I hope everyone understands that when the Wall Street Journal calls Obama’s “up or down” vote on health care reform an “abuse of power,” they’re lying through their teeth. To be clear: the bill on the floor has already passed a supermajority in the senate and a majority in the house and more — it’s gone through Max Baucus’ bipartisan “Gang ... Read More
Well, the Senate just spent a year trying and failing to pass a moderate, compromised-to-hell health reform plan. Which, incidentally, if that is comprehensive reform I’m not really sure I’d like to see their “tinkering around the edges”. However, the important thing is that they managed to defuse special interest anger by buying them off with legislative goodies. Wait, that’s ... Read More
Coakley’s loss was a lot of things — but a repudiation of Obama’s health care reform it was not. Massachusetts is an odd state to be signing the death sentence for Obama’s health care reform because Massachusetts actually enjoys a universal health care program that’s very similar to the one in congress today. And Scott Brown’s an odd angel of ... Read More
The Boston Globe has a must-read article out on Larry Summer’s role in Harvard’s endowment collapse. I like the lede: It happened at least once a year, every year. In a roomful of a dozen Harvard University financial officials, Jack Meyer, the hugely successful head of Harvard’s endowment, and Lawrence Summers, then the school’s president, would face off in a ... Read More
Fog of War Volume 36, Number 3, Fall 2009 Letter from the Editor Front Section Bursting at the Seams IAN MERRIFIELD Drug incarcerations, prison overcrowding, and community corrections Escaping the Poppy Field IVANA DJAK, NEIL PATEL American anti-opium efforts in Afghanistan The Source of the Problem ANGELA PRIMBAS Confronting prescription drug abuse Decriminalization in Massachusetts MATTHEW S. MILLER, KATHERINE LEE ... Read More
Critics have long derided America’s “War on Drugs” as a mistaken moniker. Anti-drug policy, they argue, has no defined mission, no coordinated enemy, and no path to victory. In the Clinton administration, drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey attempted to jettison the phrase, in part because of the public’s impression that the government had lost the war. John Walters, Bush’s drug ... Read More
Life after losing the Presidency Among the flurry of political maneuvering and intrigue surrounding the vacancy of Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat came the interesting proposition that a suitable placeholder might have been found in 75-year-old Michael Dukakis, a man The Boston Globe assured had “put his political ambitions behind him.” What seemed strange about this idea is not that Dukakis ... Read More
The HPR has a unique process for choosing covers topics. Before the selection meeting, staff and contributors submit proposals with a brief description of the topic and a list of potential articles. After a group discussion, we vote to narrow the field to the two or three best proposals, and then continue to vote until one garners a majority. Typically, ... Read More
Governor Michael Dukakis on the politics and potential growth of high speed rail public transportation
A look at marijuana decriminalization in Massachusetts On Nov. 4, 2008, Massachusetts became the twelfth state to decriminalize possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Known as the Massachusetts Sensible Marijuana Policy Initiative, Proposition 2 was passed by a sweeping 65-35 margin, a more decisive showing than even Barack Obama in the famously blue state. The widely used drug ... Read More
Chaos reigns as states try to budget in the recession The financial crisis affected millions of Americans, drove down property values, crippled the mortgage industry, spiked unemployment rates, and revealed the unwieldiness of the American banking system. In response, the U.S. government attempted to resuscitate the economy with a nearly $800 billion stimulus. Meanwhile, state governments have been struggling ... Read More
Obama would do well to learn from the post-Oslo experiences of two other Presidents The Nobel Prize Committee’s recent decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to President Obama touched off a firestorm across the world. Reactions have ranged from rancor from much from the right wing for the supposed lack of justification, to delight from the American left and ... Read More
You know who is one of the most dependable Democrats in the Senate right now? Arlen Spector (D-PA). It does not take any great insight to figure out why that is; Spector is rightly afraid of a successful primary challenge from Joe Sestak over his insufficient progressivism. On the Republican side of the aisle is further proof positive: the threats ... Read More
Affordable housing in uncertain times About 12 million Americans spend more than half of their annual income on rent or mortgage, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Affordable housing is of particular concern in urban centers, due to high population densities and costs of living. Even after the collapse of the housing bubble, paying rent remains ... Read More
Daring to end homelessness While the recent collapse of the U.S. housing market has prompted a renewed debate about American homeownership and its future, the related topic of homelessness has remained largely ignored. Hundreds of thousands of citizens live lives of addiction and mental illness on the streets of American cities. On any given day, 900,000 people — including 200,000 ... Read More
