Americans protesting in the nation’s capital against George W. Bush’s war-quagmire in Iraq this weekend, more than a few will probably wonder why there are not more folks with them or, at least, more marching in other villages, towns and city squares around the country. After all, nearly 70%…

Dear President Bush: I have read your address to the nation on “The New Way Forward in Iraq” and wish to share some observations. You say “where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.” You then quickly change the subject. Whoa now, what does it mean when you say the responsibility for mistakes…

The boiling, surging, churning and corporatizing economy of the United States is racing far ahead of its being understood by political economists, economists, politicians and the polis itself. Tidbits from the past week add up to this view, to wit: –The giant, shut-down Bethlehem steel plant in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania will soon become a $600 million…