In the Public Interest

For the second time in six months, Prime Time Live (ABC-TV) and Sam Donaldson devoted one hour to more examples of waste in the federal government. A guided tour into the land of taxpayer-funded boondoggles, the program covered lots of ground. There was the $16 million to refurbish the underground Congressional subway to reduce the…

Years ago, the word “overcommercialized” used to apply to highway billboards marring the landscape. Look what rampaging commercialism is now like. Item: Governor Branstad of Iowa is opening the state tax instruction booklet to advertisements by accounting firms, banks and other companies eager to reach 1.3 million individual taxpayers He wants to solicit ads for…

The Wall St. Journal editorial writers love him. Senators Dole and Hatch, who carry the water for big business subsidies, privileges and escapes from accountability, adore him. The corporate bar, made up of wealthy lawyers who work to entrench corporate power over people, are ecstatic. He is Judge Stephen G Breyer and Clinton’s leading nominee…

The other night on Ted Koppel’s Nightline program, the subject was “virtual reality.” The dreamy definition of “virtual reality” (VR) by Jason Lanier, the man who coined the phrase, is that it is a computer generated, multi-media, interactive technology that will provide “a wonderful, inspirational future for the human imagination. I can’t put it any…

With all the reform fervor advanced by the newly elected members of Congress, the faraway observer of the Washington scene might have begun to believe. After all, 110 new members of the House of Representatives, more than a quarter of the entire House, made up one of the largest and most determined new class in…

Collegeville, MN — This pleasant town is not the most likely place to find the most remarkable college football coach in America. Except, don’t call John Gagliardi “coach”; just say John or “Gags.” That advice is only one of many “No’s” that his players learn from the second-winningest active coach (Grambling’s Eddie Robinson is first)…

A reporter for a business publication called the other day about the latest excitement at General Motors headquarters in Michigan. It seems that GM officials are giddy about their “victory” over NBC which apologized for aspects of its televised crashtest regarding the fuel tank placement on certain GM trucks. These officials are telling the press…

Senator Robert Kennedy (D-NY) called him “one of the heroic figures of our time.” He was Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farmworkers of America (UFWA) who passed away in his sleep in San Luis, Arizona, doing what he has been doing for over 40 years — organizing and defending the migrant farm workers…

There ought to be a television program about corporations titled “Can You Top This?” Composed of short stories about the infinity of avarice and power, people would get some sense of how necessary a just law and order is to these corporate suites whenever they run amuck. Here are a few samples of routine corporatemania.…

I could scarcely believe that he said it. A retired high automobile company executive referred to the three auto companies -­GM, Ford and Chrysler — as the “Detroit cartel.” He said it matter-of-factly as if it was a given phenomenon, even in purchasing supplies. The collusion of the three Michigan-based companies — they would call…