The Cancer in the Democratic Party
In February of this year, Chris Hedges penned an influential article, The Cancer in Occupy, in which he exposed and condemned the activities of the “Black Bloc” of violence-loving extremists who have weakened, divided and discredited the Occupy Movement.* There’s a comparable cancer in the Democratic Party: corporatist Democrats who ally themselves with Republicans on…
We're the government, and we built all these
Without government, we’d still be hunter-gatherers. True, the government is often corrupted so as to server the few, but the solution isn’t to follow Grover Norquist and the Tea Partiers and drown government in the bathtub. The solution is to fix government so that it serves everyone. What’s government good for? Let’s remind ourselves…
Where's Howard Dean? We need progressive political leaders
What happened to Howard Dean?  He served as chairman of the DNC from 2005 to 2009. According to the wikipedia article about him, “He currently holds neither elected office nor official position in the Democratic party.” You’d think that Dean would play a leading role on the progressive Left, alongside Alan Grayson, Dennis Kucinich, Bernie…
Look what the bastards did to our country!
Some people think there’s too much partisanship. They think we need to be politer and more accommodating to people of “conservative” political persuasion. No way! Look what the bastards did to our country! At the end of the Clinton Presidency, we were at peace and the US government was running surpluses. After eight years of…
Seattle’s sick leave policy a good step
On July Fourth, we here in Washington actually got to appreciate a little bit of summer … finally. August delivered some hot weather that our friends back East would have easily claimed as a respite from their humidity and heat. Now we have this great weather, with the air cooling off and beautiful blue skies….
US Prison System is a monster
Brave New Foundation reports: Our prison system is a beast, gobbling resources that should be going to communities. Watch this video to find out why. Then get involved at http://beyondbars.org. This video was done in partnership with the ACLU, Equal Justice Initiative, All of Us or None, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, NAACP, A…
Not so cool trick
This is largely correct. In addition to the tax cuts, there are also wars to pay for, and mismanagement and corruption. As Frank Thomas says in his 2008 book “The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule,” Republicans don’t want government to work, so they intentionally mismanage and corrupt it. In other words, perhaps the country IS…
All tactics diminish in effectivness with continued use
I got to thinking about an old piece of Saul Alinsky advice after reading the article cited below. Alinsky said that if you were sitting in at corporate offices and started running into comfortable chairs and snacks set out for the protesters, it was time to switch to a new tactic. Lots of other examples….