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Today's
Stories
October 17 / 20, 2008
Pam Martens
How the Banksters are Making a Killing Off the Bailout
October 16, 2008
Mike Whitney
The End of Friedmanite Economics: an Interview with Robert Pollin
Jonathan Cook
The Acre Riots
Ayesha Ijaz Khan
Is Obama Playing to the Gallery? Or Has He Lost the Plot in South Asia?
Alan Maass
A Supreme Injustice: the Death Penalty Case of Troy Davis
Chuck O'Connell
Our Needs Do Not Fit on Their Ballots
Mary Lynn Cramer
Krugman's Prize: Iconoclast, Apologist or Propagandist?
P. Sainath
The Race May be Over, But Race Isn't
Andy Worthington
The Shrinking Case Against Binyam Mohamed:
Justice Department Drops "Dirty Bomb Plot" Allegation
Peter Gelderloos
Enric Duran, the Good Thief?
Stephen Martin
The Nourishment of Idleness: Where Has All the Money Gone?
Douglas Valentine
Why I'm Voting for Obama
Website of the Day
The Mormon Worker
October 15, 2008
Steve Conn
The Real Story of Troopergate
William P. O'Connor
The Legend of John McCain
Robert Weissman
The Partial Nationalization of US Banks: Public Ownership, But No Public Control
Jonathan M. Feldman
Before the Second Wave of Crisis: an Alternative to the Triple Failure
Ron Jacobs
The Politics of Race in America: Is a Vote For Obama a Vote Against Racism?
Conn Hallinan
Targeting Unions in Colombia
Justin Podur
The Financial Economy and Real Economy
Karl Grossman
The New Nuclear Navy
Dave Lindorff
Is the Government Really Turning Socialist?
Eric Walberg
The Quiet Russian
Martha Rosenberg
Of Blood and Eggs
Uri Avnery
A Fairy Tale
Monica Benderman
No More
Website of the Day
Contractor Misconduct Database
October 14, 2008
Robert Richter
McCain: War Hero or War Criminal?
Paul Craig Roberts
The Bailout and the Smell Test
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Wall Street Coup and the Bailout Scam
Steve Conn
Made in Alaska: Fear of the Fringe
P. Sainath
The Race Could be Over, But Race Isn't
Gregory Elich
How the Nobel Peace Prize Was Won
Stephen Martin
A Tectonic Shift in Hegemony at the G7
Rev. William Alberts
Don't Blink Twice
Laura Carlsen
The Fall of the Bush Dynasty Plan
Joanne Mariner
The Uighurs Come to Washington
Howard Lisnoff
Left Behind:
a Biden Fundraiser and the Children of Holyoke
David Macaray
A Tale of Two Unions
Website of the Day
Six Degrees of Hank Paulson
October 13, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Farewell to Daniel Cassidy
Michael Hudson
Rescue for the Few, Debt Slavery for the Many
Patrick Cockburn
Pogrom Against Mosul's Christians
Chris Floyd
The God That Failed: the 30-Year Lie of the Market Cult
Fidel Castro
The Law of the Jungle: Racism, Obama and the Fall of the American Economy
Robert Weitzel
Olmert's Depths of Reality
Derek Wright
How Chrysler Killed My Uncle
Stephen Soldz
Guantánamo's SERE Standard Operating Procedures
David Michael Green
Greed is Not Good
Norman Solomon
Requiem for the Bailout: a Storyline
Charles R. Larson
Toni Morrison on Her Own Terms
Lisa Massaciuccoli
The Shoplifting Association of the Americas
Website of the Day
Arlo Guthrie: "I'm Changing My Name to Fannie Mae"
October 10 / 12, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Is McCain a Lot Sicker Than We Know?
