|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Richard Brookhiser
$10.72
By John W. Dean
$15.00
$24
|
|
|
|
AP / Charles Dharapak
|
By Robert Scheer — The light has gone out, and with it that infectious warm laugh and intensely progressive commitment of the best of the Kennedys. Not, at this point, to take anything away from the memory of his siblings—Bobby, whom I also got to know, was pretty terrific in his last years—but Sen. Ted Kennedy was the real deal.
|
AP / Dean Cox
|
By Robert Scheer — In recent days yet another wealthy private customer of the Swiss-based banking conglomerate UBS admitted to criminal fraud in a growing parade of perp walks that could extend into the thousands. It is a case that threatens to ensnare former Sen. Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican who is vice chairman of UBS’ investment banking business.
|
|
President Obama is gambling on America’s readiness to embrace a larger, more comprehensive form of government, but will it take? “Recovering Republican” Arianna Huffington argues that the system Obama favors is currently working best for oligarchs, not those losing their homes or worried about their health care, while Tony Blankley thinks Big Pharma is pitching camp in the White House.
|
AP / Susan Walsh
|
By Robert Scheer — “Was there some sort of ghost that performed these actions?” New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff demanded to know Monday in rejecting a deal that would let Bank of America off the hook in yet another banker bonus scandal.
|
|
Diplomacy by former President Bill Clinton that brought home two journalists from North Korea offers a moment to reflect on the anniversary of the Hiroshima nuclear attack. Sonia Sotomayor’s been confirmed, but not until after there was a dramatic display of partisan ideology. Plus, is the disruption of health care town halls real or orchestrated?
|
|
This week’s show covers flagrant shenanigans in the financial world—could it be that Tony Blankley makes a move toward the left? Meanwhile, lefty Robert Scheer is the surprising deficit hawk in the mix, and Arianna Huffington and Matt Miller clash over whether the absence of a strong public provision in Congress’ emerging health plan represents a betrayal of the American people. Also: beer!
Posted on Jul 31, 2009
READ MORE 
|
AP / Gerald Herbert
|
By Robert Scheer — What a hoot. The Chinese Communists invaded Washington on Monday demanding not that we sacrifice our freedoms but rather that we balance our budget. Creditors get to make that kind of call. And the Marxists of Beijing, who have turned out to be the world’s most prudent bankers, are worried about their assets invested in our banana republic.
|
DoD / Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald, USAF
|
By Robert Scheer — I’ll believe it when it finally happens. But the news that Congress might actually stop production of a high-tech, job-generating and, most of all, high-profit weapons system because it fills no legitimate national security function is a considerable victory for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as well as for logic.
|
|
This week’s show includes two Republicans filling in for Tony Blankley—Mike Murphy and John Henke—making this episode more like “Left, Right, Right & Center,” if you will. Robert Scheer joins them to weigh in about the Sotomayor hearings, the future of the GOP and what to do about the health care conundrum, among other lively topics.
|
|
As we remember the late Robert McNamara, we can look back to the publication of his 1995 memoir, “In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam,” to see the conversations that surrounded McNamara’s take on the Vietnam War. Truthdig’s own Robert Scheer appears in a round-table discussion alongside former Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
|
|
It’s the Bob and Matt Show! Robert Scheer and Matt Miller discuss the prospects of a public health care system now that the Democrats hold a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and then they move on to examine the impact of unions on education and health care. Tune in to hear Friday’s special summer show of “Left, Right & Center.”
|
AP photo
|
By Robert Scheer — It was the stark evil Robert McNamara perpetrated as secretary of defense that must indelibly frame our memory of him. To not speak out fully because of respect for the deceased would be to mock the memory of the millions he caused to be maimed and killed in a war that he later freely admitted never made any sense.
|
AP photo / John Rous
|
By Robert Scheer — Once again we were in a briefing on body counts, and he was in charge with the latest figures, and once again, any personal responsibility for the deaths seemed to elude him. Finally one understands the desperate shrillness of the anti-war movement, as an attempt to tug at the arm if not the inaccessible soul of this impervious man.
|
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library
|
Former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara died Monday at the age of 93. McNamara was considered to be the leading architect of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, sometimes referred to as “McNamara’s War,” which left more than 58,000 U.S. troops and 3 million Vietnamese military and civilians dead.
|
|
For the holiday weekend, the “Left, Right & Center” squad takes a good, hard look at the state of the economy: How did we get here? Who’s to blame? Can it be fixed? Argument, and even entertainment, ensues as Robert Scheer, Arianna Huffington, Matt Miller and Tony Blankley do their best to make sense of it all.
