Those of you who have followed MillersTime/The Outer Loop know that I’ve reserved this part of MillersTime for my thoughts and for articles by others on issues that face our country (and sometimes the world beyond the US).  When I do post here, it is my hope that these articles truly inform and are not meant to compete with the news cycle or the current ‘Inside the Beltway’ political view of the moment or what is ‘politically correct or incorrect.’

That said, I’ve also stated clearly from the beginning of MillersTime that I was (and continue to be) hopeful that Barack Obama would be ‘the real deal,’ would be a terrific president.

This morning I read the article by James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly which I have embedded below. It is, I believe, the best thing I’ve read to date on Obama and his presidency.

It is long and will take you minimally 30 minutes to read. Know that I don’t encourage you to spend that amount of time very often.

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Bill Moyers is back.

He is two weeks into his new show, Moyers & Company, and it is quite similar to his previous shows. He takes one or two guests for an hour and let’s them discuss what is happening in our society, in our system of government and politics.

I’ve embedded his second show below. It’s 56.47 minutes in length. He lets his guests (David Stockman and Gretchen Morgenson) talk. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are spared, as the show lays out how we have arrived at a system that is not so much broken as it is ‘fixed.’

If you’ve got the time and are interested in trying to understand what is happening in our political and governmental system, click on the link below. (Disclaimer: I didn’t know, until I watched it, that at the very end he suggests folks go to an interview with Ellen Miller).

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If you spend much time at all on the Internet, you no doubt have seen something about the controversy over these two bills that are in Congress.

Proponents of SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) say the legislation is needed to preserve copyright infringement and to stop illegal downloading and other forms of web piracy.

Opponents say these laws, if enacted, could end the Internet as we know it.

Hyperbole?

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I know it’s pretty much ‘accepted wisdom’ that the last year has not been a particularly good one for our country.  As is too often the case, what seems to grab media (broadly defined) attention tends to be more problem oriented, more negative stories than positive ones.

But I came across the following blog post where writer Andrew Sullivan steps back a bit and sees 2011 in a much more positive light.

Check it out, including the second YouTube link, and see what you think.

Click Here

Comments, respectfully made, are always welcome.

Well now that 122,138 Iowans have settled everything (or not?), now that we have been told why winning is losing (or is it losing is winning?), and now that all the pundits have told us why they were really right (or not?), we can sit back and wait for the next round, NH in a week, then SC two days later (or not?).

In the meantime, here is an article that doesn’t pretend to know everything but points to three issues that “could affect the outcome of the election, even though they have nothing to do with the campaigns themselves.”

• A surge in voting restrictions,

• The rise of super PAC spending, and

• The media’s obsession with false equivalence

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, writing in the Washington Post yesterday pointed to these three factors as being key to understanding this campaign and this election and “to seeing just how far we have to go to reclaim a democracy that is driven by the people themselves.”

Click Here to read the entire, short article.

Linked here are two articles having to do with what is occurring in our country which I believe are worthy of your time. Both were printed in the current (Nov. 28) issue of New York Magazine.

The first one is by conservative writer David Frum, a former economic speech writer for President George W. Bush, a former contributing editor to the National Review, and the author of six books. Here he writes about a Republican Party he doesn’t recognize and one he fears is self destructing.

“When Did the GOP Lose Touch with Reality,” by David Frum – - Click Here

The second link is the latest article by Frank Rich. He draws some parallels between John Kennedy and Barack Obama, not ones that you might expect but ones having to do with the climate of hate both have encountered.

“How Obama’s Presidency Mirrors JFK’s, by Frank Rich — Click Here

And as always, please feel free to comment on one or both.

For those of you who have followed MillersTime’s The Outer Loop blog, you know that episodically I post or link to articles and speeches that I believe help us understand what is happening in our country.

Once again I turn to Bill Moyers for his insights. This time it is a speech he gave in October 2011 celebrating the 40th anniversary of Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen organization.

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MillersTime readers hopefully know by now that I often post articles or links to articles that I believe advance a debate, help our understanding of what is going on in our country and the world beyond, or pieces that I just think deserve wider circulation.

Today I post Frank Rich’s recent article in New York Magazine. Rich left the NY Times this year because he indicated he wanted more time to think about what he was writing as well as the opportunity to write longer articles.

