Choices, choices

The American government has been spending a lot of money lately.  The Federal Reserve backed a $29 billion guarantee to help J.P, Morgan Chase buy Bear Steans.  Then the Fed took over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, pledging up to $100 billion per agency.  Most recently, the Fed loaned a cool $85 billion to A.I.G., [...]

DC Field Notes, Day 2

I thought I was good at geometry, and at walking, so it didn’t occur to me that I would have trouble navigating the circles that are littered across DC.  However, the crosswalk lights seem designed to stymie human movement.  To go across a circle, like, for example, Dupont Circle, which I seem to need to [...]

The Power of the Image: Sean Bell

I was reading an article about Sean Bell the other day, on the CBS 2 News website. Accompanying the story was this image:

It’s a pretty ambiguous image. The text says “Police Shooting” at the top, not specifying whether Sean Bell shot the police or was shot by them. He looks sort of [...]

How Quickly We Forget

I had the opportunity to speak at last weekend’s Left Forum (formerly the Socialist Scholars Conference), on a panel called “Doing Independent Reporting: A Tribute to Brad Will.” Given that frame, in preparing my remarks I considered the reporting on Oaxaca, where Brad was killed, and the recent coverage of popular uprisings in Mexico. [...]