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$15.92
By Jonathan Mahler
$15.60
$22
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The Republican Party’s high hopes may hang on Ron Paul’s son, Rand, after he busted his way onto the national stage with his big primary victory this week in Kentucky, but is he the man for the GOP job? Just who likes Paul the Younger, and who isn’t crazy about him, may surprise you ... (continued)
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Why is a lefty excited by the thought of a Kentucky libertarian in Congress? Robert Scheer responds to reader questions and comments about his latest column.
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How best to deal with the mess Big Oil has wrought this past week? “We need a time out for greed,” Robert Scheer says on this week’s “Left, Right & Center,” but Tony Blankley disagrees. Meanwhile, Arianna Huffington isn’t buying President Obama’s knuckle-rapping stance toward oil execs.
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Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (or PIGS, as the likes of Stephen Colbert have pointed out) have seen better days—debt is overpowering the eurozone and impacting the U.S. as well. The UK election: Will it be a hung parliament? Plus: Newsweek’s for sale. Any takers?
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The SEC has taken its first action against Goldman Sachs for alleged investor fraud—will it help efforts for financial reform and regulation? Or will the financial giant just be slapped with a fine and then allowed to continue business as usual?
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If you missed Robert Scheer discussing his latest column, the financial meltdown and its enablers with readers or you just want to relive the excitement, you can read a full transcript right here.
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The announcement of Justice John Paul Stevens’ retirement is bound to set off a political battle of immense proportions. Will it be a test of the merits of the potential candidates or just another political throwdown? And does America’s new nuclear posture justify Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize?
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If you missed Robert Scheer discussing his column, nuclear weapons and President Obama with readers or you just want to relive the excitement, you can read a full transcript right here.
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Why is America so deeply polarized, politically speaking? This week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center” finds Robert Scheer and Tony Blankley discussing the partisan divisions in the country and agreeing at least on the point that those rifts have never been this deep. But why is there so much anger?
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So much ground to cover this week! We saw the passage of the notorious health care reform bill, more scandal among the ranks of the pope (who’s in a bit of a stew) and a nuclear breakthrough between the U.S. and Russia. Also on this week’s show: mortgages, usury and you!
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As we round the final corner en route to the health care vote, “Left, Right & Center’s” illustrious panelists Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Arianna Huffington—with Lawrence O’Donnell guest-starring as moderator—consider what might happen if the reform bill passes the House this weekend. And what’s with this “deeming” procedure anyway?
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Was any progress made at Thursday’s health care summit on Capitol Hill? Is Goldman Sachs bringing down the global economy? Is it Wall Street gone wild or just the progress of capitalism? And is the U.S. trouncing Toyota because the federal government owns GM? So many questions, but luckily the “Left, Right & Center” lineup is ready for all of them on this week’s show.
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Tiger Woods performed his celebrity duty on Friday, making a public apology for his extramarital escapades, and, yes, even the “Left, Right & Center” lineup of regular commentators has something to say about it. Also this week: Some conservatives think (gasp!) Dick Cheney ought to run for president, and the richest Americans aren’t feeling the same recessionary burn that the rest of the country is suffering.
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For this week’s show, “Left, Right & Center” fans have the option of watching all four of the show’s regulars—Arianna Huffington, Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller—in action together at the “Santa Monica mothership” as they ponder whether Obama can turn his own ship around before it’s too late, whether Americans take the tea party movement seriously, and other pressing questions of the day.
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On this week’s “Left, Right & Center,” usual suspects Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller (Arianna Huffington is in Davos for the World Economic Forum) weigh in about President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address and ponder the timely and, to some, troubling question: Is bipartisanship dead?
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Is the tragic story of the Haiti earthquake as much about poverty and failed governance as it is about a natural disaster? Is the Banking Commission a kangaroo court? And what does the Massachusetts special election have to do with the future of the health care plan in Congress? All this and more on this week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center.”
Posted on Jan 15, 2010
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The gang’s all here for this week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center,” and it’s a good thing, considering the, er, sheer amount of material to cover. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s not exactly winning the hearts of millions these days, but should he step down? Plus: bad news on the employment front (sigh); the Democratic outlook for 2010; and what big banks are (and aren’t) doing for customers—and what Americans can do about it.
