The Progressive Review

AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE NEWS & INFORMATION

  

SINCE 1964, THE NEWS WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT

UNDERNEWS
READER FAVORITES
SAM'S ESSAYS
SPYGATE
NEWS BY TOPIC
TWITTER
EMAIL EDITION
EMAIL US
SEARCH SITE
RSS FEED
REBUILDING AMERICA
INDICATORS
WRITE US
DONATIONS
ISSUE POLLS
ELECTION POLLS
OUR HISTORY
SAM'S BIO
SAM'S MUSIC

TWA 800 crash back in the news

The threat of ag-gag laws

The government's sweetheart deals with Booz Allen

US marriage rates at historic low

Photos of Obama & Putin looking sad

Remarkable interview with a jazz musician & band leader

Infrequently asked questions

Have you noticed how easy it is to see through politicians who talk about transparency?

Action notes

Orchestral workers fight for dignity

Journalists who like NSA more than the Constitution

  • Matt Miller
  • David Brooks
  • Richard Cohen
  • Chris Matthews
  • Tom Friedman

Democrats who like NSA more than the Constitution

  • Barack Obama
  • Debbie Wasserman Schultz
  • Diane Feinstein
  • Al Francken

Quotes

You should have done nothing to deserve it. -- Editor of Le Canard firing a staffer who had just won the Legion d'Honneur despite explaining that he had not sought the honor.

When you think about it, attention-deficit order makes a lot of sense. There isn't a lot worth paying attention to. ~ George Carlin

Pocket paradigm

Gravitas: A Washington synonym for mental ponderousness and verbal obesity..- Sam Smith


Research finds link between air pollution & autism

IRS is spying on you, too

The Hillary trap

Rebuilding America: mix & match

What food stamps have really done

America's war on aspargus farmers

Biggest protests in 20 years hit Brazil

Jerry Falwell's killers for Christ

Obama becoming irrational

NY police commissioner blasts NSA spying

RECENT READER FAVORITES

What the war on education is all about

Why are big corporations so unpatriotic?

If you think NSA spying on you is bad. . .

Obama becoming irrational

The glass ceiling nobody talks about

Whistleblowing in the winds of Washington

The Hillary trap


Why Obama's secret trade agreement matters

All in the Family: Michael Brown's daddy

Food stamps reduce extreme poverty

NSA head not only wants to right to ingore the law, but lawsuits as well

Why the FISA Court is a scam

Obamacare to require personal health data be shared with federal, state and local agencies

NSA told Congress it doesn't need court authorization to listen to your phone calls

Infrequently asked questions

How do we tell when we're meant to surrender our Constitution to fight Al Queda and when we're meant to give them more arms?

Community courts work

Why are big corporations so unpatriotic?

What the war on education is all about

Bike lane wars

Hidden benefits of community gardens

Filmmaker takes Warner Bros to court for claining copyright of "Happy Birthday to You"

Infrequently asked questions

How many politicians, including presidents, have been blackmailed by NSA, CIA or the FBI? How would we know? Just wondering.

Britain's transition towns movement

Transitioning America's towns

Sorry, but you won't finish this article

Susan Rice, the liar

A guide to NSA's domestic spying through the years

Gallery


WORKING ON NYC SUBWAY


IMMIGRANTS TO NYC

Civil liberties

Your loss of constitutional rights thanks to NSA is a huge pork barrel for private industry

Al Gore on NSA spying: This in my view violates the constitution.. . . It is not acceptable to have a secret interpretation of a law that goes far beyond any reasonable reading of either the law or the constitution and then classify as top secret what the actual law is.

William Binney, a former NSA official who claims to have designed the prototype of the program that allows the NSA to sweep up almost infinite amounts of information, told the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer in 2011 that he regretted his input. “I should apologize to the American people,” he said. “It’s violated everyone’s rights. It can be used to eavesdrop on the whole world.”

Nancy Gertner - As a former Article III judge, I can tell you that your faith in the FISA Court is dramatically misplaced. Two reasons: One … The Fourth Amendment frameworks have been substantially diluted in the ordinary police case. One can only imagine what the dilution is in a national security setting. Two, the people who make it on the FISA court, who are appointed to the FISA court, are not judges like me. Enough said.