Jeffrey St. Clair /
Joshua Frank
Obama's Nuclear Ambition
Douglas Valentine
Mission CREEP: From John Mitchell to John McCain
Noam Chomsky
Exposing the Un-Democratic Face of Capitalism
Ralph Nader
The Derivatives Game
Syed Saleem Shahzad
Why the Neo-Taliban is Winning
Patrick Cockburn
War in the Time of Cholera
Paul Craig Roberts
A Possible Solution to the Economic Crisis
Mike Whitney
Run on the System
Peter Morici
The Deficit and the Damage Done
Christopher Ketcham
The End of the Economy
Stephen Martin
Shock and Awe in Economic Warfare
Chellis Glendinning
Wireless Mind, Gullible Mind
Saul Landau
All Guns, No Butter
Ahmad Faruqui
21 Days to Baghdad
Adam Turl
Sheriff Tom Dart vs. the Banksters
Serge Halimi
The Battle for the West
Anthony DiMaggio
Making a Killing: the Business of Elections
John Ross
The Sky is Falling on Mexico, Too
José M. Tirado
Meltdown in Iceland
Paul Krassner
Beat the Crowd in Denver: Cops and T-Shirts
David Macaray
Adventures in Unionism
Robert Fantina
Bankrupt and Belligerent
David Yearsley
The Playlist for Election 2008
Julian Clec'h
The Soap Washing Through Saudi Arabia
Adam Engel
Sexual Healing ... for the Planet
Phyllis Pollack
The Rolling Stones Go Home, Again
Missy Beattie
Going North: the Coming Nation of Alaska
Poets' Basement
Landau, Moser and Henson
Website of the Day
Sarah as Esther? New Video From Inside Palin's Church
October 9, 2008
Robert Bryce
From Enron to the Current Meltdown
David Vest
The Great Rescue of 2008: Could Whatever Follows Bush Be Even Worse?
Winslow T. Wheeler
Meltdown at the Pentagon
Andy Worthington
The Ordeal of the Wrongly Imprisoned Uighurs
Anthony DiMaggio
Obama the Subhuman
Helga Serrano /
Hector Tamayo
Ecuador Charts the Way
Dave Lindorff
When Money Flies
Mats Svensson
At the Checkpoint on the Day of Atonement
Rannie Amiri
The Time for Mordechai Vanunu is Now
Website of the Day
The Palestine Chronicle Needs (and Deserves) Your Support
October 8, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Imbecilic Tedium
Linn Washington, Jr.
Palin's Racist Remark
Mike Whitney
To the Bunkers!
Deepak Tripathi
The West is Broke
George C. Wilson
Butter Over Guns? McCain and Obama on Defense Issues
Andy Worthington
Seized in Pakistan
Charles R. Larson
"I'm John McCain and I Approved This Lie"
Patrick Irelan
Ecuador's Choice
Matthew Koehler
Log, Baby, Log: Bailing Out the Timber Industry
Stanley Heller
Time to Design a New Economy
Daniel Gross
Working Class Hero: Alexandra Svoboda
Kimberly Hartke
Raw Milk and Civil Liberties
Website of the Day
Olivia Wilde Does It Early
October 7, 2008
Patrick Cockburn
Obama and McCain's Goofy Afghan Bluster
Gary Leupp
Seven Years in Afghanistan:
From "War on Terror" to
"War of Terror"
Uri Avnery
Olmert's Final Divorce
From "All of Eretz Israel"
P. Sainath
The Cop-Out Election
Major Candidates, Congress, Press, All Fail in the Big Crisis
Peter Morici
The Dow Tanks as Bank Bailout Fails to Restore Confidence
Conn Hallinan
The Great Game in the Caucasus:
Bad Moves by Uncle Sam
Martha Rosenberg
Training America's Youth
Today a Pheasant, Tomorrow Osama
Binoy Kampmark
Let's Talk About Extinction:
CERN and Halo
October 6, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America
Mike Whitney
Still on the Edge of the Abyss
Tariq Ali
Goodbye to Grosvenor Square
Emily Horowitz
How People Tell Cops They're Guilty Even When They Aren't
Michael Hudson
What Did Jesus Say?
