Meet Jim Hightower

[Castro]

This man is one of my favorite radio commentators. You would not believe how southern he sounds but he speaks a lot of wisdom. This is where you can read and hear him talk.

 

His daily commentaries are one of the reasons I look forward to getting in the car to drive to work. Here a are a few. Enjoy:

 

Dec. 2nd, 2005

 

"THE ABSURDITY OF PAT"

 

Satire is dead. When a society's reality becomes so inherently absurd that it cannot be satirized, satire is dead.

 

In our society, Pat Robertson's maniacally-bloated ego has become the dark hole of absurdity... and the death of satire. This Republican televangelist sucks in all surrounding reality, contorting and condensing it to an impenetrable mass of his own pseudo-religious pomposity, which he occasionally spews forth to the faithful as the veritable word of God. Recent spewings have included his call for the assassination of Venezuela's president, his assertion that the state department would be improved if a nuclear bomb were to explode within it, and his prediction that Orlando would be hit with a meteor because it allowed a gay pride event to take place.

 

Now, the apocalyptic absurdist has struck again, this time promising God's wrath on Dover, Pennsylvania. This township recently found itself at the hot center of the campaign by a group of religious creationists to impose their belief in "intelligent design" on America's science educators. These creationists took over the local school district and, last fall, put their religious notion into the science curriculum. Parents, however, were less than grateful, and this fall the voters summarily dumped the creationists from office, reinstating (o, progress!) science-based science in the classrooms.

 

Robertson sucked all of this reality into his head, declared that it had infuriated God, and ominously suggested that divine wrath could soon visit Dover. "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God; you just rejected him from your city." Instead, speaketh Pat, the people of Dover should try praying to Charles Darwin.

 

This is Jim Hightower saying... If secular humanists tried to invent an absurd religious protagonist, they could not in their wildest dreams invent one as absurd as Robertson.

 

DANGEROUS PRESIDENTIAL SILLINESS

 

11/30/2005

 

The White House has gone from slippery to silly.

 

First came the stunning news that George W has ordered his own staff to undergo mandatory refresher courses in ethics. Ethics! Good grief. The Bush White House is to ethics what a New Orleans levee is to flood control: Porous to say the least. Exactly who is George W trying to convince of exactly what with this silly stunt?

 

Far more damning, however, is the White House's second act of desperate silliness, which, ironically was launched on Veterans' Day. Apparently oblivious to the key liberties that America's veterans have fought and died to preserve, Bush lashed out at those who dare to dissent from his war rationalizations. In particular, he's assailing critics who maintain that he – along with Cheney, Condi, Rummy, Colin, and gang – misled the American people into going to war with Iraq.

 

Shamelessly trying to brand his critics as unpatriotic, Bush wailed that it is "deeply irresponsible" to question his motives, asserting that such criticism hurts America's war effort. "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high," he cried, "and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges."

 

Uh... excuse me, George... not to point out the obvious, but weren't you the politician who threw out the Big One? You know, the false charge that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Then there was your false charge that Saddam could hurl his WMDs all the way to America and whap us with a mushroom cloud. And don't forget your false charge that Saddam was a backer of al Qaeda and was involved in the 9/11 attack on America – a change that you apparently took from an informer known to be an unreliable drunk.

 

This is Jim Hightower saying... The only thing sillier that a president who lies about the reasons for taking our nation to war is one who then tries to label as traitorous those who point out his lies. That's not only silly... but dangerous.

 

BOOMS

 

11/14/2005

 

America is enjoying a "boom," right? More wealth is being generated than ever before, productivity continues to rise, and profits are soaring. Yet, most Americans are asking themselves, "a boom for whom?"

 

Let's run some numbers. Washington officials recently rejoiced that overall incomes in our country were up by nearly three percent in 2003, the last year for which such data has been analyzed. What they did not mention, though, was that nearly all of this economic happiness shone on the very richest Americans, and none fell on the vast majority of people.