Politics

According to Gallup, there has never been an institution that inspires less confidence in the American people than the U.S. Congress does now

NEWS, ESSAYS & MEDIA BY TOPIC

ACTION NOTES
AMERICAN NOTES
ARTS
BLACK
CITIES
CIVIL LIBERTIES
CULTURE
CYBER
DRUGS
ECOLOGY
ECONOMY
EDUCATION
FOODFOREIGN AFFAIRS
GAY
GOVERNMENT
HEALTH
HISTORY
IMMIGRATION
JUSTICE
LABOR
LATINO
LOCAL
MEDIA
POLITICS
SCIENCE
SENIORS
SPYGATE
TRANSPORTATION
WAR & PEACE
WOMEN

Action notes
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
ACTION NEWS
ESSAYS
Notes on the end of the First American Republic
Where change really comes from
Ideas for a better U.S.
America 2.0
A cooperative commonwealth
Getting through the bad times
The care and feeding of non-profit boards
The hat trick of survival in bad times
The quiet storm: blowin' in the wind of cultural decay
Why it's so hard to make good things happen
Becoming and living as an activist
Punk & protest
Being a rebel
Getting the counter culture out of the closet
Where is the counterculture when we need it?
Building little republics in a failing empire
Bucking the system: a scorecard
Time for a movement

American notes
BACK TO TOP

More American notes

Arts
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
Arts

Music
 
ESSAYS
How to keep people going to museums
What's a humanities?
 
MEDIA
Arts & Letters Daily
Arts Journal
 
MUSIC
 
Factories of fame
Punk and protest
Why we need a natural music movement
Where the music went
Music's real problem is downgrading, not downloading
The way music died: How the recording industry pirates musicians’ income
Joan Baez' first radio appearance
How to boycott RIAA
Music and politics
Essays on music

Cities
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
URBAN NEWS

ESSAYS

The case for urban statehood
Why smart growth isn't as smart as it thinks it is
Saving the city from itself
High speed, high cost, high income rail
How cities became black & poor
Bringing devolution to the hood
New Orleans and urban planning
Why urban policies don't do what they seek
Street talk
Cities and the environment
No dreams on H Street
San Francisco
Making cities black and poor: the hidden story
A short history of black Washington
CHANGING HOW URBAN PLANNING WORKS
MEMO TO A NEW MAYOR
WHAT RAILS AND ROADS TELL US ABOUT CLASS & POWER
NEIGHBORHOODS & DEVOLUTION OF POWER
PRESERVING CULTURE & COMMUNITY
SAVING CITIES FROM THEMSELVES

Civil liberties & justice
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
Civil liberties & justice
Drugs
Drugs: marijuana
Homeland Security
Police
 
ESSAYS
The true power of juries
Essays on civil liberties & justice
How to stay free
Story the media won't touch
Why do we have a drug war?
Drugs quotes & facts
Securing the homeland
On FEMA
Of pink suits, golf balls & civil liberties
Letter to Thomas Jefferson
 
WAR ON TERROR
The biggest threat to America: ourselves
Final thoughts
September 12, 2001
Follow the limousines
Towards a more perfect union
An alternative 9/11 report
Ann
 
GROUPS

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
INNOCENCE PROJECT

CYBER
ELECTIONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER

CIVIL LIBERTIES
AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION
NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD

JUSTICE
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
CENTER FOR COURT INNOVATION
FULLY INFORMED JURY ASSOCIATION
NAT ASSN OF CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS
WIKILEAKS
BRADLEY MANNING SUPPORT NETWORK

PRISONS
SENTENCING PROJECT


College & the Young
BACK TO TOP

NEWS

Skull & Bones
An apology to younger Americans

Culture
BACK TO TOP

THE MIX
Men
Black

 Religion

 Gay

 Seniors
Immigrant

 Women

 Latino

 Young
 
NEWS
American notes
Entropy updates
Ethnicity, gender & age
Galleries
Good stuff
Music
Religion
Religious right
ESSAYS
Coming of age with "On the Road"
Eternal fundamentals of leadership (Rev. 8/14/11)
Football and American empire
Entropy update
American indicators
Why hip is no longer hip
In technocracy we trust
How to keep people going to museums
What's a humanities?
 
