June 2002 Page

June 30, 2002
  • Why WorldCom Deserved to Die - I mentioned a couple of days ago my satisfaction at MCI/WorldCom's demise. Let me elaborate some more links on why... MORE...
  • Killing to Raise the Dow - How sick can you get? Larry Kudlow, former Reagan official, is now advocating that we start a war with Iraq... MORE...

    June 28, 2002
  • Through Many, One - Kevin of LeanLeft.com argues that the problem with vouchers is that the particular schools will teach only one kind of... MORE...
  • Leo v. Vouchers - Leo Casey (a dedicated education advocate at the AFT) makes extensive responses to my voucher discussion. His main points are:... MORE...
  • Scalia- Grill Judicial Nominees - Over in the Senate, Chuck Schumer has been saying that he will only approve judges who publicly outline their judicial... MORE...
  • Hauser v. Vouchers - Jeff Hauser has a number of points against the voucher decision: "in Cleveland, legislators knew that practically all recipients of... MORE...

    June 27, 2002
  • Treaty Declared U.S. Not Christian - I was intrigued to find that the founding fathers signed a Treaty of Tripoli that specifically declared that the "Government... MORE...
  • Bush's Piss-Poor TX Education Record - Just an education fest on the blog today (and I didn't even touch the drug testing in schools decision), but... MORE...
  • Liberals Against Free Speech - A rush on Court rulings on this last day of the session, but a really odd 5-4 split on whether... MORE...
  • A Rightwinger Support for Pledge Decision - A good rightwing radio host's analysis on the 9th Circuit Pledge decision which gets the legal issues right.... MORE...
  • In Praise of Vouchers - In upholding the constitutionality of school vouchers going to religious schools, the Supreme Court made the right decision. I may... MORE...
  • Edison Schools Down the Tube? - It looks like Edison Corporation, the company designed to run public schools on a for-profit basis, is rapidly moving towards... MORE...
  • Ending Tax-Funded Union Busting - New York State looks set to bar use of state funds by private companies to fight unionization. Like a similiar... MORE...

    June 26, 2002
  • Knocking the Pledge - The GOP is already foaming at the mouth over the 9th Circuit's ruling that "under God" in the Pledge of... MORE...
  • Ding Dong WorldComs Dead - WorldCom's impending death by bankruptcy and lawsuit is a danger sign for the economy and a tragedy for its workers,... MORE...
  • GOP protect Rich in Cal - Extending their defense of the wealthy locally, the minority GOP in California is using the two-thirds requirements for budget passage... MORE...
  • Why Liberal Foundations Suck - Robert Kuttner spoke at a meeting of rightwing foundations and their clients and has this report. For those who don't... MORE...
  • Clarity on Moral Clarity - Max rightly felt I hadn't captured his Middle East "moral clarity" intent well. I should have emphasized that he was... MORE...
  • Legalizing Napster Cyberwar - Give the Recording Industry credit; they are at least getting hip to the idea that they can't sue their customers... MORE...

    June 25, 2002
  • Moral Clarity on Terrorism? - Maxspeak is spending the week trying to find moral clarity among the WarBloggers. I wish him luck. But while I... MORE...
  • Propaganda RX Bus Trip from Canada - Check out this story abut a bus trip bringing Canadians to Maine for treatment, a not coincidental mirror to bus... MORE...

    June 24, 2002
  • More GOP Race Baiting - Here is more race-baiting on judicial nominees by a group called the African American Republican Leadership Council . They actually... MORE...
  • Bizarro Court Contradictions - Inconsistencies in Supreme Court doctrines are hardly novel, but rarely do you get them displayed so dramatically on the same... MORE...
  • Reviving Labor - For insight into the challenges facing labor unions for reviving their strength, read this article by Peter Olney, one of... MORE...
  • Crime Driven by Economy - Crime jumped dramatically last year. Since cities and states didn't drop en masse all their "three strikes" and "broken windows"... MORE...

    June 23, 2002
  • GOP Plays Race Card - The GOP whines about racial politics but they consistently "use the race card" with their public spokespeople. The irony is... MORE...

    June 21, 2002
  • More Federalist Hypocrisy - One more example of the conservatives on the Court wanting to preempt state law where they can weaken protections for... MORE...

    June 20, 2002
  • Bush to Veterans, Drop Dead - Well, Bush loves war, but seems to dislike veterans, or at least those that are disabled and needing help. Unbelieveably,... MORE...
  • The Future of Lefty Radio - Salon has a good indepth piece on the past and future of Pacifica radio, the five station leftwing radio network... MORE...
  • Dems on "Homeland" Union-Busting - The Washington Times has a story, Democrats call terror bill 'ruse' to fire civil workers, that follows up on Bush's... MORE...
  • Auditors Selling Tax Fraud Advice - What's the difference between corporate America and the mafia? Mob leaders are held accountable for failing to pay taxes. The... MORE...

