On Sunday, Aug. 18, 2002, the Washington Post ran an editorial, an ombudsman column, and three op-eds about a potential U.S. attack on Iraq, as well as two related articles. One article, placed on the top of the front page, reported on a memo that “Defense” Secretary Rumsfeld sent to the White House and the media. “Defense” officials were worried that countries such as Iraq or Iran could use cruise missile technology to attack “U.S. installations or the American homeland.” read more

A six-year struggle by ACORN, SEIU, and allies in a living wage campaign to raise the minimum wage in New Orleans ended on September 4 when the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled that only the state, not localities, can set wage standards. New Orleans would have been the first city in the country to enact a citywide minimum wage, a proposal that was overwhelmingly approved by public vote on February 2 and upheld by district court on March 25. Currently 86 cities and counties in the country have living read more

I don’t think Visa and MasterCard wanted me in their focus group, but then they probably don’t want me in their country either. They practically write bills for Congress, such as the bankruptcy bill that might be voted on this month, and yet they still seem to want to know what people think. Either that, or they’re doing “push polling” – five of the eight people in the focus group I was part of on September 5 worked for Congress members, at least one of them read more

I got an Email from Steve Forbes on September 20 titled “Getting Rich is Your Best Revenge!” I found it much more distasteful than the ones I get from Nigerian and other non-U.S. royalty. The last I’d heard from Steve Forbes was when I saw him as a presidential candidate on TV proposing a Flat Tax as a solution for foreign relations, public education, housing, and weight loss. Why was he sending me this personal Email now to help me, in particular, get rich? And against whom read more

Also published on Alternet at www.alternet.org

Also published at Democratic Underground at http://www.democraticunderground.com.

On Tuesday, September 24, 2002, the Census Bureau is expected to release its 2001 data on poverty and income. No doubt we will see an increase in the number of families living below the so-called poverty line, and no doubt part of the explanation that experts will give for this is the continuing shift in our economy away from high-paying manufacturing jobs and toward read more

What if there were a way to prevent a war on Iraq, know with certainty what the Iraqi government is up to, increase funding to a wide range of important programs, and let the Bush administration know that there are limits to its power? What if a single coordinated action could accomplish all of that?

I think that one can. Here’s my plan. It requires that you sacrifice some time, that you devote yourself fulltime to this for a matter of weeks or months. And it requires putting your life at read more

Also published at AlterNet at http://www.alternet.org and in the Tacoma Reporter.

The Associated Press recently fired a “reporter” named Christopher Newton after learning that he had invented people and institutions for his articles for two-and-a-half years. Imaginary sources at imaginary and real organizations and universities provided quotes so boring that no one paid much attention. As Jack Shafer at Slate has pointed out, it wouldn’t have made much difference if the sources read more

The Washington Post on Sunday, Nov. 10, printed an article (not a column) by David Von Drehle “reporting” on the alleged fact that snobby liberal elites lost the recent elections because folksy dumb guys like George W. are much more likable.

Von Drehle didn’t discuss any particular election, didn’t name a single liberal elitist (except Adlai Stevenson, who apparently lost to Eisenhower for the same reason), and didn’t even name a single likable down-to-earth Republican, read more

Are you scared of terrorism? Do color-coded days of danger make you anxious for your children? I’m not going to tell you that your concern is understandable but that attacking another country would be counterproductive.

No, I think it’s more important to tell you that your fear is shameful, that it is exactly what the terrorists want, and that acting out of fear is what can lead to acceptance of quick and comforting beliefs that prove counterproductive.

Let’s go to the root of read more

Doug Besharov’s tastefully illustrated column in the Dec. 8 Outlook section of the Washington Post suggested that our government is giving poor people too much food. They’re not hungry, and yet we’re stuffing their faces and making them fat, he says.

In reality, many Americans are hungry (3 percent of households and rising, according to the conservative calculations of the U.S. Department of Agriculture), and declining wages and insufficient government assistance can explain read more

I helped kill an innocent family. I helped destroy people’s medicine. I helped support terrorism.

Sad to say, I did all this without buying any drugs. I did it by working, earning money, and paying taxes.

But I’m not worried, because we now have a majority leader in the U.S. Senate who understands my concern. I’m not happy about my work going to fund the Pentagon’s attacks and provocations around the world. I had been considering stopping working, since I don’t know read more

Also published at Democratic Underground at http://www.democraticunderground.com and at Bartcop Reader at http://www.bartcopnation.com.

Jan. 19, 2002

I listened to Bill Gates’ Dad talk last week at a D.C. hotel at an event put together by United for a Fair Economy. He wanted to further limit the number of estates touched by the estate tax and to make sure we recognized the benefits to the country of allowing a small number of people to live in a world of tremendous comfort unlike anything read more

If you have a terrific idea for a change in public policy that you’re convinced will benefit millions of people, but you don’t personally know any of the people it will benefit, what would be the harm in inventing a fictional family and presenting them to the public as real potential beneficiaries? Wouldn’t you be promoting the idea of democracy and public citizenship, even though it was a lie? Wouldn’t real families make themselves known soon enough and your made-up one read more

Also printed at Democratic Underground at http://www.democraticunderground.com.

Yesterday afternoon three elderly women out of a group of 50 protesters were arrested in Illinois Republican Party headquarters in Chicago where they had settled in with blankets and declared that they were spending the night. These families, many without heat in their homes, were demanding that President Bush release money for energy assistance and not slash funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program read more

On the evening of February 13, the Town Council of Cheverly voted not to consider passing any resolutions on national or international issues. It did so in response to requests from citizens that it pass resolutions opposing the PATRIOT Act and the proposed war on Iraq, something that dozens of other localities have done.

Not only will the Town Council of Cheverly not take a position one way or another on either of those matters, but it has now barred itself from ever considering taking a position read more

Recent experiments in game theory, and specifically the finding that so many people do not behave in the way that game theory says that they “should,” shed light on the failures of economic theories, including the whole idea of the “market.”

In both academic game theory and the common idea of the economic market, people are imagined as motivated by only one goal, increasing their wealth. And they are imagined as viewing all others as competitors and rivals with the same read more

Who should be in Congress? Picking willing people at random would be an improvement over what we have now, but only because it would get around the legal bribery system. Short of eliminating that system, and even if we do eliminate it, there are changes that should be made to the Constitutional requirements for office holders and to the oath they affirm.

Currently representatives and senators must be at least 25 and 30 years old, respectively, U.S. citizens for 7 and 9 years, and inhabitants of read more

My wife, who teaches preschool, has complained to me that she’s constantly telling her kids to do things that presidents refuse to, such as “Don’t fight,” “Treat them the way you would want to be treated,” “Don’t accuse them of something, just tell them what you want them to do,” “Say you’re sorry,” “Don’t hit, use your words,” etc. She finds it frustrating that TV news is constantly depicting our “leaders” read more

Also published at Democratic Underground.

I don’t believe the President is at ease.

George W. Bush’s staff assures us that he is calm, serene, and confident despite massive global resistance to his policies, because he knows he is right. If this were true, the arrogance and lack of respect for popular opinion would be astounding. The lack of doubt, hesitation, or humility might even be called, as some have called it, psychopathic.

Far be it from me to suggest that our President is sane, read more

Also published at Democratic Underground at http://www.democraticunderground.com.

Two quotations first.

Washington Post, March 27, 2003:
Special interest organizations of every stripe are having trouble pushing their messages through the fog of war. It has been especially tough for the liberal activist nonprofits touting environmentalism and other causes unrelated to the dominant story. Thus the Washington-based public relations firm Fenton Communications, which has been flacking for left-leaning read more