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College Dropout Factories
The American higher education system shunts striving low-income students into a class of schools invisible to the elite. The only thing these schools do well is drive their students to quit. by Ben Miller and Phuong Ly
Elemental Neglect Uranium mining killed and sickened thousands of Navajo Indians. They've barely gotten an apology. by Zachary Roth
God's Geography
Dispatches from the sweltering, malarial no-man's land between Islam and Christianity. by Joshua Hammer
Unnatural Selection
How a politically rigged economic system has been sold to Americans as a force of nature. by Ed Kilgore
Hype or Perish
How to become a cable TV expert on the Tea Party when there's really nothing new to say.
by Joshua Green
July/August 2010
Editor’s Note
Pushing Past Reform Fatigue by Paul Glastris
Tilting at Windmills
Psst! Got any Motrin? …Wall Street's rinse and repeat … Obama's obsession… by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square Mama Bear
How Sarah Palin has inspired an army of Republican women to run for office.
By Malcolm Gay
Cover . . .
Dirty Medicine
How medical supply behemoths stick it to the little guy, making America’s health care system more dangerous and expensive. by Mariah Blake
Features . . .
Show Him the Money
Tom Donohue scares millions of dollars out of corporations and Republicans. But is his U.S. Chamber of Commerce good for business? by James Verini
The Shipping News
Start moving freight by water again, and we’ll use less oil, emit
less carbon, cut highway traffic—and perhaps even save St. Louis. by Phillip Longman
The Agnostic Cartographer
How Google’s open-ended maps are embroiling the
company in some of the world’s touchiest geopolitical disputes. by John Gravois
Introduction
Obama takes aim at education’s most neglected problem.
Can he make headway? by Richard Lee Colvin
New York City
Big gains in the Big Apple. by Sarah Garland
Philadelphia
After decades of effort, a decade of progress. by Dale Mezzacappa
Portland, Oregon
All the advantages, and nothing to show for it. by Betsy Hammond
Small is Still Beautiful
Breaking up big, dysfunctional high schools into smaller units looked like a reform that failed. Look again. by Thomas Toch
Standards Issue
President Obama wants to lower the dropout rate. He also wants to raise academic standards. But does one come at the expense of the other? by Thomas Toch
On Political Books . . .
Climate of Opinion Blogger Joe Romm drives the global
warming debate in Washington. But has
he left the rest of the country behind? by Bill McKibben
Vague at the Hague
The trial of Slobodan Milosevic was
manipulated, protracted,
unsatisfying—and absolutely necessary. by Wesley Clark
Timorous Invasion
When the UN stopped a genocide in East Timor
in 1999, liberals hoped it would be a watershed moment for the cause of humanitarian interventionism. It was, instead, the movement’s high-water mark. by Joshua Kurlantzick
French Connection
What the Dreyfus affair does— and doesn’t—tell us about Guantánamo.
by Michael O’Donnell
Crass Menagerie
The inside skinny on the modern American zoo. by Doron Taussig
Partisan Hacks
Conservatives have discovered the virtues of investigative journalism. But can their reporting survive their politics? by Laura McGann
Degrees of Speed
Millions of unemployed Americans need to upgrade their skills, fast. Community colleges aren’t up to the task, but with help from Washington, they could be. by Jamie P. Merisotis and Stan Jones
Nuclear Reactionaries It’s a big-government-dependent tool to fight climate change that was championed by Jimmy Carter, is now dominated by the French, and has never managed to compete in the marketplace. So why, exactly, do Republicans love nuclear power so much? by T. A. Frank
On Political Books: Special Spring Books Issue
Days of the Dead
How the international drug trade turned a sleepy town on the U.S.-Mexican border into a war zone. by Andrés Martinez
A Bridge Too Far?
Barack Obama’s election showed how far Americans had come on the issue of race. His presidency so far shows how much farther we have to go. by Ed Kilgore
Failing State
Burma is dangerously close to collapse, an event that
could throw much of South and Southeast Asia into turmoil. A whole new strategy from Washington is called for. by Joshua Kurlantzick
The A-hed and the A-hole
Did Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of the Wall Street Journal ruin a once-great paper, or save it from itself? by Justin Peters
Reading Milton Friedman in Dublin
Ireland’s politicians spent the ’90s and ’00s imitating the United States’ devotion to unfettered free markets. Unfortunately for the Irish, they succeeded. by Henry Farrell
A Trip Down Memory Lame
Fred Thompson’s leisurely stroll through his not terribly interesting early years. by Jamie Malanowski
Brains on Drugs
As it considers how to regulate the financial sector, Congress should heed the lessons of the Food and Drug Administration. by Steven Teles
Infrequent Flyer
How the Marines spent thirty years and $30 billion on the V-22 Osprey, an aircraft that’s barely fit for combat. by Mark Thompson
Infinite Regret
An account of five days on the road with David Foster Wallace offers a coda to the writer’s sadly truncated career. by Michael O’Donnell
Mar/Apr 2010
Editor’s Note
Robber Barons on K Street by Paul Glastris
Tilting at Windmills
White-collar whitewash … I’ve got mine, Jack …
Not all secretaries are cabinet-level positions … by Charles Peters
Uncle Ali
If you liked Hamid Karzai and Pervez Musharraf,
you’ll love our latest ally, Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh. by Haley Sweetland Edwards
DNA’s Dirty Little Secret
A forensic tool renowned for exonerating the innocent may actually be putting them in prison. by Michael Bobelian
Asleep at the Seal Just how bad does a college have to be
to lose accreditation? by Kevin Carey
Angst on the Aegean Crises can force even the most dysfunctional governments to change—and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou aims to prove it. by Bruce Clark
On Political Books:
Met Expectations