A Christian Perspective on the Paulson Bank Bailout
Ron Jacobs
Winter Soldiers and Washington's Wars
October 3 - 5, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Creatures of Capital
Paul Craig Roberts
Why Paulson's Plan is a Fraud
Saul Landau
The Chutzpah of Hank Paulson
Jonathan Cook
The Souring of a West Bank Romance: Israel's Army and Settlers Fall Out
Andy Worthington
The Dark Heart of the Guantánamo Trials
Dave Marsh
Bono (Himself) Challenges Me to a Debate
Sasan Fayazmanesh
Using the IAEA to Spy on Iran
John Ross
Massacre in Morelia
Brian Cloughley
The Unacceptable Face of Capitalism
Wajahat Ali
Dueling Partners: an Interview with Tariq Ali on Pakistan
Robert Schwartz
A Serious Blow to the Rights of U.S. Workers: NLRB Limits Political Strikes
Alan Nasser
FDR's Response to the Plot to Overthrow Him: a Paradigm for Today's Democrats?
David Ker Thomson
The Case for Drunk Driving
Peter Morici
Gone in 30 Days: U.S. Loses 159,000 Jobs in September
William Blum
When is a Holocaust Not a Holocaust?
William S. Lind
War on Two Fronts: Without Railroads
Michael Donnelly
The Ghost of Gen. McClellan
Thom Rutledge
On Presidential "Rule"
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Science and the 2008 Presidential Elections: a Survey of the Candidates
Dave Lindorff
Calling the Problem Early
Cindy Ellen Hill
Waging a Sustainable Peace?
Paul Krassner
Dying to Get High: the Side Effects of Medical Marijuana
Daniel White
Vietnam's Masterspy
Poets' Basement
Corseri, Absher, Gibbons and Jenkins
Website of the Weekend
How We Lost Glen Canyon: a Legal Chronology
October 2, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
Can a Bailout Succeed?
Joe Bageant
Speaking in the Tongues of Brokers: the Bailout in Plain English
Ralph Nader
Soulmates in Deregulation
Mike Whitney
Why the Bailout Stinks
Madis Senner
When Push Comes to Pull: How a Foreign Banker Invasion Sent the Markets Reeling
Winslow T. Wheeler
Congress as Usual:the Crisis Will Pass, But This Bunch Will Remain the Same
William Blum
A Boy's Game:
the Origins of the Financial Crisis
P. Sainath
Wall Street Transforms Presidential Race
Website of the Day
McCain's Meltdown in Des Moines
October 1 , 2008
Glen Ford
The Last Hold Up
Steven Conn
Trashing Sarah Palin: the Boomerang Effect
Alan Maass / Lee Sustar
Why Not a Bailout for the Rest of Us?
Kenneth Couesbouc
The Blame Game: When Wall Street Pigs Sprout Wings
Stan Goff
How the Republicans Can Win (And Deserve It)
Adolfo Gilly
Racism, Domination and Bolivia
Rannie Amiri
Bombs in the Levant
Ismael Hossein-Zadeh
The Recurring Myth of Peak Oil
Adam W. Parsons
Food and Markets
Dave Lindorff
Bums' Rush to the Bailout: Where are the Hearings?
Douglas Valentine
The Bush Continuity Plan?
Adrien Rain Burke
The Party's Over: an Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi
Website of the Day
Sarah Palin's Beauty Pageant
September 30, 2008
Pam Martens
What Wall Street Hoped to Win
Chris Floyd
The Shadow of the Pitchfork: Elite Panic on Wall Street
Stephen Martin
A Biological Walk Down Wall Street
Deepak Tripathi
A Bitter Harvest in Afghanistan
Mark Engler
Bad Money
Jonathan Cook
The Attack on Zeev Sternhell: Has Israel Become a Breeding Ground for Jewish Settler Terrorism?
Dave Lindorff
The Power of No
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Time for a General Strike?
