The Hollywood Liberal

Federal bookstore rebrands itself for policy wonks in and out of Beltway
Book sales are down nationwide, independents are gasping for air, and the future for brick-and-mortar bookstores looks bleak. Government is going green and thrifty.

Obama administration does not support national freeze on foreclosures
The Obama administration does not support a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures at this time, Federal Housing Administration Commissioner David Stevens said Sunday in an e-mail response to questions.

Cable news chatter is changing the electoral landscape
When Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program, he read her some advice from another Fox commentator, Sarah Palin.

As midterms near, Obama works to re-ignite 2008 enthusiasm in Philadelphia
The administration and the Democratic National Committee are betting that rallies like this one will help remind voters of 2008’s off-the-charts enthusiasm and prod them to the polls to vote for Democratic candidates.

Afghanistan AWOL in This Year’s Election
Albert Hunt, Bloomberg
It’s a useful exercise to juxtapose Bob Woodward’s new book on the war in Afghanistan, “Obama’s Wars,” with the agenda discussed in elections across the country.There is a total disconnect: The Woodward book depicts Afghanistan as a quagmire-to-be with no clear and coherent strategy. There are almost 100,000 young American men and women deployed there at an annual cost of $119 billion — almost three times the ultimate cost to taxpayers of the entire Troubled Asset Relief Program to rescue the financial system — and with casualties rising.

The Founders, Wilson, & the Tea Party
Thomas West, New York Times
A growing body of scholars — including John Marini, Charles Kesler, R.J. Pestritto and my colleague Tiffany Miller — finds the origins of today’s liberalism in the Progressive era. Leading intellectuals of that day openly repudiated the principles of the American founding. In that group, Wilson is often highlighted because he was uniquely both a major politician and an academic.Here is Wilson’s description of the Founders’ view in his “New Freedom”: The ideal of government was for every man to be left alone and not interfered with,…

The Shadow Class of 2010
E.J. Dionne, Washington Post
The 2010 election is turning into a class war. The wealthy and the powerful started it. This is a strange development. President Obama, after all, has been working overtime to save capitalism. Wall Street is doing just fine and the rich are getting richer again. The financial reform bill passed by Congress was moderate, not radical.

Tea Party Wants to “Take U.S. Back.” To Where?
Gary Younge, Guardian
The city emerges from the Arizona desert like a sprawling conurbation in search of an environmental impact assessment. Over the last 20 years Tucson's population has grown by 27% as thousands came looking for land, work and retirement. The two major demographic forces here for more than a generation have been those who came to start their lives over and those who came to die.The surrounding desert became a blank canvas for new building. Coachloads of speculators were driven in from California to buy a piece of the real-estate action.