All museums face a choice between the claims of
exclusivity and the demands of democracy. New York’s Metropolitan Mueum of Art has always known which side it’s on. by David Wallace-Wells
Happy Talk
A former Harvard president makes the case for government promotion of happiness. by Phillip Longman
Just Add People
Joel Kotkin is right that population growth can transform America’s cities and suburbs for the better. He’s wrong to think it’ll happen automatically. by Ruy Teixeira
Classless Action
What the fall of a notorious plaintiff’s lawyer does and does not say about the profession. by Michael O’Donnell
Re-education
Conservative education scholar Diane Ravitch returns to her liberal roots. by Richard D. Kahlenberg
Tilting at Windmills
Conning accounting … You may already be
a suspect! … Echoes of Saigon by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square: Cull of the Wild
How do you kill a deer in Washington? by Tim Murphy Disclosed Encounters
Why UFO buffs think Barack Obama is their best hope for the truth about ET. by Daniel Fromson
A Hard Way to Die
Why hundreds of thousands of Vietnam vets with Agent Orange–related diseases
have been made to suffer without VA health care. by Phillip Longman
Cabal TV The Washington “experts” who shape public opinion have private clients and hidden agendas. by Bruce Clark
Dark at the End of the Tunnel John Derbyshire, America’s foremost reactionary, is entertainingly glum about the conservative movement and his fellow man. by T. A. Frank
Sentimental Journey Exploring the long-ignored—and suddenly important—world of passenger rail. by Phillip Longman
Tenured Moderates Universities are not so much lefty as they are resistant to change. by Kevin Carey
Unhappy Meals How school lunch programs manage to promote obesity and hunger at the same time. by Michael O’Donnell
I Want All for Christmas The holiday season, deeply observed, in an affluent Dallas suburb. by Jamie Malanowski
2009
Nov/Dec 2009
Editor’s Note
Our Patented Early-Warning System by Paul Glastris
Big Bother
How a million surveillance cameras in London are proving George Orwell wrong. by Jamie Malanowski
The Subprime Student Loan Racket
With help from Washington, the for-profit college industry is loading up millions of low-income students with debt they'll never pay off. by Stephen Burd
True Lies
The best recent memoir from Republican Washington is a hoax. That should tell you something. by Joshua Green
Bottom of the Barrel
Why the Saudis wish they'd discovered water instead. by Charles Homans
Germany's Cassandra
Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Günter Grass still thinks reunification was a bad idea. by Paul Hockenos
A Life of Contempt
Ayn Rand's defining characteristic was hatred—for government, other people, and the very concept of human kindness. by Michael O'Donnell
Nerd Nation
The thin line between World of Warcraft and fantasy football. by Jesse Singal One-Term Wonder
What Barack Obama can learn from James K. Polk. by Tim Murphy
Tilting at Windmills
It's the redeployments, stupid ... Limbaugh's lunatics and those with less excuse ... Sick of credit swaps? You'll love these natural gas futures! ... by Charles Peters
College for $99 a Month
The next generation of online education could be great for students—and catastrophic for universities. by Kevin Carey
Pie in the Sky
What happened when a billionaire pizza mogul tried to build an elite Catholic law school. by Mariah Blake
Higher Ed's Bermuda Triangle
Vast numbers of students enter community college remedial classes every year. Few are ever heard from again. by Camille Esch
International Studies
How America's mania for college rankings went global. by Ben Wildavsky
Failure to Launch
The history of higher ed is littered with big ideas that never quite took off. by Tim Murphy
Cutting Class
Economic integration may be the key to fixing America's schools, but Washington is scared to even talk about it. by Richard D. Kahlenberg
Mutually Assured Friendship
For half a century, Paul Nitze and George Kennan wrestled with the Cold War, and with each other. by Gregg Herken
Introduction: The Next Frontier
The future of America's economy is riding on the entrepeneurs. The future of its entrepeneurs is riding on government. by Paul Kedrosky The Need for Speed
Why is the United States still waiting for the future to download? by Nicholas Thompson Green Card for Grads
The U.S. educates brilliant students from around the world, then sends them home to work for our competitors. by T.A. Frank Grid Unlocked
A smart, digital electric power system could bring vast energy-efficiency gains and a new wave of entrepeneurship-if Washington gets the regulations right. by Mariah Blake A Shot in the Arm
How Today's health care reform can create tomorrow's entrepeneurs. by Jonathan Gruber
On Political Books:
Death in Stuttgart
Revisiting Germany's 1970s war on terror. by Paul Hockenos
Tilting at Windmills
Fear of big government... The unbearable possibility of life without a chauffer... Remember the henhouse, Mr. President... Ayatollah? Is that like hummus? by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square Green Zone on the Green Line
The Department of Homeland Security goes house hunting in one of washington's most troubled neighborhoods. by Matthew Blake
Features:
Culture Shock
What happened when one conservative Web site ventured outside the movement bubble. by Charles Homans
No Return to Normal
Why the economic crisis, and its solution, are bigger than you think by James K. Galbraith
Washington's Turnaround Artists
Think Government can't fix the auto industry? Then how did it manage to fix the railroad industry—twice? by Phillip Longman
The Rooftop Revolution
A little-known policy is turning sleepy central Florida into a green energy hub. Could it do the same for America at large? by Mariah Blake
Tipping Back the Scales
How Obama can reverse justice's long slow slide to the right by Rachel Morris
On Political Books:
Soldiers of Misfortune
How american private security contractors in Iraq became victimizers and victims. by Robert Worth
Straight Away
Don't ask, don't tell is on its way out, and not a moment too soon. by Michael O'Donnell
