The Electric Horizon: Shai Agassi
How through smart business, improving technology and changing public policy, the electric car revolution can commence.

*Related Title: The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones

‘We Can’t Just Do Nothing’
Can a liberal be both opposed to imperialism and devoted to human rights?

*Related Title: Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World, by Samantha Power

The High Price of Cheap Food
Bryan Walsh, who wrote the cover story for the current issue of Time magazine, on the true costs of low-priced food.

*Related Title: The End of Food, by Paul Roberts

Four Years After Katrina
New Orleans is still struggling to recover from the storm.

*Related Title: It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, by Laura Dawn

The Long Quest for Health Care Reform
Sidney Garfield, co-founder of Kaiser Permanente: Who was he? What can we learn from him?

*Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer, by Howard Dean, with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Quotes of the Day: Every morning we point you to the top stories of the day–and the books that supply the best context and background.

Dick Cheney on the federal investigation of CIA interrogations…

“It’s clearly a political move. I mean, there’s no other rationale for why they’re doing this.”

- Former Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking in an interview on Fox News Sunday, criticized the Obama administration’s decision to investigate the abuse of prisoners held by the CIA.

*Related Title: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer

…and on halting Iran’s nuclear program

“I thought that negotiations could not possibly succeed unless the Iranians really believed we were prepared to use military force. And to date, of course, they are still proceeding with their nuclear program and the matter has not yet been resolved.”

- In the same interview Cheney also suggested that he wanted President Bush to authorize a military strike against Iran’s nuclear-weapons program before he left office.

*Related Title: The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, by Andrew J. Bacevich

Climate Legislation

“Progressives and clean-energy types…made a mistake and slacked off. And the other side really kept making its case.”

- Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. The Senate is expected to take up legislation that would cap greenhouse-gas emissions next month, and environmentalists run the risk of losing out to industry in their efforts to shape the final bill.

*Related Title: The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems, by Van Jones

Bank Bailouts

“They are substantially in the money.”

- Guy de Blonay, a fund manager at Henderson New Star in London, commenting on news that taxpayers have begun seeing profits from the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid doled out to large banks last year under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. The government still faces potentially huge long-term losses from other bailouts.

*Related Title: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed

Afghan Elections

“There has been a lot of talk about women’s civic life and political movements, but security comes first.”

- Safia Siddiqui, a legislator from Nangahar province in Afghanistan. Election monitors and women’s activists say a combination of fear, tradition, apathy, and poor planning kept turnout low for women in the Aug. 20 election.

*Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power, by David E. Sanger

A lively exposé of the people responsible for our financial crisis, from Wall Street executives to the politicians who let it happen.

Over the past quarter century, we have lived through the greatest looting of wealth in human history. While billions of dollars streamed into the pockets of a few elites in the corporate and economic class, the vast majority of citizens have lived through a period of falling wages, disappearing pensions, and dwindling bank accounts that led to the personal debt crisis at the root of the current financial meltdown. This “audacity of greed” was legally blessed by the ethos of the “free market,” a phony marketing phrase that covered up the fleecing of the American public.

In The Audacity of Greed, Jonathan Tasini examines the reasons and exposes the people responsible for the looting of America, from the Wall Streeters who funded their lavish lifestyles at the public’s expense to the politicians who stood by and watched it happen. Tasini argues that we need a cultural and philosophical revolution that punctures the fable of market fundamentalism and values the contributions made by ordinary Americans throughout the economy.

Join the Discussion!

Post a comment below to join or start a discussion about The Audacity of Greed.

Click here to learn more about The Audacity of Hope (includes reviews, author interview, and more).

Quotes of the Day: Every morning we point you to the top stories of the day–and the books that supply the best context and background.

Engaging the Muslim World

“To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate.”

- Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has written a searing critique of government efforts at “strategic communication.”

*Related Title: Engaging the Muslim World, by Juan Cole

Middle East Peace Talks

“It will be crucially important that the Palestinian peoples are united among themselves and should be able to carry on these negotiations.”

- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on the need for a Palestinian united front to revive Middle East peace talks. He added that he had high hopes for President Obama’s approach of direct engagement in pushing forward with the peace process.

*Related Title: Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East, by Rashid Khalidi

“A New Vision” to Gulf Coast Reconstruction

“There is a sense of momentum and a desire to get things done.”

- Gov. Bobby Jindal, R-La, on the Obama administration’s efforts to rebuild the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. Obama’s approach has earned high praise from people on both ends of the political spectrum.

*Related Title: It Takes a Nation: How Strangers Became Family in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina, by Laura Dawn

Healthcare Reform

“If you asked me that on Aug. 6, I would have said yes…. But you’re asking me on Aug. 27 and you’ve got the impact of democracy in America. Everybody’s showing up at town meetings.”

- Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which is attempting to draft a bipartisan health care measure, when asked if negotiators can reach a bipartisan deal on healthcare reform in September.

*Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer, by Howard Dean, with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Immigration Reform

“It’s a priority for both me and the president.”

- Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security, when asked whether she thougth a bipartisan immigration-policy overhaul would at some point get through Congress.

*Related Title: The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization, by Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh

Looking Overseas For ‘Healing Of America’
Journalist and author T.R. Reid toured the globe to find out how other industrialized nations provide affordable, effective universal health care.

*Related Title: Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer, by Howard Dean, with Igor Volsky and Faiz Shakir

Chris Mooney’s “Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future”
The author discusses the significance of Pluto’s demotion from planet, the belief that vaccines are linked to autism and the role played by religion.

*Related Title: Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum

Bloggers on the Bus
Examining the American left’s grand reawakening on the World Wide Web.

*Related Title: Bloggers on the Bus: How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press, by Eric Boehlert

Economist Weighs Bernanke Renomination
MIT professor Simon Johnson says that while the Fed chairman must be lauded for his improvisation, his role in the conditions that led to the financial crisis must also be examined.

*Related Title: Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed

By His Own Rules
A commanding biography of Donald Rumsfeld shows the former U.S. secretary of Defense at his most complex — and confounding.

*Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power, by David E. Sanger

“…the boundary of a body is neither a part of the enclosed body nor a part of the surrounding atmosphere.” - Jasper Johns

“1959: The Year Everything Changed” is the latest book from Fred Kaplan, Slate contributor and the author of another PBC pick “The Daydream Believers.” Kaplan covers pivotal events, from Naked Lunch to Vietnam, and their importance in shaping the world as it exists today.

This video is part three in a three part series (part 1, part 2).  Kaplan tells us about the flood tide of freedoms and its affect on the art of that year, particularly about how the blurring between art and life has change the way we live our lives today.

Watch the video on YouTube HD!

[Posted by Paul Gleason]

In 1953 the legendary journalist I.F. Stone was one of the first people to recognize just how dangerous the junior Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, would be. McCarthy had set himself up as a watchman, always on the lookout for Communist subversion. In “Quis Custodiet Custodem?,” Stone asks (following the Roman satirist Juvenal) who will watch the watchmen?

Stone devoted issue after issue of his long-lived political pamphlet, I.F. Stone’s Weekly (selections of which are available in The Best of I.F. Stone), to watching our elected officials. He took a good look at McCarthy’s finances, and this is a taste of what he found:

• $10,000: payment for writing a single pamphlet for the housing company Lustron
• $20,000: a note from the Pepsi-Cola company at a time when McCarthy was chairman of a Senate subcommittee on sugar
• $20,000: amount McCarthy put in a special account for fighting communism; “However,” the report says, “no connection could be established between many of the disbursements from this account and any possible anti-Communist campaign.”
• $10,000: amount McCarthy put into a similar account; removed three weeks later as a loan to a friend speculating in soybeans
• $172,00: deposited in McCarthy’s Washington bank account between 1948 and 1952
• $96,000: amount Ray Kiermas, McCarthy’s administrative assistant, deposited in the account during this same period
• $60,000 and $45,000: amount deposited by McCarthy and Kiermas, respectively, that had “not been identified as to source.”

Quotes of the Day: Every morning we point you to the top stories of the day–and the books that supply the best context and background.

Edward M. Kennedy (1932-2009)

“His fight gave us the opportunity we were denied when his brothers John and Robert were taken from us: the blessing of time to say thank you and goodbye. The outpouring of love, gratitude and fond memories to which we’ve all borne witness is a testament to the way this singular figure in American history touched so many lives.”

- President Obama in an email to supporters marking the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy

Related Title: Why We’re Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, by Eric Alterman

Healthcare and Immigration Reform

“The administration is certain to call for swift action on health care reform as a tribute to Kennedy. But it also should accelerate work on immigration reform in his name.”

- Morton M. Kondracke, a contributing writer to Roll Call.

Related Title: The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization, by Rinku Sen and Fekkak Mamdouh

CIA Detainee Abuse

“Whether criminal prosecutions are ultimately warranted for these individuals remains an open question. But there can be no question that a full investigation is required, and that these officials are equally, if not more, responsible for the C.I.A.’s use of brutality than the interrogators. If we are willing to consider holding to account only those without political power, what is left of the rule of law?”

– David Cole, a Georgetown law professor and author, commenting on Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to appoint a federal prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen abuse cases in which detainees were held by the CIA.

