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Lyndon Johnson

Lyndon Johnson, His National Security Advisor and His Secretary of Defense Say All

Norman Lear | Posted 11.23.2009 | World

Read More: Obama Afghanistan, Johnson Tapes, Vietnam Tapes, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Moyers Journal, Johnson Vietnam, Bill Moyers, World News
Norman Lear

Was the Vietnam War an act of prescience, or simply a prelude to today? You decide. The first 1000 people who respond to this blog will receive a free DVD copy of last Friday's PBS show, Bill Moyers Journal.

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Bill Moyers Plays LBJ Tapes, Draws Similarities With Obama And Afghanistan War

Posted 11.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Pbs, Lbj, Bill Moyers Journal, Vietnam War, Lyndon Johnson, President Johnson, Barack Obama, Afghanistan War, Bill Moyers, Politics News

On Friday night, Bill Moyers played clips from the Lyndon B. Johnson tapes on his PBS television show. Moyers drew correlations between the factors f...

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Health Care Reform Struggle Will Not End This Year

Chris Weigant | Posted 11.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Social Security, President Obama, Ronald Reagan, Compromise, Democratic, Obama, Reform, Ama, Republican, Reagan, Call to Action, 1935, Johnson, New Deal, Democrat, Congress, Conservative, Medicaid, Democrats, Barack Obama, Fdr, Socialized Medicine, Progressive, Chris Weigant, Health, Great Society, Medicare, Lbj, Republicans, Lyndon Johnson, Healthcare Reform, Third Rail, Senate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Healthcare, Roosevelt, Politics News
Chris Weigant

No matter what healthcare bill passes, it is not going to remain static. It is going to be revisited again and again over the next few decades. That's how lawmaking works.

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Hold the Hofstadter: Why the GOP Is Winning 2010

John R. Bohrer | Posted 11.12.2009 | Politics

Read More: Michael Steele, Unemployment Rate, New Deal, 2010 Elections, The Death of Conservatism, Mike Pence, Tea Parties, Gross Domestic Product, Democrats, Barack Obama, Everett Carll Ladd, Richard Hofstadter, 2010, Unemployment, Lyndon B. Johnson, Great Society, Gdp, Lyndon Johnson, Republicans, Tea Party, Republican Party, One Year Later, Sam Tanenhaus, Politics News
John R. Bohrer

Over the last few months, a number of prominent political columnists have pointed to historian and social critic Richard Hofstadter to explain what is happening to the Republican Party. Here's why they shouldn't.

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The "Goldilocks Principle" and Afghan War Options

Joseph A. Palermo | Posted 11.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: John McCain, George Ball, George Kahin, Rand Corporation, Afghanistan Occupation, President Barack Obama, Juan Cole, Lindsey Graham, The Nation, Peter Baker, Afghanistan War, William Polk, American War in Afghanistan, Nato, American Military Forces, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Goldilocks Principle, William Westmoreland, Richard Nixon, Vietnam War, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, New York Times, General Stanley McChrystal, Joe Lieberman, Afghanistan, Lyndon Johnson, Undersecretary of State George Ball, Helene Cooper, Robert Dryfuss, Vietnamization, Politics News
Joseph A. Palermo

General McChrystal's recommendation for more troops and material has a distinctly Westmorelandian flavor to it. If approved, it could create an additional $40 to$80 billion per annum in war costs.

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Dem Leaders in 1965: "Filibuster Threat Is Too Daunting -- So Let's Just Drop This Civil Rights Crap"

Martin Lewis | Posted 11.10.2009 | Politics

Read More: Profiles-in-Cowardice, John McCain, Fear, Civil Rights Movement, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, President Obama, Filibuster-Proof Majority, Filibuster, President Johnson, Democratic Party, Barack Obama, Civil Rights, Lbj, Democratic Majority, Lyndon B. Johnson, Health Care Reform, Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Health Care, Politics News
Martin Lewis

It's March 16, 1965. We have a Democratic President. We have large Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate. It's long been part of the progressive and liberal platform...

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What Obama Is Up Against

Russ Baker | Posted 11.04.2009 | Politics

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Central Intelligence Agency, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Military Industrial Complex, Harry Truman, President Obama, George W. Bush, Obama, Bob Woodward, Bush Administration Torture, Robert Gates, George H.W. Bush, Richard Nixon, National Security, Gerald Ford, Nancy Pelosi, Congressional Oversight, Fdr, Hamid Karzai, Bill Clinton, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Afghanistan War, Iraq War, Bush Administration, Dwight Eisenhower, Cia, Military Spending, Stanley McChrystal, Jimmy Carter, Prescott Bush, Allen Dulles, Lyndon Johnson, Iraq, Torture, Politics News
Russ Baker

We Americans harbor a quaint belief that a new president takes charge of a government that eagerly awaits his next command. But that's not how things work at the top, especially where "national security" is concerned.

