In the September, 2006 Harper's "Notebook," Lewis H. Lapham begins with this quote by Rainer Werner Fassbinder: In the last analysis, terrorism is an idea generated by capitalism to justify better defense measures to safeguard capitalism. Is there money to be made in Iraq? Lapham, who has wielded a sharp…
Most American citizens believe that voters elect our state and federal legislators. They would be wrong. Elections are rigged by the massive amounts of money that fund them, and legislators are bought and sold in accordance with their campaign fund contributors. This money does not come from you or me. We could never hope to contribute enough to sway an election, we just don’t have enough to compete. The money comes from corporations. How do I know (besides from the minimal reports politicians must file)? I know from the end result, from the laws that result.
Imagine yourself a working mother or father. You work hard everyday. You earn your paycheck, and like nearly everyone, it is spent when you get it. If you are a poor family, maybe your optional luxuries include pizza out one night. If your family is a little better off, maybe it means a real dinner out. Then a little ‘hitch’ arises. The electric bill comes in, and because it has been so hot, it is more than anticipated. Or maybe the car needs new brakes. Or maybe, heaven help you, someone gets really ill and you have bad or no health insurance.
So you borrow money. You go to the payday lender down the street. You know the kind, they are popping up all over the place. Despite this kind of lending being legal (or thought up) only for the past couple of years, there are already more payday lending stores in this country …
When the news this morning reported yet more staggering profits for big oil companies, I realized that I could think of only three groups of Americans who have benefitted in a big way -- i.e., with obscene profits -- since George Bush took office: big oil companies (Bush's former business…
The Founding Fathers of the United States feared the effects of a largely uninformed populous. In the 1700s, Democracy still struck many people as a dangerous proposition, reliant on the education and devotion of the masses. With an unaware voting public, the logic went, Republic could turn to tyranny. We cannot idly expect the government to afford us our basic rights; we instead must always fight to retain them. Thomas Jefferson said it succinctly: “If the nation expects to be ignorant and free…it expects what never was and never will be.” Fellow Virginian James Madison explained it this way:
A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy or perhaps both. A people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
How ironic that Virginia voters have some of the worst access to candidates’ positions of any state in the nation. Public ignorance doesn’t get the blame this time, though. The majority of Virginian candidates up for election this November have neglected to fill out the nation’s foremost position survey, Project Votesmart’s National Political Awareness Test (NPAT).
Project Votesmart launched nationally in 1992. The nonpartisan organization, created by the diverse likes of George McGovern, John McCain, Bill Frist, Michael Dukakis, and Jimmy Carter, aims to create the most comprehensive database of information on candidates bidding for office. Project Votesmart’s website features background information and incumbents’ voting records, vast …
MediaMatters reports that these two major news networks failed to report that ex-CIA officer Valerie Plame had filed a lawsuit against Dick Cheney, Scotter Libby and Karl Rove. Plame's lawsuit accuses the threesome of leaking her identity as a CIA operative, thus ending her career. This leak of Plame's career…