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Wednesday, August 20, 2008 |
EdinburghFestival: "The unbridled power that's overtaken the United States during the Bush years has caused the average American to suffer the loss of privacy and personal freedoms, higher hurdles for non-Americans trying to enter the country, and the indignities and offenses of extra-judicial renditions to black sites and places like Guantanamo."
RawThought: "James K. Galbraith's The Predator State is undoubtedly one of the most important books on the economics of our era. Galbraith sets himself the task, not only of exposing the discredited economic orthodoxies of our generation, but also documenting the economy as it really exists, and setting an agenda for the future."
MotherJones: "Today, the signature of modern American capitalism is neither benign competition, nor class struggle, nor an inclusive middle-class utopia. Instead, predation has become the dominant feature - a system wherein the rich have come to feast on decaying systems built for the middle class. The predatory class is not the whole of the wealthy; it may be opposed by many others of similar wealth. But it is the defining feature, the leading force. And its agents are in full control of the government under which we live."
Argus: "The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 will be published Sept. 8 by Simon & Schuster with an announced first printing of 900,000 copies.
'There has not been such an authoritative and intimate account of presidential decision-making since the Nixon tapes and the Pentagon Papers,' Woodward's longtime editor, Alice Mayhew, said Tuesday. 'This is the declassification of what went on in secret, behind the scenes.'"
ICH: "America is a country badly in need of therapy. We don't know who we are anymore; everything is topsy-turvy. It's like we're suffering a national identity crisis and need a turn on the couch. There's just been too much change too fast and no one really knows what's going on. Even stanch conservatives are in a daze from the daily overload of bad news.
Our national symbols have also taken a pasting since Bush took office; the American flag in particular. Old Glory used to embody our collective aspirations whether that meant 'traditional values' or 'liberty and justice'. But no more. Now the flag has become proprietary; the property of a small gaggle of neo-fascists and right-wing loonies who display their shiny brass lapel-pin on their chest to identify themselves to other like-minded wackos.
America needs to spend a little time on the couch reassembling its shattered psyche and reconnecting with its inner-self. That means, sorting through the rubble of the Bush years and getting back to basics; a strong commitment to justice, human rights and personal liberty."
11:52:12 AM 
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© Copyright 2008 Hetty Litjens.
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