TRUTHOUT
Goldman Plays, We Pay
The story of the financial debacle will end the way it began, with the super-hustlers from Goldman Sachs at the center of the action and profiting wildly. Never in U.S. history has one company wielded such destructive power over our political economy, irrespective of whether a Republican or a Democrat happened to be president.
HAITI EARTHQUAKE LIVE BLOG: Who to Follow and What to Read for Breaking Developments
Here is the link to Thursday's live blog. Please check the page regularly for updates.
7:45am PDT: The BBC has a disturbing first hand video report from a hospital in Port-au-Prince where, last night, injured people waiting for treatment slept amongst dead bodies.
U.S.-Venezuela Links Teeter on the Brink, Dragging a Prudent Foreign Policy With It
Since Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez came to power in 1999, Caracas has maintained a testy relationship with the United States, a nation which Chávez views as the primary threat to his dream of reproducing the Bolivarian Revolution. Although the U.S. and Venezuela experienced a very brief honeymoon once President Barack Obama assumed office, the two countries’ relationship has quickly begun to sour. Responding in kind, Chávez has vamped up his anti-imperialist rhetoric in recent months, repeatedly taking stabs at the U.S.
EPA Results Show Contaminated Water in Wyoming Fracking Zone
Government scientists have found that private water walls in Pavillion, Wyo. are polluted with toxic chemicals used in the controversial gas drilling technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — and residents have been told not to drink from them.
The findings offer the latest evidence that the fast-spreading gas-extraction method could be endangering public health.
Defense Contractor Money Fueling Push to Militarize the US-Mexico Border
After months of prodding from anti-immigration politicians, the entire US-Mexico border is now being watched by the Predator B unmanned surveillance aircraft commonly known as Predator drones. The news may comfort residents of border states where the details of Mexico's brutal drug war continue to make headlines, but here's some more comforting news: violent crime in US border states has decreased during the past decade, and some big border cities are the safest in the nation.
Trying to Be Hopeful About Peace
A few years back when Washington was preparing for the then highly- touted Annapolis Peace Conference, I remember commenting that I was "hopeful, but not optimistic." As we approach the latest incarnation of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, I'm even finding it difficult to be hopeful, though I will continue try to be supportive recognizing, as I do, the consequences of failure.
Convening these talks at this time is certainly a gutsy move for President Barack Obama.
BREAKING: Another Oil Rig Explodes in Gulf
An oil and gas rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana exploded Thursday morning. The Coast Guard is responding. At least 13 workers are in need of rescue and the rig is still burning, and at least one worker is injured, according to recent reports.
No deaths have been reported.
New Research: Immigration Bolsters Economy, but Many Immigrant Workers Exploited
A new study about the effects of immigration on U.S. employment supports the long-standing arguments of immigration advocates: Rather than displacing American workers, immigrant labor actually makes our economy stronger. Kevin Drum has the details at Mother Jones.
School Teachers in Charge? Why Some Schools are Forgoing Principals.
A school without a principal? It's becoming more common as innovative teacher-led public schools crop up in the United States.
Detroit's Palmer Park Preparatory Academy opens for students in pre-K to fourth-grade this fall. Boston and Denver each started a school last year run by union teachers. And in Minneapolis, the school board recently gave a group of teachers permission to launch their own French-immersion school in 2011.
What Does It Mean to Be a Liberal?
It’s an ongoing mystery that “liberal” is still a swear word in vast parts of the United States and may even be synonymous with “Europe” — as in, “all those liberals in Europe” — while Europeans would hardly recognize themselves in the label.
Letter From Flint, Michigan
It began on December 30, 1936, at Fisher Body No. 1 in Flint, Michigan: workers occupied General Motors factories, launching one of the key struggles in U.S. labor history. A Women's Emergency Brigade brought them food; when the police tried to drive out the strikers with tear gas, the women broke the windows to give them fresh air. After 44 bitter winter days, the sit-down strike forced GM to recognize their union, the United Auto Workers.
It was no accident that Flint was the scene of this historic battle.
Democrats Unlikely to Repeal Tax Cuts for the Rich
Washington - Democrats in Congress are poised to play a leading role this month in thwarting their party's effort to raise income tax rates on the wealthy.
Tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 expire at the end of this year. President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have been eager to extend the breaks for individuals who earn less than $200,000 annually and joint filers who make less than
The Cry for Democratic Moral Leadership and Effective Communication
If you have not read Drew Westin's outstanding piece "What Created the Populist Explosion and How Democrats Can Avoid the Shrapnel in November" on The Huffington Post, AlterNet, and other venues, read it immediately. Westin states as eloquently and forcefully as anyone what he, I, and other progressives have been saying from the beginning of the Obama administration. I agree fully with everything he says. But ...
Westin's piece is incomplete in crucial ways. His piece can be read as saying that this election is about
Robert Reich | The Stock Market Rally Versus the World's Economic Fundamentals
What passes for business reporting in the United States is too often a series of breathless reports about the stock market. When the Dow rises precipitously, as it did today (Wednesday), the business press predicts an end to the Great Recession. When the stock market plummets, as it did last week, the Great Recession is said to be worsening.
E.J. Dionne Jr. | What's on Obama's Next Page?
Washington - By insisting Tuesday evening that "it's time to turn the page," President Obama was talking about more than the Iraq War, and doing much more than reviving one of his most effective slogans from the 2008 campaign.
He was also trying to turn the page on a period in which he has found himself on the defensive, his party in a perilous position for November's elections, and his reputation for political mastery in doubt.
Dean Baker | Seven Key Facts About Social Security and the Federal Budget
Washington, DC - Heading into the midterm elections, Social Security has proven to be one of the hot button issues of this cycle. Despite the fact that the program has just begun its 75th year contributing to the retirement security of millions, the relationship between Social Security and the federal budget is unclear to many Americans.
James Kwak | Just Because You Make a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean You Know What You're Talking About
Hedge fund managers may be good at investing money. (Or they may just be the beneficiaries of luck, like successful stock mutual fund managers.) But that doesn’t mean they can think clearly.
Andrew Ross Sorkin comments on the letter by fund manager Daniel Loeb, a former Democratic fundraiser, criticizing the supposed anti-business policies of the Obama administration. The letter includes blather like this:
Another False Ending: Contracting Out the Iraq Occupation
Another false ending to the Iraq war is being declared. Nearly seven years after George Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Obama has just given a major address to mark the withdrawal of all but 50,000 combat troops from Iraq. But while thousands of US troops are marching out, thousands of additional private military contractors (PMCs) are marching in. The number of armed security contractors in Iraq will more than double in the coming months.
Feds File New Arizona Immigration Lawsuit, This Time to Protect Workers
The Justice Department alleges that an Arizona public college discriminated against immigrant job candidates. The case could pit states' rights against those of the federal government.
Los Angeles - Less than two months after the US Department of Justice sued Arizona over the state’s controversial immigration law, it has filed another lawsuit targeting immigration practices by Arizona authorities.
A Speech for Endless War
On the last night of August, the president used an Oval Office speech to boost a policy of perpetual war.
Hours later, The New York Times front page offered a credulous gloss for the end of "the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq." The first sentence of the coverage described the speech as saying, "that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home." The story went on to assert that Obama "used the moment to emphasize that he sees his primary job as addressing the weak economy and other domestic issues