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Keeping Afghanistan Safe from Democracy

Robert Scheer | Posted 11.04.2009 | World

Read More: Robert Scheer, Insurgency, David Axelrod, Lyndon Johnson, Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, Al-Qaida, Vietnam, Democracy, Hamid Karzai, Stanley McChrystal, Soviet Union, World News
Robert Scheer

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

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The Kennedy Assassination: New Details About the Transfer of Power

Steven M. Gillon | Posted 11.03.2009 | Books

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Politics, Lbj, Vice President, Warren Commission, Kennedy, Kennedy Dead, Kennedy Assassination, Jackie Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Jfk, President, JFK Assassination, Books News
Steven M. Gillon

Exactly when did doctors give up their efforts to save Kennedy's life? And when did Lyndon Johnson learn that JFK was dead?

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A New Wrinkle in the JFK Assassination Story

Steven M. Gillon | Posted 10.30.2009 | Books

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Kennedy Assassination, Lyndon Johnson, Dallas, Books News
Steven M. Gillon

A recently declassified oral history by Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, President Kennedy's military aide on the Dallas trip, sheds new light on the critical hours after the shooting.

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Obama Should Tear Up Matthew Hoh's Afghan War Resignation Letter

Earl Ofari Hutchinson | Posted 10.27.2009 | World

Read More: Pentagon, Polls, Matthew Hoh, Afghanistan War, Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Bush, Truman, President Obama, World News
Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Matthew Hoh told Obama exactly what he needs to hear about Afghanistan: that the war is a failed, flawed, no-win war. That it's a sinkhole for billions of tax dollars and a death trap for US troops.

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Getting the Vietnam Analogy Right in Afghanistan

Leon T. Hadar | Posted 10.21.2009 | World

Read More: Nazi Germany, President Obama, Lebanon, Iran, Hitler, China, History, Muslim, Saudi Arabia, Nato, Vietnam War, John Kennedy, Chechnya, Munich, Analogies, Czechoslovakia, Syria, Xinjiang, West Germany, South Vietnam, Hamas, Soviet Union, Hizbollah, Afghanistan War, Al Quaeda, Kashmir, Shiites, Iraq War, Communism, North VIetnam, Taliban, India, Lyndon Johnson, Cuba, Ospolitik, Detente, World News
Leon T. Hadar

The ghosts of the Vietnam War seem to be hanging around the White House Situation Room as President Obama and his national security aides debate a new strategy for the war in Afghanistan.

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Wall Street Is More of a Threat to Obama's Domestic Agenda than Afghanistan

Joseph A. Palermo | Posted 10.20.2009 | World

Read More: Matt Taibbi, Bill Clinton, Pecora Commission, Treasury Department, Sec, Joseph P. Kennedy, President Barack Obama, Cdos, Collateralized Debt Obligations, Larry Summers, Federal Reserve, Credit Default Swaps, Newt Gingrich, Fdr, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street, Vietnam, Tim Geithner, Vice President Dick Cheney, Afghanistan, Timothy Geithner, Bear Stearns, Lyndon Johnson, Alan Greenspan, Securities and Exchange Commission, Too Big to Fail, President George W. Bush, Blue Dog Democrats, World News
Joseph A. Palermo

Whatever Obama decides to do in Afghanistan is of little consequence compared to Wall Street's ongoing "plutonomy."

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Health 'Opt-Out': Brilliant Maneuver or Crippling Compromise?

RJ Eskow | Posted 10.09.2009 | Politics

Read More: Health Insurance Monopolies, Nate Silver, Public Option, Sherrod Brown, Medicare, Lbj, Opt-Out, Lyndon Johnson, Chuck Schumer, Health Reform, Politics News
RJ Eskow

The opt-out is a hard blow to the public option, and potentially a crippling one. When a solution sounds too good to be true -- we can compromise and still get everything we want! -- it probably is.

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Because Bipartisanship Is Dead Until 2011: A Defense of Senate Moderates

John R. Bohrer | Posted 10.01.2009 | Politics

Read More: Ronald Reagan, Earl Warren, John Tower, Senate Republicans, 1964, Moderate Democrats, Joe Biden, Dscc, Bipartisan, 2011, Barack Obama, Thomas Kuchel, Economic Stimulus Package, 2010, Moderates, Bob Menendez, Joseph Alsop, 1965, Orrin Hatch, Bipartisanship, Lbj, Lyndon Johnson, Republicans, Barry Goldwater, Health Care, Politics News
John R. Bohrer

The GOP cannot even claim credit for bringing the bills to the middle of the road -- the Democrats are hogging all of it. And that is a good thing, despite what some may think.

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New Rule: If America Can't Get it Together, We Lose the Bald Eagle

Bill Maher | Posted 09.25.2009 | Comedy

Read More: Supreme Court, Wall Street, Ondemand, Jon Cryer, Cap-and-Trade, Washington, Max Baucus, Youtube, Medicare, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lyndon Johnson, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ground Zero, Fdr, Bill Maher New Rule, Real Time With Bill Maher, Bill Maher, Comedy News
Bill Maher

If America can't get its act together, it must lose the bald eagle as our symbol and replace it with the YouTube video of the puppy that can't get up. As long as we're pathetic, we might as well act like it's cute.

