Jim Hightower from Creators Syndicate

The Cost of Living Extremely Well for 01/28/2008

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Time for anther peek into the "Lifestyles of the Rich . . . and Cranky."

The vast majority of Americans -- those making $50,000 a year or less -- are stretching to make ends meet these days, but I'll bet they never pause to think about how hard it is for their fellow citizens who're immensely rich. Luckily, we have Forbes magazine's "Cost of Living Extremely Well Index" to ...

Updated: Mon Jan 28, 2008

Who'll Represent Reality? for 01/29/2008

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Here's a statistic that George W., most presidential candidates and the majority of Congress critters are not aware of, much less dealing with, even though this statistic affects millions of American families: $4 a gallon.

That's not for gasoline. That's what the cost of a gallon of milk is approaching. Milk prices have jumped by more than 20 percent in the past year, eggs are up by 44 percent ...

Updated: Tue Jan 29, 2008

Banking on a Bailout for 03/05/2008

Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

What's good for Bank of America is good for America, right?

Well, that's what this huge banking conglomerate is telling the White House and Congress. These bankers have quietly been circulating a proposal in Washington that they've dubbed the "Homeowners Preservation Corp." They assert that they are concerned about the little folks who've been caught up in the subprime mortgage ...

Updated: Wed Mar 05, 2008

No Punishment for Exxon Malfeasance? for 03/12/2008

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

How time flies. For example, think back to 1989. Hillary Clinton was the obscure first lady of Arkansas. Roger Clemens was pitching for the Boston Red Sox and had never even heard of steroids. And the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound, causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Nineteen years later, Exxon has merged into ExxonMobil, and it has prospered enormous ...

Updated: Wed Mar 12, 2008

Getting to the Meat of the Problem for 03/19/2008

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's ironic that people who hate government — corporate interests and right-wing ideologues — are now in charge of running it. Not surprisingly, they do a sorry job, either because they're incompetent or they just don't want government to work. Putting them in charge, however, is more than ironic, it is downright dangerous for the larger public, which counts on a vigorous government ...

Updated: Wed Mar 19, 2008

Cut-Rate Labor for Any Job for 03/26/2008

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Just when you think that surely the offshoring craze has peaked, here come more stories of "Globalization Gone Wild."

McClatchy Co., the California-based newspaper chain, has announced that it is outsourcing some of its jobs to India. Copyediting and design work for certain sections of its Miami Herald newspaper are being shipped to a New Delhi corporation with the mind-bogglin ...

Updated: Wed Mar 26, 2008

America's Ongoing Rebellion for 04/02/2008

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

There's an unfortunate tendency in our country for autocratic officials to clamp down on our fundamental rights of free speech and assembly — especially when the Powers That Be don't like what we are gathering together to say. On the other hand, our country is blessed with rebels who have a fortunate tendency to push back against the autocrats.

At the 2004 Republican National Conve ...

Updated: Wed Apr 02, 2008

Big-Spending George for 04/09/2008

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

George W. likes to pose as the Texas president — in the rough-hewn, rancher model of Lyndon Johnson.

However, George isn't actually a Texan — he was born in Connecticut, went to an East Coast prep school and to Ivy League colleges, and he summered in Kennebunkport at his family's oceanfront estate. Nor is he a rancher, as Lyndon was. Yes, George bought a ranchette to boost hi ...

Updated: Wed Apr 09, 2008

Why Not "Drink Local"? for 04/16/2008

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In a triumph of marketing over reasoning, the bottled water industry has turned us into conspicuously silly consumers.

Controlled by a handful of global conglomerates (such as Coca-Cola and Nestle), the water industry has created the fantasy that if it's in a bottle, it's purer than what comes out of the tap.

But wait — the Environmental Protection Agency stringently regulat ...

Updated: Wed Apr 16, 2008

The Corporate McCain for 04/23/2008

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Who is John McCain? His spin-meisters paint a picture of him as a straight-talker, Washington outsider, maverick reformer, determined foe of the special interests, champion of the average Joe.

Gosh, what a guy! Only, that guy is not the real John McCain. The real one is the corporate suit who has been a faithful servant to the corporate interests in his many years as head of the Senate C ...

