We’ve all heard that the struggle in Wisconsin continues – now with a challenged judicial restraining order, and efforts to recall Republican legislators underway all over the state. For what it’s worth, I had intended to continue posting small Wisconsin roundups but was repeatedly overtaken by events – and by events, I mostly mean the assault on what’s left of the American labor movement that has now spread to many other states, including Illinois.
Politics
42 Articles
So I get this email the other day out of the blue from some fool I don’t…
The answer is (thanks to Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman), not without helpful corporations. Vodafone-Egypt (under a UK…
It has to start somewhere.
As reported by Christopher Ketcham at Alternet and on Democracy Now: On the eve of the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s shameful and terrain-changing Citizens United decision, a call has come from the Vermont Legislature to restore a measure of political balance through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution banning “corporate personhood.”
Chris Hedges at truthdig recently criticized the liberal tendency to retreat into lofty conferences as the America of our imaginations becomes harder to square with an increasingly disturbing reality.
(To the tune of John Cooper Clarke’s classic, “Evidently Chickentown.”
Warning: Foul Language Ahead.)
For a brief moment following the shooting in Arizona, it really seemed like a consensus was forming within the liberal (and parts of the mainstream) media and blogosphere; that the violent rightwing rhetoric which has become standard feature of our political discourse had finally gone too far, and that we as a nation were finally due for some rhetorical climate change.
I just finished reading a piece of fiction that had been misfiled by the editors of the New Yorker under a category – feature? expose? – that is commonly associated with non-fiction. i.e. truthful reporting. The article, by Jon Lee Anderson …
Update: Here is the text and video of Malinda Seneviratne’s testimony.
In closing, one of the most thoughtful responses to the tragedy was a brief comment that came across my computer screen in the wee hours of the morning. It was about our handgun laws in the US. Frankly, if Loughner had not been able to purchase the Glock with the extended clip, useless for hunting–, his rampage would have been much less lethal. While measures like background checks, waiting periods, and restrictions on military-grade weapons, are not are not guarantees that crimes like this won’t occur again, these would give us a much better problem than the one we have now.
Sportswriter Dave Zirin had this take on violent political rhetoric, reminding us of Sarah Palin’s March 2010 attempt at…
Gays may now serve openly in the military (My bumper sticker worked; you’re welcome, gay people!) And some day, one imagines, they will be allowed to be marry each other too, at which point I would hate to be a young, bullet and commitment fearing gay person.
But this is a good day for freedom, if not a particularly good day for Mr. or Ms. Don’t-Shoot-Me-I’m-Not-Ready-to Settle-Down-And/Or-Die-Yet.
Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) should be commended for voting to repeal DADT but his reaction was kind of weird (via TPM):
So let me get this straight. The Tea Party helped bring the GOP back to power by capitalizing on an electorate that was frustrated with the Democrats over their inability to reduce unemployment. Now this same GOP refuses to extend unemployment benefits to those very people who helped put them into a position of power.