Global

The power to depict history is entangled with the power to create it. George Orwell observed long ago: "Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past." And so it is in 2001, as American media outlets draw conclusions about the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.

For conservative pundits, the two are open-and-shut cases of virtue and depravity; honor and its absence. The Gipper's recent 90th birthday brought an outpouring of tributes from top Republican image-crafters and media commentators, often one and the same. Reagan is now "lauded and embraced not only by the country but by its opinion leaders, its media, its historians and elites," Peggy Noonan rejoiced.

Gore delivers homilies to journalism students in Colombia University, scarcely more than a stone's throw away from where his erstwhile boss is now proposing to establish an office in Harlem, N.Y., on 125th Street. Each has found his appropriate setting: the defeated veep pouring earnest banalities about journalism and politics into the eager ears of ambitious high-fliers already sending their resumes and worthy clips to the New York Times; Clinton, the moral reprobate, fleeing a blizzard of criticism for auctioning a pardon to a billionaire crook by setting up shop among the poorer folk.

Sneering at Bill, the press corps has nothing much to be proud of. How come not a single one of those high-flying, White House-connected newshounds managed to get hold of the sensational fact, finally disclosed a couple of weeks ago, that Bill Clinton and Al Gore hadn't had a significant conversational encounter in a full year? They finally had a melt-down gripe session not long before the recent election. As always, it turns out we know nothing about what really goes on in the White House. George W.

In Africa, 17 million people have already died of AIDS. In developing countries around the world, twice that many are now HIV positive. Such statistics are largely unfathomable. And news accounts rarely explore basic options for halting the deadly momentum.

But during the past several weeks, some major U.S. media outlets have taken bold and valuable steps in coverage of the global fight against AIDS. Mainstream journalists are making headway in reporting on a crucial issue: How can life-saving drugs get to poor people who need them?

Time magazine published a 20-page cover story in its Feb. 12 edition, combining stark photos with text about AIDS and its victims in Africa. "We have no medicines for AIDS," says a South African doctor. "So many hospitals tell them, 'You've got AIDS. We can't help you. Go home and die.'"

Libya's Muammar Qaddafi said before the verdict on the two Libyans that the three Scottish judges had three options: to acquit, resign or commit suicide. In the event, the canny trio took a fourth course, which was to find one Libyan, Abdelbaset al Megrahi, guilty of the murder of 259 passengers on PanAm Flight 103 and 11 residents of Lockerbie in December 1988, and the other, Al Amin Fhimah, innocent.

Qaddafi is now thundering his outrage from Tripoli, Libya, to the gratification of many in the West, but Libya's leader has a point: The evidence the judges used to find Megrahi guilty is entirely circumstantial and extraordinarily weak. It is with good reason that Robert Black, professor of law at the University of Edinburgh and the man who persuaded Qaddafi to release the two Libyans for trial in Holland, denounced the verdict as "astonishing."

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How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, Updated Edition Volume 4, by Dr. Manning Marable, in the South End Press Classics Series

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, a leading text for courses in African-American politics and history, has been central to the education of thousands of political activists since the 1980s, selling more than 30,000 copies in its first edition. In this updated edition, Marable examines developments in the political economy of racism in the United States and assesses shifts in the American political terrain since the first edition was published. Marable has updated all of the tables and charts on African-American poverty, health, employment, education, and spending, as well as other demographics.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Welcome to George W. Bush's world of fuzzy policy thinking. If you find yourself confused, befuddled or confounded by his recent proposals, don't worry about a thing. You understand them perfectly. They just don't make much sense.

Let me see if I can help with some of your questions:

What, you wonder, does drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have to do with solving California's energy crisis? Absolutely nothing, so don't waste time trying to find the connection. Less than 1 percent of California's electricity comes from oil.

Will allowing power plants in California to pollute more help solve the energy crisis there? No, Bush is just misinformed on that point, according to environmentalists, California state officials and energy-industry spokesmen.

Is there anything that the president can do about the California crisis? Yes, he might impose a temporary cap on wholesale electricity prices, but he has already announced that he will not, thus foreclosing (if nothing else) a useful threat.

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil -- The question, from a participant here at the World Social Forum, was polite and understated: "Sometimes, one wonders if the poor political consciousness and the lack of information about the world of the standard American is not one of the problems of the world today. Do you think we all could help in some way to get Americans more aware of the rest of the world?"

The question -- directed at me because I'd just given a speech -- hung in the air while my brain fumbled for a fitting response. Programming decisions by U.S. media executives loom large at home and abroad. A hundred years ago, when Queen Victoria died, the sun never set on the British empire. Today, around the world, the market shares are shimmering for AOL Time Warner, the Walt Disney Co. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

More and more Americans are seeing politicians use government-incurred debt as a vehicle for paying off contributors to political campaigns, raiding the public treasury, undercutting the personal income-tax base, stratifying the nation’s wealth, and, in general, wasting a lot of tax money. These treasury raids are occurring at all levels of government. Examples are:

The Federal Government’s general operating fund has run up a $5.6 trillion debt (U.S. Treasury bonds, bills, and notes). The annual interest cost is now $370 billion. This means that around 25% of one’s federal personal income tax goes to interest. At the same time, interest income to the lenders (bond holders) is tax-free at the state and local levels. (The above figures were obtained from the Budget of the United State Government). As a result of state-wide debt-financing issues passed by voters, Ohio may now sell up to $1 billion in bonds to finance buildings, green projects, etc. While the current level of indebtedness is about 80% of $1 billion, it is expected to reach $1 billion within a few years. Assuming 5% bonds, the annual interest cost, will then be about $52 million.

What else did Bill Clinton do in those final hours of his presidency? Let's see, he gave Teddy Roosevelt the Medal of Honor and boasted in the accompanying speech on Jan. 16 that in 1993 he'd broken with the usual policy of incoming Democratic presidents who would pull the portrait of T.R. off the wall above the mantelpiece in the White House's Roosevelt Room and put up Franklin D. Roosevelt's portrait instead. Then the incoming Republican Commander-in-Chief would reverse the process. Not our Bill. He kept T.R. up on the wall, triangulating right from the start.

On Jan. 16, Bill said it was high time to give T.R. the medal for which he had been recommended right after the charge up San Juan Hill. Exit Bill, enter the new team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, who now has a chance to live up to those fine words of his to the Republicans massed in Philadelphia for their convention last August. Powell told the plump delegates they should not forget the poor and the afflicted.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Now that Texas and George W. Bush have parted company, things are looking up deep in the heart. In fact, a positively astonishing number of good bills actually have a chance of passing this session, and I think we owe it in part to having the Texas record examined so publicly during the campaign. Some of us seem to have been startled by what we learned.

First, the Lege may actually do something about the infamous grandfathered plants. You'll be pleased to learn the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission has issued a report on how much progress in cleaning up air pollution has been made under George W.'s famous "voluntary compliance" program. The total amount of reduced emissions from grandfathered plants attributable to the governor's program is zero.

All our major cities are in danger of losing billions in federal highway funds if we don't move on the air pollution crisis, so the time is nigh.