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AP / Haraz N. Ghanbari
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By Robert Scheer — Maybe I got it wrong. During the presidential campaign I wrote columns blasting Sen. John McCain for siding with the big bankers on deregulation, citing his choosing ex-Sen. Phil Gramm, currently a vice chairman of the Swiss-owned banking giant UBS, as his presidential campaign chair.
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — Howard Dean was roundly condemned for casting aspersions on what even many of its more ardent supporters admit is an obviously flawed bill.
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Does Congress need to consider a health care reform do-over? Those Americans holding out the dying embers of hope for anything resembling a public option might think so. Tony Blankley finds the revolting Democrats, well, revolting, but a seafaring Robert Scheer focuses his ire on Wall Street’s notorious fat cats on this week’s “Left, Right & Center.”
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China will soon become “the most powerful and influential country in the world,” says celebrated journalist Martin Jacques. But to what end?
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Was Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech just idle wordplay or something more “muscular”? “Left, Right & Center” regular Tony Blankley thinks it was tantamount to a “triumph of belief in words over actions” and even invokes deconstructionism (eek!) in his analysis. Is the CIA in bed with Blackwater? And are big banks really cracking down on egregious executive bonuses?
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So, President Obama finally announced his long-awaited decision to increase the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Will it be his undoing? At least on this week’s “Left, Right & Center,” opinions on left and right converge, although for different reasons. And how about the latest unemployment figures—what, only 11,000 jobs lost? We’re doing less-worse than ever, but are we doing better? And is there any reason to take Tiger Woods to task for his alleged infidelities?
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — After 30 years of failure, and thanks to the political opportunism of the current commander in chief, the Afghanistan war is still without end or logical purpose.
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On this Black Friday edition of “Left, Right & Center,” regulars Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Arianna Huffington get philosophical, trotting out the likes of Karl Marx and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to get a read on the timely and fundamental question of whether it’s truly possible to govern the people of the United States under the “of, by and for” setup.
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Wall Street profits are an obscene affront to Scripture, as Robert Scheer details in an interview with Amy Goodman on “Democracy Now!”
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AP / Alex Brandon
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By Robert Scheer — What’s up with Barack Obama? Finally someone has a good idea about how to deal with Wall Street and the White House condemns it.
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Does the planned trial of the five alleged 9/11 plotters (including oft-referenced “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed) represent a partisan issue? “Left, Right & Center” mainstay Tony Blankley thinks so, but his left-leaning counterpart, Robert Scheer, begs to differ on this week’s show. Also: What’s with all the deliberation about Afghanistan?
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AP / Herbert Knosowski
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By Robert Scheer — Mikhail Gorbachev is not honored enough for the example he set. His past practices and recent cautions about Afghanistan should be heeded by Barack Obama.
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Consumer spending drives the real economy, and it has taken a plunge. Did we save the banks at the expense of the people? Also this week: The health care reform bill finally appears on the scene, and Hillary Clinton attempts a precarious balancing act in Pakistan—are either of these developments successful?
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AP / Douglas Healey
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By Robert Scheer — Is there a more hypocritical figure in American politics than Joe Lieberman? The Connecticut senator declared Tuesday that he would support a filibuster of any health care reform bill that has a public option—even the version with the “trigger” compromise accepted by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe—because it might cost money.
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Well, that public option idea keeps creeping back to the table as Congress debates the health care conundrum, but will it stick around? Does the federal government have the right to limit executive bonuses when taxpayers hold a majority interest in the company? And is President Obama wasting his time by tangling with Fox News? So many questions this week!
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Peter Richardson’s new book about the groundbreaking Ramparts magazine says the rag changed America. Truthdig arts and culture editor Kasia Anderson asks the author and former Ramparts Editor Robert Scheer, Truthdig’s editor-in-chief, why the magazine’s impact isn’t better remembered and what will take its place.
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Peter Richardson’s new book about the groundbreaking Ramparts Magazine says the rag changed America. Truthdig arts and culture editor Kasia Anderson asks the author and former Ramparts Editor Robert Scheer, Truthdig’s editor-in-chief, why its impact isn’t better remembered, and what will take its place.