Retreat from Kabul
The Soviet defeat in Afghanistan teaches many lessons. America's inevitable defeat isn't one of them. by Christian Caryl
Yes He Did
What Barack Obama learned from César Chávez. by T.A. Frank
The Quiet Vietnamese
Pham Xuan An was a respected colleague of American reporters in Vietnam—and Hanoi's most valuable spy. by Loren Jenkins
Tilting at Windmills
The best and the blindest... Selective morality... Sex, lies, and land management... In praise of vegetable soup by Charles Peters
Our Man in Tel Aviv
What will be Hillary Clinton's strategy for Middle East peace? The memoir of her husband's ambassador to Israel may provide hints. by Daniel Levy
Good Fortune
Malcom Gladwell rethinks the secret to success by David Wallace-Wells
Lost in Their Bloomberg Terminals
The Wall Street wizards who brought on catastrophe by pretending to eliminate risk. by Brandon I. Koerner
Courage in Profiles
How Marjorie Williams rendered the lives of Washington's powerful. by Margaret Talbot
Guacamole on Your Shorts
Searching, futilely, for the Super Bowl's deeper meaning by Jamie Malanowski
Tilting at Windmills
White House movie night... Old government habits die hard... Bubble trouble... We'd hire you, Ms. Nightingale, if you had a PhD by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square:
The Big Night
What Obama's victory looked like in Washington by Charles Homans
Too Small to Fail
While the behemoths of Wall Street stumble and fall, humble local banks are doing just fine, thank you. Their surprising resilience holds a key lesson for twenty-first century global finance. by Phillip Longman & T.A. Frank
The Next FEMA
Barack Obama must begin rebuilding federal agencies fast—or risk seeing his entire agenda undermined. by John D. Donahue & Max Stier
Transformation 101
Technology is driving down the cost of teaching undergraduates. So why are tuition bills going up? by Kevin Carey
Sunk Costs
Why, after $24 billion in upgrades, the Coast Guard still deploys a fleet of rustbuckets by David Axe
On Political Books:
Open Society
The rules of the digital era aren't clear, even to the generation that has grown up in it. by Doron Taussig
Paradox of Deregulation
Why market fundamentalism eventually leads to more government, not less by Greg Anrig
Admired, Not Read
Marketing "Great Books" to the masses may have been a silly idea. But requiring college students to read them isn't. by Kevin Carey
The Grand Bargain
Five presidents have treated Iran as a threat. The next needs to think of it as an opportunity. by Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett
On Political Books:
Freedom's Long March
Advancing Democracy in the post-Bush era by Wesley K. Clark
Iraq Bottom
Dexter Filkin's brilliant memoir of the war's worst years by Clint Douglas
Fight Club
Excessive force nearly lost us the Iraq War. The brass who gave the orders still don't get it. by Thomas E. Ricks
Setup on K Street
Sting operations on sleazeball lobbyists aren't what they used to be. by Jamie Malanowski
Special Relationship
The British spies who slept their way through Washington during World War II by Britt Peterson
Pay to Win
Raising taxes during wartime has never been fun. Why other presidents did it by Ajay K. Mehrota
Modern Immaturity
Why it's okay for twenty-eight-year-olds to play Halo 3 by Doron Taussig
Tilting at Windmills
What worries me about Obama … Aural sex appeal … Cotton Mather would be proud … by stop-loss, we don’t mean loss of life. by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square:
BHO: QED
Why Obama is scientifically certain to win in November by John Balz
Too Weird for The Wire
How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds by Kevin Carey
Pinkerton at DHS
Are immigration busts undermining U.S. labor law? by T.A. Frank
Bin Laden’s Soft Support
How the next president can win over the world’s most alienated Muslims by Kenneth Ballen
On Political Books:
Under the Influence
How to be a Montana millionaire. Just the facts, NAM. by Avi Klein
The End of Resentment
Has the well of middle class anger that Richard Nixon tapped finally run dry? by Ed Kilgore
Grandiose Old Party
Two young conservatives have a plan to revitalize the GOP: embrace massive social engineering. by Kevin Drum
Contract with Armenia
America may be no good at exporting democracy, but it’s great at exporting political consultants. by Joshua Green
Soldier of Good Fortune
Rebel leader Paul Kagame ended the Rwandan genocide. Has he also made that country a model for the rest of Africa? by Joshua Hammer
Roman à Scumbag
Ralph Reed was a despicable political operative. Maybe that’s why his first novel is so good. by Jamie Malanowski
April 2008
Editor’s Note:
Policy is the Best Honest by Paul Glastris
Tilting at Windmills
Obama’s pastor and mine … First primary of 2012: Halloween of 2011 … Kabul and Saigon by Charles Peters
Ten Miles Square:
Portrait of an Inbox
Fixing America’s worst school system, one e-mail at a time by Kevin Carey
Confessions of a Sweatshop Inspector
Presidential candidates are calling for tougher labor standards in trade agreements. But can such standards be enforced? Here’s what our writer learned from his old job. by T.A. Frank
Majority Rule at Last
How to dump the Electoral College without changing the constitution by Michael Waldman
Louisiana Purchase
Love of family inspired William Jefferson to do great things. It also explains that $90,000 in his freezer. by Jason Berry
No Torture. No Exceptions.
The U.S. must end its policy on torture. by The Editors, Bob Barr, Randy Beers, Peter Bergen, Jimmy Carter, Steve Cheney, Amy Chua, Richard Cizik, Wesley K. Clark, Jack Cloonan, Chris Dodd, Kenneth M. Duberstein & Richard Armitage, Eric Fair, Carl Ford, Lee F. Gunn, Chuck Hagel, Lee H. Hamilton & Thomas H. Kean, Gary Hart, John Hutson, Claudia Kennedy, John Kerry, Harold Hongju Koh, Carl Levin, Richard Lugar, Leon E. Panetta, Nancy Pelosi, William J. Perry, Paul R. Pillar, Tim Roemer, John Shattuck, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Theodore C. Sorensen, William H. Taft IV., Thomas G. Wenski, Lawrence B. Wilkerson, Stephen N. Xanakis
On Political Books:
The Roots of W.
