Political Ideas

Here’s an example of a good political radio show. Take a listen.

By David Swanson

Sarah Palin was right and other shocking facts:

1. Looking only forward leads to a horrifying future
2. Relying only on elections gets us nowhere
3. If we have any chance it is through Congress
4. We don’t need more leadership from the President
5. We don’t need better party discipline
6. We have a monarchy again
7. We need more impeachments and greater use of the Capitol Police
8. Sarah Palin was right
9. No bill is needed read more

By David Swanson

Separating the Midwestern state of Ohio, where soda’s called “pop” and workers are sometimes allowed to unionize, from my East Coast home state of Virginia, where a governor perched on a diseased branch of my own family tree gave the nation its first right-to-work-for-less law, is nothing other than the beautiful and brutal mountains of West Virginia. As you climb those mountains headed west two things plummet to the valleys below: the employment rate and the read more

Please read this excerpt of my new book published at Alternet.

By David Swanson

I’m a progressive and you’re a progressive, but I’m starting to find reason to hope as you’re coming off a giant sugar high and plunging into the deep despair of one betrayed and scorned. What gives?

1. I don’t expect much of elections, whereas you imagine each time, contrary to all preceding evidence, that they create transformative change. If you expect elections alone to do much, then you’re guaranteed to be very excited and then very disappointed, read more

August 30, 2009

Wheaton, Maryland

Join us for the Progressive Picnic in Montgomery County!

When: Sunday August 30, 2009 2:00 PM
Donation: $15.00 per person now, $20 later
Where: 2002 Shorefield Road, Wheaton, MD 20902
Picnic Shelter “G”

Activist/Author David Swanson will discuss and sign his new book Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union. State Senators Jamie Raskin and Paul Pinsky*, Delegates Roger Manno, Tom Hucker, and Ana Sol Gutierrez, Council Members read more

By David Swanson
(with image by Michael Parenti)

Attorney General Eric Holder is addressing a war crime without addressing the wars, and is focusing on the lowest ranking participants in that crime without addressing its status as official policy established by higher ups and openly confessed to by a former president and vice president. This is bad applism, the same approach that has held a handful of recruits responsible for Abu Ghraib, claiming to thereby remove bad apples from a good system. read more

Remeber this on November 9th?

“Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone….”

Has anyone yet heard what more than a dozen of these could have been? What counts as swift around here?

With corporate thugs now assaulting Congress members to scare them out of providing anyone with healthcare, it’s worth recalling that in earlier days of this nation, assaults on Congress members would result in being held in contempt of Congress — literally held in prison. Nowadays, Congress won’t even lock up people like Rove and Cheney who defy subpoenas, so the idea of Congress doing anything to protect itself against thuggery is pretty outlandish. However, if Congress passes read more

With both Judiciary Committees (House and Senate) promising to do nothing about torture until Holder releases the OPR report, and Holder himself committed to doing nothing until he releases the OPR report, we’ve seen the OPR report predictably and endlessly delayed. While a Friday night in August has a certain attraction for releasing such a thing, why wouldn’t Holder just delay for 6 more months? Give me one good reason.

By David Swanson

In six months as president, Barack Obama has aggressively done the opposite of many specific things he explicitly and unequivocally promised as a candidate. A lot of these were things Obama’s fiercest opponents never wanted. And Obama’s fiercest supporters favor censoring this information. But if we expect public servants to be public servants, the public must know the facts, make of them what it will.

Here’s a read more

By David Swanson

The most useful tool progressive political activists have in the United States, at the local, state, and national levels, was created from scratch five years ago, and has been developed and sharpened while proving itself time and again in each and every week since. Progressive Democrats of America has stood strongly behind truly progressive, majority positions more consistently than any other activist group with national weight that I’m aware of. And at the same time, PDA read more

Attorney General Eric Holder is considering whether to prosecute torture. He shouldn’t consider it. He should appoint a special prosecutor and let him or her consider whether torturing people violates our laws against torture. You can ask Holder to do this at: 202-514-2001 or AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

More from Brad. And here Greenwald reacts to indications in WaPo that special read more

This is the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in years: Congress standing up as a branch of goverment, not a party or the other party or both parties, but a branch of government attempting to represent the people and enforce the rule of law. I’m dumbfounded.

House overwhelmingly rejects signing statement
By Walter Alarkon, The Hill

The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration read more

Voices read more

By David Swanson

The day after ramming through nearly $100 billion more for wars and $100 billion in loans to European banks through the IMF, the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, introduced a “PayGo” bill, requiring that any spending be paid for with cuts in other spending. But having this law on the books would not have stopped the previous day’s legislation. War “supplemental” bills are deemed “emergencies” and an exception read more

By David Swanson

What if you had to choose your top priority for an activist campaign to change a government policy? Would you tell everyone to call and Email and write and try to meet with and protest the president? Would all your marches be to the White House, all your petitions addressed to the president, all your talk be about what the president should do? Or would you focus on Congress instead? Or would you just generally make noise, march around on Saturdays, and hope that both the Congress read more