Jim Hightower's Blog, page 3
July 8, 2010
The GOP's Genetic Link to Big Oil
If scientists were to compare the DNA of Republican congress-critters and of oil corporations, I'll bet they'd find that they match perfectly. After all, the two species have identical political instincts and seem to have a natural affinity for each other — so I'm pretty sure they sprang from the same genetic pool.
Read the rest of this column on Creators.com
April 27, 2010
Media advisory: Moyers and Hightower talk populism on the last edition of "Bill Moyers Journal"
Media Advisory: For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Ehrlich 512-477-5588, ext. 1
MOYERS AND HIGHTOWER TALK POPULISM ON THE LAST EDITION OF "BILL MOYERS JOURNAL"
After years of insightful, award-winning television journalism, Bill Moyers' final edition of his weekly PBS "Journal" will air this Friday evening, April 30. For his concluding show, Moyers features a discussion about "America's real populism" with longtime populist agitator, Jim Hightower.
January 21, 2010
A SUPREME COUP
This is not judicial activism, it's judicial radicalism – a
black-robed political coup over America's historic democratic ideals. Five
men have just overthrown the power of the people's vote, enthroning
corporate money as supreme in all of our country's elections. Jefferson,
Madison, and the other founders of our democratic republic are not merely
spinning in their graves – they're trying to claw their way out and throttle
these shameful usurpers.
Remember their names – Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and
Thomas. Corporate whores.
July 1, 2009
The Fourth of July Is a Celebration of Agitation
Are you an agitator? You know, one of those people who won't leave well enough alone, who's always questioning authority and trying to stir things up.
If so, the Powers That Be detest you -- you ... you ... "agitator!" They spit the term out as a pejorative to brand anyone who dares to challenge the established order. "Oh," they scoff, "our people didn't mind living next to that toxic waste dump until those environmental agitators got them upset." Corporate chieftains routinely wail that "our workers were perfectly happy until those union agitators started messing with their minds."
June 24, 2009
Today's Perpetrators of Gas Pump Thievery
Like a Fourth of July crescendo of fireworks, our gasoline prices are rising higher and higher. While this is tough on consumers, we're assured by a covey of tongue-clucking industry analysts that nothing can be done about it, for it's simply the law of supply and demand in action — so suck it up, and pay up.
June 17, 2009
Pockets of Influence in Washington
What do shoplifters and members of Congress have in common? Tailor-made clothing.
Like a shoplifter's long coat, the suits of many lawmakers come with an astonishing array of inside pockets that hold surprising volumes of loot. We already know about various conduits that politicians have crafted to funnel cash into their election campaigns, but USA Today recently reported that our congressional stalwarts have also created a series of less-obvious pockets for stashing special-interest influence money.
June 10, 2009
Have You Driven a Han Lately?
If you want to be seen as a flag-flying, macho American, you've got to have the right ride -- and nothing says swaggering hedonism and outta-my-way arrogance quite like a Hummer.
Yes, it's a high-dollar, gas-guzzling symbol of excess, but hey, that's the point! As the founder of a Hummer support group once snarled, "Those who deface a Hummer in words or deed deface the American flag and what it stands for."
June 3, 2009
Stopping the Desecration of Mountaintop Removal
Obama spaketh, and it was good: "We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains," he proclaimed.
And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a prophet of hope who was signaling that a change was coming — at last, the endtime was at hand for the brutish coal-mining method called "mountaintop removal," which is an abomination.
May 27, 2009
Eliminating the threat of "Death by Pie"
Out in Arizona, an old tombstone bears an epitaph for a young gunslinger: "I was expecting this/But not so soon."
Gunslinging, of course, is a high-risk business. But today, some of us can expect to have the following marker on our graves: "Here lies a guy/Killed by a pot pie."
America's pot-pie threat lurks in an ingredient that today's producers of frozen foods don't list on their packages: salmonella. In just one salmonella outbreak in 2007, the Banquet brand of pies sickened an estimated 15,000 people in 41 states.
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