How the president inherited his truculence and recklessness from the Walker side of his family by Jacob Heilbrunn
The Wiseguy
A repellent street-level GOP operative’s surprisingly entertaining memoir by Joshua Green
The Schools the Taliban Won’t Torch
One ingenious aid program is stabilizing the toughest parts of Afghanistan. The U.S. is cutting its funding. by Gregory Warner
Why Conservatives Hate Bush
It’s not because he’s an ideological heretic. It’s because he’s a loser. by David Greenberg
Norman’s Quest
Why Rudy Giuliani loves Norman Podhoretz by Jacob Heilbrunn
The Middle Kingdom’s Dilemma
Can China clean up its environment without cleaning up its politics? by Christina Larson
Rudy Awakening
As president, Giuliani would grab even more executive power than Bush and Cheney. His mayoralty tells the story. by Rachel Morris
When Doctors Lose Patience
Primary care physicians keep costs down and quality upÑand they're leaving the profession in droves. by N. Thomas Connally
Ambush in War Zone D
The Vietnam War draftees who fought with valor and saved my life By Wesley K. Clark
State of Dependency
Ted Stevens's Alaska problemÑand ours. By Charles Homans
Publish and Perish
The mysterious death of Lyndon LaRouche's printer By Avi Klein
October 2007
The Myth of AQI
Fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq is the last big argument for keeping U.S. troops in the country. But the military's estimation of the threat is alarmingly wrong. by Andrew Tilghman
Newtered
Gingrich's Congress emasculated the one agency capable of controlling health care costs and improving quality. Time to reverse the procedure. by Shannon Brownlee
Inside the Higher Ed Lobby
Welcome to One Dupont Circle, where good education-reform ideas go to die. By Ben Adler
Who's the Boss?
Forget neocons and theocons. It's the money-cons who really run Bush's Republican Party.
July/August 2007
The New Vision
The speech I want the Democratic nominee to give by Theodore C. Sorensen
The Green Leap Forward
Environmentalism is China’s fastest-growing citizen movement. Beijing isn’t cracking down on these new activists—it’s empowering them. by Christina Larson
Over Stated
Why the "laboratories of democracy" can't achieve universal health care By Ezra Klein
Revolt of the CEOs
A massive expansion of the federal government, supported by big business, is on the way. Conservatives couldn't be less prepared. by Christopher Hayes
The Bitter End
Democrats are right to push for an end to the Iraq war. But don't expect the troops to be grateful. By Spencer Ackerman
Thumpin' to Conclusions
Republicans are drawing all the wrong lessons from their midterm loss. by Zachary Roth
May 2007
Look Who’s Hitched!
The secret lives of Washington’s power couples by T. A. Frank
Averting the Next Gulf War
The troop "surge" in Iraq is also a signal to Iran—but stopping Tehran's nukes for good will require a different kind of leverage. by Wesley Clark
Life and Limb
A journalistÃs account of surviving the signature injury of the Iraq War by Ronald Glasser
But Fear Itself
Are we overreacting to the terrorist threat? by Avi Klein
Castr-ated
The Bush administration's aversion to dealing with Cuba is reducing our influence on the island—just when there's a chance to encourage change. by Joshua Kurlantzick
Miranda's Plight
A GOP operative fights on. by Rebecca Sinderbrand
March 2007
Let's Do Lunch
The new Washington power players you wish you'd been nicer to. by Zachary Roth and Rebecca Sinderbrand
Apocalypse Not
Much of Washington assumes that leaving Iraq will lead to bigger bloodbath. It's time to question that assumption. by Robert Dreyfuss
Shafted
How the Bush administration reversed decades of progress on mine safety. by Ken Ward Jr.
The Next Attack
Terrorists in Iraq are becoming proficient at blowing up oil refineries. Similar plants in a handful of American cities represent our greatest vulnerability. We could easily be making them less dangerous. But we're not. by Stephen Flynn
Cheney's Dead-Enders Rumsfeld is gone, but the veep's other loyalists remain. by Laura Rozen
Queens of the Hill Will the newly empowered women lawmakers clean up Congress? by Clara Bingham
Collective Unconscionable How psychologists, the most liberal of professionals, abetted Bush's torture policy. by Arthur Levine
Read My Lips: Raise Taxes The era of the tax revolt is over. How Democrats have the opportunity to redefine the politics of government. by Mark Schmitt
Value Added A new take on the tax that liberals used to hate. by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
2006
December 2006
Democrats Win essays by Tom Daschle, Mark Schmitt, John Nichols, Thomas Mann & Norman Ornstein, Ed Kilgore, David Kilgore, David Gergen, and Daniel Levy
GOP Holds On essays by Dick Armey, Ed Kilgore, David Greenberg, and Mark Schmitt
November 2006
*Politics 101 The meaning of the midterms. by Paul Glastris
Poison Pill How Abramoff's cronies sold the Medicare drug bill. by Barbara T. Dreyfuss
Death Wish If terrorists attack Congress, America could have no legislative branch. House Republicans are fine with that. by Avi Klein
*The Establishmentarian If Democrats win control of the House, Steny Hoyer will have Tom DeLay's old job. Some things will change. Some won't. by Zachary Roth
October 2006
Time For Us To Go Conservatives on why the GOP should lose in November. essays by Christopher Buckley, Bruce Bartlett, Joe Scarborough, William A. Niskanen, Bruce Fein, Jeffrey Hart, Richard Viguerie
*Borderline Catastrophe How the fight over immigration blew up Rove's big tent. by Rachel Morris
*Meet the New Boss Quietly, Senate Republicans have already chosen Mitch McConnell as their next leader--because Congress just isn't partisan enough. by Zachary Roth and Cliff Schecter
*Panda Slugger The dubious scholarship of Michael Pillsbury, the China hawk with Rumsfeld's ear. by Soyoung Ho
Operation Iraqi Free Ride Thanks to administration stonewalling, only one crooked contractor in Iraq has been brought to justice. And there's even more to that story. by Dean Starkman
Shill Wind All of Washington's political reporters read ABC's The Note That's why they keep missing the story. by Eric Boehlert
Fatal Inaction There is a silver bullet for Africa's malaria epidemic. Why the Bush administration won't pull the trigger. by Joshua Kurlantzick
The Morale Myth Conservatives say war critics undermine soldiers' resolve. So why are dissent and troop morale both going up? by Avi Klein
*The Emerging Environmental Majority There is a thaw in relations between greens and hunters. It could heat up big-time over global warming. by Christina Larson
*Fake Diamonds How fantasy baseball is ruining the real game. by Amy Sullivan
April 2006
*When Would Jesus Bolt? Meet Randy Brinson, the advance guard of evangelicals leaving the GOP. by Amy Sullivan
Shift Work Should policing illegal immigration fall to nurses and teachers? by Douglas McGray
*All the President's enablers In the second year of Bush's second term, former officials and journalists are already writing the history of his administration. The story isn't pretty. by a panel of writers
Not One Dime A radical plan to Abramoff-proof politics. by James Carville and Paul Begala
*Nuclear Waste Our far-flung nuclear weapons factories haven't built a bomb since 1992. One lone Republican wants to shut them down. by Zachary Roth
January/February 2006
*The End of Hunting? Why only progressive government can save a great American pastime. by Christina Larson
Let There Be Wi-Fi Broadband is the electricity of the 21st century--and much of America is being left in the dark. by Robert McChesney and John Podesta.