While the current media and various constituencies are jockeying to put their spin on what is taking place with OWS and the Tea Party, Rich takes a step back and looks at an historical context for what is now occurring, and, in the process, I think, adds good perspective.

Click Here

Feel free to add your comment below.

For the past 30+ years, ever since my wife Ellen became the Director of Center for Responsive Politics and the good Larry Makinson taught all of us how to follow the money in Congress with his Open Secrets work, I’ve been aware of and followed the role of money in politics.

I thought I pretty much knew the most of it. But this morning I read an article by Thomas Ferguson (The Price of Power: Congressional Leadership Positions for Sale to the Highest Bidder) that even made me wince and included information that Ellen says she didn’t know and Larry never told me.

And so I link to this article for those of you who want to understand just why Congress is and will continue to be so responsive to those who fund their campaigns.

Click Here

(Note: The article linked to above was first posted at The Washington Spectator.)

Early morning checking of the news (via Twitter) brings word that the owners of the square being occupied in NY (how does someone/a business own a square in NYC?) have asked the city not to clear the demonstrators. And so an impending confrontation seems averted for the moment.

But a larger question: What is Occupy Wall Street really?

Is it just a bunch of middle and upper middle class folks out protesting?

And is it even clear what they are protesting?

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Some of you have probably know of Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark. Some of you may have heard his name. Lots of you probably don’t know him at all.

When you have 25 minutes to devote to a YouTube video, do yourself, me, and the country a favor by listening to what he recently told an audience.

Click on the link below. You won’t be disappointed.

Each of us, All of us – Cory Booker at Zeitgeist Americas 2011

Elizabeth Warren has only been on the campaign trail for a few weeks in her MA run for the Senate against Sen. Scott Brown.  Already, however, she is exciting many Democrats and worrying some Republicans.

If you haven’t heard or read much about her, check out what she said recently:

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(A Lincoln student, also a long time friend and MillersTime reader, emailed the following to me a few days ago — a response to Michael Gerson’s “Failing the Lincoln Test: Obama’s ordinary response to extraordinary challenge,” Washington Post, 9/13/11. Click Here to read Gerson’s article).

from Richard Margolies:

Michael Gerson’s op-ed, 9/13/11, fails the Lincoln vision test. He claims that Obama does not meet our crisis with solutions.   He selectively builds his case and overlooks similarities between these two leaders.

Both Lincoln and Obama responded to fundamental changes facing our nation.  Lincoln saw the country moving to a new manufacturing economy in the 1850s and 1860s.  Obama sees the country moving to a knowledge and service mode of production in the 21^st century.

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The Outer Loop, one of the four blogs at MiillersTime, is a place where I sometimes comment on local, national, and/or international issues and often link to articles that I think are worthy of your attention.

And as I relaunch MillersTime with a new design (but the same old ‘editor’), I bring you two ‘articles’ that I suspect you have not seen.

Both authors are individuals who are new to me.

One is a life long Democrat who calls himself a ‘country doctor,’ and who believes Pres. Obama needs to be challenged for the nomination because he has failed overwhelmingly in what he said he would do. His name is Joe Mason, and he says he will run for the presidency himself in 2012 if Obama does not respond to questions about why he has not done what he promised.

The other is a retiring Congressional staff member who for 28 years worked on budget, defense, and security issues, primarily for Republicans in both the Senate and the House. His name is Mike Lofgren, and he’s leaving the Hill and the party and tells why.  He also is no fan of the Democrats.

I post them together, not because I am trying to be balanced (for those who have followed MillersTime since its inception, you know I was a strong supporter of Obama’s candidacy and hoped he would be a terrific president). I post them both because sometimes the best insights come from within (a party, an organization, a group), and these two pieces clearly do that. Together, they not only describe our current political landscape but also put words to much of what I have been thinking and feeling about why our politics have become so dysfunctional.

When you have the time, I hope you will read Lofgren’s long and well written statement, which was recently published in Truthout.org., and also listen to Mason’s YouTube presentation (approximately 15 minutes). As always, please feel free to add your comment(s), respectfully.

The two ‘articles’:

1. Click Here for YouTube Presentation — Joe Mason for President

2.  Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult

(Photo: Carolyn Tiry / Flickr)