Some on President-elect Barack Obama's team wonder whether he will have the duty to prosecute or extradite persons who are reasonably accused of having committed and abetted war crimes or crimes against humanity during the Bush administration's admitted "program" of "coercive interrogation" and secret detention that was part of a "common, unifying" plan to deny protections under the Geneva Conventions.
On a warm summer day two years ago, a 16-year-old girl put on a skirt and headed to the SuperTarget in her hometown of Tulsa, Okla. As she shopped the air-conditioned aisles, a man knelt behind her, carefully slid a camera in between her bare legs and snapped a photo of her underwear. Police arrested the 34-year-old man, but the charges were ultimately dropped on the ground that the girl did not, as required by the state's Peeping Tom law, have "a right to a reasonable expectation of privacy," given the public location. In non-legalese: Wear a skirt in public, and you might just get a camera in the crotch.
As GM staggers toward either bailout or bankruptcy, I am reminded that the big financial meltdown began just around the 100th anniversary of its founding, Sept. 16. Some birthday gift. The giant corporation's misery resonates for me because 30 years ago, I completed a biography of its founder, William C. Durant, who was the very antithesis of the GM leadership of recent years.
Back when Robert Gates, who is expected to stay on as secretary of defense under President-elect Barack Obama, got the job, I expressed cynicism. The change from Rumsfeld to Gates, I noted, meant little in the larger scheme of things unless President Bush changed his view of the world and the role of our military in it. And, indeed, the president did not change his view, or his playbook, so on the larger picture, the change to Gates meant nothing.
One of the Bush administration's most egregious environmental sins has been the blatant flouting of a Supreme Court ruling that carbon dioxide, one of the main greenhouse gases that cause global warming, should be regulated as a pollutant under the Clean Air Act.
It was apt in a small way that the first endorser of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state should have been Henry Kissinger. The last time he was nominated for any position of responsibility -- the chairmanship of the 9/11 commission -- he accepted with many florid words about the great honor and responsibility, and then he withdrew when it became clear that he would have to disclose the client list of Kissinger Associates.
Next month marks the 10th anniversary of the extra- alarm blaze that nearly destroyed the vacant historic Pullman Factory and Administration building at 111th and Cottage Grove.
I can't believe the sophistication of America's bankers allowed so many of them to buy up toxic mortgages without filters within their own systems to warn them of such calamity.
Call it "Groundhog Day." On Tuesday, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger released his annual budget. Reporting a deficit of $740 million, this merely confirms earlier rumors streaming out of 118 N. Clark about the dire financial straits the county faces.
On Dec. 1, 1958, the tragic fire at Our Lady of the Angels school in West Humboldt Park shocked the nation and made headlines worldwide. Many Chicagoans still recall with great sadness the events of that day and the lives that were lost. As we approach 50 years since the disaster, our thoughts turn to the families and neighborhood that grieved that tragedy, but also to the outpouring of support that followed from around the world and the determination displayed by our community to rebuild and to overcome.
A year ago, Jack Banas, prosecuting attorney for St. Charles County, Mo., said he would not bring charges against Lori Drew for her role in a MySpace prank that apparently provoked a 13-year-old girl to kill herself. The reason was simple: Although Drew's actions were cruel, childish and irresponsible, she had not broken any laws.
A year ago, when Barack Obama said it was time to turn the page, his campaign declaration seemed to promise a fresh start. I, for one, failed to foresee Obama would turn the page backward.
The conservative movement has always been confident about the power of its ideas. Over the last 40 years, conservative writers have fashioned a narrative of recent American politics that credits conservative ideology for the Republican Party's successes and blames party apostasy for its defeats.
When Michigan Sen. Carl Levin makes statements supporting a bailout for U.S. automakers, he is generally dismissed as a spokesman for his constituents -- Michigan, of course, is ground zero for the Big Three. No state in the union employs more autoworkers.
Free at last. I never thought that I -- a black girl who came of age in the utterly anti-climactic aftermath of the civil rights movement -- would say the phrase with any real sincerity in my lifetime. But ever since Nov. 4, I've been shouting it from every rooftop. I'm not excited for the most obvious reason. Yes, Barack Obama's win was an extraordinary breakthrough and a huge relief, but I don't subscribe to the notion that his capturing the White House represents the end of American racial history. Far from it.
In January of 2009 -- on New Year's Day, to be precise -- it will have been half a century since the brave and bearded ones entered Havana and chased Fulgencio Batista and his cronies (carrying much of the Cuban treasury with them) off the island. Now the chief of the bearded ones is a doddering and trembling figure, who one assumes can only be hanging on in order to be physically present for the 50th birthday of his "revolution." It's of some interest to notice that one of the ways in which he whiles away the time is the self-indulgence of religion, most especially the improbable religion of Russian Orthodoxy.
Whether you like him or hate him, Robert Novak's combination of insider dope, political pronouncements, and glowering TV presence have made him a Washington institution. So the announcement in July that he was suspending his newspaper column because of a brain tumor came as a jolt. What other journalist has been tearing up the town with so much relish for the past 51 years?