    June 19, 2002
  • Open Source Office Software - Microsoft is running into new trouble in the courtroom, but it may be facing even more serious problems as a... MORE...
  • New Mega$ Liberal Think Tank - Wall Street Journal reports that Bill Gates, Ted Turner and George Soros plan to create a big dollar 'Vast Left... MORE...
  • GOP Pushing $4000 Drug "Benefit" - A House panel on a partisan vote passed a prescription drug plan that would cost seriously ill elderly over $4000... MORE...
  • Conservative Federalist Hypocrisy - Jeff Hauser commented on yesterday's securities regulation post: "One big story here is a disproportionately GOP group (I presume) practicing... MORE...

    June 18, 2002
  • The Decline of Doonesbury - Reason magazine has a very interesting autopsy of the decline of the Doonesbury strip. As a big fan of Gerry... MORE...
  • Securities Reform- Let's Weaken State Regulation - The so-far largely toothless securities regulation reforms puttering through Congress may have one major effect-- they may gut the power... MORE...
  • AZ Judges Attack Public Financing - Like Massachusetts, Arizona has an extensive system of public financing for state elections. Unfortunately, state judges there just struck down... MORE...

    June 17, 2002
  • Home Depot Cuts Off Military Supplies - In a bizarre move, Home Depot has told its 1,400 stores not to do business with the U.S. government or... MORE...

    June 16, 2002
  • Defending Nader (?!!) - Geez- my lefty Nader apologist friends would find it hilarious that I am being criticized for being insufficiently critical of... MORE...
  • Czechs Reject Right - As the Europan core responds to global economic instability with xenophobia, developing countries and Eastern European countries are boosting the... MORE...

    June 15, 2002
  • Nader & Grover Meeting - Some lefties like Eric Alterman have been slamming Nader for meeting with the rightwing Grover Norquist-led Wednesday group. While I... MORE...
  • Reading Wired - Well, this post is going to be my monthly meandering through the wilds of this month's Wired Magazine, always a... MORE...

    June 14, 2002
  • Moving left- first Brazil, now Argentina - Even as Europe may be moving right politically, latin america is throwing off the shackles of neoliberalism. In Brazil, left... MORE...
  • Soccer World Cup as Globalist Plot - Folks have got to check out this thread at Free Republic where they are actually seriously debating, Football aka Futbol... MORE...
  • Homeland Security as Union Busting - In a USA TODAY article, unions have raised concerns that Bush will use the reorganization of agencies to bust federal... MORE...
  • Daschle Buries Another Tax Giveaway - Having killed the estate tax giveaway to the wealthy, Senate leader Daschle has announced he will bury a $500 billion... MORE...
  • Ruling the Root of the Net - Andrew Leonard in Salon has a review of Milton Mueller's Ruling the Root, a book that helps demolish the techno-libertarian... MORE...
  • Signs of the Recession Times - The recession means that we are reentering the real debate on persistent homelessness, one where in a post-Guiliani world in... MORE...

    June 13, 2002
  • June is Voice at Work Month - The AFL-CIO has declared June Voice@Work Month, a time to highlight the illegal assaults on workers rights in the US... MORE...
  • Bush to Gut Clean Air Regulations - See Bush To Relax Air Pollution Rules article. For more info, check out Natural Resources Defense Council for more on... MORE...
  • More on Death Penalty - Biz had some thoughtful comments: Largely guilty maybe Nathan, but I live in Illinois. 12 Executions 13 reversals. I too... MORE...
  • Prostituted Med Science - Yesterday, the New England Journal of Medicine had to relax its conflict of interest rules that said writers could... MORE...

    June 12, 2002
  • Dems Block $750B Mega-Rich Giveaway - Dems are on a roll today. ...The Senate Dems filibustered repeal of the Estate Tax. Unfortunately, if the GOP retakes... MORE...
  • NJ Govt Supporting Unions - With the Democratic retaking of the state assembly and governor's seat in New Jersey, a whole set of pro-union policies... MORE...
  • Kirk Hit by anti-arab McCarthyism - In a slimy hit piece, a conservative Texas monthly, the Austin review, is accusing Texas Senate Candidate Ron Kirk of... MORE...
  • Build It to the Sky! - What to do with the Ground Zero site? Specifically, should the towers be rebuilt. Now, the dirty secret of the... MORE...
  • Max on Clinton & Death Penalty - Over at MaxSpeak.org, Max rightly highlights Clinton's terrible record on death penalty issues. And thinks this is a reason to... MORE...
  • Two Cheers for Honda - Back in the 70s, US auto companies steadfastly resisted safety innovations until belatedly forced to install them by the government.... MORE...
  • Unocol Faces Human Rights Suit - The NY Times has a story that Unocal to Face Suit on Human Rights. This lawsuit (see more info at)... MORE...

