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Scott Walker and the GOP Reveal Depth of Their Voter-Exclusion Plan

Sat, 17 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - Sep. 17 (News Report) - A new Department of Transportation memo reveals Wisconsin Republicans intend to make the newly imposed voter ID process as onerous as possible for people seeking IDs.

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America In Decline

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Noam Chomsky - Aug. 12 (Opinion) - Corporate power’s ascendancy over politics and society—by now mostly financial—has reached the point that both political organizations, which at this stage barely resemble traditional parties, are far to the right of the population on the major issues under debate. “Uniquely among legislatures in the developed world, U.S. congressional parties now post prices for key slots in the lawmaking process.” The legislators who contribute the most funds to the party get the posts.

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Building on Health Reform Momentum, NYC Workers Push for Paid Sick Days

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Michelle Chen - Mar. 27 (News Report) - Now that newly passed healthcare reform legislation in Washington promises to extend coverage to tens of millions nationwide, activists in New York City want to make sure sick workers aren't prevented by their bosses from taking care of their health.

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Secrets of the Tea Party: The Troubling History of Tea Party Leader Dick Armey

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Beau Hodai - Mar. 26 (Investigative Report) - As chairman of FreedomWorks, the group credited with mobilizing the Tea Party movement, Dick Armey is the movement's de facto leader. Yet Armey's years spent lobbying for a group recognized by the State Department as being a terrorist organization--should give Tea Partiers pause.

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The Corporate Takeover of U.S. Democracy

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Noam Chomsky - Mar. 07 (Opinion) - Jan. 21, 2010, will go down as a dark day in the history of U.S. democracy, and its decline. On that day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may not ban corporations from political spending on elections—a decision that profoundly affects government policy, both domestic and international. The decision heralds even further corporate....

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An End to the War on Weed?

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Nathan Comp - Apr. 12 (Opinion) - As a medley of border violence, recessionary pressure, international criticism and popular acceptance steadily undermines America’s decades-long effort to eliminate drugs and drug use, the U.S. movement to legalize marijuana is gaining unprecedented momentum. Once derided and dismissed by lawmakers, law enforcers and the law-abiding alike, marijuana reform is sweeping the nation, although the federal government appears committed—at least for the time being—to largely maintaining the status quo.

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We Arm the World

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Frida Berrigan - Jan. 04 (Special Report) - In 2007, U.S. foreign military sales agreements totaled more than $32 billion — nearly triple the amount during President Bush’s first full year in office. The Pentagon routinely justifies weapons sales as “promoting regional stability,” but many of these arms end up in the world’s war zones. In 2006 and 2007, the five biggest recipients of U.S. weapons were Pakistan ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2.2 billion), Israel ($2.2 billion), Afghanistan ($1.9 billion) and Colombia ($580 million) — all countries where conflict rages.

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It’s not easy becoming green

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By David Roberts - Dec. 27 (News Analysis) - Meeting the challenge of global climate change will involve an enormous amount of work — solarizing and retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency, manufacturing electric cars and parts for wind turbines, building public transit systems and smarter electrical grids, and much more. The next few decades will see the creation of millions of blue-collar jobs that serve to meliorate social and environmental ills — known as “green-collar” jobs. Jones argues that these jobs should be directed to those who have been most harmed by the “pollution-based economy” — such as ex-felons, recovering addicts, at-risk youth, the working poor, those who have seen their jobs outsourced, and people of color (who have disproportionately suffered from high rates of asthma, cancer and other ailments tied to environmental toxins).

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What a Long, Strange Trip It’s Been

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Bill Ayers - Nov. 07 (Opinion) - Obama has continually been asked to defend something that ought to be at democracy’s heart: the importance of talking to as many people as possible in this complicated and wildly diverse society, of listening with the possibility of learning something new, and of speaking with the possibility of persuading or influencing others. The McCain-Palin attacks not only involved guilt by association, they also assumed that one must apply a political litmus test to begin a conversation.

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Why Soldiers Rape

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Helen Benedict - Aug. 13 (Special Report) - the attention always focuses on the women: where they were when assaulted, their relations with the assailant, the effects on their mental health and careers, whether they are being adequately helped, and so on. That discussion, as valuable as it is, misses a fundamental point. To understand military sexual assault, let alone know how to stop it, we must focus on the perpetrators. We need to ask: Why do soldiers rape?

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McSexist: McCain's War on Women

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Kate Sheppard - Jul. 24 (News Analysis) - Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) campaign and the media would have us believe that herds of disaffected women voters will be stampeding to the Republicans this year because a woman candidate won't be on the presidential ballot in November. McCain's campaign has been making a clear play for women voters in recent weeks, hosting conference calls with Republican women and touting that his policies on national security, the economy and healthcare appeal to women voters. But the suggestion that women -- and feminist women, at that -- will be lining up behind him is a fairytale. At least, it should be. McCain's record and policies on issues of importance to women are neither moderate nor maverick. In The Nation, Katha Pollitt put it simply: "[T]o vote for McCain, a feminist would have to be insane."

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Is the Fourth Estate a Fifth Column?

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By Bill Moyers - Jul. 11 (Opinion) - Sadly, in many respects, the Fourth Estate has become the fifth column of democracy, colluding with the powers that be in a culture of deception that subverts the thing most necessary to freedom, and that is the truth.

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Dismantling the Myth of McCain

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In These Times - By David Moberg - Jun. 19 (Opinion) - McCain's strength stems from his media-fostered image as a straight-talking maverick reformer and former prisoner of war.