Ahmad Faruqui
In Cold Blood: Buried Alive in Pakistan
John Chuckman
Will the Bride Wear White? As Rome Burns, Bristol Palin Prepares to Tie the Knot with Mr. "Sex on Skates"
David Macaray
Blaming the Labor Unions
Fatemeh Keshavarz
What Obama Could Have Said
Website of the Day
538: a Cognitive Map of American Politics
September 29, 2008
Mike Whitney
Black Monday
Jeff Gibbs
"Just Say No!" to Reverse Robin Hood
Paul Craig Roberts
Why America Should Listen to Ahmadinejad
Peter Morici
The Bailout and the Economy
Tim Wise
Racism as Reflex
John Walsh
Sarah Palin is a Rotten Mom
Uri Avnery
Israeli Fascism:
Yes, It Can Happen Here
Alan Farago
Hell to Pay: the Financial Collapse and the Housing Market
Andy Worthington
Is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Running the 9/11 Trials?
David Michael Green
Where's the Repudiation?
Carl Finamore
Capitalism on Steroids; Labor on Tranquilizers
Iris Keltz
Postcards from the DNC
Bill Hatch
Take This Shrimp Slayer!
Website of the Day
Tina Fey as Palin, Round Two
September 27 / 28, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
How McCain Blew It
Linn Washington, Jr.
Alaska's Blacks and Palin: a Strained Relationship
Christopher Ketcham
An Israeli Trojan Horse
Mike Whitney
The People vs. the Banksters
Kevin Alexander Gray Race in the Race: Is Obama Shining Us On?
Anthony DiMaggio
The Unspoken War: Pakistan, the Media and Nuclear Weapons
Mary Lynn Cramer
Their Assets; Our Debts: How Economic Crises Are Overcome
Marc Levy /
Susan Erony
War Jokes Wanted: No Laughing Matter
Stan Cox
Livestock of Mass Destruction: Germ Labs in the Heartland
Saul Landau
Election Drizzle
Ali Khan
Meltdown in American Markets: an Islamic Perspective
David Rosen
The Great Fear:
the Sexual Politics of Sarah Palin
Todd Alan Price
Bailing Out the Foes of Public Eduction
Matts Svensson
The Red and White Bird in Gaza
Ron Jacobs
Pakistan Through the Eyes of a Native Son
Robert Fantina
McCain and the Economy
Richard Rhames
Hank-ering for a Bailout
David Krieger
The U.S.-India Nuclear Proliferation Deal
Seth Sandronsky
Rethinking Charter Schools
Charles R. Larson
Dear Mrs. Abacha: a Nigerian Email Romance
Kim Nicolini
Sadism in the Desert
Poets' Basement
La Morticella, Holt, Moser and Buknatski
Website of the Day
The Great Schlep
September 26, 2008
Moshe Adler
Bailing Out Wall Street Won't Save Main Street
Bill Quigley
The U.S. War on Unarmed Working Mothers
Jonathan Cook
When Archaeology Becomes a Curse
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
Visions of Pinpoint Control: the Romance of Laser Weapons
Madis Senner
Why the Bailout will Fail
Brian Cloughley
US Raids in Pakistan: Violations of Sovereignty
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Oh, Henry!
Joanne Mariner
Passport Fraud and Torture
Dan La Botz
The Financial Crisis: a View from the Left
David Macaray
Ralph's Management Indicted by Federal Grand Jury
Website of the Day
Nader and Obama Girl at the Office
September 25, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Insanity of the $700 Billion Giveaway
Sharon Smith
Democrats and Corporate Bailouts
Ralph Nader
Who Will Show Some Backbone Against the Bailout?
Christopher Ketcham
The Economy of Dead Sperm (or What I Learned From My Race-Car Grandpa Who Had No Bankers)
Eric Toussaint
Is Another Third World Debt Crisis in the Offing?