    June 11, 2002
  • Who can End a Treaty? - It takes an extraordinary consensus to adopt a treaty, a two-thirds vote of the US Senate after negotiation by the... MORE...
  • Open Source as BogeyMan - The Alexis de Toqueville Institute, a conservative think tank (reportedly funded by Microsoft) has released a white paper on why... MORE...
  • Everyday Crimes - Feel like committing a crime? How about fast forwarding through a commercial. Or maybe just creating a link in a... MORE...
  • Right to Jury a "Suicide Pact" - When did trusting democracy and a jury become a luxury, a nice toy that cannot be trusted with "serious" cases?... MORE...

    June 10, 2002
  • Broadband in the Air? - I've noted the wrongheadedness of forcing cable or the Bells to open up ISP "competition" as a route to greater... MORE...

    June 09, 2002
  • FBI Smeared Gov Reagan Opponents - In a San Francisco Chronicle article, new Freedom of Information suits have revealed that Feds Worked to Quash College Protests.... MORE...
  • 13 Million Threatened w/ Starvation - U.N. Fears Severe Africa Food Crisis. Nearly 13 million people in six southern African countries are at risk of starvation,... MORE...

    June 07, 2002
  • Where was the NSA? - I was wondering when the NSA would pop up in the "when did they know it" blame game. Forget the... MORE...
  • Once a Tax Dodger... - Following up on the indictment of ex-TYCO CEO Denis Koslowski for sales tax fraud, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau is... MORE...
  • Judicial Power Runs Wild - With the Supreme Court running wild in the streets of judicial defiance of democracy, why shouldn't the lower courts get... MORE...
  • Union GOP Endorsements - With major unions in New York endorsing Pataki and Hoffa flirting with the GOP, there is a useful roundtable this... MORE...
  • Why Monopoly Broadband is Good - When telecom regulation is discussed, fellow progressive technology advocates extol the wonders of competition. With broadband Internet, as detailed in... MORE...

    June 06, 2002
  • The Creative Class and City Scenes - A definite book on my to be read list is Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class: And How... MORE...
  • Sullivan as Loathsome Toad - Brad DeLong rips on Andrew Sullivan. Sullivan ridiculed the Economist for finding the failure of Zambia's copper privatization an interesting... MORE...
  • War and Globalization - Today's Times notes fears in India that recent success in Software will be setback by war talk with Pakistan. Just... MORE...
  • Global Warming Inaction - I'm a little late commentng on Bush's EPA report telling us that, yes, global warming is real and is caused... MORE...

    June 05, 2002
  • Tapped on Union Salaries - Well, Tapped had this interesting take on the union salary issue. Turns out that many of the conservatives bashing the... MORE...
  • Union v. Boardroom Salaries - Bush's Labor Department made a nice splash publicizing the sometimes bloated salaries of union leaders around the nation, and the... MORE...
  • Rich Men, Poorer Men - Despite the razzle dazzle of the dotcom boom, many Americans saw income loss in the last decade. Taking figures from... MORE...

    June 04, 2002
  • Sharon Bullies Party Back - Unfortunately, Sharon has won a victory over the large Israeli religious party, Shas, which represents the poorest sectors of mostly... MORE...
  • Congress Funds Colombian War - There hasn't been much comment in the press, but the supplemental spending bill just passed in the House approves moving... MORE...
  • "I Get Very Queasy" - "I get very queasy when federal law enforcement is effectively saying go back to the bad old days, when the... MORE...

    June 03, 2002
  • Mayor Mike: No Racial Profiling - NYC's mayor Mike Bloomberg has announced that the FBI should not racially profile terrorists. Whether profiling would gain intelligence, it... MORE...
  • More Prisons, More Repeat Crimes - Longer prison sentences don't deter repeat criminal activity; in fact it seems to have increased it as shown in a... MORE...

    June 02, 2002
  • Things Rightwingers Worry About- - Progressives have worried that roposals to allow local police to arrest immigrants for INS violations will allow civil liberties abuses.... MORE...

