Off the Air—It took President Bush three days from the time of the tsunami disaster to meet with reporters at his Texas ranch. He told them that the United States would send $15 million in foreign aid to help the victims of the earthquake and tidal wave in southern Asia, a historic cataclysm that has […]

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To most of us the Electoral College is so inscrutable and immutable that we don’t grasp how much it is also so undemocratic and inequitable. Now we have just seen it go through its antique antics again. Under the chairmanship of Vice President Dick Cheney, a joint session of Congress met in the House of […]

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The hard-right Heritage Foundation recently mailed a warning that the Democratic left is “angrier than ever” and “continues to be a danger to our country,” so “we need to take these people seriously.” Take them seriously? As Will Rogers put it, “I am not a member of any organized party—I am a Democrat.” For the […]

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They’re fleeing the jurisdiction of Bush & Co., Inc., and you can hardly blame them. The departure of Attorney General John Ashcroft is a godsend for us all, even President Bush. And there is a rush of others. The retirement of Secretary of State Colin Powell was no surprise. He was conned on Iraq by […]

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You might have thought that, three years after a devastating terrorist attack on American soil, a period which has featured two wars, radical political and economic legislation, and an adjustment to one of the biggest stock market crashes in history, the campaign for the presidency would be an especially elevated and notable affair. If so, […]

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