Global
AUSTIN, Texas -- It's time to connect the dots. If you think the
government is having a connection problem on the national security side, you
should take a look at the starburst of dots on the economic side for a
really stunning scandal. When you start to connect the dots on the business
side, you will notice that we're being stolen blind.
One of the best interviews I've read in a long time is in the current issue of The Texas Observer with Bill Black, a name that will bring back fond memories for those who followed the S&L scandals closely.
Black is now an assistant professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He is a lawyer, an economist and former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board -- which is to say, the man who went after the S&L crooks. After he left government, he got a Ph.D. in criminology. His greatest claim to fame is that Charles Keating, that noted thief, once wrote a memo to his top lobbyist that said: "Highest priority -- Get Black. GOOD GRIEF -- If you can't get (Jim) Wright and Congress to get Black -- kill him dead -- you ought to retire."
One of the best interviews I've read in a long time is in the current issue of The Texas Observer with Bill Black, a name that will bring back fond memories for those who followed the S&L scandals closely.
Black is now an assistant professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. He is a lawyer, an economist and former litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board -- which is to say, the man who went after the S&L crooks. After he left government, he got a Ph.D. in criminology. His greatest claim to fame is that Charles Keating, that noted thief, once wrote a memo to his top lobbyist that said: "Highest priority -- Get Black. GOOD GRIEF -- If you can't get (Jim) Wright and Congress to get Black -- kill him dead -- you ought to retire."
Are the Greens running against Democrats ... and maybe giving
Republicans the edge? Anyone who thinks we'll have to wait till the
Bush-Gore rematch in 2004 to get into that can of worms had better look at
Minnesota this year. Here's Senator Paul Wellstone bidding for a third term,
with the tiny Democratic majority in the Senate as the stake. Writing in The
Nation, John Nichols sets the bar even higher. "His race," Nichols wrote
tremulously this spring, "is being read as a measure of the potency of
progressive politics in America."
AUSTIN, Texas -- Throwing around words like "fantastic" and
"stupefying" is considered bad form outside the tabloid press. But I'm
damned if I know what else to say about the news that the Bush
administration has decided that global warming is indeed taking place and
they are planning to do exactly nothing about it.
Here we are in the middle of wallowing in this, "What didn't they know and why didn't they know it?" debate -- this maddening, haunting and probably useless exercise in "Why didn't somebody do something?" Sept. 11 left quite a bit of spilt milk on the floor, but even that disaster will pale against the consequences of unchecked global warming. Yet here is the Bush government announcing right here and now that it knows this disaster is coming but it will not do anything to stop it. They will not even do anything to slow it down or soften its impact. What can you call that except fantastically irresponsible?
Here we are in the middle of wallowing in this, "What didn't they know and why didn't they know it?" debate -- this maddening, haunting and probably useless exercise in "Why didn't somebody do something?" Sept. 11 left quite a bit of spilt milk on the floor, but even that disaster will pale against the consequences of unchecked global warming. Yet here is the Bush government announcing right here and now that it knows this disaster is coming but it will not do anything to stop it. They will not even do anything to slow it down or soften its impact. What can you call that except fantastically irresponsible?
Two countries -- each with dozens of atomic bombs -- are
threatening to make war on each other. Large numbers of troops have
mobilized. Deadly cross-border clashes are intense. And people in
charge of both governments have become more bellicose by the day.
Maybe you think this situation calls for U.S. officials and American media outlets to focus on ways of preventing the outbreak of a war that could quickly turn into a nuclear conflagration. If so, your mode of thinking is distinctly out of step with the "war on terrorism."
You see, as the summer of 2002 begins, what matters most is the Pentagon's determination to kill as many Al Qaeda fighters as possible. Some of them are located in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and perhaps also Kashmir, the region that's under bitter dispute by India and Pakistan.
Maybe you think this situation calls for U.S. officials and American media outlets to focus on ways of preventing the outbreak of a war that could quickly turn into a nuclear conflagration. If so, your mode of thinking is distinctly out of step with the "war on terrorism."
