MYRNA PEREZ WENDY WEISER Pérez is counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and the author of the report “Voter Purges.” Weiser is the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center. The Brennan Center is today releasing one of the first systematic examinations of…

During the first presidential debate, Sen. John McCain repeatedly referred to his proposal for a “League of Democracies.” The following analysts have followed this proposal and can assess it: THOMAS CAROTHERS Director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carothers wrote the policy brief “Is a League…

DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker just wrote the piece “Why Bail? The Banks Have a Gun Pointed at Their Head and Are Threatening to Pull the Trigger,” which states: “There is no plausible scenario under which the no-bailout scenario gives us a Great Depression. There is a more…

STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes said today: “It is ironic that the John McCain [campaign] has used the financial crisis as an excuse to call for postponing the foreign policy debate in Oxford, given that the enormous deficit spending resulting…

Protests are planned today around the United States. Among the organizers: Arun Gupta, citizen organizer, New York City Cesar Maxit, FranklinkShelter.org Andrew Boyd, citizen organizer, New York City Matt Holland, TrueMajority.org David Elliot, TrueMajority.org/USAction THOMAS FERGUSON Available for a limited number of interviews, Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.…

The Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP filed a federal lawsuit challenging two statewide voter purge programs in advance of the November 2008 presidential election. BRADLEY HEARD Bradley Heard is a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, which released the following statement:…

SHARON KUFELDT Kufeldt is the vice-president of Veterans for Peace. She said today: “More than 100,000 people reside for a month or longer at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationally. Instead of working hard to enable veterans to register to vote, the VA is obstructing nonpartisan groups who are working to register these people. Even…

Katharine Gun, a former British government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for leaking a U.S. intelligence memo before the invasion of Iraq. The memo indicated that the U.S. had mounted a spying “surge” against U.N. Security Council delegations in early 2003 in an effort to win approval for an Iraq war resolution. The…

EDWARD S. HERMAN Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He said today: “Essentially, the Bush administration plan is Wall Street bailing itself out with taxpayers’ money, after Wall Street had failed to carry out its financial functions with efficiency and integrity, and with the bailout organized…

AP is reporting: “The man behind the Bush administration’s sweeping intervention in the U.S. financial system is a former Goldman Sachs executive who came to Washington two years ago hoping to streamline regulation of the financial services sector.” DORENE ISENBERG Isenberg is chair of the Economics Department at the University of Redlands. She said today:…