AltWeeklies Wire
Big Oil Dominates the GOP, Especially in Palin's Alaskanew
The longer we discuss Sarah Palin's uterus, the more likely it is that American politics will remain distracted from the central issue of this election: whether the lords of oil will continue to control the United States as surely as they control Alaska.
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
09-15-2008 |
Commentary
Four More Years of 'Change'new
It seems like someone keeps hitting the "replay" button on our election years. Take this year's Republican coronation of John McCain -- we've seen this dog-and-pony show before. Specifically, we saw it in 2000, when George W. Bush ran for president -- the same slogans, same promises, and same candidate packaging.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
09-15-2008 |
Commentary
The Republic of Oldistan: How Age, Depopulation and Local Politics Will Shape 2008new
Demography should be destiny -- but Oldistan has time and again voted against its own economic interests. Oldistan won't get a policy prescription that preserves communities unless Oldistan votes for it. But there is hope.
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
09-08-2008 |
Commentary
Sarah Palin is John McCain's Latest Albatrossnew
Simply putting a "lady" on the ticket isn't going to garner energized woman voters when that lady opposes so much of what the women's movement has struggled for.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
09-08-2008 |
Commentary
McCain's First War: He's Got Georgia on His Mindnew
Whether he actually encouraged this war, or is just wildly supporting the Georgian side of it, McCain seems to be playing with nuclear dynamite, poking and teasing the one country on earth that has the power to destroy the planet. This Cold War redux does more than give us a glimpse into what a McCain cowboy foreign policy would be like. It illuminates his insanity.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
08-25-2008 |
Commentary
Election '08: The Sour Politics of Declinenew
Fear worked for Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, and McCain is singing the same song. Hope worked for Clinton. Hope, plus good manners and a green version of economic nationalism, could be the formula for Obama to turn the Democrats that Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan lured away back into Democrats.
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
08-18-2008 |
Commentary
Nation of Idiots: Beavis and Butthead's Grandfather Runs for Presidentnew
With Bush we got eight years of corporate looting of the nation's hard-earned wealth. With McCain we'll have four more years of kleptocrats picking at the national corpse. Eventually there'll be nothing left. But we should vote for this guy because, well, something about him standing up against bullshit tire pressure pinkos and that anti-Christ smart talking celebrity fella. Ya gotta love American presidential elections.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
08-18-2008 |
Commentary
Latest History-Making Story Ignored by the Press: Impeachmentnew
When future historians sit down to study this era, archived media stories will be of little use to them, unless the Brad Pitt-Angela Jolie baby grows up to rule the world. Probably the biggest history-making story to be ignored by the corporate media this month is the introduction in the US Congress of Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
06-23-2008 |
Commentary
John McCain and the Doomsday Mobnew
With the primary contest behind him, McCain is now gearing up to run against "hope" and "change." In this broader race, lunatic pastors like John Hagee and Rod Parsley become extremely burdensome liabilities. So -- wink wink -- they get cut loose, at least for the next few months until they're needed again.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
06-02-2008 |
Commentary
Old Networks vs. New in the Democratic Primarynew
We used to call them Reagan Democrats. Nowadays the national media have taken to calling them the "white working class." In the South, they're called Bubba. In 2008, they are the key to victory.
Ralph Nader On the Decision to Run for President Againnew
"I was looking at my position papers from '04, and almost without exception everything is worse," says Nader, whose long career as a consumer rights advocate is now overshadowed by his runs for the presidency in 2000 and 2004.
America After Bush: Truth and Reconciliationnew
Let's assume for the moment that this reign ends on January 20, 2009 -- an assumption that could only become reality if the American people stand up and actively defend our embattled democracy. The question then becomes, what's next?
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
04-18-2008 |
Commentary
How Class Caricatures Could Blow it for the Democratsnew
Democrats have a problem explaining progressive economic policies when they've been successfully caricatured as cultural elitists and snobs who sneer at the tastes, faith, gender roles, and economic aspirations of working people. Thus the unfortunate vulnerability of Barack Obama.
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
04-18-2008 |
Commentary
What About John McCain's Pastors?new
The GOP's propaganda wing has successfully shifted the election focus away from our endless wars and our imploding economy and environment, over to Barack Obama's pastor. Lost amid this newfound obsession was any mention of John McCain's two lunatic preachers.
Artvoice |
Michael I. Niman |
03-28-2008 |
Commentary
Election '08: Catholic Identity Politicsnew
Delegates don't matter. Money doesn't matter. Reverend Jeremiah Wright's statements about AIDS as a US government conspiracy to kill blacks, and about American perfidy at home and abroad, may have doomed Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for president -- because millions of traditional Democratic voters don't want to be blamed for old wrongs.
Artvoice |
Bruce Fisher |
03-28-2008 |
Commentary