One of my favorite Supreme Court cases is Loving vs. Virginia, and not just because it has a name that would delight any novelist. It's because it reminds me, when I'm downhearted, of the truth of the sentiment at the end of "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's brilliant play: "The world only spins forward.">
It has been generations since an American president-elect inherited so many daunting problems -- urgent issues having to do with our nation's security and overall well-being.
Remember when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson warned us that the economy was about to collapse unless Congress immediately authorized him to spend $700 billion on "troubled assets" held by banks? Remember when he said banks would never lend again as long as they remained saddled with these bad investments?
I hadn't thought much about the recent demise of Playgirl magazine until a New York Times obituary gave me reason to grieve. Apparently, Playgirl launched in 1973 as a "feminist response to Playboy and Penthouse." Somehow, that historic moment was overshadowed in my women's studies textbooks by that year's wee little court ruling on reproductive rights. But it is good to now know that, as many celebrated their right to choose, some also rejoiced at their right to sexy pictorials of men with feathered locks, handlebar mustaches, and hair busting cleavage-like from plunging necklines.
In this excerpt from an interview by Salon, Chicago education professor Bill Ayers -- who during the presidential campaign was called a terrorist by Sarah Palin and an acquaintance by Barack Obama -- says Obama probably initially was unaware of his radical past. For the full interview, go to suntimes.com.
Yes, yes, yes. I, too, took pleasure in standing in line and in exchanging pleasantries and greetings with the amazingly courteous staff at my polling station and the many citizens of my delightfully diverse Washington neighborhood. I, too, am still wearing my lapel sticker, with the jaunty words "I Voted."
Oh, Governor? Are you there? You never called me back when I wanted to ask you about all those clemency petitions stacked up on your desk at work. Your people said they would get back to my people -- OK, I don't have "people," but you get the gist.
In Grant Park on election night, Barack Obama was giving his victory speech, and I was 2,000 miles away in Washington state watching him on TV, in tears. I wanted to call my father in Chicago immediately, to hear what he had to say, because Obama's words were virtually the same ones Dad had said a thousand times: "America is a place where all things are possible."
Although Barack Obama's historic election will place an African American in the White House, it will reduce the number of Africa Americans in the Senate to zero.
Whether you blame labor costs or management missteps or the financial meltdown, there is no avoiding the conclusion that Detroit's Big Three automakers are in dire straits. General Motors is on the verge of being forced to declare bankruptcy; the symbolic, political and economic consequences of such an event would be immense.
Amid the fervid speculation over the identity of the next secretary of state or even the next assistant secretary of labor for administration and management, there is a truth that is galling to gossip-mongers -- Barack Obama and his closest advisers know how to keep secrets. We know more about the factors that will dictate the selection of the White House puppy than we do about the reasoning behind the choice of a would-be Treasury secretary.
Last week, voters in Massachusetts approved a ballot initiative that eliminates criminal penalties for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana, replacing them with a $100 civil fine. Michigan, meanwhile, became the 13th state to allow the medical use of cannabis.
Add cardiovascular disease to the long list of diseases and conditions for which vitamins have been touted, and then found to be ineffective. This week's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association contains the paper "Vitamins E and C in the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Men" by Sesso, et al.
On the day after his victory, Barack Obama faced a world in financial crisis, shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a nation that expected him to deliver on all his promises.
The election's over, and you're bored. You're not really elated that your guy won or dismayed that he got crushed -- you just wish you knew what to do with yourself. Over the last few months, you've spent hours each day poring over polls and reading every pundit. Now all that is done, and the Web seems so ... empty. Politico is full of stories about the transition team, and RealClearPolitics is focused on 2012, but it's just not the same.
One of the more inspiring story lines in this election cycle was the large number of people who went to the polls. And one of the driving forces behind that was the large amount of non-news channel coverage of the election.
Dear boomers: We're sorry for rolling our eyes at you all these years. We apologize for scoffing at your earnestness, your lack of self-deprecation, your tendency to take yourselves a little too seriously. We can go ahead and admit now that we grew tired of hearing about the '60s and the peace movement, as if you had to live through those times to understand anything at all.
The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of environmentalists and labor unions, wants the federal government to spend $500 billion over 10 years to "build America's 21st century clean energy economy" and thereby "create more than 5 million high-quality green-collar jobs." Barack Obama says he can accomplish the same goal for only $150 billion, which gives you a sense of how reliable these projections are.
Over the past decade, American children have lined up at malls and on Main Street, dressed as wizards or wearing owlish spectacles, waiting to buy a book. You could see this as the power of the Harry Potter series, or as the enrichment of author J. K. Rowling. But if you take the long view, what you see are millions of inveterate readers being built from the ground up. Some version of this may well have happened during this presidential election season. Analysts have learned to be skeptical of the so-called youth vote, but all signs suggest that this may be the moment when the country begins to create a new cadre of lifelong voters.
In January, a few days before the South Carolina Democratic primary, I went to a Barack Obama rally in Columbia with a Republican friend who had never before seen Obama in action.
