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Corporate Tax Cheats Wreak Havoc On The Needy
(July 23, 2003)
All across corporate America, high-priced accountants are hard at work helping companies avoid billions in taxes by hiding profits in a host of tax sheltering schemes. No summer vacation at the beach reading trashy actuarial tables for these guys. And they're doing a bang-up job: Corporations are currently turning over 30 percent less of their profits to the taxman than they did 20 years ago. [ read more ]
Bush's Mis-State-Ment Of The Union Fiasco
(July 16, 2003)
Poor Karl Rove. He spends close to two years meticulously staging photo ops and carefully crafting sound bites to create the image of President Bush as a take-charge, man-the-controls, land-the-jet-on-the-deck-of-the-aircraft carrier, "Bring 'em on" kind of leader. But now the latest revelations about the Misstatement of the Union fiasco are threatening to bring back the old notion of W as a bumbling, detached figurehead-in-chief. [ read more ]
The California Recall: Looking For The Silver Lining
(July 09, 2003)
Californians are used to earthquakes. Even stomach-flipping jolts of the ground beneath us are met with a shrug and a ho-hum yawn. Wait a few seconds, and they're over. Life goes back to normal. [ read more ]
... And Human Rights For All?
(July 02, 2003)
With Saddam's weapons of mass destruction nowhere to be found, the president's Iraq talking points now center on the humanitarian upside of having ousted the Butcher of Baghdad. His speeches are liberally peppered with mentions of "mass graves," "torture chambers," and encomiums to "freeing the people of Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein." He's all but doused himself in the sweet-smelling scent of human rights and put on an Amnesty International t-shirt. [ read more ]
People Power Goes Hollywood
(June 25, 2003)
The dawn of the 21st Century has brought a renewed fervor for social activism, as well as proof that groups of committed individuals -- even small groups -- can make a huge difference in the world. [ read more ]
WMDs And The Psychology Of Fanaticism
(June 18, 2003)
By all accounts, the behind-the-scenes battle within the Bush administration over just what information should be used, or spun, or hidden, to make the case that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to America and the rest of the world was a knockdown, drag-out fight between the facts and a zealous, highly politicized, "who needs proof?" mindset. And, at the end of the day, the truth was left writhing on the floor. [ read more ]
The Karl Rove Diaries
(June 11, 2003)
Ever since Sen. Bob Graham announced that he was running for president, the media have been having a field day mocking his quirky habit of keeping a meticulous log of his every waking moment. (Since 1977, he's filled some 4,000 2-by-3 inch notebooks with the daily details of his life, including where he slept, what he ate, whom he met, and what he wore.) Some have labeled Graham's practice a disturbing fetish; others have praised it as a sign of extreme self-discipline. Still others wonder whether it was necessary for so many trees to make the ultimate sacrifice just so that we might know that Sen. Graham wore khakis and had the grilled salmon at his 12:47 lunch yesterday. [ read more ]
The Enronization Of Public Policy
(June 04, 2003)
Has there ever been a clearer, more irrefutable example of our political leaders' lack of a moral compass than the clandestine, eleventh-hour elimination of a promised child tax credit for almost 12 million of America's poorest children? [ read more ]
Bill Maher presents Arianna with the "Upton Sinclair Award" at Liberty Hill's 2003 Upton Sinclair Dinner
(June 02, 2003)
Ariannia Huffington's Speech Accepting
Liberty Hill's 2003 "Upton Sinclair Award" [ read more ]
Democrats: Profiles In Spinelessness
(May 28, 2003)
"I a little bit disagree with Chairman Roberts on that." That was Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, kinda, sorta, uh, not really taking exception to Committee chairman Pat Roberts' assertion that we've turned the corner when it comes to keeping the peace in postwar Iraq. [ read more ]
A White House Fluent In Language Of Fanatics
(May 21, 2003)
Maybe Karl Rove has moved his office into the "Matrix." Maybe Laurence Fishburne is auditioning for Ari Fleischer's job. Maybe it's all just a bad dream: "The White House Reloaded." [ read more ]
Would Things Be Any Different If Women Ran Corporate America?
(May 14, 2003)
Powerful women are once again making business news. This week, Young & Rubicam named Ann Fudge as its chairman and CEO -- making her the only black, female chief executive of a major advertising agency. Meanwhile, omnipotent domestic goddess Martha Stewart will be given the unauthorized TV bio treatment this Monday in NBC's "Martha Inc.," starring Cybill Shepherd as the ultimate corporate diva. So on the one hand of the spectrum we have a historic milestone, or, at least, a barricade stormed, and on the other a cautionary tale which illustrates that the gene for avarice is not carried on the y chromosome. [ read more ]
The 77 Percent Solution
(May 07, 2003)
For weeks now, those three little words have served as the ultimate discussion stopper. A verbal knockout punch. A conversational coup de grace. The final number as final word. [ read more ]
Pensions For Execs, Shaft For Workers
(April 30, 2003)
Now that the war in Iraq has been declared officially over, can the media please put aside their preoccupation with Scott Peterson's new hairstyle and focus their attention on the sputtering U.S. economy? And in a week when even Fortune, the corporate playbook, has adorned its cover with a CEO with a pig's head and the title "Oink! CEO Pay Is Still Out Of Control," how about starting with the guys running corporate America? They have, after all, in the course of the last year gone from American Idols to America's Most Wanted, the most stunning transformation since Ozzy Osbourne morphed from a bat-chomping satanic rocker into America's cuddliest dad. [ read more ]
Crony Capitalism Goes To War
(April 23, 2003)
Quick quiz: What's the most exclusive club in America? How about the Augusta National Golf Club, whose 300 members withstood the slings and arrows of Martha Burk with nary a scratch earlier this month? Or maybe it's the U.S. Senate, where a seat at one of the historic roll-top desks can go for as much as $60 million? [ read more ]
Why The Anti-War Movement Was Right
(April 16, 2003)
The Bible tells us that pride goeth before the fall. In Iraq, it cameth right after it. [ read more ]
Will The Legacy Of Tulia Be The Death Of Bucks For Busts Policing?
