Froma Harrop from Creators Syndicate

Holder Should Do Some Remembering for 09/08/2009

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

America will soon mark the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The replays of burning buildings and piercing screams will bring back jagged memories of that horrific day.

This would be a useful time for U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to rethink his decision to go back over cases of CIA prisoner abuse — and consider the political damage it will cause Demo ...

Updated: Tue Sep 08, 2009

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Health Reform and Illegal Immigration: The Truth for 09/10/2009

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In their tireless efforts to kill health care reform, right-wingers have fanned fears that it would attract illegal aliens. This sideshow is rather twisted because, actually, the reforms would do the opposite. They would help curb illegal immigration.

Start with Canada to see how this works. Canadians have universal coverage, a big immigration program and almost no undocumented workers. ...

Updated: Thu Sep 10, 2009

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'Heads I Win, Tails I'm Bailed Out' for 09/15/2009

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

President Obama was on Wall Street, calling for a new regulatory regime to prevent a financial panic like the one set off a year ago. "We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess that was at the heart of this crisis," he said.

But there are doubters. Far from the granite canyons of southern Manhattan comes sharp criticism about the plans for new re ...

Updated: Tue Sep 15, 2009

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What Americans Really Want Is Health Care Reform for 09/17/2009

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"Obama's Speech Doesn't Turn the Tide," reads an ABC News headline about new poll results on public reaction to the president's address on health care reform. An interesting take, given that the tide doesn't need turning.

The ABC/Washington Post poll found the public evenly divided in being for or against the reform proposals, with the support firming. Democrats should find the ...

Updated: Thu Sep 17, 2009

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Canada and France Also Have Health Care Debates for 09/22/2009

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The debate over what kind of health care system we should have often includes the kinds others have. The programs in Canada and France have received special attention, and so those countries' efforts to fix their own programs should be of interest.

No health care system is set in stone. Whatever emerges from Congress will also be a work in progress.

Start with Canada. Under Canada ...

Updated: Tue Sep 22, 2009

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Lindsay Lohan and the Crash of Fashion for 09/24/2009

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Every time the economy swoons and the racks groan with the weight of unsold women's clothing, purveyors of fashion talk up "investment dressing." Investment dressing entails buying a few well-constructed garments that will endure both physically and stylistically for several years.

Needless to say, the fashion business hates the concept, but it has no choice when customers are ...

Updated: Thu Sep 24, 2009

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Liberals -- Choose Your Friends Wisely for 09/29/2009

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Nearly as unappetizing as the video of ACORN workers explaining how to run a prostitution business, cheat on taxes and import underage streetwalkers from Central America is the presence of Michael Moore's mug on TV screens everywhere.

Having helped throw the 2000 election to George W. Bush — moderate Democrats had to be punished — Moore is now promoting his new movie on the e ...

Updated: Tue Sep 29, 2009

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Fix Health Care Now, Remove Warts Later for 10/01/2009

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

"Rome was not built in a day," Montana Democrat Max Baucus said with resignation after the Senate committee he heads voted to reject a "public option." A government-run health plan that would compete with private insurers' offerings, the public option is a means to curb spiraling health care costs.

It's more than a little weird that something designed to ease the burd ...

Updated: Thu Oct 01, 2009

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We learned that in 1995, when native son Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma City, extinguishing 168 lives. for 10/06/2009

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

THE YEAR "1986" HAS BEEN CHANGED TO "1995." THE FOLLOWING IS THE CORRECTED COLUMN IN ITS ENTIRETY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION. — CREATORS SYNDICATE

FROMA HARROP

RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009, AND THEREAFTER

The Terrorist Within

What you need to know about Michael C. Finton is that he parked a v ...

Updated: Tue Oct 06, 2009

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The Terrorist Within for 10/06/2009

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What you need to know about Michael C. Finton is that he parked a van in front of a federal building in Springfield, Ill., believing it was loaded with explosives. He then twice made cell phone calls that he thought would detonate the bombs.

Finton never made contact with any real al-Qaida operatives, only FBI agents pretending to be such. The creepiest part is that Finton was a fry cook ...