BLACK
BACK TO TOP

Black teen birth rate drops 60% in past decade

Blacks 3.3 times more likely to be arrested in Michigan on pot charges

Black students suspended more than three times as often as whites

 
NEWS
Black news
 
ESSAYS
How to get along with other Americans
Making cities black & poor
How the affirmative action debate could have gone better
Backing off of hate
Mississippi Summer 1964
!965 Mississippi civil rights hearings
 
MEDIA
Black Agenda Report
Make It Plain
New America Media
 
GAY
BACK TO TOP
 
Origins of the term "homosexual"
 
Gay news
In defense of biblical marriage
 
IMMIGRANT
BACK TO TOP
Immigration news
Great moments in immigration laws
A solution to the immigration problem
When did a Mexican cut your pension?
The mythology of immigration
 
NATIONAL IMMIGRATION PROJECT
 
LATINO
BACK TO TOP
 

Latino college acceptance rate higher than others

Latinos strong on eco issues

Latino news
 
MEN
BACK TO TOP
 
A few kind words for the American white male
 
RELIGION
BACK TO TOP
 
Where did all the cool preachers go?
Who owns faith and values?
Flying Lutheran Airlines
Seventh Day Agnostics arise
A conversation with God
Where the hell did all the good Christians go?
 
SENIORS
 
A 91 year old talks about growing older
Senior news
No retirement age for rebellion
Thoughts on old age
Social Security & Medicare
The real problem with Social Security
Word: Social Security
Why Social Security and Medicare are not going banrupt
Social Security is massive anti-poverty program
How liberals will help cut Social Security
 
WOMEN
BACK TO TOP

Women now earn about 60 percent of university degrees in America and Europe.

Women now prime breadwinners in 40% of homes

NEWS
Women's news
Abortion & reciprocal liberty
 
MEDIA
Women's E News
Feminist News
 
YOUNG
BACK TO TOP
 
ESSAYS
Skull & Bones
An apology to younger Americans
What's a humanities?
Becoming and being an activist

Cyber
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
Cyber notes
 
MEDIA
Ars Technica
CNET
Wired

Drugs
BACK TO TOP

DRUGS
DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE

NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY NETWORK
NORML
STUDENTS FOR A SENSIBLE DRUG POLICY

Ecology & nature
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
Climate change
Ecology & nature
Eco shots
Energy
Food
Population
Population statistics
Sustain yourself
 
ESSAYS
The value of stone dust
Myths of genetic engineering
A poker player's guide to ecological risk assessment
The ignored greenness of historic preservation
Population's loss is earth's gain
 
MEDIA
350.org
Climate Progress
Tree Hugger
Daily Climate
Inside Climate News

Economy & money
BACK TO TOP


NEWS
Corporate America
Economic news
Debt
Gross domestic reality
Housing & forecolosures
Just the facts
Labor news
Middle class
Poverty
Social Security
Wall Street news
 
ESSAYS
Why labor unions are essential
Some ways to occupy our future...and our economy
Born again economics
What banks, academics, the media and politicians don't tell you about money
Printing money
What a real stimulus might look like
How business schools hurt America
Short history of the economic American
The corporate curse
The corporation and America
True cost of Reagan and extreme capitalism
Rewriting history to justify greed
Corporatism, capitalism & fascism
 
MEDIA
Gar Alperovitz
Economic Policy Institute
Dean Baker

Education
BACK TO TOP

MORE NEWS
EDUCATION NEWS
THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION
 
ESSAYS
Graduation speech
Let 'em play
Is the Gates Foundation involved in bribery?
Road to literacy is paved with words, not tests
School reform about class not classrooms
David Mallery
The missing predicate in my life
Fact sheet on Common Core assessments
 
