Published in “The Wealth Inequality Reader” by Dollars and Sense and United for a Fair Economy

Flame-Broiled Shark
May 2005 By David Swanson

If someone told you that a bunch of low-income people, most of them African-American or Latino, most of them women, most of them elderly, had been victimized by a predatory mortgage lender that stripped them of much of their equity or of their entire homes, you might not be surprised. But if I told you that these women and men had gotten together read more

March 16, 2005

Dear Italy, forgive us. Bring your dear soldiers home from Iraq. Teach them about peace. Teach us in the United States about peace. We need to learn from you.

I spent some terrific years of my life in your bel paese, and one of the first things that caught my attention was your humility and your cosmopolitanism. When I was a young exchange student in Italy I had the pleasure of making myself liked, of making myself almost a movie star, simply by telling people that I was an American. read more

See Photo Album on This Site.

“They want the rubber stamp of dictatorship,” said Senator Chuck Schumer.

“They want one-party rule,” said Senator Patrick Leahy.

“An ill wind blows through this country. Your freedom of speech is in jeopardy,” said Senator Bob Byrd. “The opponents of the filibuster, the opponents of free speech say we don’t need 217 years of American history.”

Senators Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, and Hillary read more

PHOTOS HERE

March 18, 2005

March 18, 2005 — Twenty-two students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., stopped eating four days ago. They have resorted to a hunger strike after years of less drastic attempts to persuade the university to pay all of its workers a living wage. How long will they go without food? “As long as it takes,” is the answer that at least some of them give.

Mary Nagle is one of a half dozen students organizing events every day to assist the hunger strikers. read more

March 20, 2005

Listen to audio

In an attempt to call the attention of the United States Congress to the plight of poorer countries, a coalition of anti-poverty organizations has launched a new campaign called “Feeding Tubes for the Third World.”

The member organizations of the FTTW, http://www.fttw.com, have each attempted for years to gain the attention of an uninterested US government. Staff members of more than one of them read more

March 22, 2005
Has anyone noticed that the more the Bush Administration and its corporate allies promote their plan to partially privatize Social Security, the more the public opposes it? Is it any wonder the President kept his proposals vague until after the election?

A Harris poll released this week found the Bush proposal for Social Security opposed by 58 percent and approved by 35, while proposals on five less-talked-about issues had support or mixed results. Newsweek’s findings are read more

March 25. 2005
I think Progressive Democrats of America owes a thanks to Lance Selfa for his March 25th article in Socialist Worker predicting that we in PDA will not manage to move the Democratic Party to the left.
http://www.socialistworker.org/2005-1/536/536_07_PDA.shtml

The warning of the difficulty, and of where we can easily go wrong, is helpful.

Selfa began his article with these words: “In a recent fundraising appeal on behalf of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), Global Exchange read more

March 25, 2005

See Photo Album on This Site

It’s safe to say that more useful information was conveyed to those hungry for it Thursday night in the Jack Morton Auditorium at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., than has been conveyed in the entire oeuvre of CNN’s Crossfire, which is filmed in the same location.

On the 40th anniversary of the first teach-in on the Vietnam War, the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) hosted a teach-in on the War on Iraq. C-Span aired it live. read more

March 31, 2005
By David Swanson, Published by the Black Commentator
The U.S. Senate has passed a dream bill for credit card and financial service companies that, if passed by the House, will land millions of American families in debt slavery. Rather than being able to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and make a difficult new start, families and individuals will be placed on long-term payment plans to credit card companies, companies that will take their houses, their cars, their child-support read more

April 1, 2005

“April Fools! We’re not really going to wreck the bankruptcy system and turn families over to the gentle mercies of credit card companies! We just wanted to see how extreme we could get and have the media still believe it!”

That’s what I’d like to hear the United States Senate announce today, but I won’t hold my breath.

When a majority of U.S. Senators, including 19 Democrats, voted to pass the bankruptcy bill, some of them may have thought that no read more