Updated: Tue Oct 06, 2009

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Health Care Reform Helps Every Generation for 10/08/2009

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In terms of health coverage, one date separates the most secure Americans from the least secure: a person's 65th birthday. Age 65 is when one qualifies for Medicare, the government insurance program for the elderly and disabled. It's become a source of intergenerational strife — not so much between the old and young as between the old and the nearly old.

Baby boomers may not welcom ...

Updated: Thu Oct 08, 2009

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Weary of Culinary Spectacle, Spending and Sport for 10/13/2009

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I must be the only "foodie" who didn't love "Julie & Julia," the movie about Julia Child and the office worker she inspired, Julie Powell. Am I allowed?

And even though I grow heirloom beans and patronize local cheese makers, I remain dry-eyed over the imminent closing of Gourmet magazine. Put bluntly, I'm fed up with the transformation of the culinary arts into s ...

Updated: Tue Oct 13, 2009

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Science and the Female Brain for 10/15/2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The recent award of Nobel Prizes in biology and chemistry to three women dredges up Larry Summers' suggestion in 2005 that differences in the female brain may account for the dearth of top women scientists. Now President Obama's economic adviser, Summers was then speechifying as president of Harvard.

Carol Greider, who just won a Nobel for biology, recalls being astounded by the remark. ...

Updated: Thu Oct 15, 2009

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Social Security: Every Politician's Toy? for 10/20/2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Social Security is a glossy piece of paper on which nearly every politician wants to finger-paint an agenda. But Social Security has no need of ornament. It is a very grown-up program. Put some other toy into the political playpen.

Come January, for the first time since 1975, Social Security payments will not be ratcheted upward for inflation. The reason is simple: no inflation.

B ...

Updated: Tue Oct 20, 2009

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Social Security: Every Politician's Toy? for 10/20/2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Come January, for the first time since 1975, Social Security payments will not be ratcheted upward for inflation. The reason is simple: no inflation.

B ...

Updated: Tue Oct 20, 2009

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'America's Best Idea' Meets One of the Worst for 10/22/2009

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Ken Burns series "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" got me thinking about one of America's worst ideas, the war on drugs. Particularly ill-conceived is the crusade against marijuana.

That bad idea is now threatening the good idea, as Mexican drug cartels — hampered by a tighter border — swarm over large swaths of U.S. public land to grow pot. There they d ...

Updated: Thu Oct 22, 2009

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The Phantom of the Option for 10/27/2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The public option, we hear, is about to take earthly form. While congressional leaders working to combine five health care reform bills will determine its final shape, a government-run health plan to compete with the private offerings will almost surely become reality. And the specter of a populist uprising against it will haunt centrist Democrats no more.

It's been quite an ordeal. Seve ...

Updated: Tue Oct 27, 2009

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What Does the FHA Think It Is Doing? for 10/29/2009

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Exactly who made Bernadine Shimon think that she could buy a new house shortly after declaring bankruptcy and losing another home to foreclosure? The American taxpayer, that's who.

Without a Federal Housing Administration willing to guarantee a $125,000-plus mortgage, this Denver-area schoolteacher's recurring "dream of homeownership" could not come to pass. Shimon's down payme ...

Updated: Thu Oct 29, 2009

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The Population Boomerang in Iran for 11/03/2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Iranian students are engaging this week in Round Two of their street-level struggle for reform. Round One took place last June, when young people protested the fixed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

About 30 people died in those huge demonstrations. That was a remarkably low number given the brutal tendencies of the hardliners and the in-your-face challenge of the protestors ...

Updated: Tue Nov 03, 2009

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The Tea-Baggers Were Carpetbaggers for 11/05/2009

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Tea Party wing of the Republican Party had the perfect strategy for upstate New York's 23rd congressional district:

1. Support a candidate who doesn't live in the district — in this case, Conservative Douglas Hoffman. Savage the local Republican choice, Dede Scozzafava, and hound her into dropping out.

2. Condemn the local Republicans who had picked the moderate Scozzafa ...

Updated: Thu Nov 05, 2009

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