Innehållsförteckning för Feb-23-15 från The Nation

@thenation.com Actions Speak Louder I just read Katha Pollitt’s column “Cuomo’s Words—and Deeds,” [Jan. 26] regarding the late Mario Cuomo. I agree with her completely. As I listened to the last ten minutes of Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State address on January 21, I was, at first, struck by the powerful rhetoric. But as one who has closely followed Mr. Cuomo’s actions, I was left feeling cynical. As with his father, I feel that it’s not the speeches or the delivery, but the actions that matter to me. And each has been found wanting. Pollitt pointed out the prison debacle in which the late Governor Cuomo spent $7 billion of taxpayer money on unneeded, privatized upstate prisons (and increased Ulster County property taxes incredibly). New York State’s poor, then…

Guantánamo Diary is the only written account by a Guantánamo detainee who is still imprisoned there: Mohamedou Ould Slahi. John le Carré calls the book “a vision of hell, beyond Orwell, beyond Kafka: perpetual torture prescribed by the mad doctors in Washington.” We spoke with Slahi’s attorney, Nancy Hollander, and his editor, Larry Siems. —Jon Wiener JW: Who is Mohamedou Slahi, and how did he end up in Gitmo? Larry Siems: Mohamedou is a 44-year-old man from Mauritania. He went to Afghanistan as a young man to join the fight against the communists there. To do that, he trained at an Al Qaeda camp and pledged loyalty to Al Qaeda. He has said repeatedly that he broke all ties with them after the communist government there collapsed in 1992. Nancy…

On page 22 of this issue, Nick Turse flays the new film Last Days in Vietnam for “rehashing tired canards and distorting history.” The Nation has been fighting such distortions since April 30, 1975, the day Saigon fell—or, as Turse writes, was liberated. Two weeks later, Richard Falk—now a member of The Nation’s editorial board—wrote an essay in these pages, titled “Vietnam: The Final Deceptions.” “The spirit of reconciliation requires more than amnesia,” Falk argued. “It requires a vision that transcends the controversies of the past, coupled with integrity about acknowledging how and why the war ended as it did. President Ford and Secretary Kissinger have, up to this very hour, dealt falsely with the last stage of the war in Vietnam. The American people have once again been misled….…

Jeb Bush won the Republican Party’s “establishment primary” in late January when Mitt Romney gave up on the fantasy that the third time’s the charm. Romney may have topped Bush in many polls, but the party’s 2012 nominee was never more than a junior partner in the GOP establishment. Bush is a senior partner, a member of the first family of elite Republicanism. These are economic elites who do not care much about being loved by the party base. But they do care about winning. To that end, the Bushes have for generations put their time and energy into managing the party on behalf of the elites with whom they are aligned. When one Bush finishes campaigning, another begins. Around the Bushes are arrayed longtime donors, energy-industry and Wall Street…

On January 15, a Vanderbilt University law professor published an op-ed in The Tennessean arguing that Islam poses “an absolute danger to us and our children unless it is monitored” and is not “a worthy part of the brotherhood of man.” Two days later, more than 400 students gathered on the university’s Library Lawn to denounce the intolerance of the professor’s message and show that Vanderbilt students and faculty have zero tolerance for such bigotry and disrespect. Vanderbilt provost Susan Wente later issued a statement disaffiliating the views of the university from those of the professor: “We in no way condone or support the views stated in the editorial,” she wrote. “Closely related to this commitment is our support of free speech…. It is in these times more than ever…

ACROSS 1 Sound of organic matter is overwhelming half the population (6,6) 10 Tavern with hint of exotic aroma is at that awkward stage (9) 11 Butler’s vicious threat: withholding bit of alcohol (5) 12 React badly to provision (5) 13 Televised teen drama with risqué religious state (9) 14 Check for visor (4) 15 A pretty fish makes a figure that’s not quite right? (5,5) 19 Oldfangled order: great cocktail (10) 21 Hit friends back (4) 24 Cardinal to kick around a sheep with love (9) 26 Something that sticks like a computer virus? (5) 27 Start to generate late-arriving blanket remorse (5) 28 Fried bacon with maid from Phnom Penh, perhaps (9) 29 Sacred text assembled out of letters from Castile (12) DOWN 2 Atomic region with particle…

Oil is the most valuable commodity in world trade, so any significant change in its price—whether upward or downward—has far-reaching economic conse-quences. Because oil also plays a pivotal role in world politics, such shifts can have equally momentous implications for international relations. It is hardly surprising, then, that the recent plunge in prices has generated headlines around the world. Many giant energy firms have announced massive cutbacks in employment and investment, and major producing countries like Russia and Venezuela have been forced to scale back government expenditures. While some analysts speculate that prices have now reached bottom and will soon begin climbing again, there are good reasons to believe that this descent is not just another cyclical event but rather the product of something far more profound and durable. COMMENT…

“The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has established a research and essay competition in honor of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz hosted by the National Defense University.… Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey said the essay competition is a fitting tribute to the life and leadership of the Saudi Arabian monarch.” —Department of Defense News Dear General Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I understand you’ve set up a competition for the best essay in honor of the recently deceased King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, with whom you really hit it off. “In my job to train and advise his military forces, and in our relationship since, I found the king to be a man of remarkable character and courage,” you write. You’re far from alone…

To be or not to be Charlie? That is the question. It currently divides North and South, Algeria and France, the West and the Levant, the dead and the living, compassion and banality. The contours of the Algerian issue: To be, or not to be, Charlie? It depends on what you read, hear, discuss or see. To be Charlie springs from shock and pity: you don’t kill cartoonists in the name of God or the Prophet. Life is given by this God, and can only be taken away by him, according to the ancient tablets. To be Charlie is to be on the side of life, liberty, humanity and reason. Thou shalt draw but thou shalt not kill. We have already lived through this back home, in ourselves, with ourselves.…