Some crucial items on the political campaign agenda should cover: 16) Raise the minimum wage rate one dollar each year for the next three years and legislate cost of living index thereafter. 17) Fund a public education overseas TV channel in foreign languages giving an objective account of democracy at work. 18) Develop a peace project for the western hemisphere stressing the need to replace dictatorships and oppression with democratic objectives. 19) Assist in mor...

Some crucial items on the political campaign agenda should cover: 1) A voluntary civilian defense corps made up of primarily school drop-outs, and high school students not college-bound and senior citizens for nominal stipend; this corps would be organized and supervised by local enforcement agencies and paid for by Homeland Security. 2) Incentives should target the national guard to recruit more for the express purpose of border patrol. 3) Appropriations should be increa...

During these primaries the exchange has been more about the economy than the war. The bleak picture the Democratic candidates paint is echoed by many of the Democratic faithful who feel for those affected by job loss and outsourcing. To the Republican faithful, however, this scenario flies in the face of a stock market rebounding that is attributed to the tax cuts. Most Republicans voters are of the unscathed middle class and higher and don’t care about factory-shut downs or the exodus of job...

The old cry that communism equally degrades everyone to little above serfdom could conceivably be apropos to the current economic strategy of corporations in search of minimal labor costs abroad. Conservatives and Clinton Democrats as well argue that it is logical to continue relentlessly free trade since they claim it creates jobs here, too. What they don’t tell you is what kind of jobs are created here. Free trade generates flea markets, dollar store, auto foreign parts outlets, Wal-Marts an...

In the nation’s quest to leave no child behind, the politicians are admitting that indeed there are children left behind. In the spirit of the land of opportunity, the nation is ostensibly bent on bringing up to par the nation’s children by impossible tests that have nothing to do with the reality — a term more than ever blurred by “reality” TV — which everyone knows has to do with the child’s home environment, the child’s DNA, the schooling of the parents, the disrepair of the school attended, ...

“We follow too easily, question authority too little. We cannot allow ourselves to go abroad again with guns. I do not trust our society enough to hold back.” No, this is not a protester of the war, or Howard Dean. Still, it would serve us well to heed these words in light of the cacophony of disinformation filling the foul atmosphere of our foreign policy, regardless of its quasi-humanitarian efforts to sanitize parts of the world of their totalitarian leanings. We have the UN to do th...

Until I learned otherwise from Paul Farbi of the “Washington Post”, I was sympathetic toward Joe Trippi when Howard Dean replaced him as campaign manager in favor of Gore’s boy. After all, thought I, Joe had successfully made Howard a household name, even though his strategy led to Dean’s peaking much too early. However, it appears that Joe Trippi indiscriminately ran Dean TV ads to the tune of $300,000 as early as last June, seven months before a ballot was cast in Iowa’s caucus. In Au...

“The earth belongs to each… generation during its course, fully and in its own right. The second generation receives it clear of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on. For if the first could charge it with a debt, then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation. Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid during the course of its own existence.” Thomas Jefferson, Letter from Paris, September 6, 1789 ...

According Andrew Somers, president of Drug Action Network site perceives the drug war is going nowhere and analogous to pre-prohibition and that certain drugs should be definitely legalized: “For instance, comparative analysis of even the most pessimistic studies of marijuana show it to be safer and more benign than alcohol. Therefore it's easy to see marijuana regulations mirroring those for beer and wine.” He acknowledges there are differences in narcotics and suggests: “Har...

In a hedonistic society a sin tax such as proposed on smokers is arguably the preferred way—more so as a disincentive to smoke than as revenue enhancement for a health plan. And if this is indeed the case, then why is there not a heavier sin-tax on gambling, drinking and drugging as a disincentive rather than revenue enhancement? Because the existing sin tax is precisely revenue enhancement and further levies could actually jeopardize consumption, resulting in less revenue. Since vices are a...

Religious, ceremonious use of drugs has existed in ancient times, perhaps as far back as 3000 B. C. in Mesopotamia [Sumer] and certainly in ancient Greece and Scyth, using opium and cannabis. In medieval Islam the popular consumption was cannabis and a particular sect known fittingly as Assassins used hashish that reportedly heightens homicidal instincts. In the New World prevalent was a pyshotropic mushroom cult in the Mayan culture. Native Americans were engaged with the Peyote Spirit, hal...

Though I never thought of myself as homophobic, I did question this unique persuasion as either choice or natural instinct. Upbringing and other social influences, I suspect, are determining factors also that may or not be on the side of choice — chicken or egg thing — since it is conceivable that the leaning may have to be there to begin with. What convinced me that it is primarily inborn was the revelation that Rock Hudson, a 6'6" hulk, was gay. Later that was reinforced by Rich...

Single payer health care should not fade away with Kucinich . Thereby, this is a follow up to the single payer issue brought up in my blog, “Another Plea for Health Care”. Fortunately, the reactionary political climate did not stamp out the health consciousness that has spread throughout the country since the '92 campaign. It would be ridiculous, then, for the nation to deny the maintenance thereof. Health is a necessity; it is no less significant than national defense or police protection...

 To help pay for a kinder and gentler nation, all so-called career unemployed or unemployable would herewith be extinct. By virtue of this new definition all would be gainfully employed at an incremental rate above the poverty line in compliance with the degree to which the individual has dependents and responsibilities as determined by the Department of Labor. For minors who have dropped out of school, the low end of a variable minimum wage would suffice. By virtue of full employment, the hom...

The word welfare has taken on so many derogatory connotations that it has to go. Though a rose by any other name might smell as sweet, if it were renamed Bloody Mary people may hesitate to nose in its fragrance. Social programs, sadly too, have the same demeaning connotation. Welfare in its inarguable purity is for those who qualify for financial assistance where and when exists variable degrees of helplessness — either mentally, physically or economically. This is as it should be and therefor...