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Well, another Israeli “war” on the Palestinians, another shelling of UN facilities where refugees fled to escape massacre, another round of brazen excuses, another Palestinian government building reduced to rubble, another round of craven U.S. politicians falling all over each other in their rush to defend Israel’s boundless “right to exist” – a right that [...]
It is an understatement to say we are experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis along with our worldwide environmental crisis. Neither crisis needs an Austrian economist to explain it. We live in a consumer society and consumers “use things up.” In recent history, this useless, toxic “stuff” comes from China, and this sad state of affairs [...]
Inauguration Day, 2009 in Washington, DC was grueling but inspiring. The minus 8 degree cold was bone-chilling. The crowd of two million plus was frequently suffocating. The 20,000-officer security cordon was smothering. Yet people endured the discomfort good-naturedly. Neither cold nor crowds nor mile-long detours from blocks of blocked off streets would deter Obama’s faithful [...]
On the heels of the presidential inauguration, Congress is poised to vote on a massive “Economic Recovery” proposal to invest billions in new transportation infrastructure. At a time when roads and bridges across the country are crumbling and public transportation systems are scrambling to keep up with booming demand, Congress is right to recognize the [...]
Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address was not his greatest or most passionate speech, but it was likely his most purposeful. Moving at a faster pace than usual, our new President sought to instill a sense of purpose in Americans, calling for a “new era of responsibility – a recognition, upon the part of every American, that [...]
The inauguration of President Obama signals us to move from voice to leadership. While listening to President Obama’s somber but inspiring inaugural address, I returned to a painful moment in my life. Five years ago, someone had found my father’s unconscious body by the side of a desert highway. Along the short stretch lay his [...]
This is a heckuva hangover. More than just the sun dawned on me on the morning after Obama Day. I realized as I woke up following the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States that I’m not sure how to behave anymore. For eight years I’ve felt like a hostage. [...]
As quietly as it would like to be kept by the Obama team and even by many in the LGBTQ community, Obama exploits the queer community for his political gains. And like pawns on his chessboard, Obama checkmates us each time when our hopes to be included in his big tent are dashed. Our most [...]
Tuesday, January 20th, marks the beginning of Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office. On that day the new President will begin tackling a host of economic problems currently plaguing the nation, including the loss of nearly 2 million jobs in 2008. Obama’s economic team has already formulated a recovery plan to create jobs, over [...]
At the request of President-elect Barack Obama, President George W. Bush convened an awkward meeting of all living former presidents at the White House to meet, and presumably give advice and encouragement to, the new guy. The body language of the participants in the summit photo, taken in the Oval Office, said it all. The [...]
It’s estimated 86,000 workers got fired trying to exercise their legal right to organize a union during the Bush years and signs are Corporate American will fight to keep things that way. “We like driving the car,” Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott says, “and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.” [...]
Class conflict. Political dissent. What it means to be an American. Many people assume these things are incompatible. Throughout America’s history, most U.S. citizens denied the reality of class divisions in their midst, seeing them as either European or somehow related to Soviet communism. And political dissent has not been understood to be central to [...]
At the conclusion of today’s concert for president-elect Barack Obama 89-year-old Pete Seeger joined Bruce Springsteen for a sing-along with perhaps half a million people of Woody Guthrie’s “This Your Land is Your Land,” which I dare say practically everyone in the country knows from childhood. But sly old Pete, who actually hoboed with Woody [...]
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