Political Ideas

World History Quiz: Only 1 Question

This will be a very short pop quiz. Post your answers below.

Who is this person?

He’s the most powerful person ever.
He has sole command of the most powerful and profitable military and death squads ever.
He’s the most corporate national leader ever.
He spent more money to get into office than anyone else ever.
He is the focus of a huge cult of personality, patriotism, partisanship, and obedience.
He oversees the most high-tech illegal spying apparatus ever.
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In L.A. This Weekend: Swanson, Hedges, Chappell, Garrett

Upcoming public events:

Saturday, April 30, 2011
3:15 – 5:15 pm Book signing at Los Angeles Times Festival of Books ( http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks ), at the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace ( http://www.icujp.org ) booth, Booth 921.
University of Southern California

7:30 – 9:30 pm “The Costs of War” with David Swanson, Chris Hedges, Paul Chappell, and Lewis Logan, moderated by Ameena Mirza Qazi.
United University Church at the read more

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Why a Dog Is More Qualified for Congress Than Robert Hurt

The Charlottesville Daily Progress, to its credit, did something that I don’t think it or most small-town newspapers have done before, and certainly have not done often: it wrote about the local congress member’s position on military spending. Sure it’s where half of our income taxes go, but it’s hardly ever mentioned.

Hurt told the paper that he wants to cut spending, but not in the military: “I think everybody would agree that national defense is a top priority read more

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Is Israel's Rightwing in Eric Cantor's District?

In May 2009, Congressmen Eric Cantor (R., Va.) and Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) wrote to President Barack Obama about U.S. policy toward Israel. Their staff sent the letter as a PDF but forgot to change the name of the file to something other than “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf.”

AIPAC stands for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group widely recognized as one of the most effective at lobbying Congress, and a group that consistently promotes the positions of the rightwing read more

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How Americans Can Get Up and Stand Up

In December 2009, psychologist Bruce Levine published an article at Alternet called “Are Americans a Broken People?” His timing couldn’t have been better. Americans of good will and bad analysis were suffering a severe fit of Obamanation withdrawal. The article was reposted everywhere, commented on endlessly, and responded to voluminously. (This was my response.) Levine has now developed his article into an important book called “Get Up, Stand Up.”

Setting aside read more

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Did You Just Call Me a Socialist?

On Friday on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, congress members spoke in defense of Medicare, Social Security, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other programs that by almost anyone’s definition are socialist, programs that were denounced as socialist by opponents of their passage in decades past, programs that would not have been created without the efforts of socialists and the Socialist Party.

The debate screeched to a halt, however, because an opponent of the Congressional read more

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Listen to Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox this Sunday

Dear Friend/Supporter

Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox wants to extend our deepest sympathy with the people of Japan after the quake and tsunami last week. We also fervently hope that Japan does not suffer another nuclear disaster.

Why nuclear power plants are built on or near fault lines when it is a very filthy energy, anyway, is beyond belief!

The president of this country is pro-nuclear power and pro-off shore drilling. All of the billions of dollars in damage, loss read more

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Michigan Fascism Not New in DC

Michigan governors aren’t breaking entirely new ground in the ongoing U.S. collapse into fascism. Sure, they’ll be able to overthrow local elected governments and install cronies and corporations to rule over Americans without the pretense of public servants mediating. But the president of the United States can already do that to the entire country. I wonder if anyone remembers these lines from Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s articles of impeachment for George W. Bush:

“In read more

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You Might Be a Transpartisan If . . .

A quick glossary:

Partisan: a loyal supporter of the Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or other party, whether through ignorance or willingness to compromise.

Independent: an isolated member of the majority.

Bipartisan: a subspecies of the Democratic Partisan native to Washington, D.C.

Nonpartisan: someone content with no representation in exchange for no taxation.

Antipartisan: One who would transfer power from parties to people.

Transpartisan: an American interested in introducing humanity read more

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