 

In fact, one-fourth of all of America's increase in income went to only 129,000 people – the top one-tenth of one percent of our population who are millionaires! The rest of that top one percent (those hauling in at least $327,000 a year) also did well, enjoying a four percent boost in their incomes.

 

The other 99 percent of us? We averaged less than a two-percent rise. Since inflation that year was 2.3 percent, this means that, rather than getting ahead, the average American fell behind, losing buying power.

 

Due to the Wal-Martization of our economy, middle-class jobs are disappearing... and so is the middle-class. Today, only one-fourth of American workers have a "good job" – which is defined as one paying at least $32,000 a year and providing both health care and a pension.

 

Yes, there's a boom... but only for those at the top. As New York Times economics columnist Mark Stein wrote: "Among the world's major economies, America's disparity in incomes between the very top and everyone else is exceeded only by the gaps in Mexico and Russia."

 

This is Jim Hightower saying... Is that the best we can do? Not only is such a gap an affront to our middle-class ideals – but it's also dangerous. If the corporate elites persist in shutting out the majority from America's boom, they are inviting some real booms to come their way.

 

REVEALING WAL-MART

 

11/16/2005

 

Poor Wal-Mart. One day it's a peacock, the next day a feather-duster.

 

On October 25, the retailing behemoth was basking in media reports about its new plan to reduce energy use. This was part of an overall PR push to buff-up the battered image of the heavy-handed giant, so on this day Wal-Mart's honchos were strutting with all of their corporate tail feathers fanned.

 

Then came October 26... and the peacock's plumes drooped. An internal corporate memo had been leaked to the media showing a bird of a different feather. In it, an executive vice president sent a series of recommendations to the board of directors on ways to cut back on employees' benefits, thus saving the company a billion or so a year, while appearing for PR purposes to be offering more benefits.

 

For example, the memo called for offering some education benefits as a lure to younger workers. How nice! But the real motive here is to push out workers who've been at Wal-Mart for a while and have earned higher pay and more benefits. The memo noted that someone with a seven-year tenure costs the corporation 55 percent more than a first-year worker – yet is no more productive. Better to ratchet up the turnover and rid the company of those more expensive veterans. Not nice.

 

Other not-nice recommendations were to hire more part-time workers (they don't get benefits), cut 401(K) contributions by one-fourth, and slash company-paid life insurance benefits by nearly a third.

 

Also, the memo admits that nearly half of the children of Wal-Mart's workers either have no health insurance at all or are on Medicaid. And while the company says it will offer a new health plan, it'll require out-of-pocket expenses so high that most of the low-wage workers will be priced out of the action.

 

This is Jim Hightower saying... To see the memo – and the real Wal-Mart – go to walmartwatch.com.

[xiinfaniin]

^^^Is this the author of ‘ this land is your land ’? Sorry I did not read the whole post. Will come later to it.

[Castro]

^ I'm not sure. He's a remarkable character whose views are fresh for a Texan or an American.

[N.O.R.F]

I thought Hightower was the big black guy in the movie Police Academy :confused:

 

A Texan with such views, is that legal?

[N.O.R.F]

DP

[Castro]

^ Nope. This Hightower is in his 50's, white with a thick southern accent. The man has a brain to match his good heart though. Rare nowadays.

[Muhammad]

^ don't forget his sense of humour. the man is a genius.

[Castro]

^ Though eventually he will lose to Walmart, he's made enough people aware that it could make a difference.

 

I listen to him on KPFT 90.1 (Pacifica in Houston). It's never dull and I always learn something new. His contributions are priceless really.

 

Here's another progressive magazine I enjoy (because of Hightower) : Mother Jones

[Muhammad]

^ have you read Thieves in High Places

 

read the excerpts.

 

"Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?"

