Posted on May 11, 2013 by Lou
Could the Los Angeles Times become a mouthpiece for Tea Party paranoids to crusade against progressive L.A.? If the Koch Brothers buy our local paper and hand over the editorial board to conspiracy-minded conservative extremists, imagine headlines like these: Campaign Launched for Compulsory Unionism Labor Socialists Campaign to Seize Your Paycheck Public Transit Extremists Want [...]
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Posted on May 3, 2013 by Lou
Barack Obama’s nomination of Penny Pritzker as Commerce Secretary was a poke in the eye of the American Labor Movement. The niece of the founder of the Hyatt Hotel chain and current member of the company’s board, Pritzker is a key player in what Unite Here calls “the worst hotel employer in America.” Go to [...]
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Posted on April 27, 2013 by Lou
Google 1963 50th Anniversary and you might be surprised. Near the top of the list is Birmingham, Alabama with its civic and business leaders inviting visitors to commemorate “the movement that changed the world.” We’re told that travelers can take in the historic attractions of the civil rights era while enjoying the fine hotels, restaurants and [...]
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Posted on April 18, 2013 by Lou
Senate republicans tried but failed to rattle President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez, with questions about his tenure as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. But the 51-year-old progressive lawyer and activist deftly deflected charges by GOP Senators on the Labor Committee with his straightforward answers and command of the issues. Unable [...]
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Posted on April 7, 2013 by Lou
While Barack Obama took a few hits from progressives last week for signaling to republicans that he’ll negotiate on social security and for his unnecessary remark about Kamala Harris’ looks, the president faced virtually no opposition from the left on his handling of North Korea. I wanted to hear what opponents of American military “hegemony” [...]
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Posted on March 30, 2013 by Lou
Dear Vermonters: I’ve been hearing talk recently about a move among some residents to secede from the United States. Normally, I ignore fringe groups with preposterous ideas, but this call for Vermont independence hits close to home. First of all, it’s not led by right wing Texas-types who compare Barack Obama to Mao, but by [...]
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Posted on March 22, 2013 by Lou
There’s been talk recently about whether Hillary Clinton, now 65, is too old to be president in 2017. Here in California, we have a chief executive who began his third term (28 years after finishing his second) at age 72. Just our luck, we happened to overhear this brief phone conversation between the former first [...]
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Posted on March 15, 2013 by Lou
Can you imagine a future U.S. Supreme Court comprised only of men? Or the president’s cabinet? Or even the California Coastal Commission? That would be a throwback to an era long gone, you would think? And yet, it’s likely to happen to the 15-member Los Angeles City Council after the May runoff election. In fact, [...]
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Posted on March 13, 2013 by Lou
A few years ago, the Los Angeles Times solicited readers input in mapping the region’s neighborhoods. Defining the so-called “Westside” became very contentious, particularly in determining the eastern border. Some residents insisted that La Cienega was the dividing line, though the winner, by popular demand, was the “405.” When I moved to Southern California in [...]
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Posted on March 1, 2013 by Lou
As we prepare for one manufactured republican crisis after another, remember the sliver lining. Each stunt reinforces pubic perception of republicans as extremists and sells a whole generation of voters on the belief that the GOP is “out-of-touch with the American people.” In fact, more than 60 percent of respondents in a recent poll agree [...]
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Posted on February 21, 2013 by Lou
Barack Obama’s re-election has opened a divide on the American Left. For many of us, this president represents an epic shift toward a more diverse, tolerant and liberal America – an affirmation of our country’s better nature. While we don’t deny our nation’s severe problems, extreme inequality and historical contradictions, we’re celebrating – even gloating [...]
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Posted on February 15, 2013 by Lou
During the gloomiest days of the Bush era, cognitive scientist George Lakoff explained how conservatives use language to “frame” issues. Republicans’ “values-based” vocabulary, he said, reaches for voters’ emotions to win their support. His 2004 Don’t Think of an Elephant made the rounds among frustrated progressives eager to understand why our right-wing opponents were cleaning [...]
Continue ReadingPosted on February 8, 2013 by Lou
A devastating terrorist attack against the U.S. during Obama’s first term could have destroyed his presidency and opened the door to a victory by the hard right. I want this president to have the option to target suicide bombers who plot to blow up planes, buses and buildings. Of course, the national security state is [...]
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Posted on February 6, 2013 by Lou
Though this might sound like a “cold war liberal” defending CIA-led coups and military interventions, I support President Obama’s drone attacks. And I admit that I’m a hypocrite. If a republican administration were executing these practices, I’d probably join the chorus to condemn them as unconstitutional, authoritarian or worse. But I trust this president’s judgment [...]
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Posted on February 1, 2013 by Lou
Ninety percent of white voters in Mississippi opposed Barack Obama in the last election. I was thinking about that when I read Chris Hedges piece about what he calls the “rise of neo-confederate ideology in the south.” A strident critic of American institutions, Hedges is inclined to demonize the “liberal class” – including our president [...]
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Posted on January 25, 2013 by Lou
Ask Los Angeles Times reporter Alana Semuels why union membership in California rose by 100,000 in 2012 and she’ll give you a simple answer: “Latino workers.” To explain the contrast between the trend in California and the U.S. as a whole – where union membership dropped last year by 400,000 – Semuels turned to some [...]
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