|
|
This week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center” takes a look at the doings in Iran and U.S. involvement there, with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer recalling his interview of a CIA agent who said he organized the 1953 coup in that country. Other topics include two hot issues on the domestic side—U.S. regulatory proposals and health care.
|
|
This week on “Left, Right and Center” the gang tackles three big questions: What do today’s Iranian elections mean in the polarized theocracy? What’s going on in the banking world and with the alleged TARP paybacks? And finally, given the partisan divide, will public health care ever become a viable option in the U.S.? Tune in to find out.
|
|
This week on Al Jazeera’s “Fault Lines,” Avi Lewis investigates the political causes, the human impact and the global economic repercussions of California’s budgetary crisis. Check out this great report, which features Truthdig’s own Robert Scheer.
|
|
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been reasserting himself, for good or ill, in the public sphere this week. President Obama was ready with his own take on torture, aka “extreme interrogation” methods. Is this a media-enabled setup or a legitimate face-off between executive powers past and present?
|
AP photo / Mark Lennihan
|
By Robert Scheer — How much do you know about BlackRock and the hedge funds they manage? Better bone up fast, now that the folks at BlackRock are calling the shots in the government’s trillion-dollar bailout program. BlackRock execs are now directing key elements of the government program at a time when they stand to reap great profits from the fallout of a problem they helped create.
|
AP photo / Evan Vucci
|
By Robert Scheer — Has Timothy Geithner ever had lunch with a non-megamillionaire who has lost his job or home because of the banking meltdown? I ask that question after reading the list of the treasury secretary’s luncheon dates when he was head of the New York Federal Reserve, a list that the government was forced to provide in response to a lawsuit.
|
|
Even Fox News’ Shep Smith said it: America doesn’t torture ... although the recently released set of torture memos belies that declaration. Meanwhile, President Obama’s none too pleased with credit card companies, and Chrysler has hit the skids. Was there any good news this week? Tony Blankley thinks so.
|
|
Did the nationwide “tea parties” on April 15 constitute a much-needed boost for the Republican base? Was the Obama administration right to release the latest batch of torture memos from the Bush years?
|
|
Did President Barack Obama achieve anything at the G-20 summit besides showing up and pressing the flesh with other international political players? Tony Blankley isn’t so sure, but Robert Scheer and guest moderator Lawrence O’Donnell are ready with their rebuttals. And how about that ginormous budget plan?
|
|
The clock is ticking for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to come up with a plan to deal with the banks that actually works. Meanwhile, some of the United States’ current struggles seem beside the point to European countries that already have a strong social safety net. And finally on this week’s list of “Left, Right & Center” hot topics is President Obama and Afghanistan: Is this a disaster waiting to happen?
|
AP photo / Gerald Herbert
|
By Robert Scheer — Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont who is independent in spirit as well as party label, has placed a hold on President Obama’s nomination of Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Sounds like a minor issue to get worked up about, but I see this appointment as further evidence that the president has entrusted his economic policy to the wrong people.
|
|
Have the American media become too fixated on AIG and its nefarious bonuses—at the cost of focusing too little on the whereabouts of the other gajillions of dollars doled out in bailout funds? What’s to become of Timothy Geithner? And how about those warm New Year’s wishes that winged their way to the people of Iran from the U.S. and Israel?
|
|
Truthdig’s Robert Scheer appeared on “Democracy Now!” on Thursday to tell host Amy Goodman who exactly sent the U.S. into financial dire straits and to recommend some changes that could put the country on a better track. Here are some hints: One culpable party rhymes with “Shmoldman Shmacks,” and another is at the top of President Obama’s economic team.
|
|
Once again, the economy is front and center on “Left, Right & Center”—and with good reason.
|
truthdig.com
|
The renowned filmmaker visited USC’s Annenberg School for Communication on March 3 to talk with Truthdig editors Robert Scheer and Kasia Anderson and their students about “Wall Street,” his 1987 classic—suddenly all too relevant again—and to give a panoramic take on his body of work and what the future holds for the movie industry.
|
|
Has there been any good news in recent days? Robert Scheer thinks so and says why on this week’s “Left, Right & Center.” Arianna Huffington, meanwhile, has some questions about Barack Obama’s economic decisions, while Tony Blankley wonders if there aren’t too many banking types in the new government.
|
|
This week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center” finds the full lineup of co-hosts—Matt Miller, Tony Blankley, Arianna Huffington and Robert Scheer—debating the latest developments in the unholy marriage between big banks and the U.S. government, speculating about what might be done about the American auto industry and doing a little on-the-fly analysis of comparative economic systems. Listen and learn.