MEDIA
Ed Notes Online
Susan O'Hanian
Diane Ravitch
Teach 4 Real
Valerie Strauss

Food

FOOD NEWS

Flotsam & Jetsam
BACK TO TOP

Foreign affairs
 
NEWS
Afghanistan
Foreign affairs
Haiti
Iraq
Iran
Israel & Palestine
Mid East
Oil factor
Peace

Government
BACK TO TOP

Project on Government Oversight
 
WHISTLEBLOWERS
Thomas Drake
Sibel Edmonds
 
 
Health & science
BACK TO TOP
 
MORE NEWS
Health
Health plans
 
ESSAYS
What's really in the health bill
Obamacare: the good, the bad, the unpredictable & the dangerously unknown
Two decades later, embattled cold fusion research lives on
Real differences between the US and Canadian healthcare system
 
Bruce Levine

 DONATIONS
BACK TO TOP

DONATIONS

 SAM SMITH'S BOOKS
BACK TO TOP

WHY BOTHER? $12

AN UTNE READER STAFF PICK

A POWELL'S BOOKSTORE STAFF PICK

WORKING ASSETS
RECOMMENDED READING

Why Bother, in a wonderfully engaging and erudite manner, addresses the great question confronting democracy, community and justice -- and that is civic motivation. Prepare to be motivated. Sam Smith is an antidote to mindless speed reading. He makes you pause between paragraphs in order to mull over the captivating morsels he is placing in your imagination. - RALPH NADER

Sam Smith puts it to us straight in these essays about finding meaning and hope - JAY WALJASPER, UTNE READER

An American original. . . He's got a big old cussed independent streak that keeps you guessing and hence keeps you reading. - CRISPIN SARTWELL

GREAT AMERICAN REPAIR MANUAL $15

Published by W.W. Norton, New York & London.

"Lucid . . . Keep going, Sam" -- Mario Cuomo

"Desperately needed" -- Roger Morris, author of Partners in Power

"Smith's book is a toolbox for hacking a corrupt system. It is also funny as hell . . . There are butts that need kicking in this country. . . Sam Smith is handing out the boots." -- Alex Steffen, The Stranger, Seattle weekly

"Must read. . . combines laughter and trenchant critique to a degree seldom seen" -- John Rensenbrink, Green Horizons

"The Tom Paine of the Nineties" -- Chuck Stone

"Truly independent journalist" -- Patrick Mazza, Cascadia Times

"Phenomenally interesting. . . recommend it highly" -- Michelle Laxalt, co-host of Newsmakers

"You'll be enlightened, challenged, even entertained" -- Chuck Harder on the Talk America Network.

Featured in Utne Reader and on Weekend All Things Considered. 

 

 

 

Another reason to avoid Verizon

Weird things schools have banned

83% want to keep student loan rates from increasing, an opinion that holds constant across party lines. Almost two-thirds support lowering interest rates to 0.75 percent, the rate at which banks can borrow from the U.S. Treasury.

Quotes

If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. – Samuel Adams

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain. - Mark Twain

Pocket paradigms

Expecting the FISA court to be constitutional is like expecting Lindsay Lohan to be abstinent. . - Sam Smith

There is one way to deal with terorrism and that is to resolve the problems that allow it to thrive. The trick is to undermine the violence of the most bitter by dealing honestly with the problems of the most rational. -Sam Smith

SAY IT AGAIN, SAM
Catch Sam most Monday nights at 8 pm eastern on the Mark Thompson show, Channel 127, Sirius XM

More reader favorites. . .

American culture

Joan Baez' first radio broadcast

Why hip is no longer hip

How to get along with other Americans

Things Irish Protestants should know about Ireland

Recording of 1960 sit in at Glen Echo

Civil liberties & justice

What lawyers & judges won't tell you about juries

Drugs

Pot quotes and facts

Ecology

The importance of minerals

Etc

Favorite quotes

The Review: a little history

Sam Smith's biograpy

Foreign affairs

Time to stop being afraid of Israel

Minutes of the Wannsee Conference

Why Afghnistan is so important

Media & writing

Journalism: What good old days?

