ALEC Exposed: Sabotaging Healthcare ALEC Exposed: Sabotaging Healthcare
To a former health insurance executive, ALEC's fight against “Obamacare” looks familiar—and straight out of the corporate playbook.
Jul 12, 2011 / Feature / Wendell Potter
ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection ALEC Exposed: The Koch Connection
Untold sums of cash poured into ALEC by Charles and David Koch have been an effective investment in advancing their worldview.
Jul 12, 2011 / Feature / Lisa Graves
ALEC Exposed: Starving Public Schools ALEC Exposed: Starving Public Schools
Aggressively pushing voucher programs, ALEC is calling on states to “transform the system, don't tweak it" in a large-scale assault on public education.
Jul 12, 2011 / Feature / Julie Underwood
ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections ALEC Exposed: Rigging Elections
Looking toward 2012, ALEC is peddling “Voter ID” laws to disenfranchise voters least likely to support their right-wing candidates.
Jul 12, 2011 / Feature / John Nichols
Puzzle No. 3201 Puzzle No. 3201
ACROSS 1 Spin out, as 192 countries take a covetous look back (6) 4 Reps hoot rudely for Jordan, once (8) 9 Fisherman’s rage when taking Lebanon’s premier hostage (6) 10 Libels leaderless residents of Comoros, say (8) 12 Djibouti’s opening lofty type of farm (5) 13 Arab chief invested in offense or protective layer (9) 15 Symbols of power upset Algeria (7) 17 Record niece shattered, blurring the sexes (7) 18 Florida city’s gold to secure Morocco, at last (7) 20 Need to assume Noah’s craft returned for rodent (7) 22 A crazy retrospective: stage located in a Middle Eastern capital—like the 2008 summit of the Arab League (all of whose members are here) (9) 23 First portion in Bahrain: cod with flashy trimmings (5) 25 Shockingly, go in for second slates, e.g. (8) 27 In Qatar, are lyricists found? Seldom (6) 28 Flexible Sudanese ballerina (8) 29 Bush’s backing up in Israel—try Mauritania (6) DOWN 1 It helps make Saudi…(2,3) 2 …chains from ring’s elements (7) 3 Yemen breaking up opponent (5) 5 The actual origins of Operation Iraqi Liberty? (3) 6 Palestine suffering punishments… (9) 7 …from violent settler frame (7) 8 Republican man concealing deception on the rise—and on the rise again (9) 11 Rig up a single Jerusalem artichoke (8) 14 Unstable Emirates getting hotter (8) 15 Called for more supplies, like Yasir’s letters in Syria (9) 16 Kuwait and Somalia, for instance, top Europe at first in spectacular victory (9) 19 Oman, PLO skewered in satire (7) 21 Airmen flying to Tunisia’s capital for clothing (7) 23 Roll all over Libya (5) 24 Egypt in turmoil, like the sun (1-4) 26 Hoisting flag is what we need, in huge amounts (3) ACROSS 1 TRAIN + OF + TH[e] + OUGHT 9 FL + OUNCE 10 G-ELATIN[g] 11 FOOT + BALL + CO + ACH 13 LIB + I DO 15 HA + R(D)TACK (track anag.) 17 anag. 19 hidden 22 BUS ONE’S + DI + SHE’S (bonuses anag.) 25 LO + NG AGO (a gong anag.) 26 2 defs. 27 ate both anag. DOWN 1 TUFT[s] 2 A + LOOF (rev.) 3 NO + NWORD (rev.) 4 “flue buy” 5 H + EGELIAN (lineage anag.) 6 UN + LACED (rev.) 7 2 defs. 8 anag. 12 2 defs. 14 anag. 16 anag. 18 DEN + MARK 20 “yacht Z” 21 MI(SF + I)T 23 rev. 24 2 defs.
Jul 12, 2011 / Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto
Support Child Literacy With Jennifer Egan and Goodreads Support Child Literacy With Jennifer Egan and Goodreads
There's rarely been as enjoyable and community-minded a way to help support children's literacy.
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Peter Rothberg
The Girl From F&B: A Portrait of the New India The Girl From F&B: A Portrait of the New India
Esther studied botany and biochemistry, and ended up serving Cokes to arms dealers in Delhi’s Hotel Shangri-La. She is a station holder, occupied and rootless. Welcome to Ind...
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Siddhartha Deb
Raisin Raisin
I dragged my twelve-year-old cousin to see the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun because the hip-hop mogul and rapping bachelor, Diddy, played the starring role. An aspiring rapper gave my cousin his last name and the occasional child support so I thought the boy would geek to see a pop hero in the flesh as Walter Lee. My wife was newly pregnant, and I was rehearsing, like Diddy swapping fictions, surrendering his manicured thug persona, for a more domestic performance. My cousin mostly yawned throughout the play. Except the moment Walter Lee’s tween son stiffened on stage, as if rapt by the sound of a roulette ball. Scene: no one breathes as Walter Lee vacillates, uncertain of obsequity or rage after Lindner offers to buy the family out of the house they’ve purchased in the all-white suburb. Walter might kneel to accept, but he senses the tension in his son’s gaze. I was thinking, for real though, what would Diddy do? “Get rich or die trying,” 50 Cent tells us. But then my father sang the country lyrics, “Don’t get above your raisin’,” when as a kid I vowed to be a bigger man than him. That oppressive fruit dropped big as a medicine ball in my lap meant to check my ego, and I imagined generations wimpling in succession like the conga marching raisins that sang Marvin’s hit song. Silly, I know. Outside the theater, my cousin told me when Diddy was two, they found his hustler dad draping a steering wheel in Central Park, a bullet in his head. I shared what I knew of dreams deferred and Marvin Gaye. (When asked if he loved his son, Marvin Sr. answered, “Let’s just say I didn’t dislike him.”) Beneath the bling of many billion diodes I walked beside the boy through Times Square as if anticipating a magic curtain that would rise, where only one of us would get to take a bow.
Jul 12, 2011 / Books & the Arts / Gregory Pardlo
Ari Berman: The Public Cares About Jobs, Not the Debt Ceiling Ari Berman: The Public Cares About Jobs, Not the Debt Ceiling
Instead of growing the economy, both political parties have become obsessed with the debt crisis and ignored what the American people really want—jobs.
Jul 12, 2011 / MSNBC