(April 09, 2003)
America is a level playing field. So, naturally, college admissions policies should never even take race into account at all. At least that's what the Bush administration argued in front of the Supreme Court last week. [ read more ]
Corporate America's Most Wanted
(April 01, 2003)
When it comes to learning from its mistakes, corporate America has fallen off the rehab wagon more times than Robert Downey, Jr. [ read more ]
Having Your Souffle And Eating It Too
(March 26, 2003)
For years now, political reformers have been railing against the unseemly -- and rampant -- practice of former government officials pouring through Washington's golden revolving door only to return a short time later as well-paid lobbyists, auctioning off their access and influence. [ read more ]
Corporate America Divvies Up The Post-Saddam Spoils
(March 19, 2003)
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner in Iraq. Yes, I know that the first smart bomb has yet to be dropped on Baghdad. But that's just a formality. The war has already been won. The conquering heroes are not generals in fatigues but CEOs in suits, and the shock troops are not an advance guard of commandos but legions of lobbyists. [ read more ]
Tax Havens: Are You With Us Or Against Us?
(March 12, 2003)
As President Bush's vaunted "coalition of the willing" continues to shrivel -- who's left, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Tony Blair? -- the coalition of those Americans willing to challenge his obsession with invading Iraq continues to grow. [ read more ]
Power On The Potomac: It's A Family Affair
(March 05, 2003)
Turns out $15 billion bailouts just don't go as far as they used to. Witness the airlines' attempt to fly in under the radar to Capitol Hill last week -- flight cap in hand -- pleading poverty and looking to the American taxpayer to once again provide the wind beneath their financially tattered wings. For once they arrived right on schedule (probably took a train). [ read more ]
Are Daredevil Shareholders America's New Action Heroes?
(February 26, 2003)
If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. It's true at home, and, as some are finding out, it's just as true in business, too. So, tired of waiting for a political action hero to take up their cause, ticked off investors have found an unlikely champion: themselves. That's right. The little guys have reached the breaking point and are taking matters into their own hands -- stepping into the breach with the one-two punch of proxy resolutions and lawsuits. Corporate evildoers beware. [ read more ]
The Bottom Line On Iraq: It's The Bottom Line
(February 19, 2003)
Boys, boys, you're all right. Sure, it's Daddy, oil, and imperialism, not to mention a messianic sense of righteous purpose, a deep-seated contempt for the peace movement, and, to be fair, the irrefutable fact that the world would be a better place without Saddam Hussein. [ read more ]
Accountants Rock The SEC: Gimme Tax Shelter
(February 12, 2003)
Talk about perfect timing. To give the millions of Americans who are taking up the dreaded yearly task of preparing their taxes just a little bit more aggravation, comes the story of massive tax avoidance by Sprint CEO William Esrey and his right-hand man Ron LeMay. These two paid no taxes on a total of $288 million in stock-option profits thanks to some highly imaginative tax shelters dreamed up by the accounting alchemists at Ernst & Young. [ read more ]
There's No Business Like Snow Business
(February 05, 2003)
Watching freshly minted Treasury Secretary John Snow, a longtime promoter of balanced budgets, hit the Hill this week to flack for the president's new red-ink-drenched budget, I felt like I had stumbled across a Richard Simmons infomercial pitching Big Macs. Or Colin Powell shredding the Powell Doctrine in order to sell the war on Iraq to the United Nations. [ read more ]
The State Of The Union Address I'd Like To Hear
(January 24, 2003)
As President Bush's speechwriters are putting the finishing touches on his State of the Union address, here is an extra minute or so of material I'd love to see them work in: [ read more ]
Wild On Washington: Free Food, Exotic Locales, Topless Lobbyists
(January 22, 2003)
Assume the position. It just got a little easier for special interests to screw the public -- courtesy of the public's own representatives in Washington, who saw fit to kick-start the 108th Congress by gutting a pair of pesky ethics rules designed to reduce the amount of influence-peddling on Capitol Hill. [ read more ]
Spitzer Gets Beat By The Gangs Of New York
(January 15, 2003)
To hear the media tell it, the headline-grabbing settlement agreement between crusading New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and scandal-rotted Wall Street investment banks is a cause for investor celebration -- a towering, game-winning home run belted out of the park by the new Sultan of Shareholder Swat. [ read more ]
Road Outrage: How Corporate Greed And Political Corruption Paved The Way For The SUV Explosion
(January 06, 2003)
America's automakers finally sputtered into first gear this week. Responding to the growing public outcry over its reckless gas-guzzling ways, the auto industry used the Detroit Auto Show to unveil a line-up of "coming soon to a showroom near you" hybrid vehicles -- including a number of hybrid SUVs. [ read more ]
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