|
AP photo / Lawrence Jackson
|
By Robert Scheer — What an insipid anticlimax! Rising to “a challenge more complex than our financial system has ever faced,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised on Tuesday to give trillions more to the very folks who profited from that malignant complexity.
|
|
Everyone’s a Captol Hill critic these days. Here we have a handful who might just know what they’re talking about when it comes to the stimulus debate: Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley, Robert Scheer and Matt Miller do their darndest to sort out where the money should go.
|
AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
|
By Robert Scheer — It is instructional that only one of the three tax-challenged Obama appointees has survived public scorn to claim a high position in the new administration. Oddly enough, it is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the man who will collect our taxes, whose career has not been stunted by his failure to pay them.
|
|
Well, here he is, our new Mr. President. How did Barack Obama fare in his first few days in office? Meanwhile, Wall Street flounders, and Caroline Kennedy’s Senate bid falls short at the 11th hour. The “Left, Right & Center” team takes a crack at this week’s news. Audio fixed
Posted on Jan 23, 2009
READ MORE
|
|
Ready or not, here comes Barack Obama—let’s hope he’s ready, considering the nature of the action items topping his presidential to-do list.
|
AP photo / Lawrence Jackson
|
By Robert Scheer — Why rush to throw another $350 billion of taxpayer money at the Wall Street bandits and their political cronies who created the biggest financial mess since the Great Depression? And why should we taxpayers be expected to double our debt exposure when the 10 still-secret bailout contracts made in the first round are being kept from the public?
|
AP photo / Khaled Omar
|
By Robert Scheer — Why is it that there is such widespread acceptance, beginning with the apologetic arguments of President Bush, that whatever Israel does is always justified as necessary to the survival of the Jewish state? It is not.
|
AP photo / Karim Kadim
|
By Robert Scheer — The shoe-throwing Iraqi journalist is now a venerated celebrity throughout the Mideast, and his words to the president—“this is the farewell kiss, you dog”—will stand as the enduring epitaph in the region on Bush’s folly, which is the reality of his claimed legacy of success in the war on terror.
|
AP photo / Charles Dharapak
|
By Robert Scheer — Let the record show that it was George W. Bush, the rich Texas Republican, who brought socialism to America, so don’t blame it on that African-American Chicago Democrat community organizer who made it into the White House.
|
|
Should the Big Three U.S. automakers be driven out of Washington (or Detroit) without the financial help they desperately need? What’s to be done about the massive job losses across the country?
|
AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
|
By Robert Scheer — I do so want to believe that Barack Obama is on the right track. His brain is big, his style fresh, his pronouncements both logical and compelling, and it does feel good to have a president-elect elicit universal respect rather than make the world cringe.
|
AP photo / Charles Dharapak
|
By Robert Scheer — Maybe Ralph Nader was right in predicting that the same Wall Street hustlers would have a lock on our government no matter which major party won the election. I hate to admit it, since it wasn’t that long ago that I heatedly challenged Nader in a debate on this very point.
|
|
This week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center” focuses on the economy, of course, with specific attention to the challenges facing the auto industry. Meanwhile, President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet is taking shape and, once again, Hillary Clinton occupies center stage.
|
AP photo / J. Scott Applewhite
|
By Robert Scheer — This is not change we can believe in. Not if Robert Rubin or his protégé, Lawrence Summers, get to call the shots on the economy in President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration.
|
|
What’s to be done to pull the U.S. out of economic quicksand? You can bet that “Left, Right & Center” stalwarts Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller might differ in their takes on this question, as well as others posed on this week’s show.
|
|
Just in time for the (post-)election, KCRW’s “Left, Right & Center” panelists Matt Miller, Tony Blankley, Arianna Huffington and Robert Scheer appeared together for a live show at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica on Sunday, braving a packed house as they took stock of the state of the union and discussed what might come next.
|
AP photo / Shakh Aivazov
|
By Robert Scheer — So, Vladimir Putin was right: It was Georgia that started the war with Russia, and once again it was President Bush who got caught in a lie. No surprise, but it is a reminder of just how eager some are for a new Cold War and how indifferent they are to the truth of the matter. Updated
|
|
Arianna Huffington was back on “Left, Right & Center” to have her say, along with Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Truthdig’s own Robert Scheer, about the economy and the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the show’s last episode before the election.
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
Arctic Tundra ‘Will Turn to Forest’
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