Robert Weissman
Getting Wall Street Pay Reform Right
David Estabrook
A Better Bailout Plan
Nikolas Kozloff
The Voyage of the SS Peter the Great
Steve Early
The High Price of Purple Dissent
Judith Scherr
Blue Helmets in Haiti
Laray Polk
South Ossetia and Abkhazia: Notes from the Inside
Website of the Day
Letterman Spanks McCain
September 24, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation
Nikolas Kozloff
Palin at the UN: a Tutorial from Uribe
Robert Weissman
The Financial Crisis: How and Why Congress Should Play for Time
Andy Worthington
The Guantánamo Trials: Govt. Says Six Years Not Long Enough to Prepare Evidence
Steve Conn
Will Nader's Warning be Acknowledged in the Presidential Debates?
Karyn Strickler
The $700,000,000,000 Power Punch
Diane Farsetta
Stealth Marketers Gone Wild
Dennis Loo
Poisoned Legacy
John Halle
Wealth Tax Now!
Khalil Nakhleh
Palestinians Under the Occupation
Website of the Day
Nader: Debate Crasher
September 23, 2008
Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr.
Bail Out on This Bailout
Michael Hudson
Henry Paulson and the New Yazoo Land Scandal
Tariq Ali
Why was the Marriott Targeted?
Patrick Dyer
A Death Row Visit with Troy A. Davis
Franklin Lamb
Hezbollah and the Palestinians
Joshua Frank
Oppose Barack Obama? How Dare Thee!
Alan Farago
Pushing the Referees:
How the Financial Crisis Occurred
Dave Lindorff
The Bailout Will Kill the Dollar
Tanya M. Kerssen /
Roger Burbach
Bolivia's Popular Upheaval
Harvey Wasserman
Nuclear Power Liabilities Dwarf Bush's Wall Street Bailout
Website of the Day
Hammered by the Irish: the Video
September 22, 2008
Michael Hudson
The Paulson-Bernanke Bank Bailout Plan: Will the Cure be Worse Than the Crisis?
Mike Whitney
Mushroom Clouds Over Wall Street
Christopher Ketcham
Let It Collapse!
Ron Jacobs
The Predators' Bailout
Anne-Marie McManus
Lost in the Rhetoric of Crisis
Robert Weitzel
The Twin Terrors of the Holy Land: a Sexy Fundamentalist and a White-Haired Zionist
Wajahat Ali
An Interview with Howard Dean
John Ross
A New Cold War Comes to Latin America
Steve Breyman
Does the U.S. Really Need Cluster Bombs?
Patrick Bond
On the Bellies of the Filth
Uri Avnery
Fly, Tzipora, Fly
Carl J. Mayer
An Open Letter to Michael Moore (AKA God's Pen Pal): Whatever Happened to Voting Your Conscience?
Website of the Day
Stop the Execution of Troy Anthony Davis
September 20 / 21, 2008
Alexander Cockburn
Is This the Stake Through Neoliberalism's Heart?
Michael Hudson
America's Own Kleptocracy
Pam Martens
The Wall Street Model: Unintelligent Design
Lila Rajiva
Putting Lipstick on an AIG
Mike Whitney
Full-Spectrum Breakdown
Richard Rhames
A Bailout to Nowhere
Bill Moyers /
Michael Winship
The NY Yankees and the U.S. Economy
Bill and Kathleen Christison
The Making of Recent U.S. Middle East Policies: a New Study of Neocon Influence
Susan Block
Palin as Venus in Furs: the Dominatrix Politics of Drilling and Killing
Robert Fantina
Republicans and Subpoenas: Never the Twain Shall Meet
Heidi Walters
Hung Up on Route 36: an 18-Wheeler and a Nuclear Cask
David Yearsley
Germany's Lost Organs: When Bigger Was Better
Raymond J. Lawrence
The Politics of Tribulation: Sarah Palin and the Rapture
David Rosen
One Billion Pills Later: Viagra at 10
David Michael Green
Living in Sarah Palin's America
Anthony Papa
Imprisoned Voters and the Elections
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Freddie, Fannie, Daddy, Nanny
Howard Lisnoff
When We Notice the Homeless
John Goekler
Leaving Every Child Behind
Missy Beattie
Impalement
Dave Zirin
Leave Josh Howard Alone
Charles R. Larson
Holden Caulfield, Rest in Peace
Tim Matson
Too Big for His Birches: Woodlot Economics
Susie Day
Attack of the Angry Fetus
Poets' Basement
Corseri, Gibbons, Jenkins and Ford
Website of the Weekend
Dylan & Baez: Deportees
September 19, 2008
Steven T. Banko
McCain's Passion Play
Mike Whitney
The Point of No Return
Michael Hudson
The Dow Jones' Wonderfully Cheesy Addition
William Kaufman
Shattering the Glass-Steagall Act: the Bi-Partisan Origins of the Financial Crisis
Brenda Norrell
The Fall of Lehman Bros.:
Blowback for Black Mesa?
