David Sirota's online magazine of news & commentary
(Reader comments now accepted at Working Assets)
Via Facing South, there is a bipartisan bill to protect military families from exploitation by predatory lenders. Specifically, the Senate amendment would cap interest rates at 36% APR for loans made to military personnel and their spouses. Go tell your Senator to vote for this commonsense legislation - and not to cave in to the credit card/banking industry.
Two years after revelations that soldiers aren't getting adequate body armor in Iraq, the Associated Press reports that the Pentagon is now refusing to reimburse soldiers when they go out and buy body armor themselves. This, despite a congressional mandate to reimburse these soldiers. Disgusting.
In recent weeks, the Republican Party has let America know what it thinks is "necessary" and "unnecessary" in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Check it out.
According to this letter published in Vermont's Rutland Herald, the national Republican Party has already started the shady and ethically-questionable practice of push polling in the 2006 U.S. Senate race. Specifically, Vermonter Tony Gordon reports receiving a call from a out-of-state call center in Nebraska. The caller asked "While it is fine to have a gadfly like [Senate candidate] Bernie Sanders in the House, since Vermont is such a small state, we must have real leadership in the Senate. Do you agree or disagree?" Clearly, as Gordon notes, the question was deliberately phrased to guarantee a desired result and spread misleading information about Congressman Sanders - not to guage actual public opinion.
Webster's Dictionary defines a "push poll" as "an opinion poll done with loaded questions or offering negative information to sway the opinions of those polled." By that definition, what was described in the Rutland Herald, can safely be called a push poll - a practice widely considered to be among the most unethical in politics.
Incidentally, for those who think that Sanders is merely a gadfly and not a "real" leader, see this Rolling Stone article on his ability to pass legislation through the GOP-controlled House, or this previous post detailing his record.
I did an interview with NPR about Democrats and capitulating on the John Roberts nomination. Check it out - it is an interesting piece that goes over the ins and outs of the vote to confirm him.
Republicans would like you to believe that since Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) yesterday resigned his leadership post, they have cleaned up their act. But a quick look at DeLay's replacement, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), shows the GOP has once again opted to be led by one of Congress's most corrupt figures. The truth is, this guy has so many connections to people and companies under investigation by federal law enforcement you'd think you were reading about a gangster, rather than one of America's most powerful politicians.
Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) has officially stepped in as House Majority Leader after Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) temporarily stepped down because he was indicted. To get a sense of who Blunt is, just read this article.
With Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) now under indictment and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) under SEC investigation, its time to make your voice heard. Go over to Working For Change - tell DeLay to resign his House seat immediately, and tell Frist to resign his Majority Leader post. Both of these guys are a disgrace.
The Financial Times reports that China is poised to move forward with massive investments in coal-to-oil technology. If that happens, America's biggest economic competitor will be on the brink of creating a serious economic advantage for itself over us, in that they will be developing a stable, domestic source of energy, while our economy will still be held hostage to the international oil profiteers. Why hasn't America invested in this technology? It is a good question.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) was indicted today by a Texas grand jury on corruption/campaign finance charges. Late last year, congressional Republicans voted to change an 11-year-old rule that automatically forces an indicted Member of Congress to step down from their leadership post. The move was widely acknowledged to be designed to specifically protect DeLay. But under pressure, the GOP reversed that vote, meaning DeLay must step down.
During the debate over the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the American public heard Corporate America and the Washington, D.C. Establishment extol the virtues of so-called "free" trade. Even many Democrats who ended up voting against CAFTA were quick to tell us how important the overall concept of "free" trade supposedly is (despite the fact that most of the claims about how such a trade policy creates jobs at home and improves living standards abroad are lies). But now, in a shocking reversal, Corporate America is suddenly arguing vehemently against "free" trade.
AP's breaking news team reports that "a Texas grand jury’s recent interest in conspiracy charges could lead to last-minute criminal indictments — possibly against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay." Read the whole story.
