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{ Category Archives } Politicos

People, places, and news about politics.

Congratulations Randall!

Congratulations to Randall Cotton for his well-deserved article about his anti-war and local tax policy activism. I voted for the local property tax increase (aimed to help the poor) due to his activism. I don’t mind spending more money in taxes when the money will go to help those in need. Governments are in a [...]

Who will pressure Barack Obama to implement progressive policies?

Ralph Nader on Democracy Now! put President-elect Obama’s victory into perspective for Americans: Well, obviously we all congratulate Barack Obama. We wish him well. But the precursor to his election has not been very encouraging, and he has repeatedly taken up the positions of the corporate supremacists, not just his latest vote for the $700 [...]

What Do They Have to Do to Lose Your Vote?

Ralph Nader‘s running mate, Matt Gonzalez, asks “What do they have to do to lose your vote?“. Good question. What’s your breaking point? How much support for the death penalty, corporate welfare, corporate crime, saying one thing and voting differently, and silencing electoral competition will you continue to tolerate? How effectively can major-party candidates use [...]

Democracy Now! puts the corporate “debates” to shame

Today’s Democracy Now! program put to shame the corporate media and corporate-run so-called debates (run through the Commission on Public Debates) and did it in one hour (including breaks and headline news coverage). Senators Obama and McCain get plenty of time for lame topics like negative campaigning but third-party and independent candidates get a virtual [...]

Which kind of pollution do you want: Ground water or air?

Sen. Obama (D-IL) can see to them both. Both corporate US presidential candidates have been upfront about their shared allegiance to so-called “clean coal” (one of many important points on which the two major party candidates agree) but the corporate press won’t tell you what that phrase really means. On 2008 October 7, Democracy Now! [...]

Money can’t buy love, but apparently money buys litigation.

Finance Sector Gave 51 Percent More to House Bailout Backers The Center for Responsive Politics is reporting members of the House of Representatives who supported bailing out the financial sector have received 51 percent more in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance and real estate sector in their congressional careers than those who opposed the [...]

Real debates need more candidates and more views

Lawrence Lessig calls for “Open Debates”: The presidential debates are for the benefit of the public. Therefore, the right to speak about the debates ought to be “owned” by the public, not controlled by the media. “Town hall” Internet questions should be chosen by the people, not solely by the media. and expands on these [...]

Job-based health insurance premiums double while speculators profit

Democracy Now! has the scoop: (link added) In healthcare news, a new study says job-based health insurance premiums have doubled in the last decade. The Kaiser Family Foundation says the increase far out-paces the accompanying rise in inflation over the same period. Read the full report (PDF, local copy of PDF, HTML) Keep that in [...]

When AIG funds campaigns who benefits?

According to OpenSecrets.org, AIG was happy to fund Democrats and Republicans: Of all the companies making headlines this week, AIG has been the most nonpartisan in its contributions, splitting evenly the $9.7 million it has contributed over time. Sen. Chris Dodd, chair of the Senate banking committee, has racked up the most from AIG, with [...]

Nader: I predicted Fannie/Freddie bailout 8 years ago

“Nader Rips Mae and Mac,” declared the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal on June 16, 2000. “Ralph Nader, warning of a potential taxpayer bailout similar to the savings and loan crisis, urged lawmakers to cut government benefits to mortgage-market giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – which he called ‘poster children for corporate welfare.’” This year Nader, [...]