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The Time The President Didn't Intervene

John R. Bohrer | Posted 09.25.2009 | New York

Read More: John v. Lindsay, Liberal Party, Robert F. Wagner Jr., David Paterson, New York Politics, Hubert H. Humphrey, Barack Obama, New York, Robert F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Obama Paterson, Lyndon B. Johnson, New York Mayor, 1965, Lbj, Lyndon Johnson, Newsweek, John Lindsay, Robert Kennedy, New York News
John R. Bohrer

In the first year of his first elected term, Lyndon Johnson made the presidency look easy. Landmark bills on education, health care and civil rights were flying through Congress. But he stayed out of New York politics.

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To Succeed, Obama Needs to Channel His Inner LBJ

Steven Hill | Posted 11.21.2009 | Politics

Read More: Lbj, Senate, Barack Obama, Olympia Snow, Harry Reid, Ben Nelson, Lyndon Johnson, Max Baucus, Health Care, Politics News
Steven Hill

When it comes to Obama lining up votes from recalcitrant members of his own party, LBJ's brawling, Southern style of trench politics is the one best suited for the current health care reform challenge.

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Taylor Branch To Reveal "The Clinton Tapes"

GQ | Wil S. Hylton | Posted 11.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, 1964 Civil Rights Bill, Monica Lewinsky, Hillary Rodham Clinton, George W. Bush, Martin Luther King Jr., George Mcgovern, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, Vietnam War, Whitewater, Taylor Branch, Katherine Graham, Lyndon Johnson, Politics News

It has been nearly forty years since three young Democratic activists named Bill Clinton, Hillary Rodham, and Taylor Branch moved into a small apartme...

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Robinson: Obama Should Just Ignore "Spoiled First Graders" In GOP

Washington Post | Eugene Robinson | Posted 11.11.2009 | Politics

Read More: Watergate, Louie Gohmert, Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, President Obama, Blue Dogs, Obama Health Care Speech, Bipartisanship, Lyndon Johnson, House Republicans, Eric Cantor, Politics News

Anyone who watched Wednesday night as President Obama explained his health-care reform proposals to Congress saw a chief executive making what sounded...

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Weeping for the Kennedys

Reese Schonfeld | Posted 10.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: President John F. Kennedy, Ayatollah, Boss Hague, Ronald Reagan, Chappaquiddick, Dick Cheny, Donald Rumsfeld, Teddy Kennedy, Iran, Democrats, Tammany Hall, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Honey Fitz, Senator Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Al Smith, Lyndon Johnson, Nikita Krushchev, Berlin Wall, Jfk, Sam Leibowitz, Bobby Kennedy, Republicans, Politics News
Reese Schonfeld

The Kennedys knew how to strive for noble causes, step by step. They would make deals, but only to benefit the best causes.

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When Will GOP Leaders Denounce the Pyromaniacs?

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 10.18.2009 | Politics

Read More: 1960s, Faux News, Rightwing Extremists, Lady Bird Johnson, Fox News, Kennedy Assassination, Glenn Beck, Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Republican Party, Barack Obama, John Birch Society, Obama Assassination Threat, Extremism, Politics News
Robert S. McElvaine

The parallels between the hate speech of the early 1960s and today are numerous and disturbing. But there are also important differences. So, where does the Republican leadership stand on playing with matches?

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Why Democrats Are Losing on Health Care

Thomas Frank | Posted 10.18.2009 | Home

Read More: Epidemics, Lyndon Johnson, E Coli, Barack Obama, New Deal, Swine Flu, Health Care Reform, Wall Street Journal, Society, Democrats, Health Care, Calvinism, Middle Ages, Uncle Sam, Home News
Thomas Frank

If universal health insurance goes down to defeat, Democrats will have to live with the shame of having been beaten by arguments that a novice debater would have no trouble putting down.

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Obama's Meaningless War

Robert Scheer | Posted 10.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama, Vietnam, Taliban, Lyndon Johnson, Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Communism, Obama War in Afghanistan, War in Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Politics News
Robert Scheer

Meaningless is the right term for the Afghanistan war, because our bloody attempt to conquer this foreign land has nothing to do with its stated purpose of enhancing our national security.

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It's Time for Barack Obama to Take a Lesson From Lyndon Johnson

Josh Rosenblatt | Posted 10.17.2009 | Politics

Read More: Dad, Lyndon Johnson, Democrats, Health Care, Barack Obama, Birthers, Health Care Debate, LBJ Toughness, Barney Frank, Democrats Health Care, Disappointment in the Democrats, Obamacare, Sarah Palin, Health Care Reform, Democrats Health Care Fight, Politics News
Josh Rosenblatt

Even with right and reason on their side; even with a filibuster-proof majority on their side, the Democrats have again found a way to lay down and cower.

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