Harry Shearer


Huffington Post

In Obama's Budget, a Trickle of Money for Louisiana's Disappearing Coast

NEW ORLEANS--I've been rather consistently critical of the Obama Administration's largely MIA stance toward New Orleans, with the singular exception of the appointment of a... ...


Are Tech Solutions the Best Solutions to Terrorism?

NEW ORLEANS--In the wake of the Underpants Bomber, lobbyists for companies that make full-body scanners--including, notably, former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff-have unhesitatingly pushed their products,... ...


Obama to New Orleans: Recover Without Us

In the welter of State of the Union news, this tidbit got to me: the administration is letting the Office of Gulf Coast Recovery quietly... ...


Don't Want to Go Overboard With the Sympathy Thing

NEW ORLEANS--I'm preparing to begin shooting a feature-length documentary on the subject of why, in August 2005, 80% of the city of New Orleans experienced... ...


How To Help in Haiti: the Grass-Roots Version

This relayed by my friend Lolis Elie, reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, who describes Beverly Bell's work in Haiti as "selfless and inspiring": Friends:... ...


The Fantasy Assignment Desk: Where's the Brennan Op-Ed on Iraq?

LONDON--The British have been doing something so deliciously un-American: looking backward. The Chilcot Inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War is back after its... ...


The Dark Prison Gets a Little Spotlight

While the President and the punditocracy alike have no compunctions in talking about Guantanamo Bay, Obama's promise to close it, the missing of the deadline,... ...


Cheney's Game

Dick Cheney certainly isn't spending the first year of his retirement from the vice presidency growing a beard. Instead, he's playing a very clever game,... ...


Airport Security: Everything but Accountability

Now that the reassurance machine has kicked into high gear, with statements from everyone from President Obama to Janet "The System Worked" Napolitano, we're being... ...


To Call Blair Bush's Poodle Is An Insult to Poodles

Something rather interesting is going on in Great Britain these wintry days--an official inquiry, broad-ranging in its declared scope, into the way that country got... ...


You're a Student of History, And I'm Not

For a crystalline example of what's wrong with American journalism, and the American political conversation, at this exact moment, go no farther than Sunday's "60... ...


The Missing Word in Obama's Nobel Speech

The man (and his wordsmiths) can write. President Obama's acceptance speech in Oslo was elegant, nuanced, and intelligent. Faced with accepting a peace prize while... ...


Hey, Tiger, Lack of Privacy Is Part of the Deal

The spectacle of near-celebrities going on Larry King Live to ask for the return of their privacy has been one of the long-running jokes of... ...


Taking the Fall in Crashergate

As the Salahis begin their media tour with an admirable descent into self-described victimhood, we're being treated to an even more familiar spectacle, perhaps.  White... ...


Was the Surge Just a Figleaf?

As the stage is being set for an“AfPak Surge”, it might be time to take a look at Surge 1.0, in the now-forgotten war... ...


"Reality Stars": Sign Us Up Before We Kill Again

This should be the year that made clear the distinction between the publicity-hungry, irremediably ego-needy actual denizens of show business (like myself) and the way... ...


"Signed in Blood"--Tony Blair's Deal With Bush

Now we're getting somewhere, and it's only day three of Britain's inquiry into the origins of the Iraq war, a quaint little enterprise to strip... ...


Britain's Iraq War Inquiry, Day 2

The Guardian sums up the second day of the official Chilcott inquiry into the origins of the Iraq War.  Hm, why can't we have one... ...


The Brits Look Back, We Look At Sarah Palin

The Brits -- backward-looking sort, don't you think? -- have just opened an official inquiry into how that country got into the Iraq War. ...


Why Obama Needs to Weigh In With the Corps of Engineers

Of course, Republicans defended George W. Bush and blamed state and local officials when independent investigations (here and here) pointed to the US Army Corps... ...


The End of a Public-Radio Era

When Ruth Seymour announced earlier this week her retirement as general manager of Santa Monica's pioneering public-radio station, KCRW, it really did mark the end... ...


New Orleans: Where Accountability Failed, Liability Follows

Okay, now it's official, or as official, at least, as the considered ruling of a Federal district judge can make it.  The United States Army... ...


Waste in Your Levee? Don't Blame the Corps

"It's scary," says Tom Jackson, a regional levee commissioner and engineer of the admission by the Army Corps of Engineers that a section of lakefront... ...


The Word Not Spoken: Bagram

When the Fox network staged a special Veterans' Day version of its NFL pre-game show at Bagram AF Base last Sunday, two hours was apparently... ...


Another Letter About Afghanistan the President May Not Be Reading

Following Matthew Hoh's resignation letter comes a missive from William Polk who, like Hoh, finds the only prudent course of action regarding Afghanistan to be a timely removal of troops. ...


