Political Ideas

How to Not Fix the Filibuster

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Leaving the 41-senator filibuster in place but requiring that they run their mouths (and some of us have to listen) is not exactly the kind of Change most of us Hope for.  Nor is it supported by the Constitution, any other law, any treaty, any rule necessary to the functioning of our government, anything or anyone we just voted for, or any public opinion poll.  The proper thing to do with the filibuster is to eliminate it, which 51 senators can do at the start of the session if they read more

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There's a Real Debate With Debating in It Next Tuesday

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Next Tuesday, October 23rd, 9 p.m. ET, there will be a different sort of presidential debate.  It’ll be in Chicago, hosted by http://freeandequal.org and I’ll be there in Chicago covering it for Al Jazeera.  Six candidates have been invited to participate, and four have accepted: Jill Stein, Rocky Anderson, Gary Johnson, and Virgil Goode.  The moderator will be Larry King.  You can submit questions here.

I know we’ve all thrilled to the body-language and tone read more

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What Senator George McGovern Got Right

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Listen to my interview of Senator George McGovern four and a half years ago HERE.

Six years ago, I wrote the following about McGovern’s plan to end the then-extremely-deadly war on Iraq:

Former Senator George McGovern has co-authored a book with William Polk titled “Out of Iraq: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now.” This book does one of the better jobs I’ve seen of explaining the historical context of the disaster we’ve created in Iraq. But, more importantly, it proposes read more

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Talk Nation Radio: Slow Democracy Is Better Democracy

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Susan Clark discusses her new book, authored with Woden Teachout, “Slow Democracy: Rediscovering Community, Bringing Decision Making Back Home.”  It’s a rich and persuasive argument against centralization and privatization, and for the advantages of local democracy with real powers of self governance.

Here’s a review.

Total run time: 29:00

Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.

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Writing Down Rants

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In an age when the “conservative” political party cracks jokes about the destruction of the only planet we have to live on, and the other party — which actually holds that 90% of governing power that now resides in the White House — gets a free pass on its record of destroying that planet because the other party cracks jokes about it, cool dispassionate political science textbookese is out of place.  I’ll care what Rational Man would do under each of read more

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Should More of the Blood Be on the Train Tracks?

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At this year’s Veterans For Peace convention in Miami, VFP President Leah Bolger challenged members to take risks: “Many of you have risked a lot for war.  What will you risk for peace?”

One VFP member, S. Brian Willson, gave his legs and part of his skull for peace.  It was 1987, and the U.S. military was shipping weapons to port, in order to ship them to El Salvador and Nicaragua, where they would be used to slaughter the people of those nations, where, in Willson’s read more

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