eorgianne Nienaber: The worst thing the international community can do is to “help them” by propping up Congo’s dysfunctional and incompetent government.
Blaming the Workers: Hostess Without the Mostest
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Jamala Rogers: The historical struggle of workers against companies like Hostess is a testament that we must stay vigilant in our efforts to uphold racial and gender equality and pay equity.
Dem Base Fears Obama Sellout
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Brent Budowsky: Many of those who worked their hearts out and won the last election are increasingly concerned today, a concern that would be ignored at great political peril..
Super-Storm Sandy’s Teachable Moment
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Joseph Palermo: The dominant ideas of any society are those that benefit its ruling elites. Nothing signifies this fact more clearly than the pathetic “debate” we’ve had on global climate change over the last decade or so.
The Polarizing Political Paradox Redux
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Claude Fischer: Political scientists have long established that most Americans cannot reliably identify which specific policies each party supports, that people adopt party loyalties quite early in life, and that most stick to those loyalties whatever happens.
LA Unified’s New Schools Linked to Better Elementary Student Performance
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Kathleen Maclay: Thousands of children moving into new elementary schools over the 2002-2008 construction period enjoyed strong achievement gains that equaled up to 35 additional days of instruction
Want Better Press? Be Better Press
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Stephen Box: Be the story, tell the story, and cultivate a relationship with local journalists so that they call you when they are digging for information
Texas Republican Party’s Shift on Immigration
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Victoria Defranseco Soto: Republicans have also begun to read the demographic handwriting on the wall and through a softened approach to immigration seek to make Texas Democrats extinct.
The Elephant in the Room: Raising the Gas Tax
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Jackie Cornejo: The pot of money that goes towards building and maintaining our roads and bridges has gotten smaller and smaller over the last three decades for several reasons
Fantasies of Male Chivalry Ignore the History of Women in Wartime
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Heather Marie Stur: The debate over women in combat is about gender roles — what is appropriate for men and women to do in wartime. It is also about symbolism — what the American soldier symbolizes about U.S. power and military strength.
Public Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders
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Ellen Brown: When we remove our myopic U.S. blinders, it turns out that globally, not only are publicly-owned banks quite common but that countries with strong public banking sectors generally have strong, stable economies.
Congo: The Horror Crescendos
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Mac Mckinney: In the 1880s, scores of restless, often unsavory Europeans and other adventurers with appetites for quick wealth stumbled into the Congo in response to the colonial call to “civilize” and develop this unknown territory.
Why Occupying Detroit Is Harder Than It Seems
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Rachel Burstein: For many, participating in Occupy Detroit may appear to mean cutting off the hand that feeds them—and failing to address the structural issues underlying Detroit’s poor economic state.
Protests, Not Parades, This Labor Day
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Robert Reich: Labor Day is traditionally a time for picnics and parades. But this year is no picnic for American workers, and a protest march would be more appropriate than a parade.
The Search for War
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Norman Solomon: In times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked about yearning for peace. But the last decade has brought a gradual shift in the rhetorical zeitgeist while a tacit assumption has taken hold — war must go on, one way or another.
Lovely Self-Destruction
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Tom Degan: The pistol finally went off yesterday in the game of Russian roulette that the Republican party has been playing for the last decade. I knew it would happen sooner or later.
Chamber of Commerce Attacks Anti-Corruption Law
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Marian Wang: Even as anger over governmental corruption has exploded into protests across the Middle East, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been working to weaken the law that bans companies from bribing foreign officials.
Reconsidering the Nuclear Power Industry Bailout
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Tracy Emblem: the United States should consider phasing out its nuclear power plants over the next generation and begin investing in other safer renewable energy sources. We can lead the world in clean energy technology.
Racist Groups Online and Off
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Jessie Daniels: The fact is hate groups are growing offline, in person, and face-to-face. The people in these groups then use the Internet to stay connected and reinforce their beliefs and connect with still others who share those beliefs.
The Shift in State of the Atmosphere
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Andrew Glikson: The release to the atmosphere and oceans of hundreds of billions of tons of carbon from fossil biospheres, at the rate of >2 ppm CO2 per year, is
unprecedented in geological history of Earth, excepting events such as asteroid impacts which excavated and vaporized carbon-rich sediments, interfering with the carbon and oxygen cycles, which led to mass extinction of species.
Was This a Great Country or What?
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Tom Degan: Democrats got exactly what they deserved on Election Day 2010. So many of them have spent the last two years running like frightened rats from the legacy of their party.
Playing With God: Terry Jones, Christian Radicalism and 15 Minutes of Fame
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Anthony Samad: Religion without sincerity, reason, or spirituality is not a good look no matter who wears this evil jacket. Evil things happen when people play with God and use political motives to desecrate his word.
Border More Secure than Ever: Now What?
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Michele Waslin: Once again, those who call for “enforcement first” have been put on the spot. Will any amount of enforcement ever be enough to move them to the next step? Will they continue to move the goalposts? Or will they finally recognize that comprehensive immigration reform is ultimately about securing our borders?
A Lopsided Approach to Border Violence Doesn’t Solve Anything
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Seth Hoy: while advocating for the allocation of more money and manpower to “secure the border” may make for good campaigning in an election year, experts find that beefing up the border actually does little to curb border violence. In fact, these “get tough” border initiatives—more troops, fencing and operations that target non-violent border crossers—pull valuable resources away from solving violent crimes.
Too Hard for the White Folks? Americans and the Haitian Revolution
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Jacqueline Bacon. Beneath the surface of Robertson’s remarks there is another underlying assumption, one both racist and ingrained in conventional American lore. In his bizarre and merciless condemnation of the Haitian Revolution, Robertson perpetuates an unfortunately all-too-common historical myth: that black people are incapable of freeing themselves, and must rely on outside forces to “save” them.
War Flames Engulfing Middle East Are Bankrupting US
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Sherwood Ross: By pouring in hundreds of thousands of troops to chase after a few hundred al Qaeda militants, the U.S. is spreading the war to wider and wider areas, and by using aerial assassination tactics, it is turning civilian populations into America haters.a
End of the Era of the Dicks
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Steve Ybarra: This year at age 62, a newborn child entered my life. Now, I may not be around for the blue moon next decade or to watch him get married, have children, graduate from law school, medical school or to become an auto mechanic, but I will resolve this – he will grow up in an America that will not be a country run by Dicks – if I have anything to say about it.
Restructuring the CSU or Wrecking It? What Proposed Changes Mean and What We Can Do About Them
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Throughout this period of unprecedented cuts to the CSU budget, the Chancellor and his administration have failed to confront elected leaders or even to educate the people of California about the costs of political choices made around the California budget.
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Rage Against the Right: John Amato Speaks About Politics & Media
Sylvia Moore: John Amato is frustrated about the state of American politics. But he hasn’t let that frustration bring him down. Instead, for the last decade, Amato has been wielding his sword against the American right-wing machine from his computer.