Reparations

When a Member of Congress wants to push an agenda forward, even one supported by very few other Congress Members, he or she will introduce or sign onto a bill and urge others to do the same.  Almost every Congress Member is willing to do this sort of thing, often on very controversial issues.  But when a Member of Congress wants to oppose an agenda without explaining why, he or she will tell you "I can't sign onto that because we don't have the votes."  In addition to the inconsistency, another problem with this excuse is that there are many examples of Congress finding the necessary votes as a result of a small group of Congress Members pushing an agenda forward.

The other lost war

If you think the war on terrorism is going badly – and our intelligence agencies warn that al Qaeda has reconstituted itself – take a look at the war on drugs.

It has been twenty-five years since Ronald Reagan declared war on drugs. Our prison population has quadrupled since then. A multi-billion dollar prison-industrial complex has sprouted up to house all those sentenced for dealing or using illicit drugs. Instead of building schools, states are building prisons. Billions more has been spent at the borders, and in efforts to eradicate drug cartels from Colombia to Afghanistan. And yet today, experts report that drugs cheaper and more potent than ever are easily available across the country.

In a stunning study for the Chicago Tribune, Darnell Little reports on a drug war that has lost its way. And even as politicians posture tough on drugs and crime, those closer to the effort realize it is time to change strategies. As Tim Evans, chief judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, summarized:

Bush fulfills his grandfather's dream

It's remarkably common for a grandson to take up his grandfather's major project.  This occurred to me when I read recently of Thor Heyerdahl's grandson taking up his mission to cross the Pacific on a raft.  But what really struck me was the BBC story aired on July 23rd documenting President George W. Bush's grandfather's involvement in a 1933 plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist dictatorship.  I knew the story, but had not considered the possibility that the grandson was trying to accomplish what his grandfather had failed to achieve.

Prescott Sheldon Bush (1895 to 1972) attended Yale University and joined the secret society known as Skull and Bones.  Prescott is widely reported to have stolen the skull of Native American leader Geronimo.  As far as I know, this has not actually been confirmed.  In fact, Prescott seems to have had a habit of making things up.  He sent letters home from World War I claiming he'd received medals for heroism.  After the letters were printed in newspapers, he had to retract his claims. 

The iron maiden and the pretty boy

After a trip abroad, I cleared customs and found an airport newsstand. Hillary Clinton was on the cover of Fortune. John Edwards looked out from Men's Vogue.

            I was reminded to reset my watch but also to check my calendar.

            There was a time when only women in politics were objectified. They made the cover of fashion magazines for their beauty, not their brains.

            Pretty blondes in state houses and even the Capitol were mistaken for secretaries, not senators. 

            So when Fortune plants the subliminal seed of a woman as our nation's next CEO, then pinch me, I must be dreaming. It was a revelation, a good one.

            Not sure what to make of the Edwards sighting. I'm not alone in being a person who supports gender equity and who is torn. What's good for equality of the sexes may not be so good for the Edwards camp.

Action Alert: Urge Congress to Increase Gas Mileage Standards!

Last month the Senate passed groundbreaking legislation to increase fuel efficiency standards for the first time in nearly 30 years. Now the momentum has shifted to the House of Representatives where a similar vote is expected shortly. It's time to urge House members to follow the Senate's lead and increase fuel efficiency standards that meet or exceed the mileage targets of the Senate bill.

The bipartisan Senate legislation set a target of raising fuel efficiency to a fleet-wide average of 35 miles per gallon by model year 2020 for cars and lights trucks (SUVs). A proposal by Representatives Ed Markey and Todd Plats seeks similar targets that would help consumers save money at the pump and reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil.

We need your help to tell Congressman Pat Tiberi to support legislation that matches or exceeds the Senate bill and to oppose any legislation, such as a current proposal by Representatives Baron Hill and Lee Terry, which offers considerably lower mileage targets and includes industry loopholes.

Please take action in one or all of the following ways:

Action 1: Send a Letter

Sausage making and electronic voting machines

We've been long warned that foreign policy is like making sausage – you don't want to know the gory details. The same is true of electronic vote counting on the so-called e-voting machines, or DREs.

Earlier this month, the 2006 election challenge court case Squire v. Geer gave us a rare tour inside the scam known as "touchscreen voting." The "tour" comes with the backdrop of revelations that 56 of Ohio's 88 counties have "lost" all or some of the election records from the stolen 2004 election. Though the records were protected by federal law, this means it may now be impossible to definitively tabulate who actually won the presidency in 2004. We will write more on this breaking news story in articles to come.

Carol Squire, a Franklin County Domestic Court Judge, refused to stand down after election observers and a post-election computer forensic analysis documented massive electronic voting machine irregularities in her race for re-election. She first paid for a recount of key precincts and used those results to file an election challenge. Squire's election challenge sought a new election as the remedy.

Race is the tripwire for the progressive movement: John Conyers and impeachment

On July 23, Cindy Sheehan, Ray McGovern and I met with U.S. Rep. John Conyers about the issue of impeachment.  We delivered a petition for impeachment with one million American signatures.  While we met, 400 activists waited in the halls outside of his office along with a hoard of media to find out what the outcome of the meeting would be.  The meeting was a very significant moment for the progressive movement from a historical standpoint.  The movement for impeachment and the immediate reactions to why John Conyers was publicly targeted on this issue reflect how race continues to be, as my dear friend Bill Fletcher says, the tripwire for the progressive movement.    

Of Marx, Christ, and the persecution of radicals: how will humanity survive the capitalist threat?

A few days ago, one of my closest friends hit me with a heavily loaded question.

“Are you a Communist?” she queried.

To which I replied:

I do not belong nor militate in any formal communist party in the U.S. Nor do I belong to any other political entity or party. Furthermore, I do not subscribe to a specific doctrine, ideology, or dogma. My allegiance is to my core principles and values, which are premised on honesty, justice, humanity, responsibility, critical thinking, open-mindedness, egalitarianism, compassion, a belief in a Higher Power of my understanding, and many of the teachings of Christ.

My personal beliefs aside, communism is an incredibly loaded word. Our infinitely mendacious educational, social, and media infrastructures begin inculcating reflexive rejection of “all things communist or socialist” into US Americans from the moment they draw their initial breath.

Why is the establishment so desperate to vaccinate us against the “disease” of communism?

Violence and American culture: the road to Abu Ghraib

Three violent elements in American popular culture –- football, gangsta rap and dog fighting -- have intersected in the sensational case involving Michael Vick, the black football star. On July 17, a federal grand jury in the state of Virginia indicted the 27-year-old Vick and three associates on charges of operating an enterprise called "Bad Newz Kennels" to breed pit bulls for high-stakes fights to the death, and of killing off dogs who performed poorly by dousing them with water and then electrocuting them, slamming them into the ground or shooting them with a .22. One count in the 18-page indictment described a "rape stand, a device in which a female who is too aggressive to submit to males for breeding is strapped down, with her head held in place by a restraint."       

Shreds of evidence

Those who would dismiss out of hand our allegations of election fraud are fond of claiming that there is not a "shred of evidence" to substantiate our charges. To the contrary, there are millions of shreds of evidence in Ohio. In at least 56 of 88 counties, ballots and other elections records were shredded or otherwise destroyed.

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