OBAMA vs. THE WASHINGTON INFLUENCE MACHINE
That’s the title of my new piece published at TomDispatch.com, a dive into the onslaught by lobbyists and their special interest clients to derail the Obama administration’s legislative agenda. The piece looks at the vast amount of money being spent on lobbying, the growing numbers of lobbyists working on K Street and Capitol Hill (six health-care lobbyists for every one member of Congress), and the close ties between lawmakers and these lobbyists (see: Max Baucus). The... Read More
Anti-intellectualism, ignorance, “the unacknowledged pit underlying American democracy”—”A quibble” well worth reading
Harper’s Magazine is far and away one of my favorite magazines today, and the “Notebook” essays in Harper’s rank as one of the many invaluable sections in the magazine. Photo courtesy of Steve Rhodes, Flickr A few recent gems that have appeared in the “Notebook” section: Lewis Lapham’s superb essay “Elegy for a rubber stamp” on the late Tim Russert; Garret Keizer’s “Requiem for the private word” on our deteriorating... Read More
