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

Left wing activists are pouring everything they have into stopping Bush’s policies, and are declaring victory when the President only gets through Congress a fraction of what he proposes. Many of them consider it na

What to make of the peace movement? I intend that question in two senses, including this one: what can we now build out of this movement? The first thing we must do is not let it die out as the warriors pause to reload. The surest way to prevent war is to prevent the construction of a crisis that can be sold as a reason for war. The times of pause between wars are the ideal times to push that work forward, to demand with great urgency the construction of systems of understanding, of dispute resolution, read more

The Fight for Higher Minimum Wage
CNN Financial: CNN Money Morning
April 3, 2002
Guest: David Swanson

Host: David Haffenreffer

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE
UPDATED.

DAVID HAFFENREFFER, CNNfn ANCHOR, MONEY MORNING: Most Americans would agree
that the national minimum wage of $5.15 an hour isn’t really a living wage.
But more individual cities and counties are joining a living wage movement.
And joining us now with more on all read more

Also published on democraticunderground.com

Politically, we are a nation of proud pessimists and phony optimists. We associate hope with candidacies of content-free invertebrates like Bill Clinton. Our idea of gutsy change is to root for Bill Bradley or John McCain from our couch. Our most common act of rebellion is to keep our asses on the couch on election day.

We’re defeatists and proud of it. We have no shame. We denounce politics and politicians as if we were not responsible, and we read more

Also published on democraticunderground.com

June 14, 2003

Dear Non-Voter,

I vote and you don’t, and that either makes me too gullible or you too cynical. It’s probably some of each. In a lot of general elections, you’re probably right to stay home. Any way you look at it you lose. And if some candidate offering you something you can really use is running in a third party, why bother voting for them, right?

But I want to talk to you about primaries. What do you say when someone prepared read more

See also: http://www.kucinich.us/responses_examples.htm
Below is a sampling of letters. Some are responses to media bias or meginalization. Others are creative uses of newspapers’ letters pages. Some small newspapers are open to readers expressing their views without responding to specific articles. The letters page is the most read page of many newspapers, large and small.

Young voter apathy
(Published in the Contra Costa Times 9/14/03)

This past week I spoke with three young men who told read more

Bush’s policy positions are well known and have been put into action. Each of the nine Democrats vying to be the one to send Bush packing has created a campaign website with a section laying out the candidate’s positions on the issues he or she deems important. Below is a chart showing what these 10 people’s positions are on many of the issues. A blank indicates that no information was found on their website. In a few cases, information was used from other reliable sources.

While read more