*Kos Call For America's number one liberal blogger, politics is like sports: It's all about winning. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Rise and Fall of Imperial Democracies From the Beltway to Bangkok, Moscow to Manila, elected leaders have used the threat of terrorism to grab more power--and made the threat worse. by Joshua Kurlantzick
Auto-Mobility Subsidizing America's commute would reward work, boost the economy, and transform lives. by Margy Waller
Test of Faith Win or lose, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Tim Kaine is proving that Democrats can neutralize the religion issue with a sincere expression of faith. by Mark Murray
Measure For Measure The president's school reform law rests on the belief that its high-stakes tests are fair and accurate. But the Bush aide who designed the law has his doubts. And the Dallas schools have a better way. by Thomas Toch
*Mitt Romney's Evangelical Problem Everyone wants to believe the Massachusetts governor's Mormonism won't be a problem if he runs in 2008. Think again. by Amy Sullivan
Burning Atlanta All the old regulatory weapons couldn't reform the Georgia power plant that is America's single biggest polluter. But a new law is working. A special report. by David Whitman
*Polar Fleeced Sen. Ted Stevens built a welfare state for Eskomos that made defense contractors rich. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
*Dumb and Dumber The bush administration thinks negotiating with North Korea is appeasement. South Korea thinks negotiating requires appeasement. by Soyoung Ho
June 2005
The Monopoly Factory Want to fix the economy?Start by fixing the patent office. by Zachary Roth
Solved! It covers everyone. It cuts costs. It can get through Congress. Why Universal Healthcare Vouchers is the next big idea. by Ezekiel Emanuel and Victor R. Fuchs
The Unquiet American U.S.-Iraq policy and the murder of a whistle-blowing contractor. by Aram Roston
*Crude Awakening The best hope for meeting growing demand for oil, say experts, is to tap Saudi Arabia's reserves. A Bush energy advisor says those reserves don't exist. by Kevin Drum
Is Arnold Losing It? Gov. Schwarzenegger is looking less like Reagan and more like Ventura. by Mark Z. Barabak
The New Water Wars On the Missouri and rivers further east, dying industries control the flow and leave emerging businesses high and dry. by Bill Lambrecht
April 2005
*Silent Femmes It's not really discrimination that keeps women off the op-ed pages. by Amy Sullivan
Going Postal Washington's recurring attempts to squeeze small magazines out of business. by Victor S. Navasky
Pinkertons at the CPA Iraq's resurgent labor unions could have helped rebuild the country's civil society. The Bush administration, of course, tried to crush them. by Matthew Harwood
Swing Conservative The perilous bipartisanship of Sen. Lidsey Graham. by Geoff Earle
Taking Liberty Liberals ignore and conservatives misunderstand America's guiding value: freedom. by William A. Galston
March 2005
*Postmodern Protests Why modern marches matter only to the marchers. by Christina Larson
*Is Grover Over? Norquist's anti-tax jihad stumbles in the states. by Daniel Franklin and A.G. Newmyer III
*The Case for the Draft America can remain the wrold's superpower. Or it can maintain its all-volunteer military. It can't do both. by Phillip Carter and Paul Glastris
*Off Track America's economy is losing its competitive edge, and Washington hasn't noticed. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
*Battered Women Female boxing is brutal and hopeless. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
*Fire the Consultants Why do Democrats promote campaign advisors who lose races? by Amy Sullivan
Analyze This Inside the one spy agency that got pre-war intelligence on Iraq--and much else--right. by Justin Rood
My New Kentucky Home The cutting edge of immigration used to be L.A. Now, it's Owensboro. Peter Laufer
Under Mined When a flood of toxic mining sludge wreaked havoc in Appalachia, how did the White House respond? By letting the coal company off the hook and firing the whistleblower. by Clara Bingham
The Best Care Anywhere Ten years ago, veterans hospitals were dangerous, dirty, and scandal-ridden. Today, they're producing the highest quality care in the country. Their turnaround points the way toward solving America's health-care crisis. by Phillip Longman
2004
December 2004
*Bob in Paradise How Novak created his own ethics-free zone. by Amy Sullivan
Top Billings How a Montana Democrat bagged the hunting and fishing vote and won the governor's mansion. by David Sirota
Bernard Lewis Revisited What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East, but the secret to achieving it? by Michael Hirsh
The Road to Abu Ghraib The biggest scandal of the Bush administration began at the top. by Phillip Carter
Stunned Guns How we've made the FBI too timid to bug mosques--and Ken Lay's office. by Richard Gid Powers
Grill Seeker How George Foreman, Ted Nugent, and Bobby Flay taught me to be a real suburban man. by Joshua Green
October 2004
*Party Down Like the Democrats during the 1970s, today's GOP is hidebound, corrupt, out of touch--and doomed. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Bush Freedom Tax A Republican president has raised fees on exactly the things he wants immigrants to do--work hard, play by the rules, and become citizens. by Jonathan Rowe
*Iran Contra II? Fresh scrutiny on a rogue Pentagon operation. by Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rozen, and Paul Glastris
