The Only Thing They Have to Fear Is . . . Government Itself “We’re very excited. It’s exactly what we wanted, and we got it.” —Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) * “The mood in the Capitol on Saturday, at least among Republicans, was downright giddy. When Republican leaders...
Levees Not War
Elvin R. Heiberg III, General Who Took Blame for Hurricane Katrina Failures, Dies at 81
Former Head of Army Corps of Engineers Regretted Not Fighting for Storm-Surge Gates As Tropical Storm Karen approaches the Gulf Coast, and FEMA employees, furloughed by the latest GOP Government Shutdown, are called back to work without pay, The New York Times reports the death of Lt. Gen. Elvin R. Heiberg III, “who rose to the top […]
Deliberate Fiscal Crisis 2013
“Governing by Near-Death Experience” and Other Observations * “This is all about stopping a law that increases taxes on rich people and reduces subsidies to private insurers in Medicare in order to help low-income Americans buy health insurance. That’s it. That’s why the Republican Party might shut down the government and default on the debt. […]
Debt Limit Hostage Crisis 2013: House Republicans Demand Goodies
There are some basic notions that undergird the operation of a democracy. When there’s an election, the candidate who gets more votes is the one who takes office. When a bill is passed through Congress and signed by the president, it’s now the law. And when you lose, you don’t get to demand that your […]
Ready for Burlesque Fest, New Orleans?
Time for the 5th Annual New Orleans Burlesque Festival, Sept. 19–21 Of course New Orleans is ready for another burlesque festival. A good warm-up for Halloween, perhaps. Or just a good warm-up for its own sake. If you’re ready—or might be ready, as we totally are—for Coco Lectric, Dinah Might, Honey Touche and the Touchettes, Cora Vette […]
Live-Blogging from Rising Tide 8 in New Orleans
Live-streaming of Rising Tide conference here. * Keynote Address: Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré on leadership and environmental justice New Orleans Advocate publisher John Georges introduces Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, augmented by video footage from CNN. Standing ovation for Honoré. Honoré thanks audience for being an active community sharing respect for environment, the place where we […]
Honoré Speaks for La. Flood Protection Authority Lawsuit Against Big Oil
“Put our coast back like you found it” Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, the keynote speaker for this coming weekend’s Rising Tide conference in New Orleans, has added a further distinction to his already impressive curriculum vitae: He adds his voice to a full-page advertisement published in the Times-Picayune, paid for by Levees.org and the […]
Rising Tide Update: “Category 5 General” Russel Honoré Is Keynote Speaker
Three-star general hailed as “John Wayne dude” by former N.O. mayor Ray Nagin The annual Rising Tide conference has been ramped up to a whole new level: the keynote speaker will be Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, the no-nonsense “Category 5 General” who took command of Joint Task Force Katrina that coordinated military relief efforts […]
Congress, Now Is the Time to Vote “Hell No”
Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time Not out of indifference to the plight of the Syrian people, and not from an automatic rejection of any and all military action, but rather out of grave concern about the uncontrollable consequences that a U.S. missile strike upon Syria could trigger—such as, quite possibly, a war between Iran […]
Marching on Washington for Economic and Social Justice
* “Timid supplication for justice will not solve the problem. We have got to confront the power structure massively.” —Martin Luther King Jr. “If all the discriminatory laws in the United States were immediately repealed, race would still remain as one of the most pressing moral and political problems in the nation. . . . […]
“Nineteen Sixty-Three Is Not an End But a Beginning . . .”
* Another Sweltering Summer of Legitimate Discontent In this disheartening summer that has seen the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act of 1965—because, the chief justice tells us, its protections are no longer needed—amid vigorous rollbacks of voting rights and access in states with Republican-controlled legislatures; and that has seen a shockingly unjust […]
Read All About the 1963 March on Washington
Recommended Reading about a Movement Still Moving While we’re working on a longer piece about the great March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom of August 28, 1963, we’d like to point you to some writings about the event that we think are worth spending some time...
Rising Tide 8 is Sept. 14 in New Orleans: Register Now!
* Keynote Speaker is Gambit’s Deborah Cotton Deborah Cotton, a Gambit reporter and activist who was injured in the notorious Mother’s Day shooting on May 12, will be the keynote speaker for the 8th annual Rising Tide conference on Saturday, Sept. 14, at Xavier...
Godless Socialism as Cause of Homosexual Marriage
Ultraconservative Unified Field Theory Revealed “Socialism requires that government becomes your god. That’s why they have to destroy the concept of God. They have to destroy all loyalties except loyalty to government. That’s what’s behind homosexual marriage.”...
In Memoriam: Greg Peters, ‘Suspect Device’ Artist and Blogger, Father, Friend
September 24, 1962–August 2, 2013 “My message is kind of an emperor’s new clothes thing: I’m making fun of them, but I’m also trying to remind people that you have a choice. And if you don’t get involved in it, then it’s going to continue, and they’ll continue to put...
Louisiana Flood Protection Agency Sues Big Oil to Repair Wetlands
Historic case is compared to 1990s litigation against Big Tobacco About 100 oil and gas companies must pay to repair the Louisiana wetlands damaged by a century of oil exploration and extraction, according to a lawsuit filed July 24 in civil district court in Orleans...
The (GOP-Driven) Decline of Black Power in the South . . .
“He who controls redistricting can control Congress.” —Karl Rove, “The GOP Targets State Legislatures,” The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2010 “I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president [1948] we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if...
On July 4, Yearning for a Progressive American Revolution
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are...
A Return to Literacy Tests? Take This.
How Many White Folks Does It Take to Pass a Jim Crow ‘Brain-Teaser’? With the Supreme Court’s June 25 decision in Shelby County v. Holder overturning Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and with Republican Jim Crow re-enactors “free at last” to get their electoral racism on, will the United States see a return […]
Supreme Conservatives Drag U.S. Ceaselessly into the (Jim Crow) Past
* “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” —Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, dissenting opinion, Shelby County v. Holder Re-Legalizing Electoral Racism; Red State Republicans ‘Free at Last’ June 25, 2013, will […]