Updated: Wed Apr 23, 2008

A Special Break for Corporate Criminals for 04/30/2008

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If you got caught robbing a bank, chances are excellent that you'd be facing some serious time in the pokey. But what if a bank robs you?

Corporate executives and their lawyers like to claim that a corporation is a "person" with all of the rights of an actual human being. Yet when one of these outfits goes bad and gets caught violating laws, then the lawyers drop the pretense o ...

Updated: Wed Apr 30, 2008

Spending Your Stimulus Check for 05/07/2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

I'm totally excited that our tax rebate checks are coming! Washington has turned into Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, all rolled into one, now delivering $300 to $600 checks to nearly every one of us.

The idea is that we'll all rush out and buy, buy, buy — thus stimulating the economy, creating jobs and causing bluebirds of happiness to trill with delight. Wal-Ma ...

Updated: Wed May 07, 2008

God and Oil Prices for 05/14/2008

Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At Exxon headquarters in Houston, management refers to the executive suite as "The god pod." But while the honchos of the world's biggest and richest oil corporation might think of themselves as holy omnipotents, most Americans have more demonic thoughts about them — and they definitely consider today's gas prices ungodly.

So I was not totally surprised to learn recently ...

Updated: Wed May 14, 2008

Herbert Hoover Revisited for 05/21/2008

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The official story of the Great Depression is that it began with the stock market crash of 1929. Wrong.

Depressions don't instantaneously explode in a country, they creep up. The big financial crash was preceded by years of financial manipulation by Wall Street hucksters, wage declines for the majority of workers, a growing epidemic of farm losses and malign neglect by President Herbert ...

Updated: Wed May 21, 2008

Who Benefits From Cloning? for 05/28/2008

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Once again, science marches on — trampling right over us in the false name of progress and efficiency.

The latest advance of science is the cloning of animals. "We can make every cow precisely like its progenitor," exult the lab techs working for corporate cloners. "This eliminates uncertainty in meat production, for every cut can be the exact same texture, taste and ...

Updated: Wed May 28, 2008

McCain Walks With Gramm for 06/04/2008

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"Tell me with whom you walk, and I'll tell you who you are," goes the old adage.

By that wisdom, John McCain is Phil Gramm, which is another way of saying he's Wall Street and corporate America. Not only has McCain filled his campaign staff with big-business lobbyists, but he's also put such corporate-minded characters as Gramm by his side as top policy advisors, walking in ste ...

Updated: Wed Jun 04, 2008

Death by Privatization for 06/11/2008

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Jan. 2, yet another American soldier died in Iraq. But Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, a highly decorated Green Beret, didn't die from a roadside bomb or an al-Qaeda sniper. He was killed by his shower.

More accurately, Maseth's killer was privatization. That's the out-of-control policy of turning over essential military support systems to a sprawling, unregulated network of for-profit corpor ...

Updated: Wed Jun 11, 2008

The Enron Loophole and Your Gas Prices for 06/18/2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

In only two years, the price of crude oil — which accounts for 75 percent of gasoline prices — has more than doubled, from $60 a barrel to $140. Why?

The biggest cause is not OPEC, or increased demand from China. Instead, it's that same fun bunch that brought us the collapse in today's housing market: rich speculators, working through global investment banks and hedge funds.< ...

Updated: Wed Jun 18, 2008

Rewriting Some Patriot Act Stupidity for 06/25/2008

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Empirical evidence notwithstanding, stupidity is not a requirement for membership in the U.S. Congress. Also, stupid acts by Congress do not have to be forever.

Witness the infamous, freedom-busting, Orwellian piece of legislative stupidity known as the Patriot Act. Passed by a panicked Congress right after 9-11, and reauthorized by a cowed Congress in 2006, this thing empowers the FBI t ...

Updated: Wed Jun 25, 2008

Throwing Our Troops to the Sharks for 07/02/2008

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At a time when American field commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan say they need every single soldier they can get hold of, thousands of our battle-ready troops are being held back in the United States. Why not deploy them? Because the Pentagon has hung this label on them: "Security risk."

Ohhhhh. That conjures up images of soldiers unwilling to fight — maybe because they h ...

Updated: Wed Jul 02, 2008