False Alarm How the media helps the insurance industry and the GOP promote the myth of America's "lawsuit crisis." by Stephanie Mencimer
*Faith Without Works After four years, the president's faith-based policies have proven to neither compassionate nor conservative. by Amy Sullivan
Research and Destroy How the religious right promotes its own "experts" to combat mainstream science. by Chris Mooney
The Simplest Life Why Americans romanticize the Amish. by Sasha Issenberg
September 2004
*What If Bush Wins? Predictions on the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush. by a panel of 16 writers
Spooks and Ladders Critics say the CIA produces risk-averse careerists. by Jessica North
Follow the Money How John Kerry busted the terrorists' favorite bank. by David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin
Dream Deferred The most inspired caseworker in America's most lauded welfare agency can barely do his job. by Jason DeParle
July/August 2004
*My Beef With Big Media How government protects entertainment giants -- and shuts out upstarts like me. by Ted Turner
*The Greatest Convention In 1940, the contest was never closer, the stakes never higher. by Charles Peters
Hot For Teachers John Kerry's quietly radical school reform plan. by Jonathan Schorr
Independence Way John Kerry thinks we can innovate our way to energy security. We're closer than he knows. by Sam Jaffe
The Crucible How the Iraq disaster is making the U.S. Army Stronger. by Phillip Carter
*Movable Feat The insanity of moving the Olympics every four years. by Christina Larson
June 2004
*Perverse Polarity The mainstream media bemoans the lack of civility in Washington--but won't say who's responsible. by Paul Glastris
Con Ed How funds for community colleges became another Bush bait-and-switch. by Alexander Dryer
*Paradise Glossed The problem with David Brooks. by Nicholas Confessore
Toon In The best TV happens when no one is looking. by Justin Peters
*Right Man's Burden Why empire enthusiast Niall Ferguson won't change his mind. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Jesus Christ, Superstar When Hollywood stopped making Bible movies, right-wing Christians took over. by Amy Sullivan
Broken Engagement The strategy that won the Cold War could help bring democracy to the Middle East -- if only the Bush hawks understood it. by Wesley Clark
Rolling Blunder How the Bush administration let North Korea get nukes. by Fred Kaplan
Jack of Smarts Why the Internet generation loves to play poker. by Justin Peters
April 2004
*Vision Quest How John Kerry can create jobs by taking on K Street. by Paul Glastris
Dire Straights Why outlawing marriage for gays will undermine marriage for all. by Jonathan Rauch
Euro Brash Why George W. Bush takes orders from Pascal Lamy. by Nicholas Kulish
*There Goes the Neighborhood Why home prices are about to plummet -- and take the recovery with them. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Mirth of a Nation How Bill Clinton learned to tell jokes on himself -- and get the last laugh. by Mark Katz
*Creative Class War How the GOP's anti-elitism could ruin America's economy. by Richard Florida
Catch Me If You Can If snaring Saddam was so important, why is Radovan Karadzic allowed to remain free? by Russ Baker
*Like Common People What Paris Hilton and her friends really want. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
2003
December 2003
*Meet the Press How James Glassman reinvented journalism -- as lobbying. by Nicholas Confessore
A Time to Choose How Democrats started losing the abortion debate. by Amy Sullivan
*In the Tank The intellectual decline of AEI. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
*Armchair Provocateur Reading Laurie Mylroie, the Neocons' favorite conspiracy theorist. by Peter Bergen
The Good Spy How the quashing of an honest investigator led to 40 years of JFK conspiracy theories. by Jefferson Morley
November 2003
*The Next Swing Voter For over two decades, the bond between the GOP and the U.S. military has been getting stronger. Since the invasion of Iraq, that may be changing. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
The Weakest Link Why the Bush administration insists against all evidence to the contrary on an Iraq-al Qaeda connection. by Spencer Ackerman
America's Virtual Empire U.S. soldiers are great warriors, but unwilling imperial guards. If we want to secure our interests, we must draw on other sources of power. by Gen. Wesley Clark
The Running Men How candidates decide to run for president reveals how prepared they are to win. by Walter Shapiro
October 2003
*Mourning Has Broken How Bush privatized September 11. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Hard Corps How to end sexual assault at military academies. by Kirby D. Schroeder
Malpractice Makes Perfect How the GOP milks a phony doctors' insurance crisis. by Stephanie Mencimer
Prisoner's Dilemma How the 1960s anti-war activists let today's chicken hawks off the hook. A draft resister's story. by Robert Poe
*Boob Tube MTV used to be about ambition. Now it's about hot tubs. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
September 2003
*General Election Insiders say it's too late for Wesley Clark to win the primaries. They are wrong. by Amy Sullivan
Pro Choice How Democrats can make vouchers their secret weapon. by Siobhan Gorman
*The Post-Modern President Deceit, denial, and relativism: What the Bush administration learned from the French. by Joshua Micah Marshall
*Bush's War on Cops
Welcome back to the 80s. Thanks to White House policy, police departments are understaffed, cops are overwhelmed, murders are up, and killers are getting away. by Benjamin Wallace-Wells
