The administration's efforts to avert retaliation by bin Laden's supporters was probably just canceled out this morning when it was reported the commander of the SEAL unit embellished the mission's communications with: "For God and Country."
If the Republicans have their way and privatize Medicare, it will put millions of seniors at the mercy of health insurance companies and force them to pay $39 trillion more for Medicare coverage than they would under existing law.
It is perversely ironic that the same week we finally got our man in Pakistan, we learned that 90% of those on the Terror Watch List since 2005 have successfully purchased guns.
Obama does what they only dream of doing and all he gets is a week off from having to show his driver's license. The president and his people didn't strut about it. That's what makes them different.
The killing of Osama bin Laden may have political benefits for President Obama. But the longer term legitimation of assassination as a practice is risky, and undermines longer term goals of making society more just and more peaceful.
That sucking sound you've been hearing is Republican presidential hopefuls going down the drain. Professional strength Liquid Plumber couldn't help now.
Politicians and industrialists get all dreamy when they use the phrase "clean coal technology," but there's just no getting around the fact that even though its relatively cheap, and relatively plentiful, coal is also relatively dirty to burn.
I try not to dwell on the pain and fear of 9-11, but rather on the fact that my fellow man lived up to the very best of what the human race had to offer that day.
People aren't pointing at the birther issue to rephrase their hatred of the president. They're pointing at the Constitution to hide their xenophobia.
America's legacy to the world is changing. Much of the world is looking at America in wonder, asking how it could have gone so badly wrong, and why it continues to act at odds with its own foundation and all that has served it best in the past.
Can someone make Huckabee and Bachmann grasp how ugly and offensive it is to suggest that mass murder is akin to losing "Second Amendment rights" or paying taxes?
After 9/11, the weird possibility grew in many people's minds that any stranger could be a killer. Now that bin Laden is dead, I hope that feeling is also dead.
These events could be a game changer, not just for Obama's presidency but for U.S. foreign policy as well, or they could become another excuse to keep doing the same thing.
President Obama acted decisively. There wasn't any jingoism going on, no cowboy talk, just a lot of dignity and class. How's that for change you can believe in?
Grief comes in many different flavors, and everyone experiences it differently. So we must understand and accept the myriad reactions to bin Laden's death without judgment, and at least agree that America and the world is a better place without him.
We should not kid ourselves: there is unlikely to be a rosy future for Afghanistan any time soon. The most likely future for the next few years and possibly beyond is some form of a messy stalemate.
The struggle against terrorism will not be won through killing, no matter how many people we assassinate. You don't fight malaria by seeking to kill every mosquito on the planet, but rather by draining the swamps.
We all want to cut taxes. Globalization is nothing more than production looking for a cheaper country to produce. We can cut taxes by eliminating the corporate income tax and replacing it with a 5% value added tax.
Republicans keep telling us we have to "make tough choices," "be responsible" and "take our medicine." But they're all austerity and no prosperity. The budget should make the country stronger.
Robert Reich, 2011.05.03