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DEPARTMENTS

• Editors' Note
• Masthead
• Contributors
• Backtalk

OUTFRONT
Why Obama should get hip to the Gipper; did the Mafia kneecap Wall Street?; rebooting Washington; you might be a liberal if...; aei hawks hunker down; cruises to float every boat; why Obama might bomb Iran; the other 1600 Pennsylvania Avenues

EXHIBIT
The Waistland
By Kiera Butler
Our national fat fixation, through the thick and thin

PRACTICAL VALUES
Prius Envy
By Kimberly Lisagor
Should you junk your clunker and plunk down for a Prius?

MEDIA JONES
Dennis Cass on the nature of niceness; Muslim punks rock out; plus more book(Dating Jesus, Naughty by Nature), film(Waltz With Bashir, The Order of Myths), and music(Alligator Purse, Noble Beast, Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future, Songs of Leaving) reviews

MoJo Interview
The Maddow Knows
By Clara Jeffery
Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffery talks to Rachel Maddow about comic books, perfect cocktails, and unruly hair.

P.S.
Presidents of the United States
Illustration by Steve Brodner

FEATURES

Stimulus Is for Suckers
Stop worrying about 2009. To really get out of this mess, we need to start thinking about 2029.
By James K. Galbraith

Buying the Bull
Why did 9,000 business reporters blow the biggest story ever to hit their beat?
By Dean Starkman
 

Class Is the New Black
How I had to look past race and learn to love equality
By Debra J. Dickerson

Man With the Plan
Obama's the first president in 50 years to prioritize fighting poverty. Meet the man who showed him how.
By Paul Tough

Dreams From My Father
Chicago Hope: The South side wonders what's next.
Photographs by Jon Lowenstein; Text by Jerald Walker

The People vs. Dick Cheney
Who will throw the book at the Bushies?
By Karen Greenberg

PLUS:  If Congress won't, these folks might.

Listen to the Lionfish
Walking snakeheads, carnivorous snails, and the superpredator from the reef: The invasion has begun.
By Julia Whitty

Cover illustration by Dale Stephanos
(with a nod to the Saturday Evening Post classic New Year's covers)