AltWeeklies Wire
An Open Letter To Oprah Winfreynew
Offering advice on Oprah's possible decision to trade television for organic farming on Maui.
Tags: Oprah Winfrey, Oprah in Hawaii
Tough Politicians Are Killing Cops
Violent crime in general is decreasing. But more cops are being killed in the line of duty. One reason: tough sentencing laws that make shooting a police officer a rational decision.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
04-12-2012 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: police shootings
Handicapping 2012: It's Romney's To Lose
Most pundits have conceded the general election to Obama, already looking ahead to 2016. They have their reasons. Their analysis is based on good, solid, reasonable (inside the box) logic. All things considered, however, I would (and have) put my money on Mitt Romney this fall.
We Have Found the "One Bad Apple" And It Is Us
To the Afghans, Sgt. Bales didn't kill those 16 people in Kandahar province. The U.S. did. Obama did. We did. After all, if we hadn't invaded and occupied Afghanistan, Bales wouldn't have been there in the first place.
Susan Collins Murdered Afghans. Now She's a Moderate
Lefties were against the Afghanistan War ten years ago. We were ignored or mocked. Now that the polls have shifted against the war, it's a little galling to hear warmongers like Susan Collins talk about Karzai's corruption and Afghanistan's unique history as though she were reporting information that just came to light.
Tags: Afghanistan War, Susan Collins
The Case for Shiftlessness
We've been programmed to believe that the only way to get money is to earn it. Improvements in workplace efficiency, however, are increasing unemployment and making work-for-pay obsolete.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
03-07-2012 |
Business & Labor
We Want Jobs. They Care About Body Parts and Kiddie-Poos
As lead stories about body disposal and rearview cameras demonstrate, we don't care about two-party electoral politics because two-party electoral politics don't care about us or our concerns.
Another Obama Sellout on Housing
This mortgage settlement with the banks over robo-signing is different, claims the White House. "No more lost paperwork, no more excuses, no more runaround," HUD secretary Shaun Donovan said February 9th. The new standards will "force the banks to clean up their acts." Don't bet on it.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
02-23-2012 |
Housing & Development
How to Save Books
You may remember such classics as "How the Internet Slaughtered Newspapers" and "How Napster Decimated the Music Business." It's always the same story: Digitalization destroys profits. Whether it's newspapers, magazines, CDs or books ("pBooks," they call them now), the electronic assault on tangible media follows a familiar pattern.
Zuckerberg: The $6,000 a Minute Man
Until recently Americans tended to accept the argument that seven- and eight-digit salaries were justified by the value top executives added to the bottom line. Visionaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs earned billions in profits for shareholders. They were entrepreneurs. They took risks that changed the world. They deserved to rake in the rewards. People began reassessing this view after the collapse of global capitalism which began in 2008 and--despite the Obama Administration's desperate attempts to cook the unemployment numbers--continues to spin out of control.
Taxing the Rich Won't Help the Poor
Would increasing taxes on the wealthy do much to close the gap between rich and poor—to level the economic playing field? Probably not.
Maui Time |
Ted Rall |
01-31-2012 |
Policy Issues
Sympathy for Newt Gingrich
Liberals join their rightist counterparts in snickering about Craig's "wide stance" and Gingrich's request for an open marriage. The effect is to denigrate gays, lesbians and other sexually marginalized and oppressed people.
Support the Marine Urination Brigade
Memo to U.S. forces: OK to invade foreign nation that posed no threat. OK to occupy said country for years. OK to impose a corrupt puppet government. OK to kill the locals. Probably OK to piss on them. Just don't film it.
Rise of the Republican Socialists
It comes down to a simple explanation: Everything has changed, but not the Democrats. They've always been slower than the GOP to recognize the shifting winds of American politics, slower to respond, inept when they try.
Our Suicidal Ruling Class
Obama could announce a big jobs bill, knowing full well that Congressional Republicans would kill it. It would probably increase his reelection prospects. It would kill the Occupy movement. But don't worry. He won't. He can't.