Why journalism isn't a profession

Politics

The real Reagan

Telling difference between a progressive & a liberal

101 peculiarities surrounding the death of Vince Foster

The Clinton legacy

The Hillary Clinton file

All in the family

Fascism & America

Washington DC

Sex & crime in DC

Tunes from a DC history musical

DC black history

Sam's music

Jazz Me Blues

Avalon

Jelly Roll

Algier's Strut

 

About the Review

The Progressive Review (formerly the Idler and the DC Gazette) was first published in 1964 and is one of the oldest alternative journals in America. Regularly ahead of the curve, the Review has opposed federal drug policy for 40 years, fought against the massive feeways planned for Washington, was an early advocate of bikeways and light rail, supported neighborhood commissions later adopted in DC, and helped spur the creation of the DC Statehood Party and the national Green Party,

In November 1990 it devoted an entire issue to the ecologically-sound city and how to develop it. The article was republished widely.

Even before Clinton's nomination we exposed Arkansas political scandals that would later become major issues. Although our thorough coverage of the story would get us into a lot of trrouble it remains one of the most thorough and accurate accounts of the Clinton story.

We reported on NSA monitoring of U.S. phone calls in the 1990s, years before it became a major media story.

In 2003 editor Sam Smith wrote an article for Harper's comprised entirely of falsehoods about Iraq by Bush administration officials.

The Review started a web edition in 1995 when there were only 27,000 web sites worldwide. Today there are over 170 million active sites.

Our 1990 article on the savings & loan bailout scandal was selected by Utne Reader as one of the ten most under-covered stories of the past decade.

In 1987 we ran an article on AIDS. It is the first year that more than 1,000 men died of the disease.

In the 1980s, Thomas S Martin predicted in the Review that "Yugoslavia will eventually break up" and that "a challenge to the centralized soviet state" would occur as a result of devolutionary trends. Both happened.

In the 1980s, we reported on the dangers of computerized voting and suggested possible solutions including an independent review of software and an adequate audit trail.

In the 1970s we published a first person account of a then illegal abortion.

In 1971 we published our first article in support of single payer universal health care

In 1970, we ran a two part series on gay liberation.

In 1966 we published two articles on auto safety by Ralph Nader

In 1965 we called for the end of the draft.

In the 1960s weproposed community policing

About the editor

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review for 49 years, has written four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start six organizations (including the DC Humanities Councilo, the national Green Party and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three sucessful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

More Review history

 

SEARCH SITE
BACK TO TOP

Because we have different providers for the Review and Undernews pages you may have to search twice.

 

SEARCH UNDERNEWS

 

  
SEARCH REST OF PROGRESSIVE REVIEW

Thanks to Ron Unz, 40 years of issues of the Progressive Review (and its predecessors, the DC Gazette and the Idler) are on the web and searchable.

THE IDLER 1964-1967

DC GAZETTE 1966-1985

PROGRESSIVE REVIEW 1985-2003

SAM SMITH ARTICLES

History
BACK TO TOP

Recovered history
Mysteries
U.S.
Indicators

World Trade Center
Crash of TWA 800

ESSAYS
Minutes of the see Conference
Things Irish Protestants should know about their homeland
Joan Baez' first radio appearance
A brief history of bucking the system
Why Nader didn't cause Gore's loss
Gene McCarthy
Making cities black & poor
Washington on fire in 1968

MEDIA
History News Network

Labor
BACK TO TOP

LABOR NEWS

Local

Cities
Local

 Housing

 Washington DC
 
Cities
 
The case for urban statehood
Why smart growth isn't as smart as it thinks it is
Saving the city from itself
How cities became black & poor
 
Housing
The foreclosure plan politicians wouldn't touch
Shared equity plan
 
Local
Bringing politics home
Building little republics in a failing empire
The issues that's killing the left
Securing the homeland
Local democracy as well as local lettuce
 

Washington, DC

DC FACTS

DC STORIES

SEX IN DC

DC BLACK HISTORY

 DC STATEHOOD

 MARION BARRY

A memoir of 1950s DC radio
Living the 1968 DC riots
Julius Hobson, the statehood movement & ANCs
The club: how Washington really works
Activist battles in the 1960s and 1970s
Sweet Daddy Madison
The Petey Greene story on film

