I’m chary about reviewing the work of other writers: I never read a book I didn’t like, and I never met a author I didn’t admire (or at least envy). And when ARK MAGAZINE (official publication of the National Organizing Alliance) asked me to review books by four friends , I knew I was about to get neck deep in a small muddy if I dug in with my usual critical shovel.  Alas, I came up dirtless — these are all must-reads, not only because of superb content and good writing, but because they are written by people who were all organizers at some point in their lives.  I urge you to buy them, lest the authors be forced to give up their inside-jobs- with-no-heavy-lifting and return to their halcyon days of cheap motels and Don Martel wine. (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

A recent report by Citizens for Tax Justice says the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy will cost us over $2 trillion over the period 2001-2010, with half of the benefits going to the richest 5 percent of taxpayers.  I’m no math genius, but even I can figure their half comes to about $1 trillion dollars.  Holy cow — that’s almost exactly the ten-year cost of the health care plan just passed by the House of Representatives!  I’ve got an idea: let’s get our money back by sticking the rich with the total tab for health care reform, while we restore some much-needed progressivity to the federal income tax, and give our economy a huge boost in the process. (More)

Comments (7) | Digg It

What to do with the populist anger rising up against the corporate skanks who wrecked our economy? We should channel it into passing the Employee Free Choice Act and push the power fulcrum back towards the people who make our economy work.

There are lots of good arguments for the Employee Free Choice Act. There’s the MORAL argument that every American should have the freedom to join a union without their employer harassing, intimidating or terminating them for their temerity. Then there’s the MONEY argument that says we can help lift ourselves out of the worse recession since the 1930s by empowering workers to bargain up their wages and regain their capacity for spending and investing. For me, it’s the AIG argument, namely that strong unions are the best leverage we have for controlling the corporations, their overpaid execs, and their political toadies who chucked our economy in the dumpster. (More)

Comments (1) | Digg It

Who profits from mortgage foreclosures? I rarely look at the classifieds, or the “want-ads” as we used to call them. I have a job, a home, a spouse and a car, so I have no “wants.” Yesterday, however, the classified section of the Washington Post fell out on the floor as I was jumping up and down and screaming about another gratuitous attack on my Superhero, Capt. Obama. I couldn’t help noticing the section was as thin as grease on a hot skillet, or that the front page and 14 of the 16 pages in the section were filled rule-to-rule with legal ads proclaiming the auction of foreclosed homes. With newspaper advertising revenues nose-down and more papers going belly-up, I’m sure the Post welcomes the money. But a weird thought occurred to me: will the daily newspaper business possibly fly out of financial frailty on the wings of a brand-new industry, namely the growing business of advertising and selling pre-owned dreams? (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

There’s a terrific labor musical in previews at the Imperial Theatre on Broadway — the stage version of “Billy Elliot.”  It’s set in a coal mining village in England in 1984 and in addition to chronicling the rise of a young male ballet star, it shares the story of the longest coal strike in British history. Conservative Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher refuses to nationalize a failing coal industry, 300,000 miners hit the streets, only to have their strike broken a long, violent year later.  Today, England imports most of its coal and there are only 1,000 working miners left.  Here’s my question: if we refuse to nationalize the U.S. banking industry, can we count on eliminating all but 1,000 of the greedy bank executives who’ve all but bankrupted our country? (More)

Comments (2) | Digg It

Up front, let me acknowledge that I stole the phrase “The End of An Error” from our friends Joe and Marthena Cowart, and Myra MacPherson. They’re using it as the theme for a pre-inaugural party, and it was just too juicy a plum not to pick (high-hanging fruit, guys). Also, I want to confess that I missed President Bush’s farewell to harms address last Thursday night on network television. But I printed out a transcript, read it over several times, and I’ve concluded we didn’t make an error: we wanted another president we could look down on, and Bush was there for us, 24/7. (More)

Comments (0) | Digg It

The Bush auto bailout package provides welcome, if flawed relief from a calamity that could cost us 3 million jobs. But the hypocrisy of the Republicans is now exposed with the release of a report revealing that foreign auto manufacturers in our country have been feeding at the public trough for many, many years. And most of their plants are located in southern states represented by the ringleaders of the Senate GOP whack job on the U.S. auto industry. (More)

Comments (7) | Digg It

Thanks to several weeks of gutsy guidance by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House of Representatives last night approved $14 billion in loans for our battered and bruised auto industry. This morning, the Senate takes over. Barring some unforseen changes, the Republican minority will successfully filibuster the legislation, shove General Motors into bankruptcy and drive our economy into a deeper ditch. Speaker Nancy needs to abandon all hope for non-partisan comity when the new Congress convenes in January and retrofit her elbows with razor blades. The rest of us should get out our Freddy-knives for two of the architects of the coming Depression who are up for re-election in 2010 — GOP Senators Jim “No Gay or Single Mother Teachers” DeMint from South Carolina, David “Call me a Madam” Vitter from Louisiana, and 76-year-old “Mouth of the South” Richard Shelby from Alabama.  (More)

Comments (0) | Digg It