The worst top management of giant corporations in American history is also by far the most hugely paid. That contradiction applies as well to the Boards of Directors of these global companies.

Continue reading "Overpaying CEOs"

With the rapid expansion of federal spending responding to the perceived national security requirements after 9/11, passenger railroad supporters looked forward to a tripleheader.

First passenger railroad service would have to be upgraded and expanded to facilitate mass population evacuations from cities during attack emergencies. Continue reading "Riding the Rails"

Here is a counter-intuitive story for you. Why don’t organized corporate interests challenge damage or risks to their clear economic interests?

Think about oil prices for big consumers, not just your pocketbook. Airlines are groaning, limiting flights, and laying off employees because of the skyrocketing price for aviation fuel. Executives in that industry say that fuel costs are close to 40 percent of the cost of flying you to your destination. Continue reading "Corporate Complacency"

A philanthropist for all seasons, Stewart R. Mott was about the most versatile, imaginative philanthropist of his time. He threw himself into projects and was a pioneer in many fields well before the large foundations. Citizen oversight of the vast wasteful military budget is a case in point.

Our country and world are lessened with his passing, but his planned legacies will live on. Sympathies are extended to his family.
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Tim Russert, through his verve, directness and human touch became the symbol of the Sunday interview show. A strong interrogator of the many slippery guests who appeared on his show, Tim combined searching questions with a smile. He let the guests make their points instead of cutting them off but kept Meet the Press moving at the same time. In my recent conversation with him, he said he believed “in intellectual tension.”


Journalism and the country will miss him dearly.
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Move over Las Vegas. The big time gamblers are on Wall Street and they are gambling with your money, your pensions, and your livelihoods.

Unlike Las Vegas casinos, these big investment banks, commercial banks and stock brokerage houses are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with your money. They are supposed to be trustees for the money you have given them to safeguard, and tell you when they are making risky investments. Continue reading "Casinos on Wall Street"

You are sixteen. You can legally work, drive a motor vehicle and with parental consent get married in most states. Why can't you legally vote?

Good question, and one that supporters for dropping the voting age from eighteen to sixteen will be asking politicians more and more. Much has been made of the youth vote this year amid evidence that more young people are turning out to vote in the primaries than ever before. Let's take it to the next step. Continue reading "Youth Voting Rights"

What factors are causing the zooming price of crude oil, gasoline and heating products? What is going to be done about it?

Don’t rely on the White House—with Bush and Cheney marinated in oil—or the Congress—which has hearings that grill oil executives who know that nothing is going to happen on Capitol Hill either. Continue reading "Stop the Oil Speculators"

Mountain View, California – An invitation to visit Google’s headquarters and meet some of the people who made this ten year old giant that is giving Microsoft the nervies has to start with wonder.

The “campus” keeps spreading with the growth of Google into more and more fields, even though advertising revenue still comprises over 90 percent of its total revenues. The company wants to “change the world,” make all information digital and accessible through Google. Its company motto—is “Do No Evil,” which comes under increasing scrutiny, especially in the firm’s business with the national security state in Washington, D.C. and with the censors of Red China. Continue reading "“To know and not to do is not to know.”"

Dear President Bush,

You and your White House have been sitting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since your arrival in January 2001, thus assuring the giant auto companies that NHTSA-toothless under President Bill Clinton and previous administrations-- continues morphing even further away from the technology-forcing, life- saving regulatory agency it is supposed to be, to an industry consulting firm. Continue reading "NHTSA Stonewalls, People Die"

This is the grim story of a cancer patient, Lisa Kelly, and the famous, well endowed, non-profit M.D. Anderson Cancer Center of the University of Texas.

Barbara Martinez, a reporter for the Wall St. Journal, related the billing hurdles that Mrs. Kelly has been confronting since late 2006 in a shocking front-page story on April 28, 2008.
Continue reading "The Sorry State of Health Care in America"

Where is Harry Chapin when you need him? The popular folk singer (Cat’s in the Cradle), who lost his life in an auto crash 27 years ago, was an indefatigable force of nature against hunger—in this country and around the world.

To hear Harry speak out against the scourge of hunger in a world of plenty was to hear informed passion that was relentless whether on Capitol Hill, at poverty conferences or at his concerts. Continue reading "Fueling Food Shortages"

Andy Stern, the president of the 1.9 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is embroiled in the politics of accepting sweetheart union contract deals and, ironically is being condemned by the Wall Street Journal. What gives here?
Continue reading "The Fight for Workers' Rights"

In this year’s presidential campaign, the major media want you to focus on the candidates’ gaffes, their tactics toward one another’s gaffes, the flows of political gossip and four second sound bytes. Continue reading "Substance Not Sound Bytes"

Dear President Bush,

Much of the world has condemned the violence and called on the Sudanese government to end the slaughter. You and your administration have, properly, called the mass killing "genocide," and urged a peace process.

But the horror in Darfur continues. Tens of thousands more have been displaced in the last month. Violence has intensified in Western Darfur. Meanwhile, millions of displaced people are giving up hope of returning to their homes.

The noble words of your administration and the outside world have not been enough to change the course of the Sudanese government.
Continue reading "Open Letter to George W. Bush"

Prominent Constitutional law experts believe President Bush has engaged in at least, five categories of repeated, defiant “high crimes and misdemeanors”, which separately or together would allow Congress to subject the President to impeachment under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution. The sworn oath of members of Congress is to uphold the Constitution. Failure of the members of Congress to pursue impeachment of President Bush is an affront to the founding fathers, the Constitution, and the people of the United States.

In addition to a criminal war of aggression in Iraq, in violation of our constitution, statutes and treaties, there are the arrests of thousands of Americans and their imprisonment without charges, the spying on Americans without juridical warrant, systematic torture, and the unprecedented wholesale, defiant signing statements declaring that the President, in his unbridled discretion, is the law.

In 2005, a plurality of the American people polled declared that they would favor impeachment of President Bush if it was shown that he did not tell the truth about the reasons for going to War in Iraq. Congress should use its authority under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution to officially determine what President Bush knew before going to war in Iraq.

For more information on how you can help build a national, grassroots initiative to investigate and disclose any crimes by the Bush Administration go to http://www.restoreruleoflaw.com. This website contains valuable information and allows for you to send a letter to your members of Congress, asking them to pursue the Rule of Law.