Schlep to Judgment If anything merited an independent inquiry, it was the attacks on 9/11. But not in Bush's Washington. by Brian Montopoli
Notes from the Underground What the ailing record industry can learn from a successful subway musician. by Nicholas Thompson
Kiss & Makeover The case against the case against tube tops. by Sarah Wildman
July/August 2003
*Welcome to the Machine How the GOP disciplined K Street and made Bush supreme. by Nicholas Confessore
Homeland Security is for Girls
When it comes to worrying about terrorism, men are from Mars and women are from Venus. by Garance Franke-Ruta
*Bragging Writes
How presidential candidates try to impress reporters with their reading lists. by Brent Kendall
The Health of Nations
Instead of forcing seniors into HMOs, how about forcing them to exercise? by Phillip J. Longman
*Plane Threat
Terrorists have never shot down an American passenger jet with surface-to-air missiles. But it's only a matter of time. by Soyoung Ho
Castro's Casting Couch
In Hollywood's love affair with Fidel, who's using whom? by Damien Cave
March 2003
*G.I. Woe
Three years ago, George W. Bush charged that U.S. troops were intolerably overburdened. Today, our men and women in uniform are stretched even thinner--and it's about to get much worse. by Nicholas Confessore
Better Living Through Chemistry
DDT could save millions of Africans from dying of malaria -- if only environmentalists would let it. by Alexander Gourevitch
The New American Dream
The economy will prosper again when more Americans can do the work they love. The party that realizes this first wins. by Richard Florida
Giving Mirth
For today's women writers, balancing work and family is agony. For Jean Kerr, it was an art form. by Elizabeth Austin
January/February 2003
*Reagan's Liberal Legacy What the new literature on the Gipper won't tell you. by Joshua Green
*Vice Grip Dick Cheney is a man of principles. Disastrous principles. by Joshua Micah Marshall
*License to Kill How the GOP helped John Allen Muhammad get a sniper rifle. by Brent Kendall
Hollywood and Whine Why are Democrats helping the entertainment industry stamp out new technologies that fuel economic growth? by Brendan Koerner
Deep in the Heart of Darkness
Under George W. Bush, the worse of two Texas traditions is shaping America. by Michael Lind
Hot Flash, Cold Cash
How a once-respected women's group went through The Change -- with the help of drug industry money. by Alicia Mundy
*Comparative Advantage
How a free-market economist became the most significant columnist in America. by Nicholas Confessore
Privatizing Propaganda
Poppy Bush and his cronies rescued Dubya's Iraq policy. Now they're saving his propaganda war. by Nina Teicholz
Tutor Restoration
Test-prep firms like The Princeton Review are invading America's grade schools. This is: a) good. b) bad. by Siobhan Gorman
Unnecessary Evil
China's Muslims aren't terrorists. So why did the Bush administration give Beijing the green light to oppress them? by Joshua Kurlantzick
Beijing's Long Arms
How China is suppressing Falun Gong in America. by Soyoung Ho
Bright Lights, Small Village
Why helping Africa get solar power is good for America. by Nicholas Thompson and Ricardo Bayon
November 2002
War Torn Why Democrats can't think straight about national security. by Heather Hurlburt
*The Myth of Cyberterrorism
There are many ways terrorists can kill you--computers aren't one of them.
by Joshua Green
You Break It, You Pay For It
How special interests can serve the cause of campaign finance reform. by Paul Weinstein Jr.
Doctor Who?
Scientists are treated as objective arbiters in the cloning debate. But most have serious skin in the game. by Neil Munro
Collateral Victory
America's new imperial presence in Central Asia may be a preview of what's to come in Iraq. The picture is not wholly encouraging. by Christian Caryl
Cruise Control
Bathhouses are reigniting the AIDS crisis. It's time to shut them down. by Tom Farley
October 2002
*One Vote Away
Republicans could win control of the entire federal government in November. Why won't the Democrats talk about it? by Nicholas Confessore
*Monumental Failure
Why we should commercialize the National Mall. by Joshua Green
The Parent Gap
What Schwarzenegger can teach politicians about winning swing voters. by Karen Kornbluh
Bad Press
How business journalism helped inflate the bubble. by Phillip J. Longman
Party Hardy
Most Americans agree with Democrats. But will they vote for them? by Kenneth S. Baer
Spanish Disquisition
Or, how a bookish Gringa learned to stop worrying and love el idioma. by Liesl Schillinger
Money for Nothing
States are finally collecting money from deadbeat dads. Now, if they'd only get it to the moms. by Sandy Bergo
*Why We Eat
The science of obesity. by Stephanie Mencimer
Reality Bites
Why He-Man, Care Bears, and Miami Vice are making a comeback. by Courtney Rubin
September 2002
An Army of One?
In the war on terrorism, alliances are not an obstacle to victory. They're the key to it. by Gen. Wesley Clark
*Confidence Men
Why the myth of Republican competence persists, despite all the evidence to the contrary. by Joshua Micah Marshall
*Pork for Prudes
How conservatives score, while teaching kids not to. by Christina Larson
*As the World Burns
What will global warming do to the Bush ranch? by Stephanie Mencimer
Spin Doctors
Tommy Thompson isn't a bioterrorism expert. So why does he play one on TV? by Garance Franke-Ruta
When School Choice Isn't
This fall, millions of kids have the right to leave failing schools. Too bad there's nowhere else for them to go. by Alexander Russo
Ew, Gross!