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Wall Street got a boost, as if it needed one, from the Dow’s rise past 10,000 this week—but let’s not confuse that with economic stability. Consider the unemployment rate and the ballooning federal budget deficit, as Arianna Huffington, Bob Scheer, Tony Blankley and Matt Miller do on this week’s “Left, Right and Center.” Just don’t ask Arianna about “Balloon Boy.”
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AP / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — There is an odd disconnect between the furious public debate over health care reform, with its emphasis on the cost of an increased government role, and the nonexistent discussion about the far more expensive and largely secretive government program to bail out Wall Street.
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President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize caused a ruckus round the globe, drawing a wide range of reactions. The big question: Did he deserve it? On this week’s show, “Left, Right & Center” co-hosts Robert Scheer, Tony Blankley, Matt Miller and Arianna Huffington mull this one over, along with the value of the dollar and the ongoing saga that is health care reform.
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Flickr / U.S. Army
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By Robert Scheer — There is no indication that any of the contending forces in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, are interested in bringing al-Qaida back. On the contrary, all the available evidence indicates that the Arab fighters are unwelcome and that it is their isolation from their former patrons that has led to their demise.
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That last bit in the headline isn’t just to get your attention—there are a few valid reasons for its inclusion among this week’s “LRC” topics (paging Roman Polanski ... or was that David Letterman?). However, more substantial fare precedes that part of the discussion, including talk of unemployment, Wall Street’s most wanted, and Obama’s growing Afghanistan problem.
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Truthdig editors Robert Scheer, Peter Scheer and Kasia Anderson unchain themselves from their laptops long enough to weigh in about the week’s news, Michael Moore’s economic epic and a new phone made partly from corn. If that’s not eclectic, we don’t know what is.
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — Communism once was, as the Islamic terrorist threat is today, presented as an undifferentiated revolutionary impulse that could never be diplomatically accommodated without sacrificing our own security or, indeed, our freedom. The various communist nations and movements, like those currently led by a polyglot collection of Islamist radicals, were stripped of any complexity, be it in their national identity or ideology.
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Truthdig editors Robert Scheer, Peter Scheer and Kasia Anderson give their takes on their picks from the week’s crop of news stories, including the rise of radical rhetoric on the right, Obama’s so-called socialism (for Wall Street) and how to shop for new planets to call our future home.
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Russia might be pleased with President Obama’s decision to nix Bush’s missile shield plans, but how about Eastern Europe? Meanwhile, Sen. Max Baucus’ health care reform plan foundered, and Obama made a play to get through to the powers on Wall Street. All this—plus the Glenn Becking of American political discourse—is part of this week’s discussion on “Left, Right & Center.”
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AP / Charles Dharapak
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By Robert Scheer — A president has only so much capital to expend, both in tax dollars and public tolerance, and Barack Obama is dangerously overdrawn. He has tried to have it all on three fronts, and his administration is in serious danger of going bankrupt.
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It was a big week in political news, what with the kerfuffle about Obama’s education speech and then the hubbub over ... Obama’s health care speech. Anyone see a pattern? “Left, Right & Center” regulars Robert Scheer, Arianna Huffington and Tony Blankley just might.
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AP / Alex Brandon
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By Robert Scheer — What if eight years ago the World Trade Center had been leveled by a small nuclear bomb that took out most of lower Manhattan as well? How many millions of innocent civilians would we have killed in retaliation?
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President Obama’s got a lot of work to do to convince “Left, Right & Center” regulars Arianna Huffington, Tony Blankley and Robert Scheer that he’s going to make good on his promise of “change” when it comes to bettering Americans’ health care options, the economy, the job market and that whole war thing he’s got going on in Afghanistan.
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AP / David Guttenfelder
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By Robert Scheer — True, he doesn’t seem a bit like Lyndon Johnson, but the way he’s headed on Afghanistan, Barack Obama is threatened with a quagmire that could bog down his presidency. LBJ also had a progressive agenda in mind, but it was soon overwhelmed by the cost and divisiveness engendered by a meaningless, and seemingly endless, war in Vietnam.
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Not surprisingly, “Left, Right & Center” co-hosts Arianna Huffington, Robert Scheer and Tony Blankley harbor some differing viewpoints when it comes to Sen. Ted Kennedy’s legacy, as well as whether Congress should push through a health care reform plan to “win one for Ted.”
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