You see, as the summer of 2002 begins, what matters most is the Pentagon's determination to kill as many Al Qaeda fighters as possible. Some of them are located in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and perhaps also Kashmir, the region that's under bitter dispute by India and Pakistan.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Those of the populist persuasion are struggling
against what is perhaps the most irresistible of all temptations -- the urge
to say, "I told you so."
It is raining evidence these days. The newspaper business sections are turning into the Daily Fraud Update. Deloitte & Touche is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its role in the unpleasant doings at Adelphia, energy CEOs keep biting the dust -- first at CMS, then at Dynegy -- the Arthur Andersen trial in Houston gets more depressing by the day, and corporate evildoers are suddenly ubiquitous.
It is raining evidence these days. The newspaper business sections are turning into the Daily Fraud Update. Deloitte & Touche is now under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its role in the unpleasant doings at Adelphia, energy CEOs keep biting the dust -- first at CMS, then at Dynegy -- the Arthur Andersen trial in Houston gets more depressing by the day, and corporate evildoers are suddenly ubiquitous.
I always try to sell the Left on optimism because of the Left's
regrettable tendency to think everything's for the worst in the worst of all
possible worlds. We just saw East Timor celebrate independence. As I told a
celebration party put on by East Timor Action Network in Seattle, "Who would
have bet in 1976, that after ghastly suffering and tremendous heroism, East
Timor would, in 2002, be hoisting its flag?"
Let's remember triumphs as well as defeats. I like to remind the younger crowd of some of the less-trumpeted legacies of the Sixties. Better food. Better bread. The visionary radical hippies had a lot to do with that, touting organic food and the grains that now find their way into the health pages of the Sunday papers.
Good coffee was promoted by radicals like my friends and neighbors, the Paffs, who began by roasting beans on their kitchen stove for friends and neighbors and because the local town sold only Folgers. They now run Humboldt's very successful Goldrush Coffee (call 707-629-3460 for mail orders. Right now, Joe says the Dark Sumatra is terrific.)
Let's remember triumphs as well as defeats. I like to remind the younger crowd of some of the less-trumpeted legacies of the Sixties. Better food. Better bread. The visionary radical hippies had a lot to do with that, touting organic food and the grains that now find their way into the health pages of the Sunday papers.
Good coffee was promoted by radicals like my friends and neighbors, the Paffs, who began by roasting beans on their kitchen stove for friends and neighbors and because the local town sold only Folgers. They now run Humboldt's very successful Goldrush Coffee (call 707-629-3460 for mail orders. Right now, Joe says the Dark Sumatra is terrific.)
Todo el tiempo estamos en lucha.
-- Mateo Antonio Rendón, manager of FESACORA, the
Salvadoran organization of agrarian reform
cooperatives
Where does your morning cup of coffee come from? If you can answer that question, you probably already know more about the politics of that beverage than most North Americans who drink it.
El Salvador since the '80s
I traveled to El Salvador in early February with a group of eight other Ohio residents and three Equal Exchange employees to learn how the harvesting and production process worked. Equal Exchange is a 40-employee worker-owned fair trade coffee company in the Boston area that buys directly from democratically-run farmer cooperatives in Latin America and other coffee-producing regions.
Where does your morning cup of coffee come from? If you can answer that question, you probably already know more about the politics of that beverage than most North Americans who drink it.
El Salvador since the '80s
I traveled to El Salvador in early February with a group of eight other Ohio residents and three Equal Exchange employees to learn how the harvesting and production process worked. Equal Exchange is a 40-employee worker-owned fair trade coffee company in the Boston area that buys directly from democratically-run farmer cooperatives in Latin America and other coffee-producing regions.
To: George, Dick and John
Re: Counteracting the Media Evildoers
Damage control efforts are on track after those rough days in mid-May.
First, let's note a silver lining. John's move to prosecute Arthur Andersen pushed Enron off a lot of front pages, and the recent media commotion about "advance warnings" has helped too. However, complacency would be unwise. For instance, George's mash letters to Ken Lay are posted on Internet sites. Reporters could get tired of the raw meat thrown from the Andersen case. Fortunately, they're more like kitty-cats than lions.