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Killer Credit

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Adam Doster - Jan. 29 (Special Report) - Like mortgages, credit card debt is often carved up and sold on global debt markets as securities. Since borrowers generally pay back what they owe, that debt has been profitable and safe for traders, which explains the $40 billion increase in securitized credit card debt from September 2005 to 2006. ... These developments are problematic because credit card debt is unsecured, meaning no portion of defaults can be salvaged. Yet broader dangers lurk on a macro scale. If those bundled securities of debt decline in value, as mortgage-backed securities did last summer, banks and institutional investors (pensions, mutual funds, hedge funds) could all take a major hit, which could cause comparable damage to the broader economy.

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Empires Architecture

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Allen McDuffee - Jan. 02 (News Report) - Panic shot through the State Department and White House earlier this summer when the American architecture firm Berger Devine Yaeger posted computer-generated images and layout of the forthcoming U.S. embassy in Baghdad on its website. Ostensibly concerned with security, government officials urgently acted to remove graphics to avoid aiding potential insurgents in their plots to disrupt the embassy's progress. The real fear, however, may have been that the disclosure would draw public and congressional attention to everything that's gone wrong with the embassy.

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Training Satellites on the United States

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:02:52 -0700

In These Times - By Lindsay Beyerstein - Sep. 20 (Special Report) - nitially, the National Applications Office (NAO), a newly created office within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), will confine itself to homeland security and traditional civil applications. Officials will be able to request satellite data to enhance border security, defend critical infrastructure and coordinate disaster response. Next year, the department plans to give satellite data to state and local law enforcement agencies.

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Duck and Cover

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 16:02:25 -0700

In These Times - By William D. Hartung, Frida Berrigan - Apr. 30 (News Analysis) - While the United States demands that other countries end their nuclear programs, the Bush administration is busy planning a new generation of nuclear weapons. Nearly 20 years after the Berlin Wall crumbled, the United States is allocating more funding, on average, to nuclear weapons than during the Cold War. The Bush administration is pumping this money--more than $6 billion this year--into renovating the nuclear weapons complex and designing new nuclear weapons. Such hypocrisy is one of the main obstacles to nuclear arms reductions because it runs the risk of shattering the 1970 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in which the nuclear-armed states pledged to begin the process of disarmament if the non-nuclear states opted not to pursue the deadly technology.

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Is Wikipedia the New Town Hall?

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 09:16:24 -0700

In These Times - By Pat Aufderheide - Mar. 13 (Special Report) - Public broadcasting everywhere is in crisis, and in part it's because technology seems to be turning pubcasters into dinosaurs. In fact, not just them, but all broadcasters. Consider the business leaders: NBC formally declared itself an "Internet company" and is slashing its analog TV investments. Mega-media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace last year and is now considering dumping his satellite assets because he's looking forward to wireless digital TV. Pubcasters used to be providers of trusted information. But when bloggers are so busy linking to each other that they hardly have time to watch television or read newspapers, is the mainstream media--even the PBSes and NPRs--becoming irrelevant?

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Capital Crimes

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:22:27 -0700

In These Times - By Conor Kenny - Aug. 01 (Special Report) - Not surprisingly, many from the ranks of Bush’s Pioneers and Rangers would end up on the wrong side of the law in the current bribery scandals. A year and a half after the president’s second inauguration, at least nine of his fundraisers find themselves under investigation, indictment or convicted of state or federal crimes; five of them for offenses specifically related to their political activity or exploiting the access that came with it.

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Welcome to the Media Revolution:

Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:29:46 -0700

In These Times - By Jessica Clark, Tracy Van Slyke - Jun. 28 (Special Report) - Why should media be a priority, with Iraq in a civil war, living wage jobs continuing to spiral downward and the Earth’s environment heating up? Because media serves as the forum for all political debate. The right has learned to use the media to its political advantage. Now, progressives must reclaim their place in the national conversation… The end goal: to develop a sustainable progressive media infrastructure that can inform and influence public opinion, encourage grassroots action and create political change. But to do so media outlets and media-focused organizations need three things: support from each other, investment in core journalistic efforts, and a strategy for moving into new digital media that facilitate rapid response initiatives and audience interaction.

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Was the Presidential Election Stolen?

Mon, 19 Jun 2006 04:33:08 -0700

In These Times - By Joel Bleifuss, Steven F. Freeman - Jun. 19 (Special Report) - the point isn’t to have to choose now between the exit-poll result and the official count. When exit polls contradict rather than confirm the official count, other parts of the machinery of democracy need to be activated—including the free press, which has the skills and the responsibility to investigate, and nonpartisan government bodies, which, through an entirely different array of methods, also have the skills and a civic mandate to investigate.

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How Corporate America Perpetuates the Health Care Crisis

Wed, 24 May 2006 13:05:17 -0700

In These Times - By David Sirota - May. 24 (Opinion) - Take this idiotically simple question that is almost never asked in the normal course of this country's political debate: Why do we hear so much about how well-off America is, yet our country has the highest number of uninsured citizens in the industrialized world? Why isn't that question asked? Because you can't answer it honestly without exploring how Corporate America has bought off enough politicians to make sure our government helps corporations perpetuate this travesty.

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NSA Thwarts Whistleblower

Mon, 15 May 2006 19:48:05 -0700

In These Times - By Leah H. Nelson - May. 15 (News Report) - (Russell)Tice is a 20-year veteran of the United States intelligence network, having worked for Naval Intelligence, the Department of Defense and, most recently, the National Security Agency, where he held the position of intelligence analyst and capabilities officer. He has intimate knowledge of the innermost workings of the intelligence community, and wants to tell Congress about an NSA program that, he says, is unconstitutional and possibly criminal.

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