What Would Romney-Ryan Mean for FEMA and Infrastructure? [ cross-posted at DailyKos ] * “One of the themes of the Tampa convention will be the failure of government, and the prosperity that will result if it is cut to ribbons. But in a different corner of the...
Year: 2012
Isaac Aims at Mouth of Mississippi, Greater New Orleans
* On exactly the seven-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29), Tropical Storm Isaac is heading toward the mouth of the Mississippi River, likely to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, and possibly as a Category 2, with wind speeds up to about 100 m.p.h....
Tom Hayden, SDS and SNCC Alums:
Happy 50th, Port Huron Statement!
SDS National Council Meeting, September 1963. Tom Hayden stands at far left. [Photo by C. Clark Kissinger] * “We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. . . . First,...
Todd Gitlin on Port Huron Statement’s 50th Anniversary
Early ’60s idealism: The mimeographed mission statement of a new generation [ Part 1 of a 2-part series | also @ DailyKos ] “The genius of the Port Huron Statement, as it was structured, was placing its declaration of values up front. The movement would not be guided...
RFK, MLK: “This mindless menace of violence in America”
“Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit [of hatred and revenge] flourish any longer in our land.” —Robert F. Kennedy, April 5, 1968 * On the day after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then senator...
4/4, 44 Years Ago . . .
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” —Aeschylus * It was the night of April 4, 1968, when word spread that the Rev. Martin Luther King...
Do They Know It’s Mardi Gras?
* Outside of New Orleans and southern Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras generally comes as news—if it comes at all—to people in the rest of the United States when they see footage on network and cable news. Oh, it must be Mardi Gras again. Look at all those...
Framing the Case for Infrastructure Investment, Taxing the Rich
Attn.: Pro-Infrastructure Activists and Democratic Strategists: In a Feb. 4 letter to the editor of the New York Times, Rick Stone of Madison, Wisc., makes a point that more of us should heed: If the wealthy knew with certainty that their increased taxes would make...
IEA Sees “Irreversible Climate Change in Five Years”
“I don’t know who and where the climate leadership in the administration is. It doesn’t exist. There is no resolve in the Obama administration to do anything.” —Tim Wirth, U.N. Foundation president “What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real?” —Pink Floyd,...
“There Is a Creative Force in This Universe”
The Poor People’s Campaign, 40 Years before Occupy Wall Street “Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. . . . God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others...
How the World Has—and Has Not—Changed in 50 Years
* Portraits of Courage, Struggle, and Defiance This is the mug shot of Joan Trumpauer, a 19-year-old Duke University student and SNCC member who was arrested by the Jackson, Mississippi, police with eight other activists as they arrived on a train from New Orleans to...
As We Enter 2012, Best Wishes to All
May the new year bring you all the good things you wish for. We’ll be brief with our greetings and good wishes, as last night’s champagne slowly wears off, and as there’s some house-cleaning to do before guests arrive for the New Year’s Day dinner . . . For all our...