My new cover story for In These Times magazine is out today - it is about how the Bush administration repeatedly put its tax cut agenda ahead of funding for basic flood/hurricane protection infrastructure. The piece follows an earlier op-ed I authored in the San Francisco Chronicle. It takes a very in-depth, systematic look at the administration's tax and budget decisions leading up to Hurricane Katrina, and shows how those decisions significantly contributed to the catastrophe that followed. See the full article here, and see the special timeline insert here.President Bush has repeatedly defended corporations that harmed their workers by using asbestos, and even called for limiting asbestos victims legal rights to sue. Clearly, he is reading back some of the most shameful corporate PR. And now we see a new wrinkle to this whole fiasco - one of the biggest corporate abusers who harmed their workers, W.R. Grace, has sent 870 Montana residents "sickened by asbestos exposure...letters saying they no longer have asbestos-related disease, or may not be as sick as they thought." W.R. Grace sent these letters to victims as a justification for cutting their health care benefits. Will President Bush join in and say that these victims aren't sick and thus can't sue the company to make sure those health care cuts don't go forward?
The Associated Press reports that President Bush has "turned his attention to the nation's energy industry" after Hurricane Rita. Thankfully, "preliminary assessments show little damage to most refineries" - but here's the big question: will the President take steps to make sure America's energy infrastructure is protected in advance of the next storm? Or, will we merely breathe a sigh of relief, do nothing, and wait like a sitting duck for the next storm to roar in from the Gulf and create an energy crisis that we know we are susceptible to?
Barbara Ehrenreich is one of the most important writers in America when it comes to exploring the challenges faced by working people in today's economy. She has a new book out called Bait and Switch, and Working For Change has an excerpt of it posted today. Go check it out.
Nathan Newman asks a very good question: what kind of crap will serve as the rationale for the next "free" trade deal coming down the pike?
The Los Angeles Times reports on a new report from the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) that lists the 13 most corrupt Members of Congress. None of those listed is a surprise - check out the story here.
A new Time Magazine inquiry "finds that at top positions in some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting connections before experience."
Last week, I penned an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle about how the Bush tax cuts are connected to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. If you didn't read the piece, this political cartoon in the Philadelphia Inquirer is the graphic equivalent of it - and it sums up the situation best. Stay tuned next week - I have a big magazine cover story coming out that really goes over piece-by-piece how tax cuts really were at the root of much of the preventable parts of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
A new national poll shows that 9 in 10 Americans think the oil companies are engaging in price gouging (they are correct) and four out of five Americans (including 76 percent of Republicans) would support "a tax on the windfall profits of oil companies." Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) are both pushing legislation to create a windfall profits tax on Big Oil. Sign the online petition that is urging other Members of Congress to support that legislation.
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush and Republicans in Congress have refused to consider rolling back the $336 billion in new tax cuts that the richest 1 percent are slated to get over the next five years. They say we need to pay for reconstruction not by asking the wealthiest to sacrifice just a little bit, but by massive cuts to spending. And now we see what that means: The Navy Times today reports that those cuts "include trimming military quality-of-life programs, including health care." This, while troops are in battle.
Ed Kilgore and the normally-troublesome Democratic Leadership Council are getting it right on repealing tax cuts for the wealthy in response to the Katrina disaster. They should get credit where credit is due - let's hope this becomes a Democratic Party-wide drive.
Top Republican Sen. Judd Gregg (R) is telling reporters he may be open to proposals to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in order to pay for Hurricane Katrina relief. So far, that makes three courageous Republicans: Gregg, and Michigan Reps. Joe Schwarz and Vernon Ehlers.
Good news: Democratic governors have embarrassed the federal government into acknowledging the oil price gouging issue, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today announced a formal probe. Bad news: President Bush made sure to preempt any real investigation into price gouging by his financial backers in the oil/gas industry when last year he appointed a former ChevronTexaco lawyer, Deborah Majoras, to head the FTC.
Surprise, surprise - the Republican package of new tax cuts that are supposedly going to help the poor who were devastated by Hurricane Katrina actually skew benefits toward the wealthy.
In the debate over Supreme Court nominee John Roberts, the real question finally gets asked: who is more pathetic, the media or the Democrats?
I guess we shouldn't be surprised anymore by these things, but still - this is appalling.
Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), who is one of the most popular governors in America, has a new piece explaining why he is pushing to develop a coal-to-liquid-fuel plant in his state. Check it out. As Matt Singer shows, is a good environmental debate to be had about this - but we shouldn't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Members of Congress who voted to pass the corporate-written Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) are facing serious pressure back in their districts, especially with new corporate-written deals coming down the pike.
Read here for another real-world consequence of moving forward with billions in new tax cuts for the rich that President Bush and the GOP are pushing.
Facing South has a good example of why we should all be concerned about the Bush administration using the Katrina disaster to handover huge amount of taxpayer cash to corporate abusers.
Even though gas prices are skyrocketing and the public supports serious efforts to increase fuel efficiency, Roll Call today reports "the prospects for forcing automakers to increase vehicle fuel efficiency standards for the first time in 30 years appear to be remote." Want to know why? See here and here.
Hours after President Bush today explicitly said he would not repeal the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax cuts for the wealthy that are slated to come in the next few years, the Associated Press reported that two Michigan Republican Congressman are raising the possibility that they will break ranks with the White House and support repealing the Bush tax cuts in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster.
Apparently, my op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle was timely - today former President Bill Clinton publicly said Bush's tax cuts should be repealed. Granted, he is not a high-profile ELECTED Democrat, but he's pretty high-profile nonetheless. Let's hope the Democratic leadership in Congress starts to echo this and make it a central theme in the next weeks and months. Remember, as I noted in my piece, with record deficits and all the bills from Iraq and the Katrina rebuilding piling up, the Bush administration's tax cuts would give $336 billion to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans over the next 5 years. That's money we are literally going to give away to those handful of Americans who make an average of $1 million a year or more. We can't afford it - and it's time for the Democratic Party as a whole make that truth part of its core message moving forward.
I know it is a tradition to do animal (preferably cat) blogging on Friday, so I am going to contribute with fish blogging, which is of particular importance to me this week...Earlier this week, I outlined how conservatives are shamelessy trying to use the Hurricane Katrina disaster to justify their far-right wing agenda, no matter how unrelated their proposals are to the crisis at hand. Sadly, we have another example today with the New York Times reporting that Senate Republicans are pushing legislation to allow the Bush administration to waive or modify existing environmental protection laws during the cleanup.
Check out my new op-ed piece published in today's San Francisco Chronicle that discusses how most political leaders in both parties are ignoring one of the major culprits in the Hurricane Katrina disaster: tax cuts. Republicans point fingers at Democratic state and local officials, Democrats focus on the government's (albeit pathetic) response - but few have the guts to say the obvious: that the government's preparations for this disaster were impeded by an administration that made tax cuts its priority over everything else. Sadly, even fewer have the guts to advocate for repealing the $336 billion in new tax cuts the richest 1 percent of Americans are slated to get over the next five years in order to pay for reconstruction.
Here is a nauseating example of what the industrialized world's no-human-rights "free" trade policy allows and encourages.
Vermont political reporter Darren Allen reports that Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie (R) will formally enter the GOP primary in Vermont's upcoming U.S. Senate race. That will pit the archconservative pro-life Dubie against millionaire corporate executive Rich Tarrant, in what will likely be a very bloody, brutal primary. All of that is great news for Vermont's Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders, who can rise above the right-wing bickering while his potential rivals beat the crap out of each other.A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll tells us what we already know: a strong majority of Americans favor bringing troops home from Iraq. Specifically, 55% support a withdrawal, while just 36% back Bush's position that current troop levels should be maintained.
GOP Senators killed legislation to create an independent commission to investigate the government's pathetically slow and incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. Apparently, they are the only people on earth that thought the government's response was great.
Go write your House Member and Senator and tell him/her to sign their name on this letter to the Bush administration telling it to cease and desist from giving Halliburton any more no-bid contracts.
Chris Coleman's ass-whooping of St. Paul Mayor Randy Kelly in the Democratic primary yesterday could be a sign of things to come in the 2006 election. Kelly, you may recall, endorsed George W. Bush in 2004 - an endorsement that he was pounded for by Coleman during his re-election campaign. The sheer margin of the challenger's victory over the incumbent is a sign that the Democratic base is really fired up, and that Bush could be an albatross around incumbent's necks. Stay tuned for the final battle between the two in November.
Check out this list, and see exactly how idiotic, short-sighted, and truly inane the Bush administration's handling of the response to Hurricane Katrina really was.
In case you needed any more proof that the Democratic Party's refusal to take a serious position on Iraq is pathetic, click here.
CBS News' legal analyst Andrew Cohen asks two good questions about the hearings to confirm Supreme Court nominee John Roberts: "What's the point of having a Committee confirmation hearing if a majority on the Committee don't want the nominee to say too much about the issues that are relevant to his role? What's the point of having a hearing if it isn't meaningful?"
There's a new report out today estimating that corporations are using loopholes, shelters, havens and other greed-driven shenanigans to rip off about half a trillion dollars a year in revenues from the poorest countries in the world. Undoubtedly, these are many of the same companies that brag in television commercials and PR materials about how they give to charity to help the world's poor. Maybe instead of doing that kind of PR, these companies should just pay their fair share in taxes.
In the last few weeks, Republicans have joined in criticizing the federal government's pathetically slow response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. So, here's a really good question: will these GOPers now re-evaluate their past attacks on "big government" now that they say they want a bigger, more effective government response to disasters?
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it now appears the Republican Party has made a strategic decision to use the disaster to push its far-right ideological agenda - no matter how off-topic it is. In the last two weeks, we've seen top Republicans use the disaster to justify all sorts of unrelated and fringe-conservative proposals. Here are just a few:
Check out Jonathan Weber's interesting op-ed from last week in the New York Times - it is about Montana's landmark stream access law, and how private landowners are trying to encroach on it. I thought of this article when I went fly fishing this weekend, and caught my first trout - I was enjoying my rights under the stream access law like anyone else is permitted. That's really what's so great about this law, and why it should be enacted in other states. It allows everyone, regardless of socioeconomic level, to enjoy this state's natural resources - resources that should always remain in public hands.
Reuters reports that (big surprise) the White House is going out of its way to award federal contracts for Katrina disaster cleanup to its corporate cronies. Sadly, with this administration, pay-to-play politics doesn't stop, even with the worst natural disaster in American history.
Check out this Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article - it explores how Sen. Russ Feingold's (D) crusade against the insulated D.C. Democratic Establishment could play out in 2008. Feingold seems to understand that Democrats cannot win by default - they must start taking serious positions on serious issues, instead of practicing a split-the-difference politics that has lost them election after election.
Slate's Dan Gross tells us exactly which sector of the oil industry is responsible for the current spate of price gouging afflicting America: refineries. I have a whole section on this in my upcoming book, "Hostile Takeover." As you can see starting on page 54 of this report from Consumers Union, the oil industry has purposely cut back on refining capacity in order to create artificial bottlenecks that then drive prices up.
Check it out - the Republican Party has finally released its slogan for the 2006 election cycle. It's crisp, clear, and tells us everything we already knew about today's GOP.
The lunacy from the right-wing crazies never stops. They are now defending corporate price gougers.
Want to know why America should get behind Sen. Byron Dorgan's (D) windfall profits tax bill on oil companies? Here's why.
As you may recall, Vice President Dick Cheney refused to postpone his vacation to deal with the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Now, with a visit to the region, he's trying to look like he cares. But, as this CNN clip shows, the locals aren't buying it. They tell Cheney to go Cheney himself.
No joke - the White House is now trying to use the disaster on the Gulf Coast to justify its scheme to privatize Social Security. CongressDaily reports that Bush spokesman Trent Duffy "asserted that the vast spending that would be required to address the hurricane's impact adds to the need to change Social Security, which threatens to strain the budget in coming years." Right - because a plan that would cost trillions to implement, and deplete the retirement savings of millions will somehow help the tragic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
This LA Times piece is a good example of why the House and Senate members who voted for the credit card industry-written bankruptcy bill really are heartless.
North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan (D), who I profiled in an earlier American Prospect piece, is showing why he has long been considered one of the true populists in the U.S. Senate. As the New York Times today reports, Dorgan "said he was introducing a bill to tax oil companies for high oil profits and pay a rebate to consumers." He said, "There is nothing about this market that is free" and argued "that the OPEC cartel sets prices and that the consolidation of petroleum companies had made the pricing situation worse for consumers." He's exactly right - and his legislation is a step Democrats should follow.
This story from the Salt Lake Tribune is proof positive that the Bush administration sees America's first responders as its own personal political props rather than the frontline soldiers in securing this country and helping our citizens. As the story notes, hundreds of firefighters ready to help out in New Orleans have been confined to lectures at a FEMA seminar in Atlanta, with federal officials preventing them from heading to the disaster zone. Yet, as the last paragraph of the story notes, 50- of the firefighters are being released to stand in as President Bush's personal photo-op props.
Public Citizen has a new report out called "The 28 Most Improbable, Unacceptable, Inexplicable Votes for CAFTA." It goes through a handful of Members of Congress and looks at how their votes for CAFTA hurt those Members' districts.
The National Association of Manufacturers - the lobbying group for Corporate America - is holding a big fundraiser for the 15 Democrats who sold out their party and America's middle-class by voting for the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). Quid pro quo, anyone?
Nathan Newman points out a very important (if little noticed) development today: a federal court approved a settlement between the government and U.S. Airways over the airline's bankrupt pension plan. In having taxpayers pick up the tab for the pension shortfall, the court gave the federal government a direct ownership stake in the airline.
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann does a terrific job of summing up who's responsible for our government's colossal failure to respond to the tragedy on the Gulf Coast.
So, let's see...the Bush administration had no plan to deal with a massive natural disaster that we knew was coming, has no plan to bring troops home from Iraq, has no plan to deal with skyrocketing energy prices, has no plan to address staggering budget deficits...but the White House is now letting the public know that it has a plan to politically insulate the president from any accountability whatsoever. Unbelievable.
Read the first two paragraphs of this CNN piece to see how the Bush administration's whitewashing of its pathetic performance during Katrina is now beginning.
And by partisan hacks, I mean a Republican Congressman and The Moonie Times.
There's enough screwups in Louisiana for a lot of people to hang. One of the truly amazing things about what has happened is that Katrina didn't strike in the worst way possible. What we are witnessing in New Orleans is not the worst-case scenario. It's a bad situation compounded by utter idiocy by elected officials up the ladder.
Some crazy people (including the Speaker of the U.S. House) have suggested that we simply don't rebuild New Orleans, since it is a dangerous area. We can only assume that Speaker Hastert will also call for the desettlement of Los Angeles and San Francisco, since they too present unique logistics issues in times of natural disaster. Indeed, it just may be time to eliminate all of America's port cities.
From CNN:
Liberal blogs have united to try to raise $1,000,000 to respond to Hurricane Katrina. I doubled my donation this morning upon seeing it. The money is being tallied. After being launched this morning, $11,442.00 has been raised. If you haven't given yet, now is your chance.
I am the co-chairperson of the Progressive Legislative Action Network (PLAN) - a position I took after finishing a stint as a fellow at the Center for American Progress. I am also a Senior Editor at the In These Times magazine, and a writer for Working Assets, and a twice-a-week guest on the Al Franken Show. I have just completed a book for Random House's Crown Publishers entitled "Hostile Takeover" - it will be released Spring 2006. I also write a bi-weekly section for the Nation Magazine called Permanent Minority vs. Towards the Majority about Democrats failures and successes. For more on what I do, see this Washington Post story about my blog, this Molly Ivins column about my work, or this Newsweek profile about me. Feel free to email me at david@davidsirota.com with any thoughts/criticism. Note: this online publication represents my personal views, and not the official views of the organizations I work with.