Mark Naison: Are parents and their children doomed to ten years of torture introduced in the name of “restoring national competitiveness,” “preparing young people for the job market” and “weeding out bad teachers?”
Hanging with Netanyahu at AIPAC
By
Carl Bloice: The AIPAC weekend turned out to be a disappointment for Cheney and the other homegrown U.S. political opportunists and reckless supporters of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu and his rightwing Likud party.
War Nation: Military Keynesianism’s Iron Grip on Washington
By
John R. Moffett: Our world-spanning military, paid for by American taxpayers, serves the interests of defense contractors and the government officials that funnel the money to them but it does not serve the American taxpayer.
Turning the Tide: An Historian’s View of School Reform
By
Mark Naison: Over time, people of courage and integrity will turn the tide and begin to restore sanity to educational discourse and develop a powerful alliance of teachers, parents and students, supported first by the Occupy movement, and later by unions, religious organizations and progressive politicians.
The Coup Against Sovereignty
By
Ed Rampel: The history of the Hawaiian holocaust begins in 1778 with Cook’s voyages, his death at Kealakekua Bay, and the British reprisal. Protestant missionaries from New England arrived in 1820, filling a cultural vacuum created by the breaking of the pre-contact religion’s Kapu system in 1819.
Uncle Sam Making Wrong Choices
By
Norman Solomon: Only government has the capacity to provide economic remedies for social distress of this magnitude. But government is failing.
President Obama’s Osawatomie, Kansas Stemwinder
By
President Barack Obama: I believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share, and when everyone plays by the same rules.
Looking Beyond Election Day
By
Robert Reich: Political elites are worried about thunder on the right and the left, but they show scant understanding of what these growing anti-establishment forces signify. Meanwhile, the nation drifts.
Stop the Austerity Train Wreck!
By
Robert Reich: Agreement or not, Washington is on the road to making budget cuts that will slow the economy, increase unemployment, and impose additional hardship on millions of Americans.
“Bipartisan” Plotters Targeting Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid
By
Carl Bloice: Several Democrats said during the day that the presentation had the support of a majority of the six Democrats on the panel, leaving the impression that at least one, and possibly two, of the party’s lawmakers had not signed on — possibly Becerra and Clyburn.
Trigger Deficit Cuts When Unemployment Drops to 5 Percent
By
Robert Reich: So the best of all worlds is to have a big jobs plan now, and also commit to automatic cuts triggered when unemployment falls to 5 percent.
Bloomberg to Treasury
By
Brent Budowsky: Naming Bloomberg Treasury secretary would be a bold move by Obama to seek a post-partisan truce against gridlock in Washington and to escalate an urgent bid to create jobs, revitalize housing and revive the economy.
Occupy Wall Street’s “Gullible” and “Unsophisticated” Protesters
By
Joseph Palermo: Prosperity never “trickles down.” And people are finally catching on. The housing bubble went too far. It destroyed too many lives and livelihoods to go unquestioned and unpunished, as Wall Street (and Washington) would like it.
Rick Perry’s Secret Plan to Save Blue States from the Red States
By
Robert Reich: Of all the nonsense Texas Governor Rick Perry spews about states’ rights and the tenth amendment, his dumbest is the notion that states should go it alone.
Panama’s Response on Behalf of Vietnamese Agent Orange Victims
By
James Rhodes: Washington continues to recruit young men and women under the mantra “we support our troops.” That may be true, but America does not support its VETERANS!
Anti-Teacher Union “Reformers” Hoisted on Own Petard
By
Randy Shaw: After years of teachers union bashing and corporate-led school “reform” efforts, anti-public school forces are now on the defensive. And the main reason is that the statistical measurements do not support their arguments, and even show a pattern of falsification.
Washington Farmers Fear Economic Impact of National E-Verify Bill
By
Seth Hoy: Much like farmers in Georgia who are experiencing labor shortages due to HB 87—the state’s new immigration law which mandates use of E-Verify—growers in Washington state fear that a similar, national E-Verify bill will have a devastating economic impact on the state’s agricultural workforce.
Blacks and Obama
By
Sharon Kyle: Even though blacks in America are suffering more than most during this economic crisis, they are least likely to complain that the Obama administration policies are not benefiting them.
Ex-PM Says Taliban Offer Talks For Pullout Date
By
Gareth Porter: The Taliban leadership is ready to negotiate peace with the United States right now if Washington indicates its willingness to provide a timetable for complete withdrawal, according to a former Afghan prime minister
Washington vs. America
By
Brent Budowsky: Washington is an island drowning in its own self-interest, surrounded by a hurting and unhappy nation of deeply patriotic citizens who hunger for shared national purpose but find our politics to be sickening, insulting and corrupted.
Vicious Cycles: Why Washington Is About to Make the Jobs Crisis Worse
By
Robert Reich: The only way out of the vicious economic cycle is for government to adopt an expansionary fiscal policy — spending more in the short term in order to make up for the shortfall in consumer demand.
It Takes Strength to Compromise — and It Costs Less, Too
By
Tanya Acker: There is a lot of discussion these days about the detriments of compromise. When you compromise, for instance, certain people may claim you don’t stick to your guns and decide not to vote for you.
As Harry Reid Battles, Democrats Must Not Surrender
By
Brent Budowsky: When the full truth is told about the secret deals that will define the fiscal future of America and the fate of programs at the heart of the Democratic Party heritage, it will be clear that Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is the most important leader in Washington carrying the torch, against great odds, for what true Democrats stand for.
Why Mitch McConnell Will Win the Day
By
Robert Reich: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s compromise on the debt ceiling is a win for the President disguised as a win for Republicans. But it really just kicks the can down the road past the 2012 election – which is what almost every sane politician in Washington wants to happen in any event.
Stronger Words from the White House? Hold the Euphoria
By
Carl Bloice: The country really does need a deal right now; that’s as in ‘New Deal.” There are a lot of people, groups and new movements out there proposing that we come up with one.
“Victory” Is the Verbal Equivalent of a Yeti
By
Tom Engelhardt: If you haven’t joined the all-volunteer military, any of our seventeen intelligence outfits, the Pentagon, the weapons companies and hire-a-gun corporations associated with it, or some other part of the National Security Complex, America’s distant wars go on largely without you (at least until the bills come due).
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments