Jim Hightower from Creators Syndicate

Let's Get Cracking on America's Infrastructure for 08/27/2008

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We Texans are used to having governors whose IQs are not much higher than room temperature. But surely someone was fooling with the incumbent's thermostat when he responded to a recent report about the state of our state's bridges.

The Associated Press did a nationwide survey of bridge conditions in 2007, and it has now done a follow-up piece to assess progress. The first report found th ...

Updated: Wed Aug 27, 2008

Professor Bush's Economic Nostrum for 09/03/2008

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Despite all the speechifying, editorializing, barbequing and general ballyhooing of Labor Day, there really was not all that much to celebrate, for working families across our land are struggling.

To help us understand how it came to this, let's reflect on the profound insight of that eminent economic theorist, George W. Bush. While campaigning for president in 2000, he explained his app ...

Updated: Wed Sep 03, 2008

Breaking the Lobbyists' Stranglehold on Our Democracy for 09/10/2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Jack Abramoff, the infamous Washington super-lobbyist who slipped on his own sleaze, was sentenced last week to four years in prison for corruption. How appropriate that his denouement came on the very day that John McCain was nominated by Republicans to be their presidential standard-bearer, and only one week after the Democratic Party convention.

The timing is appropriate because it pu ...

Updated: Wed Sep 10, 2008

Sarah Palin, Faux Populist for 09/17/2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Perfect populist pitch," beamed CBS analyst Jeff Greenfield right after Sarah Palin's big speech at the GOP fawnfest in St. Paul, Minn. "She's a populist," echoed Karl Rove over at Fox TV.

Excuse me? Palin is to populism what near beer is to beer, only not as close. She might be popular, she might be able to field dress a moose, she might live in a small town, she mi ...

Updated: Wed Sep 17, 2008

Wall Street's Bailout Wizard for 09/24/2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There was a little news item recently about a man in Sheboygan, Wis., who was sentenced to six years in prison for robbing $20 from a child's piggy bank.

Think how much better things would have gone for him if only his name had been Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns or any of the other flamboyant figures of high finance on Wall Street. They are the ones that rigged the regulatory system so they ...

Updated: Wed Sep 24, 2008

Gagging on Wall Street's Bailout for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Whoa! The Wall Street bailout bill was so nasty that even Congress gagged.

Still, the White House, congressional leaders and banking lobbyists are likely to twist enough arms and add enough artificial sweeteners to make Congress choke it down. But this doesn't obscure the fact that the bailout is a disgusting glob of corporate welfare.

A sign of just how bad it is came from the in ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

McCain the "Mavrick" for 10/08/2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you watched the television coverage of John McCain's acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, you might have noticed a delegate brandishing a hand-lettered sign proclaiming McCain to be: "THE MAVRICK."

The misspelling was made even more embarrassing by the fact that, just when the sign was being flashed to a worldwide TV audience, the GOP nominee was mentioni ...

Updated: Wed Oct 08, 2008

Stop Voter-Suppression Drives for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Vote! Editorialists remind us that it's our privilege and patriotic duty to vote. Candidates of all stripes plead with us to vote. "Vote," declares a billboard campaign sponsored by McDonald's. Even Tiffany & Co. chimes in with a pricey pin that spells out "vote" in diamonds.

But not everyone is in the civic spirit. Rather than urging folks everywhere to join in A ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

John McCain's Voter Fraud for 10/22/2008

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Maybe it was last week's full moon that prompted the overwrought howls of outrage being directed at ACORN by John McCain and a pack of his right-wing cohorts. Either that or just raw partisan nuttiness.

ACORN is the feisty and effective grass-roots organization that is of, by and for low-income Americans. Its community organizers (grit your teeth and say "doggone it," Sarah Pal ...

Updated: Wed Oct 22, 2008

Hank Paulson's Bailout Scandal for 10/29/2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"You don't tell deliberate lies," explained Britain's right-wing political icon Margaret Thatcher, "but sometimes you have to be evasive."

If only such honest dishonesty were practiced on this side of the pond. Unfortunately, in the Bush regime, the art of evasiveness has given way to the pervasive use of blunt falsifications — i.e., deliberate lies. Take the on ...

