NEW YORK TIMES TAKES ITS LITTLE HATCHET TO A RACIAL DISCRIMINATION SUIT BY BLACK FARMERS. An article in the Times derogates a class action lawsuit against the USDA claiming what is a long-known fact, that this agency has conspired with local white racists to administer farm loans in a way to restrict opportunities for [...]
Deep and arbitrary spending cuts, part of the austerity measures hatched by Congress two years ago and known as sequestration, are beginning to take a severe toll on vulnerable Americans dependent on crucial government programs. President Obama has described the sequester as a “self-inflicted wound” on the economy that could lead to another recession. Uneducated [...]
Like the election campaigns that vaulted the individuals they celebrate into office, modern American presidential libraries have become a hotbed of influence peddling, big money, and secret donations. While the outward appearance of the libraries and museums constructed by and for former presidents are the epitome of civic pride and an homage to public service, [...]
Overwhelming public support for tighter gun laws is failing to spur action in Washington, where lawmakers are struggling to pass a “watered down”gun control bill that pro-gun groups have stuffed with measures actually loosening many restrictions on gun purchases. Five months after the Newtown tragedy that briefly united the public and their politicians into a [...]
President Obama’s proposed budget is causing all sorts of political commotion for including as its centerpiece a focus on reducing deficits that is based largely on sweeping cuts to Social Security. Crafted as a compromise to lure Republican support, the president’s proposals has instead inflamed progressives for targeting Americans who rely on safety net programs [...]
SENATE DEAL ON BACKGROUND CHECKS DOES NOTHING TO CLOSE GUN SALE LOOPHOLE. In a sign of hoe fractured the national political landscape has become on even the most widely supported of issues, cheers went up from gun control advocates after the Senate merely allowed debate on a bipartisan bill that would expand federal background [...]
CONNECTICUT ADOPTS “THE STRONGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE BILL IN THE UNITED STATES TO FIGHT GUN VIOLENCE.“ As pro-gun Republicans and Democrats wary of election prospects in red states next year combine to stall new gun regulations on Capitol Hill, some states are taking it upon themselves to crack down on lax gun laws and [...]
Political posturing has trumped science and environmental concerns in the long and tortured journey to the increasingly inevitable construction of the massive Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the US Gulf Coast. Bipartisan pressure is building on President Obama both sides await a delayed decision from the White House on whether the pipeline will [...]
Tough gun control is dead in Congress as the assault weapons ban dies on the political vine despite strong public support. Senate Democrats have pulled the plug on the most sweeping reforms proposed following the Newtown tragedy, a little more than three months after one of the worst mass shootings in American history had seemingly [...]
CLIMATE CRUSADERS “UNDER ATTACK.“ Bill Mckibben writes in Grist of the recent travails facing two of the globe’s most ardent and respected leaders of the movement to take aggressive action against climate change. NASA scientist James Hansen, arrested last month for his dogged opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, a project he says will [...]
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