CommonDreams Views
Mourn Granny D.; Then Organize for Clean Politics
Doris "Granny D" Haddock, whose 3,200-mile walk across the United States at the age of 90 drew thousands of activists into the movement for political reform, has died Tuesday evening at the age of 100.
The Dublin, New Hampshire, grandmother's death came ten years and ten days after she finished the remarkable two-year walk, which she undertook to promote the passage of campaign finance reform legislation (in particular the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform law).
Working Families Still Squeezed
There were grumblings from all corners of the AFL-CIO at its winter meeting in Orlando recently. "Disappointment", "disillusionment", "unengaged", these words and worse peppered press reports describing labor's view of President Obama and the Democrats.
Organized labor spent $200 million to help elect the president and support of its 15 million members is considered absolutely critical for Democrats to hold the line this November.
Official Dogma: Iraq War a Success
The New York Times' Tom Friedman, who did as much as any single individual to persuade large numbers of Democrats and "moderates" to support the invasion of Iraq, today writes:
Making Good Neighbors, Online and Off
When Michael Wood-Lewis and his wife, Valerie, moved from Washington, D.C., to the south end of Burlington, Vermont, in 1998, "we'd landed in what we thought was our dream neighborhood. It was walkable, near the lake, full of trees. But we were having trouble getting to know the neighbors.
NATO Goes Anti-Nuclear?
President Obama's call for a nuclear-weapons-free world in Prague last April unleashed a great outpouring of support from international allies and grassroots activists demanding a process to actually eliminate nuclear weapons. One recent and unexpected initiative has come from America's NATO allies.
Iraqis Against All Odds
The Iraq elections underline the tenacity of its people and their determination to take back their country.
Iraqis have succeeded in pulling away from the brink despite, not because, of US policies over the last seven years.
Crediting George Bush's policies for hard earned Iraqi accomplishments adds insult to injury.
It was not only the timing of declaring "Mission Accomplished" from a battle ship that was proved unfortunate, but the whole notion of 'US victory' in Iraq is utterly nonsensical considering the horrific human, societal and other costs.
Financial Transactions Tax: A Little Tax on the Big Casino
So here we are. It's as if the whole world is channeling the scene from the movie, Jerry Maguire, when Cuba Gooding Jr. jumps up and down shouting, "Show me the money!" Fund universal health care and climate policy, extend unemployment benefits, and rebuild crumbling infrastructure.
From Our Archive: How a Small Group of Dedicated People Might Actually Do Something
Published on Wednesday, August 27, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Portrait by Robert Shetterly from his Americans Who Tell the Truth series
Thank you.
The Future of Iraq Belongs to No One
Hubris? We're bigger than that!
An Oscar for America’s Hubris
What a shame that the one movie about the Iraq war that has a chance of being viewed by a large worldwide audience should be so disappointing.
Rachel Corrie’s (Posthumous) Day in Court
An unusual trial begins in Israel this week, and people around the world will be watching closely. It involves the tragic death of a 23-year-old American student named Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer.
Stiffening the Backbones of Democrats
You know what we need to juice up the performance of our weak economy? Viagra.
Yes, America needs a new Viagra, specifically targeted to stiffen backbones - in particular, the limp backbones of Barack Obama's team, as well as the flaccid spines of Democratic congressional leaders. Where's the drug industry when we really need it?
How The Democrats Can Reclaim The Youth Vote
If the Democrats don't get the youth vote, they're toast. That happened in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts, where young Obama voters stayed home in droves. It's an ugly conceivable future portended by a new Harvard poll that shows forty-one percent of young Republicans planning on voting in November, compared to 35 percent of young Democrats and 13 percent of independents.
Kucinich's Health Reform Dissents Merit Consideration
Long before Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi began talking up health care reform as a top priority for the Democratic Party, Congress and America, Dennis Kucinich was doing so. Indeed, the former Cleveland mayor, Ohio legislator, two-time presidential candidate and now senior U.S. House members has across the past 35 years been one of the country's steadiest proponents of real reform of our broken health-care system.
So Kucinich's questioning of the reform legislation being advanced by President Obama and House Speaker Pelosi is neither casual nor uninformed.
Obama Sabotages Himself with Fake 'Pragmatism'
A new poll from the Democratic polling firm founded by James Carville and Stan Greenberg -- and co-sponsored by the "centrist" Third Way -- provides what its sponsors call "a wake-up call for President Obama, his party, and progressives on national security," because "[h]istorical doubts about the Democratic Party on national security show signs of reviving." This "Dems-losing-on-Terrorism" character
The Weakness of Empire
An unmanned drone hovers over the house of a suspected leader of a terrorist cell, the craft’s camera and missiles controlled by a soldier thousands of miles away on the plains of Kansas. A missile is launched, and the terrorist is blown apart—but so are innocent bystanders, among them a dark-eyed eight-year old girl named Aeisha who dreamed of becoming a doctor.
Will College Become a Luxury for the Few?
San Francisco, California - Before the protests of tuition hikes last week, a colleague posted the following: "Need suggestions for protest songs. We have a DJ but need to give her a play list." The requests started coming in: Joan Baez, the Dixie Chicks, The Clash.
The Sky is Falling - on John Bolton
John Bolton has made a cottage industry out of trying to scare people about nuclear weapons. Contrary to the subtitle of Dr. Strangelove - "how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb" - Bolton's motto seems to be "why you need to start worrying and embrace the bomb." He reiterates this point at every opportunity, most recently in a piece published in the Washington Examiner.
Great Civilizations Aren't Ruled by Guns
Most observers predict that the five-person right-wing majority of a divided Supreme Court will overturn hundreds of local laws and decades of precedent to rule that cities cannot regulate the ownership of guns. As the arguments begin before the court in the case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, the justices -- and Americans -- should pause and take another look.
Al-Qaida's attacks on Sept. 11 killed more than 3,000 people. We responded as one nation. We committed billions to the creation of a new Department of Homeland Security, passed the Patriot Act, and launched two big wars.
Amir, Ten Years Old, Abducted by Israeli Soldiers from His Bed
Amir al-Mohtaseb smiled tenderly when I asked him to tell me his favorite color. Sitting in his family's living room last Thursday afternoon, 4 March, in the Old City of Hebron, the ten-year-old boy with freckles and long eyelashes softly replied, "green." He then went on to describe in painful detail his arrest and detention -- and the jailing of his 12-year-old brother Hasan by Israeli occupation soldiers on Sunday, 28 February.
