Hightower Lowdown

Heartless Phil and "honorable lobbyists" would run McCain's White House

Jim Hightower — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:05:19 -0700

Heartless Phil and "honorable lobbyists" would run McCain's White House

The political media establishment is enraptured by John McCain. Mainline media sparklies, as well as the blatherers on the Fox channel, routinely buff up his image as a straight-talking, maverick foe of Washington's special interests. "The press loves McCain. We're his base," gushes MSNBC's Chris Matthews. But if the senator really is the feared reformer of business-as-usual government, why does his presidential campaign look like the back alley of K Street?

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If Obama wins, who will be on his team--and who should be?

Jim Hightower — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 18:42:09 -0700

If Obama wins, who will be on his team--and who should be?

There'll be a crush of cameras at the front door of the White House on January 20 as scores of media outlets scramble to record the moment that the new president walks in. But, wait--who're those people who'll be sliding in quietly behind him? They're the ones who'll spend the next four years whispering in the president's ear, sitting in strategy sessions, running presidential councils, filling agency slots, and pulling the levers of executive power.

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Who are the big-money givers behind the candidates?

Jim Hightower — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 09:33:41 -0700

Who are the big-money givers behind the candidates?

Dallas Oilman H.L. Hunt was a billionaire in a time when such massive wealth was unusual, back in the 1950s and '60s. H.L. was also politically bonkers--so far out there on the right-right-right wing that he considered Dwight Eisenhower a commie. In 1960, Hunt published a novel called Alpaca, in which he set forth his utopian vision for the governance of America. In the happy plutocratic kingdom he envisioned, the richer you are, the more votes you get.

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What 8 years of BushCheney have done to the world

Jim Hightower — Tue, 13 May 2008 00:29:47 -0700

What 8 years of BushCheney have done to the world

Wow, has it really been five years since "Mission Accomplished?" It seems like only yesterday that our Glorious Leader was strutting around in a top-gun outfit, cockadoodling about American prominence in the world and wallowing in job-approval ratings of 28%.

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What 8 years of BushCheney have done to our economy

Jim Hightower — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:25:41 -0700

What 8 years of BushCheney have done to our economy

Harry Truman said, "No man should be allowed to be president who doesn't understand hogs." That's never been more true than it will be for the man or woman who walks into the White House on January 20, 2009.

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Checks for $600 won't fix our economy--let's have a real stimulus package

Jim Hightower — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:31:31 -0800

Checks for $600 won't fix our economy--let's have a real stimulus package

WASHINGTON WAS EXCITED. The media establishment applauded. Wall Street smiled. Somewhere, a bluebird of happiness chirped.

In a celebrated display of bipartisanship, both parties joined hands last month to pass a whopper of a stimulus package. Cash, they crowed, would soon be flowing. "We're sending a $600 check to you, and $300 to you, and $1,200 to couples, and...well, almost everyone will get money! It's manna straight from heaven to get our big ol' economy high-ballin' down Prosperity Highway," they exulted.

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Swim against the current folks! (Even a dead fish can go with the flow)

Jim Hightower — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:22:21 -0800

Swim against the current folks! (Even a dead fish can go with the flow)

SUSAN DEMARCO AND I WANT TO GIVE YOU LOWDOWNERS A SPECIAL PREVIEW of our new book, for it personalizes the positive grassroots message that the Lowdown keeps hammering. Titled Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, our book encourages people to break away from conventional wisdom and live their progressive values. We've written it by telling stories of more than 50 individuals and groups all across the country that are showing the way for all of us.

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Immigrants come here because globalization took their jobs back there

Jim Hightower — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:11:48 -0800

Immigrants come here because globalization took their jobs back there

THE WAILING IN OUR COUNTRY ABOUT the "invasion of immigrants" has been long and loud. As one complainant put it, "Few of their children in the country learn English...The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages...Unless the stream of the importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious." That's not some diatribe from one of today's Republican presidential candidates. It's the anxious cry of none other than Ben Franklin, deploring the wave of Germans pouring into the colony of Pennsylvania in the 1750s.

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America to D.C. -- Democrats included: We're mad as hell and you're not listening!

Jim Hightower — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:34:13 -0800

America to D.C. -- Democrats included: We're mad as hell and you're not listening!

IN A SEASON THAT SHOULD BE CONVIVIAL AND COMFORTING -- filled with family, friends, fun, spiritualism, good food, song, and high spirits--what I am hearing instead from across the country is a surge of angst and discouragement. In conversations, calls, emails, and letters, people in general (and progressives in particular) are expressing profound dismay at the deterioration of America's democracy, not only because of the BushCheney regime, but also, and especially, because of the fecklessness of the Democratic Congress.

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BushCheney really is planning to attack Iran!

Jim Hightower — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 08:24:47 -0700

BushCheney really is planning to attack Iran!

LOOK OUT--HERE THEY COME AGAIN! Bush & Buckshot are riding their little stick horses, waving the bloody flag of 9/11, demonizing another Muslim nation, shouting warnings about weapons of mass destruction, bellowing for regime change, and generally trying to whoop up a new war. Having done so well in Iraq, George W and Cheney are pushing feverishly to hype up a national-security threat and commit our nation, our bedraggled military, our depleted treasury, and our country's already-tarnished name to another of their fantasyland, neocon, preemptive invasions of a sovereign people who are doing no harm to us. Their target this time: IRAN.

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