    June 01, 2002
  • Fatah, Labor Agree on Peace Plan - Guess what? Socialism still brings people together across ethnic and religious lines. Despite battles and bombings in the streets of... MORE...
  • Danes Pull up the Drawbridge - Yesterday, the Danish parliament approved legal changes that told immigrants to look elsewhere, barring most asylum seekers, slashing public benefits... MORE...
  • New Software, Again - Okay, maybe a bit too much time on my hands, but I changed blogging software again to Moveable Type. Since... MORE...
  • Current Weblog
    Recent Entries

    February 21, 2007
  • Amnesia on the Death of Reconstruction - I am going to pick on Brad Delong precisely because he is a brilliant and well-educated academic-- and his list... MORE...

    February 18, 2007
  • So What if Mitt Wants A Person of Faith as President? - There's a bit of a furor that Mitt Romney declared:We need to have a person of fiath lead the country.So... MORE...

    February 16, 2007
  • States Taking Action Against Iraq Escalation - So the New York Times is covering the story that resolutions denouncing Bush's Iraq Escalation have been introduced in over... MORE...

    January 01, 2007
  • Wal-Mart Doing Good for Environment - Seriously. This initiative by Wal-Mart to promote energy-saving light bulbs is a major environmental initiative. "Compact fluorescent" bulbs fit in... MORE...

    December 22, 2006
  • Dems' Stupid Positioning on Minimum Wage - As a followup to discussing why politicians need to appeal to a broad consensus, it's worth emphasizing that it's easier... MORE...

    December 21, 2006
  • Obama and the Need for Large Progressive Majorities - I've been as disappointed as many other progressive bloggers with Obama's bad votes on tort reform and seeming trimming of... MORE...

    December 13, 2006
  • test - tst... MORE...

    November 27, 2006
  • Ecuador Goes Left - Another country moves left-- whatever you want to say, Bush has been very good for reviving the global left, especially... MORE...
  • Building a Progressive Majority in the Statehouses - The Progressive States Network today rolled out its legislative agenda for the 2007 session and is looking to promote it... MORE...

    November 13, 2006
  • The Future Belongs to US - While the actual results seem razer-thin in this election, I'll be bold and argue that they are part of a... MORE...

    November 11, 2006
  • Pro-Labor "Conservative Democrats" - One more nail in the narrative that the victory of a few moderate Democrats means this election is really a... MORE...

    November 10, 2006
  • The Collapse of Tax Cut Politics - You can check out Progressive States rundown of progressive successes in the states on Tuesday, but I want to focus... MORE...

    November 08, 2006
  • A Good Night for Progressives - Let's be clear-- this wasn't just a good night for Democrats. It was a good night for progressives, and no... MORE...

    November 01, 2006
  • Labor Cold War Ends - New International Labor Federation - At the dawn of the Cold War, the international union movement divided up between the ICFTU, dominated by US and Western European unions, and the World Confederation of Labor, largely allied with the Soviet Union. It's taken a decade and a half, but the irrelevancy of that division will end today as the two federations merge-- bringing together 241 labor organizations from 156 countries representing 190 million workers. The new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is a good step for a labor movement looking to globalize itself in the taking on global capital power.... MORE...

    October 19, 2006
  • Immigrant Poor Send More Foreign Aid than US Govt - The United States government spends less money on foreign aid as a percentage of its budget than almost any other... MORE...

    October 17, 2006
  • - Valuing Families:  State Legislative Models Brought to you by Progressive States and MomsRising What would a policy that really values families look... MORE...

    October 09, 2006
  • Emaciated Models, Labor Regulation - There's a bit of debate in the blogosphere around Spain's new law banning underweight models from the runways in that country. See Jordan, Amanda at Pandagon and Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise on whether this is an intrusive regulating violating free expression or something like that and whether OSHA safety regulations are appropriate. Just to throw my two cents in-- any broader OSHA approach would seem cumbersome and bureaucratically intrusive in a deep way. But the original Spanish proposal is brilliant in its high-impact, low-intrusion approach. Regulate only the fashion week type runways, where in a single spotcheck, models can be... MORE...

    October 03, 2006
  • Big loss for Labor-- - The National Labor Relations Board ruled today that a range of professionals are now deemed "supervisors" and thus lose all protections under labor law. That means if they say a positive thing about unions, their bosses are free to fire them at will. The AFL-CIO has more here. To put this denial of labor rights in perspective, 32 million workers or 25% of the workforce already have no right to form a union under federal, state or local law (see this GAO report and this ARAW summary). This includes: Supervisors 16.6 million workers, 8 million new supervisors plus traditional 8.6... MORE...

    September 27, 2006
  • Civil War on the Right- Dick Armey trashes Dobson - The economic business- right and the religious right are moving towards total civil war. This piece by former GOP Majority... MORE...

    September 24, 2006
  • Allen the Racist - Three college teammates confirm that George Allen regularly used the N- word: Allen said he came to Virginia because he... MORE...