Bryan Boone: Hippies

  What happened? A couple of nights ago I was watching an infomercial for Time Life’s Summer of Love CD collection. I watched as Tommy James of Tommy James and the Shondells was describing the summer of 1967 when the beginnings of a counterculture known as the Hippie movement started in a district of San Francisco known as Haight Ashbury. This movement rapidly became a nationwide phenomenon that spread to Canada and Europe before it died down somewhere around the mid 70’s.

  Hippies opposed war, they believed in love, peace, hope and championed music icons like John Lennon, Janice Joplin, Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia; most Hippies were musicians themselves and carried a “make love not war” banner everywhere they went. In August of 1969 an event that has been dubbed by Rolling Stone as “the most famous event in rock history” took place, Woodstock. On a large farm in Bethel, NY an event that had hoped to get at least 50,000 in attendance, culminated in crowds in excess of 500,000 and an event where tickets became irrelevant. The fences to the event were never completed and soon became overrun by people attending; the announcement was made “it’s a free concert now,” as Hippies began to pour in. There was so many of them then, united in their message as well as their loyalty to the planet and the human race.

Michael Linden, Sarah Ayres: Top ten facts you need to know about why we need to raise the federal debt ceiling

  The U.S. Congress this weekend and early next week will hopefully reach a deal to raise the federal debt ceiling before time runs out on August 2. Here are 10 facts that you need to know to understand why we need to raise the federal debt ceiling by then, and why we’re in this mess in the first place.

  1. Failing to raise the debt ceiling will cause a downgrade in the United States’s AAA credit rating, resulting in higher interest rates for American families and businesses. Rating agencies S&P and Moody’s say they will downgrade the United States’s credit rating if the government fails to raise the debt limit by August 2. U.S. creditworthiness keeps interest rates low, easing the burden on consumers and homeowners while allowing businesses to invest. If the debt limit is not raised, American families and small businesses will pay the price in the form of higher interest rates.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Courtroom drama

  The sensational political gambling trial continues to play out in Montgomery. The scene is analogous to a theater production. The show is a blend of Broadway and Hollywood that resembles a movie based on a John Grisham novel.

  As the trial drones on in the Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Federal Courthouse, it is apparent that as predicted it will last at least three months. It began on June 6 and has now been playing for eight weeks. We are only at about intermission. It will probably not close until after Labor Day.

Michael Josephson: I'm not fixing the dent

  Relentless rehashing of Casey Anthony’s trial and her present whereabouts, the ever-widening scandal involving media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Britain’s top cops, and shameless posturing by feuding politicians unwilling to agree on a budget, all make it so hard to pay attention to more important things, like the human dimension of unemployment, the suffering of soldiers maimed and killed in faraway wars, and the ongoing tribulations of victims of forgotten disasters in Haiti and Japan.

Ken Gude: Conservatives once again play politics with U.S. counterterrorism policy

  Once again this week The Washington Post lends its op-ed space to the neverending conservative campaign to weaken U.S. counterterrorism policy.

  This time Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) complain that the Obama administration sent a suspected member of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab to a New York federal court for trial instead of military detention in Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. criminal justice system boasts a long and successful record of prosecuting terrorism cases and obtaining valuable intelligence information. Guantanamo, however, remains a terrorist-recruiting bonanza. Sending an al-Shabaab member there is a terrible idea that would elevate the stature of the terrorist group and draw it more into direct conflict with the United States.

Laurence M. Vance: The Cause of current U.S. deficits and debt

  Except for a brief period of time in 1835 under President Andrew Jackson, the United States has been in debt since the founding of the Republic. The first reported national debt in 1791 was over $75 million. Congress now spends more than that every ten minutes.

  Since the last year of the Bush administration, annual federal deficits have exceeded $1 trillion. The federal budget is fast approaching $4 trillion a year. The national debt will soon exceed $15 trillion — more than our annual GDP.

Gary Palmer: The U.S. isn't broke

  Despite what you have heard from the politicians in Washington and from the hand-wringing media about whether or not to raise the debt limit, the United States is not broke. Our nation has abundant assets; we simply refuse to use them.

  As sensible as the Cut, Cap and Balance Act that just passed the U.S. House of Representatives may be, it should be obvious that with Republicans only in control of the House, there is practically no chance of getting it passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate and signed by the President as part of a deal to raise the debt limit. In fact, the Democrats, along with President Obama, are insisting any legislation that includes spending cuts must also include substantial tax increases to raise federal revenue.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: The Tea Party in 2012

  Next year is a big year in national politics. It is a presidential election year. The candidates are beginning to lineup. They will be testing the waters in early primary and battleground states.

  President Obama will be the Democratic nominee. He can be defeated if the Republicans select a moderate as their nominee. Obama won because of the economy in 2008. The economy is still in the doldrums. Therefore, he could lose. If you live by the economy you will die by the economy.

  Alabama and our sister deep south states have never gotten too excited about presidential politics. It is probably because we have never been a factor. For 84 years, from 1880 to 1964, we voted automatically Democratic. Since 1964 we have voted reliably Republican. Therefore, it is a foregone conclusion that we will vote for the Republican nominee for president.

Ken Paulson: Free speech on the job: Where government isn’t the boss

  There’s not a lot of free speech in most workplaces.

  The First Amendment provides that government cannot limit our speech, but we don’t enjoy the same liberty where we work.

  If you doubt that, you may want to try to petition your boss for a redress of grievances and then organize a march to his office to make your point. Chances are your free speech will end up giving you more free time than you ever intended.

Eric Alterman: The Murdoch empire’s heart of darkness

  Back in April I wrote in The Nation that, journalistically speaking, Rupert Murdoch was “an enabler and purveyor of lies, hatred and criminal activity in the service of his ideological, financial and personal interests. A man like this deserves to be shunned, à la Bernie Madoff or Mel Gibson. That he is celebrated as some sort of hero by people who need not worry about their reputations tells you almost all you need to know about the insanity that grips our benighted political culture.”

  I tried to make the same point upon receiving this year’s Mirror Award for Best Digital Commentary at the Plaza Hotel last month where I argued that to treat Fox News (and other Murdoch properties) as simple, legitimate news organizations was to invite the pollution they introduced into the media ecosystem.