To facilitate the purring, stroke as desired. Do what works. Avoid foot in mouth. Friendly pundits will float trial-balloon excuses. What doesn't get shot down is worth repeating.
Dick, you've been magnificent on the Sunday shows. That grim Edgar Bergen look is a knockout -- just don't tell anyone George is your Charlie McCarthy. (Joke.) The main thing is, stay on message. Change the subject whenever necessary. At this point, do FDR one better: The only thing to fear is not enough fear.
Re: Counteracting the Media Evildoers
Damage control efforts are on track after those rough days in mid-May.
First, let's note a silver lining. John's move to prosecute Arthur Andersen pushed Enron off a lot of front pages, and the recent media commotion about "advance warnings" has helped too. However, complacency would be unwise. For instance, George's mash letters to Ken Lay are posted on Internet sites. Reporters could get tired of the raw meat thrown from the Andersen case. Fortunately, they're more like kitty-cats than lions.
To facilitate the purring, stroke as desired. Do what works. Avoid foot in mouth. Friendly pundits will float trial-balloon excuses. What doesn't get shot down is worth repeating.
Dick, you've been magnificent on the Sunday shows. That grim Edgar Bergen look is a knockout -- just don't tell anyone George is your Charlie McCarthy. (Joke.) The main thing is, stay on message. Change the subject whenever necessary. At this point, do FDR one better: The only thing to fear is not enough fear.
Parable No. 1: The Propane Valve Crisis
In California and other states across this great nation, we have been confronting deadlines on new propane bottle valves. I speak of the mostly 5-gallon propane gas bottles soon to be seen in trailer parks, on RV's, Webber BBQ's, boats, back porches and street kitchens. You name it, and there's probably a 5-gallon propane bottle around somewhere.
I recently came across a vivid illustration of the passion aroused by this crisis in Butte County, in the Chico area of Northern California. The local propane distributor told my host, Jeff Howell, that he 'd been physically attacked twice in the past four weeks by angered denizens of trailer parks.
Why was he attacked?
In California and other states across this great nation, we have been confronting deadlines on new propane bottle valves. I speak of the mostly 5-gallon propane gas bottles soon to be seen in trailer parks, on RV's, Webber BBQ's, boats, back porches and street kitchens. You name it, and there's probably a 5-gallon propane bottle around somewhere.
I recently came across a vivid illustration of the passion aroused by this crisis in Butte County, in the Chico area of Northern California. The local propane distributor told my host, Jeff Howell, that he 'd been physically attacked twice in the past four weeks by angered denizens of trailer parks.
Why was he attacked?
AUSTIN, Texas -- The financial industry has always been anathema
to populists. "Bankers all have hearts like caraway seeds," is one of the
mildest populist pronouncements on the breed, and the pugnacious populist
William Brann used to denounce life insurance companies as "vampire bats."
So I thought it was just me when reading the financial pages caused me to
wonder, "Is there anybody in this business who is not a crook?"
I don't think it's just me.
"Republicans lead by Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and the accounting industry's trade group are working to kill a Democratic measure that would impose new rules on auditors, companies and investment banks in the wake of Enron's collapse," reports The New York Times. That would be the same Phil Gramm who got $101,350 in contributions from Enron and $927,055 from the financial industry while chairman of the banking committee. (By way of contrast, the late Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, a populist, accepted no contributions from the financial industry while serving as chair of the House banking committee.)
I don't think it's just me.
"Republicans lead by Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas and the accounting industry's trade group are working to kill a Democratic measure that would impose new rules on auditors, companies and investment banks in the wake of Enron's collapse," reports The New York Times. That would be the same Phil Gramm who got $101,350 in contributions from Enron and $927,055 from the financial industry while chairman of the banking committee. (By way of contrast, the late Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas, a populist, accepted no contributions from the financial industry while serving as chair of the House banking committee.)