Archive for August, 2008
« Previous EntriesR.I. bankruptcy filings up 65% in past year
Friday, August 29th, 2008By Ted Nesi, Providence Business News
PROVIDENCE – Bankruptcy filings in Rhode Island increased 64.9 percent in the 12 months ended June 30, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
The number of bankruptcy cases filed by Rhode Islanders over the previous 12 months rose to 3,599 from 2,183 in June 2007. Business filings made [...]
Party’s Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008By Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal
Walk into almost any hotel here this week and you can find an odd sight: Liberal Democrats starting their day by lobbying moderate and conservative Democrats.
The lobbyists are members of the Progressive Democrats of America, an activist group working to keep the party true to liberal priorities, and they [...]
R.I. child poverty rate worsens in 2007
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008by Susan A. Baird, Editor, Providence Business News
Rhode Island lost ground on child poverty last year, when the statewide rate was the 20th lowest nationwide according to a report this afternoon by Rhode Island Kids Count. In this year’s analysis, the Ocean State fell three notches from its 17th-place finish in 2006 but remained 15 [...]
Million Doors for Peace
Thursday, August 21st, 200825,000 Volunteers to contact one million people in one day; will be year’s largest anti-war action.
A coalition working to end the war in Iraq announced it is organizing the year’s largest anti-war mobilization. Million Doors for Peace, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, will ask one million Americans to sign petitions urging the next Congress to [...]
Progressives and Obama: The Clash of Narratives
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008By Norman Solomon, National PDA
By now, across the progressive spectrum, some familiar storylines tell us the meaning of the Obama campaign. In a groove, each narrative digs its truths. But whether those particular truths are the most important at this historical moment is another story.
We can set aside the plotline that touts Obama as a [...]
The Plot Against Liberal America
Monday, August 18th, 2008By Thomas Frank, The New Statesman
The most cherished dream of conservative Washington is that liberalism can somehow be defeated, finally and irreversibly, in the way that armies are beaten and pests are exterminated. Electoral victories by Republicans are just part of the story. The larger vision is of a future in which liberalism is physically [...]
Democrats to Offer Bill With Offshore Oil Drilling
Monday, August 18th, 2008Common Dreams
WASHINGTON – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday when the U.S. Congress returns next month from its summer recess, Democrats will offer legislation that could give oil companies drilling access to more offshore areas.
By moving to open additional federal waters to energy exploration, Democrats could narrow the differences they have with Republicans on [...]
The Delusion Revolution: We’re on the Road to Extinction and in Denial
Friday, August 15th, 2008By Robert Jensen, Alternet
“The old future’s gone,” John Gorka sings. “We can’t get to there from here.”
That insight from Gorka, one of my favorite singer/songwriters chronicling the complexity of our times, deserves serious reflection. Tonight I want to argue that the way in which we humans have long imagined the future must be rethought, [...]
The Great Corporate Tax Heist
Wednesday, August 13th, 2008by Robert L. Borosage, Huffington Post
Remember the old Steve Martin routine on how to make a million dollars and not pay taxes: “First, make a million dollars. … Second, don’t pay taxes.” Turns out Martin’s joke is standard operating procedure for corporations in the United States — only, in comparison, Martin was a piker.
Wednesday, the [...]
Use of Iraq Contractors Costs Billions, Report Says
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008By James Risen, NY Times
The United States this year will have spent $100 billion on contractors in Iraq since the invasion in 2003, a milestone that reflects the Bush administration’s unprecedented level of dependence on private firms for help in the war, according to a government report to be released Tuesday.
The report, by the Congressional [...]
Why You Want a Progressive to Be Running the Economy
Monday, August 11th, 2008By Joseph Stiglitz, The Guardian.
Both the left and the right say they stand for economic growth. So should voters trying to decide between the two simply look at it as a matter of choosing alternative management teams?
If only matters were so easy! Part of the problem concerns the role of luck. America’s economy was [...]
Meltdown in the Arctic is speeding up
Sunday, August 10th, 2008by Robin McKie, science editor, The Observer
Ice at the North Pole melted at an unprecedented rate last week, with leading scientists warning that the Arctic could be ice-free in summer by 2013.
Satellite images show that ice caps started to disintegrate dramatically several days ago as storms over Alaska’s Beaufort Sea began sucking streams of warm [...]
Big Business Is Making Sure It Wins the Presidency
Saturday, August 9th, 2008By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Remember the total, hideous, inexcusable absence of oversight that has been the great hallmark of George Bush’s America for almost eight years now? Well, now we’re getting to see that same regulatory malfeasance applied to yet another cornerstone of our political system. The Federal Election Commission — the body that supposedly enforces [...]
Sadr to disarm if U.S. withdraws
Friday, August 8th, 2008By Wisam Mohammed, Reuters – UK
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Anti-American Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr would dissolve his Mehdi Army militia if the United States started withdrawing troops according to a set timetable, a spokesman said.
A car bomb in the northern town of Tal Afar killed 21 people and wounded 72, police said, an attack that [...]
Walking the Health Care Plank
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008By Norman Solomon and Donna Smith, Co-Chairs Healthcare NOT Warfare Campaign
Most people in the United States are sick of the insurance industry’s power to interfere with–and often prevent–health care that could make the difference between life and death.
So, public opinion is in sync with the new “Statement in Support of Guaranteed Health Care for All [...]