Keeanga-Yamatta Taylor
The New Rhetoric of Racism: Why Won't Obama Call It Out?
Clifton Ross
Bolivia: Cleaning Up the Bull Ring
Dave Lindorff
Hang On to Your Wallets: the Government's About to Rescue Us!
Cynthia McKinney
Seize the Time!
Susan Hurlich
Storm Survivors: a Dispatch from Cuba
Michael Donnelly
Let's Hand It All Over to the Democrats (They Helped Create This Mess)
Website of the Day
The Crisis Explained
September 18, 2008
Benjamin Dangl
The Machine Gun and the Meeting Table
Harvey Wasserman
The Senate's Drill, Drill, Drill Scam
Susan Abulhawa
The Lobby Has Spoken:
Biden and Israel
Robert Weissman
After the Fall:
the Financial Re-Regulatory Agenda
Anne-Marie McManus
McCain's Cinderella: the Fetishization of Sarah Palin
Corey D. B. Walker
The Poverty of 21st Century Progressivism
William S. Lind
Senator O'Bush: Why Obama is Wrong on Iran and Afghanistan
Ron Jacobs
Washington's False Logic of Torture
Dave Lindorff
American and China: Joined at the Hip
Binoy Kampmark
How Damien Hirst Got Away With It
Website of the Day
An Invisible Army
September 17, 2008
Stephen Conn
Palin and the Politics of Big Oil
Forrest Hylton
Reactionary Rampage in Bolivia
Patrick Cockburn
Petraeus Leaves Iraq
Gregory Elich
Inside North Korea
Ralph Nader
How the U.S. Auto Industry Wrecked Itself
Franklin Lamb
The Palestinians of Shabra-Shatila
Pam Martens
The Gang's All Here: Bush, McCain and the Old Iran/Contra Team
Dave Lindorff
The End of the Blue Chip Economy
Peter Morici
The Damage Deepens
Stanley Heller
The Killing of Count Folke Bernadotte
Douglas Valentine
Rambling David Foster Wallace
Website of the Day
Free Cindy McCain!
September 16, 2008
Paul Craig Roberts
US Economy: Rudderless and Reeling from Direct Hits
Tiphaine Dickson
Citizen Palin: Why Sarah Palin Quoted Westbrook Pegler
Stan Goff
America is Now Rome: an Open Letter to Christian Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
Uri Avnery
Tzipi's Choice
Michael Winship
Lipstick on Polar Bears
Jeff Halper
Warehousing Palestinians
Patrick Irelan
Bolivia Versus the Empire
Oscar Gonzalez
Who's Dumber? Ike's Refugees or Wall Street's?
Binoy Kampmark
Cheney and His Records
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Muslims are at Peace with You
Sen. Russ Feingold
Restoring the Rule of Law
Website of the Day
The Next Great Rock Band?
September 15, 2008
Mike Whitney
The Tumbrils Roll at Dawn
Peter Morici
Toxic Lehman
Patrick Cockburn
Take Another Look at the Surge
Charles R. Larson
The Maverick Has No Clothes
Jonathan Cook
The Expulsion of Palestinians from Jaffa
Nikolas Kozloff
Racist Rhetoric in Bolivia
Roger Burbach
Morales Confronts the Insurrection: Bolivia and the Echoes of Allende
Helen Redmond
Where's the Health Care Bailout?