Media & writing
BACK TO TOP

NEWS
Media
Words & writing
 
ESSAYS
Essays on the media
How TV turned off politics
How journalism went bad
Trashing the truth
USA Tomorrow
Flogging the blogs won't clear the fog
Filler items for young journalists
Journalism's good old days: they never were
Why journalism isn't a profession
The loneliest mile in town
Canaries in Studio A: 1950s radio
Words of cruelty
 
ESSAYS ON WRITING
Post literate America
Words & meaning
The missing predicate in my life
SomeRulesForWriting L.L.C. (SRFW)!
Words and cruelty
The rise of "fuck"
What's a humanities?
 
OTHER
Cliche challenge
Pocket paradigms
Quotations
 

FREE JOURNALISTS
DEAN BAKER
RUSS BAKER

JASON DITZ
ROBERT FISK
AMY GOODMAN
GLEN GREENWALD

CHRIS HEDGES
NAT HENTOFF
JOSHUA HOLLAND
DAHR JAMAIL
GREG KAUFMANN
ROBERT KUTTNER
JASON LEOPOLD
WAYNE MADSEN
RUSSELL MOKHIBER
GEORGE MONBIOT
JOHN NICHOLS
GREG PALAST
ROBERT REICH
JAMES RIDGEWAY
JEREMY SCAHILL
DANNY SCHECHTER
ROBERT SCHEEER
TIM SHORROCK

DAVID SIROTA
NORMAN SOLOMON
SAM SMITH
JEFF STEIN
DAVID SWANSON
MATT TAIBBI
SARAH VAN GELDER
 
ARCHIVES
NAT HENTOFF
DOUG IRELAND

ALTERNATIVE MEDIA

ALTERNET
ANTI-WAR

AMERICAN PROSPECT
BUZZFLASH
COMMON DREAMS

CONSORTIUM
COUNTERPUNCH
DISSENT
FIREDOG LAKE
GUARDIAN

HARPER'S
IN THESE TIMES
MOTHER JONES
NATION
OP ED NEWS
PROGRESSIVE MAGAZINE

PROGRESSIVE POPULIST
PROGRESSIVE REVIEW

RAW STORY
TOM DISPATCH

TOM PAINE
TRUTHDIG
UTNE READER
WHO WHAT WHY

YES!
ZNET

Indefinable media
IMPROBABLE RESEARCH
BOING BOING

Archives
THE REALIST

VILLAGE VOICE

Politics
BACK TO TOP

POLITICAL NEWS

Political news
Poll summary
GOP news
Green news
Obama
What America thinks
 
BUSHES

George Bush
 
CLINTONS

The Clinton legacy
Arkansas connections
Hillary Clinton
 
DEMOCRATS
 
Dismantling the Democrats
 
FASCISM
 
Notes on fascism
Clues that your country might be turning into a fascist state
 
GOOD POLITICIANS
 
Sherrod Brown
Bernie Sanders
Jill Stein
Elizabeth Warren
 
GOP
 
GOP NEWS
 
Great moments with the GOP
From Grand Old Party to Grumpy Old Prigs
The GOP ghost dance and the young
More on the ghost dance and the GOP
How to tell a radical Muslim from a radical Republican
 
GREEN PARTY
 
More Green Party news
History's hints for third parties
Why Ralph Nader didn't cause Al Gore's loss
Jill Stein
Global Greens
 
LIBERALS
 
The difference between a progressive & a liberal
The death of liberalism and what to do about it
 
OBAMA

Obamameter
Overall: 19%
Second term: 5%
OBAMA NEWS
OBAMALAND
An Obama one night stand
The strange rise of Barack Obama
How Obama compares to Republicans
Obama and the American oligarchy
 
REAGAN
 
The Ronald Reagan myth
The true cost of Reagan and extreme capitalism
 
VOTING
 
Counting the vote
Campaign financing
Why other countries do better at voter registration
 
