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New York’s Rebatable Bailout

August 6, 2010
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You can’t make up the following realities in New York State! Note the following series of events driven by the preposterous plutocrats and see if you get steamed.Greed, power, reckless speculation and theft of other peoples’ money by Wall Streeters collapsed the U.S. economy into a deep recession that started in 2007-08.These super-rich Wall Street…

Letter to President Obama Regarding the Talmadge Creek Oil Spill

August 2, 2010
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Dear Mr. President: The spill of nearly one million gallons of oil from Enbridge Energy Partners’ pipeline into Talmadge Creek in Michigan on July 26 further demonstrates the necessity for you and Secretary LaHood to pay immediate attention to the hapless, industry-indentured Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), which has been, like the Minerals Management Service,…

Out of Afghanistan

July 30, 2010
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The war in Afghanistan is nearly nine years old—the longest in American history. After the U.S. quickly toppled the Taliban regime in October 2001, the Taliban, by all accounts, came back stronger and harsher enough to control now at least 30 percent of the country. During this time, U.S. casualties, armaments and expenditures are at…

California Enshrines the Duopoly

July 23, 2010
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by Ralph Nader Last month, Big Business interests shamelessly dealt our already depleted democracy a devastating blow by misleading California voters into approving Proposition 14, without their opponents being able to reach the people with rebuttals. This voter initiative provides that the November elections in that state for members of Congress and state elective offices…

Letter to President Obama on Professor Elizabeth Warren

July 20, 2010
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Dear President Obama: It is time for you to give taxpayers, consumers, and investors a reason to believe that you are truly interested in consumer protection by nominating Professor Elizabeth Warren to be the Director of the much-anticipated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Professor Warren combines rigorous scholarship, a superb sense of needed change and…

Learning from Iran

July 16, 2010
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An article in the current issue of the AARP Bulletin is likely to get a “What’s this?” reaction from many of its millions of readers. It is titled “Iranian Cure for the Delta’s Blues,” with the eye-opening subtitles: “Mississippi Looks to Iran’s health care system”” “That model has improved health dramatically”; “Will it travel well…

Letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Fannie and Freddie

July 13, 2010
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Dear Chairman Bernanke: On July 17, 2008, David Rogers, the respected Congressional reporter for Politico wrote an article titled “Pelosi-Paulson tension Rises,” in which he had the following paragraph: “Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured lawmakers that Fannie and Freddie, the two government-supported enterprises, are ‘adequately capitalized’ and ‘in no danger…

Letter to Bud Selig On “The Worst Umpire Call Since the 1850s”

July 13, 2010
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Dear Mr. Selig: Now that you have had over a month to absorb and digest the reactions to what a sports writer called the worst umpire call since the 1850s, it is time for you to respect the vast majority of the fans, players and coaches who either believe that umpire Jim Joyce’s call should…

The 2010 Summer Reading List

July 9, 2010
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Summer time is reading time. Here are ten suggested new books: 1. Toxic Talk (Thomas Dunne Books) by Bill Press, the liberal talk show host, unloads in his words, on “how the radical right has poisoned America’s airwaves.” The five major syndicates are dominated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean…

Hammering the Poor and Vulnerable

July 1, 2010
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There is a reason why, so many centuries ago, every major religion warned its adherents not to give too much power to the “merchant class.” That reason is still here — the commercial drive knows few self-imposed boundaries, especially when it resides in large corporations. A cruel manifestation of this singular drive for maximizing profit…