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Early in the process | Nearing the tipping point in the United States? COMMENTARY With Tahrir Square in mind, activist groups and individuals, some of them well known, are planning ongoing, nonviolent protests in Washington, D.C., starting in October. Their goal is to end the war in Afghanistan and work for sharp change in domestic policies. The mainstream media are not seen as friends, exactly. 
Different landlords | Occupying Iraq, State-Department style COMMENTARY Even if the troops do finally leave, will that actually bring the U.S. occupation of Iraq to a close? The former leader of a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team writes that when full responsibility for the U.S. presence in Iraq is officially transferred from the military to State in October, the occupation won't really end at all, there will just be different landlords.
Abandoning the future | Texas as a model for gutting government programs COMMENTARY It will be hard to destroy Medicare and Social Security because they are funded by what are called “dedicated taxes,” the most stable revenue stream. Hard but not impossible, as David Cay Johnston shows, using the example of Texas’s moves to put teachers out of work and diverting dedicated taxes to Formula 1 racing in Austin.
No national interest | The historical argument against intervention in Syria COMMENTARY The country's complicated and messy history offers plenty of cause for the U.S. to stay out of a civil war that has nothing to do with its national interests.
Reporting the endgame | Bagram prison, bigger than Guantanamo, its prisoners in limbo, cries out for some news coverage COMMENTARY Some 1,700 detainees are being held with no charges, no trial, no way to prove their innocence despite a Marine Corps general's 2009 report saying many should be released. In addition, there has been almost no in-depth news coverage of practices that, if widely known, would no doubt add to the call for removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and criticism of the government’s conduct of the war.
The press must sound the alarm | Remember 'too big to fail?' Want to see it again? COMMENTARY Wall Street's sense of entitlement continues. The big banks and brokerages, seeing themselves immune to punishment and abetted by lax regulators, are on the road to another crash, writes Martin Lobel. He proposes this as the new free market rule: Only small businesses have the right to fail.
‘Learn nothing, forget nothing’ | Going to London, and missing the story COMMENTARY| May 145, 2011 President Obama has gotten a lot of coverage on his trip to the UK, but the big story, the lesson the President and the press should be bringing home, is hardly noticed, writes Henry Banta. It’s the unfortunate consequences of slashes in spending and taxes – an austerity program – in the midst of a recession.
What happens next? | If no one covers it, is it a revolution? COMMENTARY Last week Spain was the scene of enormous, continuous demonstrations created, like the Arab Spring, in response to messages on Twitter and Facebook. Called the #SpanishRevolution, the citizen outburst – seeking jobs, more responsive government, and less corruption – has been the largest since the end of the Franco regime in the 1970s. But the traditional news media did their best to ignore it, until it became overwhelming.
Pushing Ayn Rand | FSU: For Sale University? COMMENTARY The Charles Koch Foundation added strings to an endowment at Florida State University, asking for and getting veto power on the hiring of teachers. That sounds like typical Koch brothers behavior. But why did the university accede?
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