Group items tagged

# activism feminism left politics progressive research socialnetworking # 07 Aug 06 lauralf Laura Lo Forti a collective of volunteer library workers who believe in social justice and equality. progressive citizenmedia citizenjournalism research

"...compromise with the administration and the Fed would give Mr. Sanders and other critics of the central bank an opportunity to claim victory, while not breaking with the Fed's insistence that its monetary decisions be sacrosanct and insulated from political influence."

I was tooling around the internet for awhile yesterday, looking for a transcript of the Congressional hearings that featured Goldman Sachs executives and traders as the star witnesses, before I realized that nowhere in print was there any real sense of what had gone on. Congressional hearings may have been effective at some point in the past, but these days, the witnesses are usually far too polished and used to dissembling for hours at a time to be of any real value, and the senators and congressmen who are asking the questions are usually too polite to do more than ask questions of little or no value. Senator Carl Levin tried to deviate from that formula on Tuesday. He was harsh, unyielding and relentless. "Your clients lost. Goldman profits" rang out several times during his opening address. But Senator Levin didn't have enough of an understanding of the business to really pin back the ears of any of the witnesses, including Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs chairman. I couldn't figure out for the life of me why his staffers didn't line up a few disgruntled traders and insiders to give the senator a three or four day crash course on the business. His gambling analogies were something that might appeal to my grandmother, who puts gambling of any kind up there with the cardinal sins, but missed the mark when it came to characterizing Wall Street's shenanigans.

"How British oil giant BP used all the political muscle money can buy to fend off regulators and influence investigations into corporate neglect."

"Journalism, the counterbalance to corporate and political power, the lifeblood of American democracy, is not just threatened. It is in meltdown."

"CIA Psychologists Complicit in the Torture of Political and Military Detainees"

SEC proposal would disclose political donations by public corporations - The Washington Post http://t.co/38N8bKe via @washingtonpost

Before the events of September 11 and the ensuing 'war against terrorism,' the biggest subject of debate on the left in the US had to do with anti-globalization protests, particularly those in Genoa.

"Slightly left of center economic commentary on news, politics, and the economy. "