Flood Insurance: The Flip Side of Katrina

One of the questions New Orleanians have heard most often from outsiders since the 2005 flood is, "why didn't you all have flood insurance?"  The... ...


Out of the Mouths of Corps Managers...

For anyone who wonders why New Orleanians worry about what the Corps of Engineers is doing in the "rebuilding" of the levee-floodwall system--now renamed the... ...


One Year Along: freehopeandchange.com

It was maybe March of this year that I first said to someone who asked what I thought of the then-new President that he was... ...


New Orleans: The Corps Defends the Future

I'm preparing to make a documentary film on the causes of the flooding of New Orleans, and so I decided to attend one of the community outreach meetings the Corps of Engineers holds. ...


Afghanistan--A Voice for the Choice Obama Has Rejected

In case you haven't noticed, the"debate"about Afghanistan going on inside the White House (thanks for the transparency) has already been decided, and the... ...


Stop the Music...and the Torture

Sam Stein's report that musicians are signing on to a Freedom of Information request for documents relating to the use of music as a torture... ...


An Exercise in Slow-Motion Urgency

Last post on this subject this week, I promise.  The Times-Picayune's Mark Schliefstein reports on the visit of the White House Council on Environmental Quality's... ...


Obama in New Orleans: Been and Gone and Got It Wrong

LONDON--Thanks to WWL-TV, I watched the Obama Town Hall in New Orleans live.  Clearly the people in the room enjoyed being in his presence.  But,... ...


New Orleans: What's Been Done, What's on the To-Do List

LONDON--President Obama is visiting one school in New Orleans today.  That's a symbolic nod in the direction of a major change wrought in the city... ...


Obama's Visits -- Compare the Length of the Stays

President Obama spends four whole hours tomorrow in New Orleans, and then 16 hours in San Francisco. They must have experienced a hell of a federal disaster there. ...


"We're Trying to Get a Real Commitment"

As President Obama prepares for his four-hour visit to New Orleans tomorrow, he could do worse than to call Nancy Sutley, the director of his... ...


Obama in New Orleans--Is That All There Is?

LONDON--The White House has released details of this Thursday's long-awaited (at least by New Orleanians) Presidential visit to the Crescent City.  What he will be... ...


The Afghanistan War: Just Askin'

My, how times have changed.  Remember way back in 2004, when John Kerry denounced the Bush administration for short-changing the Afghan war by diverting men,... ...


New Orleans: Who Calls the Shots?

The good news: one day before the office was to expire, President Obama extended the life of the Gulf Coast Recovery "Czar" (don't tell Glenn... ...


Obama to New Orleans: Hold On, I'm Coming

Like a rock or pop act that makes its audience wait till the encore to hear the Big Hit, President Obama has made New Orleans... ...


Obama's Plate is Not Too Full After All

I found Obama's Olympics lobbying to be the ultimate rebuke to the people of New Orleans regarding his torpor when it comes to remedying the aftermath of the failure of the federal levees four years ago. ...


Help Me, Lindsey

Sen. Lindsey Graham was answering the president on Sunday's Meet the Press, and he had a good talking point. At least he must have thought so, because he kept using it. ...


Remembering Henry Gibson

Henry came on the national scene with a bang as part of "Laugh-In".  Everyone of TV-viewing age at the time remembers "A Poem, by Henry... ...


Recovery: The New Black

Are the green shoots real, or are the government economy-minders taking premature credit to dampen populist anger? Let's hope they aren't simply seeing some dandelions in the lawn and calling it springtime. ...


Playing the Inside Game--A Cautionary Tale

This will be a lengthy post, because the events it describes have unfolded over the last six months. Hang with me, and I assure... ...


Health Care: Two Countries, Two Stories

NEW ORLEANS--Viewed from this city, which lost its main hospital for the indigent and working poor (so-called Big Charity) in the aftermath of the flooding... ...


Torture: How the Good Guys and Bad Guys Handle It

This weekend brought two different statements from representatives of two different governments about the notion of torture being used or condoned by their regimes. ...


The New Orleans Mental Health Crisis, Exposed

Sometimes, journalism consists of "discovering" things that everybody knows--at least, everybody in the affected area--but that have slipped off the national radar screen. Such is... ...


Why The Birthers?

Okay, I admit it, it may be my fault, I've watched Chris Matthews for three straight nights, and each evening he's sent the same question... ...


Lessons Not Learned, Continued--Forget About Disaster Housing From FEMA

If you think of humans as the creatures most capable of learning from past mistakes, the ongoing saga of Hurricane Katrina and the flooding of... ...


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