David Michael Green
The Democrats Do Poland
David Macaray
The Boeing Strike
Ralph Nader
Remembering Peter Camejo
Website of the Day
The Ballad of Sarah Palin
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Weekend Edition
October 17 / 20, 2008
Bush's War on Consumer Safety
Closing the Courthouse Door
By RALPH NADER
“Real change comes from the bottom up, not the top down. The genius of the American system has been to let that change flow upward, from neighborhoods to cities to states and then to the federal government.”
-- George W. Bush February 26, 2001.
Unfortunately, the difference between words and deeds in Washington is often shocking even to those who think they have seen it all. Alicia Mundy in the October 15, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal reports: “Bush administration officials, in their last weeks in office, are pushing to rewrite a wide array of federal rules with changes or additions that could block product-safety lawsuits by consumers and states.”
What President George W. Bush should have said is that he believes in states rights when they are in the interest of Big Business and their lobbyists in Washington. Mr. Bush and his cronies would like to forget about those harmed by dangerous products or reckless conduct. Indeed, Bush & Company seem to regard the civil justice system as a nuisance that threatens to destroy our economy and way of life. In reality, America’s civil justice system plays an indispensable role in our democracy. When the rights of injured consumers are vindicated in court, our society benefits in countless ways: compensating victims and their families for shattering losses (with the cost borne by the wrongdoers rather than taxpayers); preventing future injuries by deterring dangerous products and practices and spurring safety innovation; stimulating enforceable safety standards; educating the public to risks associated with certain products and services; and providing society with its moral and ethical fiber by defining appropriate norms of conduct.
The Center for Progressive Reform has in painstaking detail chronicled the attack on the civil Justice system by the Bush Administration. In “The Truth about Torts: Using Agency Preemption to Undercut Consumer Health and Safety” legal scholars William Funk, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck and Karen Sokol write: “In recent years, the Bush administration has launched an unprecedented aggressive campaign to persuade the courts to preempt state tort actions.... Widespread preemption of state tort law would significantly undermine, if not eliminate, the rights of individuals to seek redress for injuries caused by irresponsible and dangerous business practices and to hold manufacturers and others accountable for such socially unreasonable conduct.” (See: http://www.progressiveregulation.org).
And, Les Weisbrod, the President of the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) hit the nail on the head when he said: "In effect the Bush administration made the safety of Americans secondary to corporate profits." Mr. Weisbrod added: "Big business lobbyists have been on a crusade to destroy state consumer protection laws, and further stack the deck against American consumers." The American Association for Justice has just published a report titled: "Get Out of Jail Free: A Historical Perspective of How the Bush Administration Helps Corporations Escape Accountability" – this report is available at: www.justice.org/getoutofjailfree.
Tort deform comes in many shapes and sizes – but the common theme is that tort deform severely damages Americans’ cherished constitutional right to trial by jury. It ties the hands of jurors, preventing them from doing justice as the case before them requires. Only the judges and juries see, hear, and evaluate the evidence in these cases. But it is the politicians, absent from the courtrooms, who push bills greased by campaign cash that send a perverse message to judge and jury.
Tort law has produced decades of slow but steady progress in state after state respecting the physical integrity of human beings against harm and recognition that even the weak and defenseless deserve justice. Instead of seeing this evolution as a source of national and global pride, a coalition of insurance companies, corporate defendants’ lobbies, and craven politicians, led by George W. Bush, want to destroy our civil justice system.
When Georgetown Law School Professor David Vladeck testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 12, 2007, he noted that the Bush Administration has “seized on regulatory preemption as a way to cut back dramatically on State law remedies for those injured by products and services Americans depend on every day for their health and well-being — medicines, medical devices, motor vehicles, the mattress on which we and our children sleep, and the commuter trains millions of us take to work every day.”
Let us hope that Congress and the Supreme Court stop Mr. Bush from once again trampling the Constitutional rights of citizens throughout the land and preventing victims of corporate violence from obtaining justice in a court of law.
Ralph Nader is running for president as an independent.
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