-Old Irish saying

[Castro]

^ No but I plan to. Check this out. This is from Common Dreams :

 

Let God Speak for Himself

by Molly Ivins

 

 

Austin, Texas -- The Lord Impersonator is back again. This fella reappears every couple of years and causes no end of trouble. The jokester goes around persuading feeble-minded persons he is the Lord Almighty and that they are to do or say some perfectly idiotic thing under his instructions.

 

One of the worst cases we've had in Texas was the time the Lord Impersonator convinced 20 people in Floydada to git nekkid, get into a GTO and drive to Vinton, La., where they ran into a tree. Seein' 20 nekkid people, including five children, come out of a GTO startled the Vinton cops. The nekkid citizens all said God told them to do it.

 

Quite a few people have been mishearing the Lord lately. The Rev. Pat Robertson thinks the Lord told the people of Dover, Pa., they shouldn't ask for His help anymore because they elected a school board Robertson doesn't like. And Rep. Richard Baker of Louisiana said right after Hurricane Katrina that "we finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did it."

 

I kind of doubt Katrina was designed by the Lord as a form of urban renewal. I think it's a big mistake for us to go around putting our own puny interpretations on stuff that happens and then claiming the Lord meant thus-and-such by it. It is my humble opinion that some folks should do a lot more listening to God and a lot less talking for Him.

 

In that category, I put a whole passel of politicians — including that God-fearing professional patriot Rep. "Duke" Cunningham, of San Diego. Cunningham resigned his office after pleading guilty to having accepted $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. "Duke's" big cause in Congress was to get a constitutional amendment to ban flag-burning. Which do you think is more unpatriotic: burning a flag to indicate desperate dissent against American policy or getting elected to Congress and selling out for a Rolls-Royce and some antique commodes?

 

Rep. Tom DeLay, who is under indictment in Texas, is another fine parser of the Lord's intent. According to Mother Jones magazine, DeLay appeared at a prayer breakfast just after the tsunami that killed 240,000 people. "DeLay read a passage from Matthew about a nonbeliever: '... a fool who built his house on sand: the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house, and it collapsed and was completely ruined.' Then, without comment, he righteously sat down."

 

Some Christians seem to me inclined to lose track of love, compassion and mercy. I don't think I have any special brief to go around judging them, but when the stink of hypocrisy becomes so foul in the nostrils it makes you start to puke it becomes necessary to point out there is one more good reason to observe the separation of church and state: If God keeps hanging out with politicians, it's gonna hurt his reputation.

 

I've always hoped that people like Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningham (and Reps. Bob Ney, Richard Pombo, Dana Rohrabacher, John Doolittle and William J. Jefferson, a Democrat; and Sens. Bill Frist and Conrad Burns) were really stonewall cynics at heart, secretly sneering at the rubes who buy into their holier-than-thou posturing. But I'm afraid they're not.

 

I'm afraid one actually has to allow for the denial and self-delusion that make it possible for people to be both self-righteous and sleazy at the same time. We are all capable of fooling ourselves in a grand variety of ways.

 

Another reason why religion and policy make such a bad mix is that religion brings the dread element of certitude into what needs to be a constant process of questioning. In the New Yorker, Seymour Hersh quotes a former Defense Department official who served in Bush's first term: "The president is more determined than ever to stay the course. He doesn't feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage, 'People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.'"

 

Look, certitude is the enemy of clear thinking. "Never be absolutely sure" is a useful motto, and sailing through our current policies in Iraq without a shadow of a doubt is both foolish and dangerous. I would be far more reassured if I thought the president were second-guessing every move we make than I am to find out he hasn't a shadow of a doubt. For one thing, it shuts him off from considering alternatives, and boy do we need some alternatives.

 

So here we sit, watching a great, stinking skein of corruption being fished to the surface of Washington, while the town is simultaneously filled with a great babble about God, prayer and morality. Corruption trails head off in all directions — lobbyists, wives, jobs, perverting intelligence, outing agents for petty revenge — all this and a prayer breakfast every day.