"I shouldn’t listen to Beethoven's Appassionata piano sonata too often. Otherwise, I feel like petting children’s heads and will never finish my revolution." – Vladimir Lenin

I suggest that we setup loudspeakers surrounding the White House and the Pentagon and then play the Appassionata at high volume 24 hours per day until the troops come home from Iraq!

Donald Kaul

That Chuck Hagel, he’s a caution. The Nebraska Republican called a press conference in Omaha the other day and there was a sense of portent in the room.

Fifteen television stations were on hand to record the event, as well as political reporters from all over the map. They smelled a presidential announcement in the air. Then he got up and said: “I’m here today to announce that my family and I will make a decision on my political future later this year.”

“Wow!” I said to myself, thinking like a political reporter, “A decision this year and ...   more »

You know true Democracy has arrived… When the nation’s top GOP is also public enemy number one!

Jim Hightower

"O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties... and ads from sea to sea."

Corporate advertisers used to put their ads on television and radio, in publications, and on billboards and such. But, today, ads are everyplace, with corporations fighting each other to shove their promotions in our face. Most Americans already encounter 5,000 ads a day, and the race is on to cram more corporate messages into our eyes, ears, and minds. Says one ad executive: "We never know where the consumer is going to be at any point in time, ...   more »

Marcus Raskin | Institute for Policy Studies

The American people tried to wake President George W. Bush out of his fantasies with last November's elections. The Democratic victory signaled our distress over Iraq, which has killed thousands of us and left tens of thousands wounded. The toll is even higher in Iraq, where hundreds of thousand of civilians are dead as a result of the pointless war.

However, Mr. Bush won't give up his fantasy. With what amounts to a slap in the face of Congress and the American electorate, he is expanding the war by sending 21,500 additional troops....   more »

Mark Weisbrot | Center for Economic and Policy Research

"State of Denial" is the title of Bob Woodward's famous book on the Bush team's road to disaster in Iraq, but it would have served just as well for a description of their Latin America policy. The president’s seven-day, five-country trip to Latin America to see if he can counter the populist political tide that has brought governments on the left to about half the population of the region.

Carrying vague promises of a joint effort on ethanol production - but no offer to lower tariffs protecting the U.S. market - ...   more »