February 1, 2010 | The Nation

It's time to banish the word "looting" from the media vocabulary in times of disaster.

If Obama's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board are confirmed, the agency could offer workers more protections than the Employee Free Choice Act.

Healthcare is in jeopardy, but it's not dead--especially if Democrats drag their feet on swearing in Brown.

Private firms are jumping at the opportunity to provide 'humanitarian assistance' to Haiti, but what these companies are actually bringing is a 'Shock Doctrine' approach that aims to profit from disaster.

As part of America's progressive folk tradition, The Tillers demonstrate that the left has long been essential to the country's cultural fabric.

The continued portrayal of Haiti as the basket case of the hemisphere without accurate contextualization further wounds the Haitian people and misleads the American public.

A victory by Sebastian Pinera in the Chilean marks a major turning point in the post-Pinochet transition, and a return to power of some of the hardcore rightists who collaborated with the military regime.

How would Dr. King have responded to the
current crises of recession, unemployment, and foreclosure?

The longest continuous nonviolent mobilization in Palestinian history is uniting villagers from all political factions, along with Israeli and international activists, against the encroachments of Israel's separation barrier.

On the FCIC's second day of hearings, witnesses examined how Wall Street incentivized and why the Federal Reserve didn't stop subprime lending.

The federal inquiry hearings inevitably leads to the question: why aren't any these big players already in jail? And no, Bernie Madoff doesn't count.

Had the Supreme Court not kicked video cameras out of the courtroom, the Prop 8 trial may have enabled Americans to see how a controversial court decision is born.

Like the Progressives, Obama seems to believe government can move beyond partisan politics.

As welcome as it was, the removal of George W. Bush was not enough to cure what ails us.

Many progressives thought we had taken back America in 2008, but the work has just begun.

The Nation asked members of our community and beyond: looking back at Obama's first year in office, what was the high point, and what was your sharpest disappointment?

Flight of the Kestral

Washington, D.C.

Martha Coakley's loss in Massachusetts put on display the monumental miscalculations by which Obama has governed.

Here are some ways to cut costs and improve outcomes no matter what happens to healthcare reform in Washington.

Obituaries for the Islamic Republic of Iran are premature.

You can help Haiti; the EPA allows the expansion of a West Virginia mine; the Democratic Party sees ideological fights ahead.

Democrats have tried to act "bipartisan" while Republicans got obstructionist, and the Dems are paying for it.

Why leave your money in big banks that brought the financial system to ruin?

Gordon S. Wood defends Jefferson--again.

In Love, Anger, Madness, Marie Vieux-Chauvet explores the choking fear of life under "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

Gerhard Richter's abstract paintings are miraculously controlled accidents.

Obama's opportunistic search for win-win solutions to our healthcare concerns and our larger economic problems is leading to a lose-lose outcome for the president and the country.

As we observe the third anniversary of Molly Ivins's death, we are ever more the lesser for her loss.

One question comes to mind.

Disappointment is one thing American liberals can be certain of. Optimism is the real challenge.

ACROSS

 1 What chairmen sometimes do together? They tell what time the stars should appear. (10)