Progressive Media Advocates
Joseph Palermo: In U.S.-occupied Iraq, every car bomb, every I.E.D., every suicide bomber, and every sectarian killing that followed that sunny day in May off the San Diego coast made a mockery of Bush’s premature spiking of the proverbial football and brought deserved derision from the rest of the world.
Ed Rampell: In this new play, Donald Freed extrapolates elements from MacBeth and its murderous lust for power, interchanging them with the 2000 presidential election’s Bush v. Gore debacle.
he NRA enemies list posted here has become a hot media topic as the organization and its executive director Wayne LaPierre leap from self-parody into the realm of the truly demented. The right-wing Murdoch-owned New York Post called LaPierre a “loon” on its front page after one of his rants; the centrist Daily News went with “The Craziest Man On Earth”; and [...]
Steve Hochstadt: Imaginary patriotism of right-wing extremists has been translated into a surge in demand for assault weapons, not for hunting or for protection against criminals, but to make war against our government.
Stanley Kutler: Bork inevitably opposed judicial decisions favoring contemporary values and desires, readily attacking judges who found ample constitutional support for ruling on behalf of second-class citizens, whether they wanted to eat at any lunch counter or get an abortion.
Linda Milazzo: In Gaza, because of the hard work and valor of intrepid journalists, we have the horrific photos of dead children and their grieving families that Dershowitz and his cohorts vindictively besmirch.
Charley James: Voters are not becoming better informed and candidates get away with saying almost anything that pops into their heads. It was especially bad this year when Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan simply lied at every chance.
Charley James: We are losing democracy because the GOP and movement conservatives believe, “We’re rich enough. We’re clever enough. And, doggone it, people may not like us but we can do it anyway.”
Rick Broderick: In the case of Mitt Romney, we believe that the candidate has gone a bridge too far in appropriating the Bob Dobbs personality and stylistic attributes,
Stanley Kutler: The New York Times downplays his impact, but we’re desperate for McGovern-like critics of reckless foreign policy
Tina Dupuy: In 50 years, the Republicans have gone from building the middle class with the aid of government to admonishing the middle class for utilizing government.
Michael Sigman: Romney’s recent foreign foray showed an evasive, jingoistic panderer with a tin ear for diplomacy and, worse, a lack of interest in foreign affairs.
Bill Fletcher: Karl Rove was quite correct in pointing out that the Romney road to victory, should it happen, is brought about through a demoralization of the Obama base.
Stanley Kutler: After the myths of journalism, after the president’s men, and even after the president’s “enemies” inevitably fade deeper into the mists of history, we will still have Richard Nixon—to remember or to “kick around.”
Steve Hochstadt: Mainstream Republican politicians say that liberals are ruining the country and hint that they don’t really have the best interests of our country at heart.
Steve Hochstadt: One of the facts of small town American life, which is often held up as the American ideal, is that nasty partisan politics are tempered by the bonds of friendship and the need to get along with your neighbors.
Diane Lefer: Employment-related death, disability, and illness exact a high toll not only on workers and their families, but on business and the economy as a whole.
Brent Budowsky: Ronald Reagan has left the arena; the great conservative voices are gone; the new Nixon will not be enough.
Sharon Kyle: While most Americans are cognizant of the disproportionate representation of Black and Brown men in our prisons, fewer are aware of criminal justice system’s selective enforcement of laws and selective use of penalties which often results in racially biased outcomes.
Devin Griggs: The parties might be reversed and the cultural issues of the 1970s flipped, but American politics since the Nixon-McGovern race has remained fairly fixed and share all of the rhetoric and even less of the substance that once defined American politics.
As we gear up for the long march to November’s election, many of us are struggling with this choice about the Obama campaign, prompting us to launch our LA Progressive survey last Saturday.
Tom Degan: The Republican party has sunk so deep into the ideological cesspool since January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan is starting to look like Theodore Roosevelt!
Sherwood Ross: I think you can take satisfaction knowing that you outperformed the Nixon regime, whose Henry Kissinger once said, “The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little bit longer.”
Berry Craig: The hysteria about Obama, although some of it may be related to philosophical objections to central authority, is largely rooted in race.
Tina Dupuy: Historians agree the best Republican President was also the first: Abraham Lincoln. Who’s second runner up? Which President has represented Republican values best? Easy. President Barack Obama.
Steve Hochstadt: In 2011, the Republican strategy has been crowned with total success. They have managed to make the US government into a laughing stock, a global symbol of incompetence. Public confidence in government is at an all-time low.
Tom Degan: When Hunter Thompson killed himself in the late winter of 2005, I could never bring myself to write about it. Although his greatest work was years behind him I couldn’t bring myself to accept the fact that he was gone forever.
Ken Hughes: Forty years ago this month, President Richard Nixon quietly sold South Vietnam down the river for political gain.
Ivan Eland: Although John Boehner, speaker of the House of Representatives, laudably sent a recent letter to President Barack Obama suggesting the possibility of a violation of the War Powers Resolution in the attack on Libya, he was 90 days too late.
Randy Shaw: Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time—and his political capital—is running out.
Steve Hochstadt: The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s finally made an issue of fathering. If women were going to get out of the house and into the workplace, men had to change their roles, too.
The Frying Pan: A successful mayor and council cannot be satisfied with merely coping as issues arise, but must be able to anticipate and define the city´s needs for the next four years. As our newly elected leaders prepare for their roles, we´ve asked writers to share their thoughts about what lies ahead for Los Angeles.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Labor Must Choose Between Occupy and the Democrats
Shamus Cooke: The labor movement has a foot in both worlds; one in step with the Occupy Movement and the other with the Democrats, who are working to crush Occupy outright.