Best Newspaper in America

As I sat waiting for my train, I realized I had the New York Times from yesterday in my backpack. What a great way to kill some time.
by Charlie Leck

What a great read the NY Times was this morning (even though it was yesterday’s paper). I read a half-dozen good pieces in half-an-hour and it felt like I’d had a civilized conversation with someone with patience and a willingness to make sure I understood. (I’ll give you links where I can.)

David Brooks, not exactly on the left and not often complimentary of Democrats, had nothing but good things to say about President Obama’s foreign policy (Where Obama Shines).

“It won’t help him win many votes this year, but it should be noted that Barack Obama has been a good foreign policy president. He, Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary Hillary Clinton and the rest of his team have created a style of policy making that is flexible, incremental and well adapted to the specific circumstances of this moment.”

Brooks goes on to generally heap praise on the way Obama has carefully measured situations and not shot from the hip.

I’ve written the same thing about Obama here and I remain extremely impressed with the work of Secretary of State Clinton. The woman is danged good.

Paul Krugman had a good column called “The Pathos of the Plutocrat.” My wife has been arguing for some time that we’ve become a plutocracy in America. Krugman says we’re close. He builds his column off of an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

Krugman does a good job of explaining why the candidate, Mitt Romney, doesn’t get it about the American economy. Most of the rich, he says, don’t fit this quick, little estimate by Fitzgerald; however, Krugman seems to think that Romney does.

“Clearly, Mr. Romney believed that he could run for president while remaining safe inside the plutocratic bubble and is both shocked and angry at the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him. Fitzgerald again, about the very rich: ‘They think, deep down, that they are better than we are.’”

Let’s see those tax returns, Mr. Romney! Let’s see them!

Mark Edmundson wrote a good column about “the trouble with online education.” It boils down to this… “Internet courses are monologues. True learning is a dialogue.”

I guess Edmundson is correct, but I’ve had a lot of fun taking some of those online Yale University Courses and now Stanford is putting a wad of their courses online for us to take a look at – FREE!

An editorial needles the Republicans for not being able to understand a Democrat threat to hold the Congress hostage until the current tax cuts run out and taxes all go up. Democrats are willing to postpone this little deadline if Republicans will only agree to allow taxes to rise for the wealthy. The editorial says that the Democrats might be learning about power games from the Republicans themselves.

But what hit me the hardest were a number of letters castigating the Boy Scouts of America for their position that disallows gays to be scouts. One short letter really nailed it.

“Alas, gay boys who want to wear uniforms and engage in all sorts of outdoor activities will have to wait until they can join the military.” [Kathy Heggemeier, Portsmouth VA]

A front page story covered a number of the legal challenges that are arising over the current voter identity laws that so many states are passing. The piece was written by Ethan Bronner and I’m sure you can find it if you google both his name and “voter id.”

I’ve written here about my opposition to voter id laws. They’re a phony attempt by Republicans to disenfranchise the very, very poor. Republicans simply want to control the nation and they don’t care how they do it. Voter fraud is a really minor problem in America – a very miniscule one at the worst. They’re bad asses, these Republicans in control right now! [Read my blog about the Voter I.D. movement and Poll Taxes.]

There are some really good newspapers in America, like the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, but the best newspaper in America is, hands-down, the New York Times.

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P.S. On his blog, former Minnesota Governor, Arne Carlson, says Jeb Bush would be the best man for the V.P. slot for the Republicans. Arne is probably correct, but I don't think Jeb wants to dirty his hands with the current Republican Party. If he can stay active, and Obama wins in November, Jeb could be a possible leading candidate in 2016. Really! The GOP needs someone with common sense and a more moderate approach to bring old Republicans back in the fold.

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