Book Review: Change We Can (Had Better) Believe In (2008)

Posted on February 7, 2014 by Brian Wright

Barack Obama’s plan to renew America’s promise (via Stalinism)
by Barack Obama’s campaign people
Reviewed by Brian Wright

Originally posted on Coffee Coaster 12/22/2008. Someone inclined to favor Democrats over Republicans in general recommended this book to me before the election, saying it provides a “really detailed, incredibly well-thought-out plan of what Barack Obama will do if he wins the presidency—of course with the consent of Congress, consistent with the Constitution, and only if the money exists. That last proviso—if the money exists—is the thin red-ink line I’m hanging my personal hopes on for this administration. Because, omigosh, if the Obamanon[1] executes even half of the objectives outlined in Change We Can Believe In, everyone in the country will need to volunteer their life savings. Continue reading →

Guest Column: Lawless Roads

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Brian Wright

America’s everexpanding torture matrix
Chris Floyd

“How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answer that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.”
— Henry David Thoreau

In two brief posts over the past week, Scott Horton at Harper’s gives us a harrowing sketch of the entrenchment and ever-spreading expansion of the Torture Matrix that now sits enthroned at the very heart of the American state. This entrenchment and expansion has been carried out — enthusiastically, energetically, relentlessly — by the current president of the United States: a progressive Democrat and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Continue reading →