Related Title: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer

Afghan Elections

“I think Afghans have shown very clearly to the Taliban that despite the fear that was created before the election — which was massive, with night letters, threats, attacks — despite all of that they wanted to vote.”

- Nader Nadery, of the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan. Views on the legitimacy of the election are mixed.

Related Title: The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World, by Larry Diamond

Unrest in Iran

“I don’t accuse the leaders of the recent incidents of being affiliated with foreign countries, including the United States and Britain, since the issue has not been proven for me.”

- Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, speaking with a group of university students on Wednesday, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency.

Related Title: The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power, by David E. Sanger

[Posted by Paul Gleason]

During the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the journalist I.F. Stone published a weekly political pamphlet. He was an independent gadfly, puncturing hypocrisies and uncovering secrets. His articles stung McCarthyites and the Kremlin alike. As he put it succinctly, “All governments lie.” It was his job to find the truth.

He was no cynic, though. He believed deeply in the principles of the Constitution, especially the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. His overriding concern, the preservation of liberty, is evident throughout The Best of I.F. Stone. This volume, edited by the journalist Karl Weber, includes dozens of essays, short and long, that display Stone at his querulous best. Below, in a 1955 article titled “Incommensurate Equation: Justice and Security,” Stone enumerates six differences between criminal trials and the loyalty-security hearings of the red scare. The former, he concludes, are perfectly American. The latter are not.

“The matter of proof: A trial deals with something that happened. A loyalty-security hearing deals with something that might happen. When a crime has been committed or attempted, objective proof is possible: a body, a cracked safe, a forged check, witnesses, may all be put in evidence. But when a man is up on loyalty or security charges, nothing has happened. The tribunal is … engaged in an exercise in clairvoyance.”

“How any doubt is resolved: In the trial of a crime, even for the most heinous, such as murder or treason, any reasonable doubt is resolved in favor of the accused. … All this is reversed in loyalty-security cases. To bar a man from a job and label him disloyal because in your opinion he might do something bad in the future is by its nature a decision which resolves the doubt in favor of the State and against the individual. “Security” means to take as few chances as possible, even at the expense of injustice to some people who never have committed a crime and never will.”

“Avoidance: The difference in the two procedures becomes clearer if you ask yourself how you avoid getting into trouble. To avoid arrest and trial for a crime, one has to obey the law. But what does one avoid to keep out of loyalty-security trouble? One has to avoid political activity. … Be careful what books you have in your library and what publications you read. These may be held against you. Safety lies in the abnegation of one’s rights.”

“Standards: Here, too, the difference becomes sharp. There is little doubt as to what is murder, larceny, or espionage. … But what is “subversion” or “un-Americanism”? The latter is an epithet, the former is a wholly relative term. …. What one man sees as subversion, another man sees as progress.”

“The mode of defense: In a criminal trial, the accused is furnished with a bill of particulars. It informs him that the government will allege that a safe was cracked at such and such an address in such and such a city at such and such a time. The accused may then prove he was elsewhere. But anything remotely approaching a bill of particulars is rare in loyalty-security cases. The accused is usually asked to rebut vague charges of Communist sympathy. The task of the defense is to prove a negative.

“Witnesses: In a criminal trial, the accusing witness must be produced in court and subjected to cross-examination. The right to confront one’s accuser is fundamental. … But in loyalty-security cases nothing is more familiar than the submission of allegations from undisclosed informers. The accused has no chance to confront the accuser. Such confrontations in criminal cases often disclose mistaken identity. Cross-examination may uncover perjury. All these safeguards are absent in loyalty-security cases because here again the security of the state, its secrets and informers, is ranked ahead of justice to the individual.”

Following up on yesterday’s post about the way unhealthy “food “(and I use the word expansively) is marketed to kids, here’s some straightforward rules for getting the young ‘uns eating better. They’re taken from The Dinner Diaries: Raising Whole Wheat Kids in a White Bread World, by Betsy Block.

1. Quit the clean-plate club
Never force kids to eat everything on their plate. They need to learn how to listen to their bodies so they know when they’re full. (And if they don’t eat enough and they go to be hungry once or twice as a result, chances are that the next time they’ll remember to eat enough dinner, even if you’re not serving chicken nuggets and fries.

2. Rewrite the kids’ menu
Most kids’ menus are a bummer: fries, dogs, burgers. Try to convince kids to order from the appetizer menu, or else share some of your meal or split an adult entree between siblings. Some restaurants will let you order half-plates from the entree menu.

3. Say no to TV dinners
Watching television while eating can lead to overeating or what’s now known as mindless eating. Don’t allow kids to eat while watching TV, playing, or listening to stories. Unless you have to, that is.