Tom Hall: One reason that there has been so little outcry about this complete abandonment of the capitalist ideals of the Reagan years is that there is no longer any press competition in the United States. All the broadcast and cable networks are now owned by about five multinational corporations. And in every major city, the same corporations own all of the television and radio stations and the cable systems. Most cable systems have no competition at all.

Tom Hall: Televangelists, mega-church pastors, and the backers of Proposition Hate go on and on about Reagan’s devotion to traditional family values and the sanctity of marriage. They don’t mention that, as governor of California, Reagan signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act, permitting women to make their own health care decisions. Or that Reagan signed the nation’s first law permitting no-fault divorce.

Tom Hall: Cameron is a closet Republican. While mouthing anti-corporate platitudes, he embraces the “Party of No” stance that all social strife can be solved with more force, less thought, simple sloganeering and appeals to fear and anger. And, like his Republican compatriots, he rakes in the dough with a stirring yarn which evades, rather than deals with, real social problems.

Tom Hall: Progressives do not need to believe in religion to understand that the values that Jesus taught and that Dr. King and Senator Kennedy lived, are beneficial to the world whether or not there is a God or an afterlife.

Now President Obama tells us that the oil wars have cost us $10 trillion. If we believe the most strident Republican critics, just $1 trillion would pay for a decade of real health reform and care for everyone.

The Reds responded to such ridicule with paranoia and increasingly strident attacks, claiming that their opponents were dishonest and morally corrupt. Red governments proclaimed that the moral bankruptcy of non-Red societies would lead inevitably to the collapse of all but the Red states.

Civilization didn’t collapse when traditional Jews had multiple wives in Biblical times or when Moslems had four wives as permitted by the Quran, or when Utah was founded by men with plural wives. Civilization didn’t collapse with the end of legally enforced segregation. And it hasn’t collapsed in the states which allow same-sex marriage.

Senator Jeff Sessions was once nominated to be a judge. He expressed his own brand of empathy tempered by toughness when he said that although he liked the Ku Klux Klan, he turned against any Klansman who smoked marijuana.

I was going to try to write something in a humorous voice about how Darth Limbaugh was directing Emperor Cheney’s imperial storm troopers, dressed as Senators Graham and Boehner, out to savage and malign Sonia …

The Republicans are searching through Judge Sotomayor’s old speeches and party conversations to find trash to dump on her in their talk radio slime sessions. For honest people, it is more important to look …

My first essay for the L.A. Progressive was about Proposition 8 and the lies that self proclaimed Christian activists were telling in order to promote their bigotry. It seems almost ridiculous to catalog the number …

We get to vote, again, on May 19. This time we have a bunch of ballot initiatives that the Republican Party demanded as a condition of reaching a budget “compromise” last winter. The commercial media …

Ronald Reagan was a socialist. I didn’t say it. Bill O’Reilly got permission from Republican Party policy chief Rush Limbaugh to explain, on the air, the economic logic that drives the Republican Party to now …

Last week, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) weighed in to express his outrage at the lack of government control which led to the AIG bailout scandal. This isn’t the first time that Sessions has expressed …

2009 has started badly for honest communications. I’ve watched while President Obama reached “across the aisle” attempting to share the glory of trying to save the U.S. from the Bush Depression, with Republicans. I’ve watched …

How often have we ordered up a few pizzas and a couple of six packs to sat around, focusing our political positions while expanding our waistlines?
Last week, President Obama ate crow as his picks to …

It’s ironic that the Israeli assault on Gaza started just as Defiance was opening in movie theaters around the country. Defiance is the fiction film version of a true story of a group of brothers …

by Tom Hall –
As we lament the horrors in the Gaza Strip, currently playing out on our televisions, we might be well served to reflect on 50 years of Castro’s regime in Cuba, and what …

by Tom Hall –
Do you remember what Scrooge did when he woke after that terrible night with the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and yet to be? He flung open his window and told a …

by Tom Hall –
Amidst all the talk from both conservatives and “progressives” about how President-elect Obama’s cabinet and economic-recovery choices are destroying either the nation or his own commitment to progressive ideas, it might be …

by Tom Hall –

The day after the election, another lawyer in my office asked, “Is this what it felt like in 1960?” When did I get old enough that people think of me when they …

Take a break. It’s been a loooonnnggg campaign. Reading the emails and news articles, checking websites, sending corrections to the smear-watch sites, volunteering at the phone bank, and all those arguments around the office. …

by Tom Hall –
In earlier essays, I talked about how a group of for-profit businessmen was promoting Proposition 8 (Proposition Hate), the anti-gay marriage measure to write bigotry into the California Constitution. I pointed out …

by Tom Hall –
Do you remember Gabby Hayes? He was a fine actor who built a film career playing sidekicks to younger, better looking leads. As sidekick, he provided comic relief, and dramatic motivation for …

At a time when millions of families know that they will be losing their homes to foreclosure, and when hundreds of thousands of people who would like to work to support their families, but can’t …

A recent study of voter fears shows that a large percentage of white, Democratic voters won’t vote for Barack Obama because his is black. The study reprises patterns that have driven race relations in business …

Until August 29, one of the things that defined John McCain was his claim to being a straight-shooter. In his book, Faith of My Fathers, he put this claim into religious context: “Glory belongs to …

I’m writing this in Jamestown, Virginia, on a day trip to see the new archeology work on the colony, which was settled here in 1607. I’m staying in Petersburg, a small city south of Richmond. …

I confess that I have laughed at many of the Sarah Palin jokes in my email this week. But is this what we want our campaign, and our national leadership, to become?

For four days, Democrats reminded us what it is to dream of a better world. The old lion, Ted Kennedy anchored the week, reminding us that Democrats have long championed the dream of a better …

by Tom Hall –
Let us think about activist judges and the liberal media. You know what activist judges are. They are those men who use their judicial offices to impose their will on the …

by Tom Hall –
Truth or Consequences was once a TV game show and a town in New Mexico.
In the real world, there is always truth, and ignoring the truth has terrible consequences. In Vietnam, we …

by Tom Hall –
As we approach the start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, it might be interesting to consider some of the political gymnastics going on here at home.
Of course, George Bush is heading …

By Tom Hall –

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill, last night,
Alive as you and me.
Says I “But Joe you’re ten years dead.”
“I never died says he.”
This old song popped into my head while I …

Remember your history class? In 1620, The Pilgrims left England and set up a colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts, which was supposed to be more Biblically rigorous than the licentious English society they left behind. Their …

The Bible says that Solomon had 700 wives. David had wives too numerous to number. And Gideon had so many one wonders when he had time to practice with his trumpet.
These Biblical characters came to …