A nice piece of reporting in USA Today exposes yet another aspect of Republican hypocrisy: with all of McCain’s talk of “reigning in spending,” “cutting taxes,” and “eliminating pork barrel legislation,” it appears as though his running mate has done exactly the opposite during her tenures as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska.

Apparently John McCain lied about Palin not seeking earmarks as governor. In fact Palin “asked Washington for $197 million in earmarks this …

With the chorus of “Drill baby, drill,” emanating from the halls of the Republican National Convention, Republicans (and to a lesser extent, Democrats) have latched onto what they consider an important election-era economic issue that will draw American votes.

And, as this Pew Research poll shows, they are correct in assuming the utter selfishness and ignorance of Americans.

As a society we seem to balk at the increased price of gas far more …

In my earlier post I expressed the fear that the formation of the new Change to Win labor coalition might split the labor movement so much that in its already weak state it would fragment. It’s impossible to predict one way or the other, but I’m slowly coming around to a more hopeful view and I’ll give my reasons below. First of all, I should re-emphasize that I am somewhat naive and untutored on the US …

What do the rich gain from debt relief?

Not to say that it is bad that the wealthy nations of the world have agreed “to stop demanding payments from 18 of the poorest countries in Africa” (Under the Same Sun), but why did they do it? Why is Paul Wolfowitz on the same side of this issue as Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, the patron of Jubilee 2000? I can think of four reasons.

Popular pressure/it …

The late breaking announcement that the US and UK have agreed on the cancellation of the debt for 18 mostly African countries should be seen as the successful culmination of years of activism. At the same time, it would be foolhardy not to see this as only a small piece of a larger struggle fought by democratic forces against the corporate imperialism of the United States and its allies.

The British government-sponsored Commission for Africa …