Tali Yahalom
Recently by Tali Yahalom
Nov 2 2009, 4:18PM
Clinton Historian Seeks To Dispel "Cartoon Images"
The Clinton Tapes, a 720-page chronicle of eight years worth of candid, once-secret conversations between oral historian Taylor Branch and former President Bill Clinton, travels familiar terrain of the Clinton years, touching on military initiatives (the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo), international diplomacy (Clinton's friendship with the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) and titillating anecdotes (Russian President Boris Yeltsin once ended up in his underwear, drunk, on Pennsylvania Avenue).
Before embarking on this 17-year-long project, Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Luther King Jr.'s three-volume biography, had denounced politics after growing disenchanted as a campaign volunteer during the 1972 McGovern campaign -- for which he, incidentally, worked closely with Clinton in Texas. But weeks after Clinton won the presidency in November 1992, the then president-elect summoned Branch to a clandestine dinner at Katherine Graham's house and asked him to be the official historian of the eight years that were yet to come. I met Branch last Monday night at Politics and Prose, where we talked about his no-holds-barred approach to the relatively controversial project -- Clinton kept these cassettes in the back of his sock drawers for fear of his own aides finding out and leaking them to the media. A slightly edited transcript of our conversation follows:
Before embarking on this 17-year-long project, Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Martin Luther King Jr.'s three-volume biography, had denounced politics after growing disenchanted as a campaign volunteer during the 1972 McGovern campaign -- for which he, incidentally, worked closely with Clinton in Texas. But weeks after Clinton won the presidency in November 1992, the then president-elect summoned Branch to a clandestine dinner at Katherine Graham's house and asked him to be the official historian of the eight years that were yet to come. I met Branch last Monday night at Politics and Prose, where we talked about his no-holds-barred approach to the relatively controversial project -- Clinton kept these cassettes in the back of his sock drawers for fear of his own aides finding out and leaking them to the media. A slightly edited transcript of our conversation follows:
Oct 9 2009, 11:34AM
Too Much Information, Not Enough Common Sense
A new Oklahoma law will require the details of every abortion to be posted on a public website.
Mothers -- or would-be mothers, rather -- will be prompted to answer 37 questions that range from her marital status and race to how many times she's ever been pregnant. One question asks for the woman's reason to abort, offering "relationship problems" as a possible check-off box, and it's difficult to ignore the judgmental and disapproving tone.
The website, which will cost $200,000 per year to implement, is intended to prevent or decrease the number of abortions in Oklahoma, but the bill has already raised considerable debate, attracting opposition from the Center For Reproductive Rights and former Oklahoma Representative Wanda Jo Stapleton, among others. This questionnaire not only forces doctors into an uncomfortable predicament -- failure to disclose this information would result in "criminal sanctions and loss of medical license," as Salon's Lynn Harris reports -- but, put simply, it shames women. "They're really just trying to frighten women out of having abortions," Kery Parks, director of external affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, told Harris. Indeed, in a small town, probing details would easily identify the woman with a proverbial scarlet A.
Mothers -- or would-be mothers, rather -- will be prompted to answer 37 questions that range from her marital status and race to how many times she's ever been pregnant. One question asks for the woman's reason to abort, offering "relationship problems" as a possible check-off box, and it's difficult to ignore the judgmental and disapproving tone.
The website, which will cost $200,000 per year to implement, is intended to prevent or decrease the number of abortions in Oklahoma, but the bill has already raised considerable debate, attracting opposition from the Center For Reproductive Rights and former Oklahoma Representative Wanda Jo Stapleton, among others. This questionnaire not only forces doctors into an uncomfortable predicament -- failure to disclose this information would result in "criminal sanctions and loss of medical license," as Salon's Lynn Harris reports -- but, put simply, it shames women. "They're really just trying to frighten women out of having abortions," Kery Parks, director of external affairs at Planned Parenthood of Central Oklahoma, told Harris. Indeed, in a small town, probing details would easily identify the woman with a proverbial scarlet A.
Aug 25 2009, 11:28AM
Clinton Chooses People.com For Africa Op-Ed
Hillary Clinton's most recent column details the 11-day trip she spent traveling across Africa. The piece evocatively details the Secretary of State's impressions of Congolese rape victims and outlines her efforts to spread U.S. aid to these women. It's 858 words worth reading, that is, if you can avoid clicking on the adjacent photos of Zac Efron in a bathing suit or Nicole Richie's baby blog.
The column was published exclusively on People.com last Friday, a conspicuous rejection of the op-ed pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post, more popular choices for executive branch opinion pieces.
The column was published exclusively on People.com last Friday, a conspicuous rejection of the op-ed pages of the New York Times or the Washington Post, more popular choices for executive branch opinion pieces.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.