The prissy bioethics of Leon Kass. by Garance Franke-Ruta
The New Anti-Americanism
They used to hate us for our policies. Now they hate us for our values. by Gregory Maniatis
July/August 2002
*Weather 'tis Nobler in the Mind
Al Gore lost in 2000 by going soft on the environment. He can win in 2004 by getting tough. by Stephanie Mencimer
*The 'Gate-less Community
In any other administration, Bush's scandal-plagued Army secretary, Thomas White, would be gone. But the rules have changed. by Joshua Green
Tipping the Scale
Pres. Bush picks judges based on ideology--so why shouldn't senators reject them for it? by Dawn Johnsen
*May the Source Be With You
Can biologists who share data freely out-innovate the corporate researchers who hoard it? by Nicholas Thompson
Axis of Good
The case for remilitarizing Japan. by Joshua Kurlantzick
Account Down
If you think you're going to retire on your 401(k), think again. by David Cay Johnston
Vow-to Books
Liberals and conservatives now agree that marriage needs help. by Lynda McDonnell
Folding the Race Card
As an open, divisive political issue, race isn't dead--but it's dying. by Jim Sleeper
June 2002
*Bomb Saddam?
How the obsession of a few neocon hawks became the central goal of U.S. foreign policy. By Joshua Micah Marshall
*The Trouble with Frida Kahlo
Uncomfortable truths about this season's hottest female artist. By Stephanie Mencimer
Pope Hopefuls
Everyone assumes that John Paul II's successor will be a conservative. Don't bet on it. By John L. Allen, Jr.
Zone Defense
What happens when drug-free school zones engulf whole cities? By John Gould
Low Roads Lead to Rome
Cicero was an ancient master of dirty politics. By Jeff Greenfield
Cramer vs. Cramer
Critics say Wall Street's favorite talking head is obnoxious, abusive, and crooked. Jim Cramer disputes "crooked." By Jamie Malanowski
In a Snob-Free Zone
Is there a place where one is outside all snobbish concerns--neither wanting to get in anywhere, nor needing to keep anyone else out? By Joseph Epstein
What Were They Smoking?
How the anti-tobacco movement leaders blew the opportunity of a lifetime. By John Schwartz
*The Tow-Away Tax Break
Car donation programs benefit everyone but the charities they're intended to help. By Tyler Cabot
May 2002
The Big Switch
Why Democrats should draft John McCain in 2004--and why he should let them. by Joshua Green
*The Rise of the Creative Class
Why cities without gays and rock bands are losing the economic development race. by Richard Florida
*Machined Politics
How the Internet is really, truly---seriously!--going to change elections. by Nicholas Thompson
Jilted
Why Bush's marriage czar went soft. by Susan Wieler
*Borderline Insanity
President Bush wants the INS to stop granting visas to terrorists. The biggest obstacle? His own administration. by Nicholas Confessore
Starr's War
Ken Starr saw his job as truth commissioner. Everyone else still sees it as a disaster. by Michael Isikoff
*The Other War Room
President Bush doesn't believe in polling--just ask his pollsters. by Joshua Green
Hippie Healthcare Policy
While one government agency searches for the cure to mental diseases, another clings to the 1960s notion that they don't exist. by E. Fuller Torrey
*Lone Star Justice
Conservatives thought Clinton-bashing Judge Royce Lamberth was on their team---until he went after the Bushies.. by Stephanie Mencimer
Science Fiction
After spending half a billion taxpayer dollars, alternative medicine gurus still can't prove their methods work--how convenient. by Chris Mooney
Ran-goons
Why isn't Burma on Bush's "Axis of Evil" list? by Joshua Kurlantzick
Almost Famous
The rise of the "nobody" memoir. by Lorraine Adams
Nationalism and Its Discontents
In the wake of Osama bin Laden's global religious terrorism, old-fashioned nationalism is looking better and better. by Michael Lind
Clowns in Gowns
How Nixon's Rehnquist nomination screwed up the way we pick judges. by David Greenberg
Bush's Big Test
The president's education bill is a disaster in the making. Here's how he can fix it. by Thomas Toch
Nest Eggs, Over Easy
Everyone who still wishes your Social Security benefits were invested in the stock market, raise your hand. by Robert Shapiro
God's Foreign Policy
Why the biggest threat to Bush's war strategy isn't coming from Muslims, but from Christians. by Joshua Green
When the Rubbers Hit the Road
As HIV infection rates rise among gay men, public health officials are going to need more than condoms to stop it. by Andrew Webb
Mean Cuisine
Gone is the Joy of Cooking. Today's celebrity chefs are serving up a menu of global doom and politically-twisted snobbery. by Greg Critser
Click Here For Britney!
AOL is muscling its way into journalism. Be afraid. by Brendan Koerner
Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney
The dangerous competence of OMB director Mitch Daniels. by Nicholas Thompson
ISO VP ASAP ~ James Carville & Paul Begala, Jonathan Alter, Mark Mazzetti, Matthew
Miller, David Brooks, and Peter Nicholas
Democratic presidential candidate seeks running mate.
The Lost Village ~ Tom Woll
How the suits took over the last small town in
America
Greenspan?Gipper?Gates? ~ Nicholas Thompson
Republicans can't bear to give Clinton credit for the economic boom. But
they should.
Substance Abuse ~ Alexandra Robbins
Faking, flubbing and cramming with the media's talking heads.
May
Drug Rush ~ Steven Pomper
Why the prescription drug market is unsafe at high speeds.
A Newsroom Hero ~ Tracy Thompson
Bill Kovach has never backed down from a fight.
Missed Information ~ Michael Doyle
The reporting tool that reporters don't use.
One Eye On The
Exit ~ Nicholas Thompson
A guide to moving from the West Wing to the real world.
April 2000
Overdose ~ Nicholas Thompson
Why Clinton's Colombia policy needs rehab.
He's No Pinocchio ~ Robert Parry
How the press has exaggerated Al Gore's exaggerations.
Pull The Plug ~ Kip Sullivan
Why HMO reform can never really work.
Fighting Chance ~ Michael Eskenazi
Why we need enriching childcare to give our kids a fair start.
March 2000
Reboot ~ Nicholas
Thompson
How Linux and open-source development could change the way we get things
done
