In the Public Interest

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft are testing the American people as to whether violations of the U.S. Constitution by the Executive branch of government are to be viewed as mere technicalities or a growing threat to the fabric of liberty, privacy, due process and fair trials in our country. Of course, these…

For years now, a commercial consulting firm has been releasing annual “business climate” rankings of the 50 states. The business press reports these rankings widely. Chambers of commerce and other lobbies raise the pressure on their respective states toward the lowest common denominator of the most corporate-indentured state jurisdictions. This pressure usually means getting states…

August is supposed to be a slow month in Washington, DC but two public reports released by two news conferences on August 12th seem to indicate it is the press that is slow. Eight thousand doctors called for national health insurance and outlined their detailed single payer plan in an article published by the Journal…

Public space, universal community services and their historic traditions which bind our nation together are all under assault. A Presidential Commission recommends that the U.S. Postal Service obtain commercial appraisals of their post offices and land with the view of selling the property off to help pay its expenses. The smaller postal services can find…

Al From, the founder and soul of the soulless Democratic Leadership Council(DLC), assembled his flock in Philadelphia recently and warned his comrades about a takeover of the Democratic Party by “the far left.” Launched in 1985, the “far right” DLC grew to have a controlling interest in the Party through the efforts of then-Governor Bill…

Question: what is the most popular hobby in America today? Answer: Gardening. Gardeners outnumber participants in amateur athletics. Gardening gives off beauty and aroma. Gardening provides edibles worth over $15 billion annually in vegetables and fruits. Gardening provides exercise for those who cannot or will not exercise in other ways. Gardening is a communion with…

Contracting out what the Federal government does and what government needs is a large part of our economy. The former includes letting corporations perform more military and intelligence functions; while the latter has included buying supplies like fuel, paper, food, medicines and vehicles. Taken together, they amount to spending trillions of dollars over the past…

In the past four decades, many millions of manufacturing jobs in this country have been shipped overseas or to South America. This transfer was supposed to be part of the “win-win” process of free trade. But 27 straight years of growing trade deficits with the rest of the world makes one wonder: who’s winning? Conventional…

What’s the most self-destructive thing that consumers carry around in their pockets? It’s those little pieces of plastic-credit cards-that are becoming the greatest menace to the financial health of low, moderate and middle income Americans There was a time when the “plastic money” was considered a convenience for consumers and a boon to the small…

President George W. Bush takes off on our Air Force One to California, spends nine hours in that state and comes back with $5 million in campaign money. He is on his way to raising a historic record $200 million in private, mostly business money. This is the price for selling the U.S. government to…