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City should elect, not appoint, new alder
Ald. Zach Brandon's decision to leave the Madison City Council and take a job with the state Department of Commerce creates a void at precisely the point when Brandon is needed. The council's most aggressive and articulate advocate for fiscal responsibility is leaving as Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and the remaining alders struggle to balance a budget with too many demands and too few resources. read story
Rep. Ron Kind: Energy crisis a man-on-the-moon challenge
For too long, our energy policy has been anything but forward-looking. A lack of leadership in the White House to enact a comprehensive energy policy and leaders sympathetic to the oil industry have left Americans with $4-a-gallon gasoline. To add insult to injury, countries like Brazil and Germany are years ahead of us in the quest for independence from oil. read story
Rosa Brooks: U.S. needs 'truth commission' on war crimes
Bush and Cheney are the leaders of the most powerful state in the world, and their misdeeds, though egregious, aren't on the same level as indicted war criminal Radovan Karadzic's. (Unless -- ahem -- you count the Iraq war, on the "it was all a tissue of lies" theory. But for the sake of the argument, let's give them the benefit of the doubt.) So no one should be surprised that there's still a Bush fan club (albeit a small one) or that the prospects of criminal proceedings against the president and his henchmen are virtually nonexistent. read story
Matthew Dallek: Pancreatic cancer a private catastrophe
It's a dread disease. The fourth-highest cause of cancer deaths in the United States, it's usually portrayed as an unstoppable, incurable killer. It has struck some high-profile figures: Hollywood actor Patrick Swayze has been diagnosed with it. Opera star Luciano Pavarotti and former Ronald Reagan aide Michael Deaver died of it. read story
Amy Goodman: Threats, lies and Army recruiters
It was like an action movie. A young man held at night in a hotel, threatened with prison. He is to be shipped off to war in the morning. His friends desperately trying to find him. read story
Gabriel Schoenfeld: 'Amerithrax' was not the FBI's best moment
The FBI's investigation of the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks was the most complex and important in the bureau's history. Immense resources were invested in the search for the perpetrator, whose actions killed five people, sickened 17 others, sowed panic in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and caused taxpayers to spend extraordinary sums on a crash program to protect the nation against the danger of biological terrorism. Yet for all that, the "Amerithrax" investigation, as the FBI dubbed the case, dragged on for seven years and, until quite recently, got nowhere. read story
- Harold Meyerson: Election is Obama's to lose
- Phil Haslanger: Youth service projects spread interfaith message
- E.J. Dionne: Race issue less overt than it used to be, but it's there
- Fred Hiatt: Obama should take McCain up on town hall forums
- Margaret Krome: Time for a colonoscopy? Just do it
- Bill Berry: USDA stands firm on conservation lands
- Antonio Maria Costa: Cocaine finds West Africa
- Barbara Quirk: Yes, 'aging in place is outdated'
- Michael Carey: Alaska senator left out in the cold
- Jeff Pausma: Congress takes another potshot at family farmers
- Briana Nestler: Don't vote for lesser of two evils
- John Costello: China columnist's judgment questionable
- Sandra Saul: City leaders should be less wishy-washy
- Betty Custer: Lucas gives Favre a fair shake
- Martin Sattell: Water compact has serious loophole
- Ernie Pellegrino: Obama did play the race card
- Robert L. Koshalek: Employ all energy sources to boost supply
- Frank Jablonski: Progressives need to revisit rejection of nuclear power
- Alfonso Cornish: Republicans must reclaim own party
- Beth Ritchie: Renewable energy makes sense for economy and environment