Fair Vote
 
OTHER

There is a religious test for high office
The collapse of the First American Republic
America’s new mini-monarchies
How TV turned off politics
Why people vote against themselves
Fighting the dystablishment
Living in political madness
The politics of myth
Of ghost dances and the young
The hazards of grad school politics
The other way to deal with the national debt
Mob politics vs. political movements
Handling the bullies
Bringing politics home
The autistic confederacy
Essays on politics
Retrieving the Democrats' reason for existence (2008)


PEOPLE
 
Rudy Giuliani
Al Gore
Gene McCarthy
Mitt Romney
Paul Ryan
Rick Santorum

Religion

RELIGION NEWS

 
Transportation
BACK TO TOP
 
Bikes
Transportation
 
Transportation
High speed, high cost, high income rail
 
War & peace
BACK TO TOP
MORE NEWS
Military
Peace
 
ESSAYS
Essays on war
Mission creep: the militarizing of America
Spooks & spies
Torture
 
MEDIA
Anti-War
Daniel Ellsberg
Tim Shorrock
Spy Talk

Morning Line
No change in the Senate
 
Democrats stand to pick up 3 governor seats; could gain 3 more. GOP could gain one.
 
Clinton defeats all Republicans by 8-16 points

Biden would beat Rubio, but is a toss up with Christie or Ryan
 
Cuomo would tie Rubio, but lose to Christie or Ryan
 
Details

Progressive positions
that Americans support
BACK TO TOP
 
Afghanistan
 
End war in Afghanistan
 
Civil liberties
Economy
Environment
Drugs
Gays
Government
  • Oppose major domestic spend cuts
  • Approve of US in UN
  • Hedge fund profits should be taxed
  • OK to cut defense spending
  • Federal investing better  than budget/tax cuts
Health
  • Don't repeal Obamacare  
  • Don't cap Medicare
  • Oppose raising Medicare entry age
  • Don't cut Medicaid
Immigrants
  • Approve a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants (Latest poll 72-25)
Mid East
  • Oppose miitary action in Syria
  • Oppose war in Iraq
  • Lybia action wasn't right
Politics
  • Would ban Super PACSPopulation
  • Approve of Planned Parenthood
  • Want Roe v. Wade upheld
Religon
  • Support separation of church and state
Republicans
  • Republicans are going in wrong direction
Seniors
  • Oppose cutting Social Security
  • Oppose cutting SS annual increase

Conservative positions
that Americans support
Civil liberties
  • Support capital punishment
  • 52% view Bradly Manning as a traitor
Education
  • Keep No Child Left Behind
Environment
  • Two thirds support Keystone pipeline
  • Allow fracking
  • Allow more offshore drilling
Health
  • Don't favor national healthcare
Mid East
  • Support military action against Iran
  • Sympathies with Israel over Palestine
  • Support keeping Gitmo open
Military
  • Two thirds approve use of drones
Politics
  • Not opposed to requiring voter ID

PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM

BACK TO TOP

Sam Smith has been a musician for many decades. He started the first band his Quaker school ever had and played drums with bands up until 1980 when he switched to stride piano. He had his own band until the mid-1990s and has played with the New Sunshine Jazz Band, Hill City Jazz Band, Not So Modern Jazz Band and the Phoenix Jazz Band.

Here are a few tracks:

SAM SMITH'S
DECOLAND BAND

AVALON

BUTTER & EGG MAN

DR JAZZ

INDIANA

JELLY ROLL

MAMA'S GONE GOODBYE

SHINE

Bob Walter, trumpet; Jimmy Hamilton & Coleman Hankins, clarinet; Paul Hettich, bass; Sam Smith, piano. Bob Resnik, drums

PHOENIX JAZZ BAND
led by Bob Walter

ALGIERS STRUT

APEX BLUES   George James sax

CORRINE CORRINE

OH MAMA  Sam piano & vocal

HILL CITY JAZZ BAND
led by Bob Walter

ACE IN THE HOLE: With the lyrics altered to fit Washington

BILL BAILEY

BYE & BYE Sam piano & vocal

JAZZ ME BLUES

TISHOMINGO BLUES

WHEN YOU'RE SMILING Sam piano, Bob Walter vocal

WASHINGTON POST MARCH