Updated: Wed Oct 29, 2008

The Change Must Come From Within Us for 11/05/2008

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Now is our time!

I don't mean a time to gloat about Barack Obama's sweeping electoral triumph, or a time to savor the demise of the Bush ideologues, as sweet as that is. No, no — this is the time for everyone who holds progressive values (economic fairness, social justice, the common good ... things like that) to be on watch and do the work of democracy. If Tuesday's vote for chang ...

Updated: Wed Nov 05, 2008

Spread the Wealth for 11/12/2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

One of John McCain's goofier political moves came in the last couple of weeks of the campaign when — with eyes darting, arms pumping frenetically and lips sneering — he assailed Barack Obama for saying, "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Oh, wailed McCain, that's vile socialism! And a chorus of right-wing harpies chimed in with ove ...

Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2008

Leaders Duck and Hide While Wall Street Steals From Us for 11/19/2008

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

They came. They saw. They ran away.

Last Saturday's big global finance summit session was a far cry from the "veni, vidi, vici" of Julius Caesar. Rather than conquering the spreading problem of economic collapse, the leaders of the world's 20 most powerful economies dithered, blathered, postured and then fled for home.

Still, a White House official who spoke for our stal ...

Updated: Wed Nov 19, 2008

Giving Thanks to America's Good Food Movement for 11/26/2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The thing that I'm most thankful for on Turkey Day is not the abundance of food at my family's table, but the rebels who produced it.

No, not Butterball. And not Wal-Mart, General Foods or any of the other corporate powers that loom large over America's food economy. To the contrary, I'm thankful for the "good food movement" that has arisen all across our country in rebellion a ...

Updated: Wed Nov 26, 2008

America's Economic "Spread-ession" for 12/03/2008

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Times are hard.

How hard, you ask? Well, you'll be glad to know that professional economists have now reached a conclusion: America is technically in a recession. Of course, millions of Americans have known this for months, since they've lost jobs, businesses, homes — and faith in economists.

While the professors pored over their reams of data, plenty of real-life indicators ...

Updated: Wed Dec 03, 2008

Congress Coddles Bankers While Bashing Autoworkers for 12/10/2008

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Sen. Bob Corker is ... well, a real corker.

The Tennessee Republican is on the Senate banking committee that's overseeing the bailout of America's Big Three automakers, and, by gollies, he got his dander up when the three CEOs told the committee last week that they needed a $34 billion loan to survive. No way, popped the corker, unless and until you cut jobs and slash the pay of your uni ...

Updated: Wed Dec 10, 2008

Bush Gives Lump of Coal to People of Appalachia for 12/17/2008

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Let's say that you're CEO of a coal corporation, and you want to get at the deposits of black gold deep inside the beautiful, verdant mountains of Appalachia. You have a choice.

You could adopt modern methods that combine industrial ingenuity and environmental finesse to extract the coal. Or, what the hey, why not just ram tons of explosives into the terra firma, blow up the entire top t ...

Updated: Wed Dec 17, 2008

Holiday Gifts for a Better America for 12/24/2008

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In keeping with the Biblical adage that it's better to give than to receive, I came up with a delightful sleighful of holiday goodies this year to dispense to some of our nation's most special people.

It was not easy to shop for these folks. I mean, what do you get for members of Congress, since they already have pretty much everything? Finally, though, I thought of the perfect one-size- ...

Updated: Wed Dec 24, 2008

Bullet Points for Assessing the Bush Years for 12/31/2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

As the classic New Year's song asks, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot?"

Not if our auld acquaintance is the Bush regime. Yes, our country will soon be getting a new beginning, and maybe, just maybe, we can put our country back on the right path. As we head that way, however, we ought not totally put out of mind the dark path we've been down the past eight, lest we allow futu ...

Updated: Wed Dec 31, 2008

Bringing a Bit of Fairness to the American Workplace for 01/07/2009

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Unions. Who needs 'em? They're so passe, so 1930s.

This is the frantic argument being pushed by corporate lobbyists who're worried by the recent resurgence in union organizing, political punch and public support. Sure, say these corporatists, unions were needed back in the bad ol' Depression days, when rich executives and investors treated workers with all the respect that a Kle ...

Updated: Wed Jan 07, 2009