Photograph: AP When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, he repeatedly—and rightfully— denounced the Bush administration as “one of the most secretive administrations in our nation’s history,” and vowed that “as president,” he would “change that.” His campaign pledged to protect whistleblowers, exalting them as “the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government” and declaring [...]
By: Gregory Segal At the beginning of his landmark essay in Sports Illustrated, NBA Center Jason Collins writes, “I didn’t set out to be the first openly gay athlete playing in a major American team sport. But since I am, I’m happy to start the conversation. I wish I wasn’t the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, [...]
By: Jonathan Fried Extreme ideological polariz-ation and large structural deficits are a match made in hell. Indeed, it is quite possible that, given the yawning chasm between congressional Democrats and Republicans, the U.S. will stagger from one mild fiscal crisis to the next. Perhaps the real drivers of our structural budget deficit will be successfully addressed, and perhaps not. But [...]
by Vanessa Koh The brutal rape and subsequent death of a 23-year-old student in India have sparked outrage and protests against endemic gendered violence. However, there is something unsettling about the way western media has relayed the story of this rape and has handled rape culture. Libby Purves of The Times asserts, “Indian women need a cultural earthquake,” as “murderous, [...]
By: Chad Klitzman A CIA operative orchestrates an elaborate plot to rescue six Iranian hostages in Ben Affleck’s “Argo.” America’s 16th president illustrates the power of compromise as he works to pass the thirteenth amendment in Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln.” And, an elite team of Navy SEALs raids a Pakistani compound housing the world’s most wanted man in Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero [...]
By: Benjamin Droz There is a reason why I read political books. It is not because I love the often dry, statistics-filled, obviously self-promoting style of similar texts; it is because these texts often have a therapeutic quality. I follow and participate in politics in this country, because I feel a nagging frustration with all that surrounds us. What drives [...]
By: Nadia Tareen As I was scrolling through the latest headlines on January 3, one particular news story quickly caught my eye: “Taliban leader Nazir killed in drone strike.” As an avid fan of the series “Homeland,” I marveled at how life was imitating art. The Showtime series revolves around the CIA’s efforts to kill an infamous terrorist with the [...]
By: Paul Maneri In the aftermath of Barack Obama’s victory in last year’s Presidential Election, much of the political commentary from both sides of the aisle has focused on the President’s significant advantage with minority voters. The “Latino Vote”, in particular, has garnered a great deal of attention from party leaders and pollsters. Several prominent Republicans have made clear their [...]
By: Gabriel Delaney Comprehensive immigration reform is a policy accomplishment that has eluded President Obama thus far in his presidency. The whole of Congress has stalled on the issue, leaving behind more than 11 million undocumented immigrants in a state of quasi-American citizenship that neither grants them a right to a free life nor holds them accountable for paying into [...]
By: Tomas Piedrahita On October 31, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court heard the oral arguments for two cases involving the use of drug-sniffing dogs. At the heart of these cases, Florida v. Harris and Florida v. Jardines, is the Fourth Amendment, also know as the constitutional “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, [...]
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