Stories by Jim Hightower

Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the new book, "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow." (Wiley, March 2008) He publishes the monthly "Hightower Lowdown," co-edited by Phillip Frazer. subscribe to Jim Hightower's feed

Bill Moyers TV Farewell with Hightower -- The Fight of Our Lives: The Populist Battle with Corporate Power

Posted on: May 2, 2010, Source: Bill Moyers Journal

"We need a lot more agitation. [T]hat's the only thing that succeeds from a progressive side in changing politics in America."

Hightower: Washington Overrun by 11,000 Corporate Lobbyists and $500 Million in Corrupting Donations

Posted on: Apr 28, 2010, Source: Hightower Lowdown

We need to focus on those shadowy players who're pulling the strings from behind the scenes to impose their special interest over America's public interest.

Hightower: The Screwed-Up Airlines Are Proof That 'Free Enterprise' Is Bogus Corporate PR

Posted on: Apr 21, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Thank goodness the airline chiefs are not trying to run a hot dog stand or taco trailer. The competition would kill them.

Hightower: Teabagger Conservatism and Corporate Greed Killed the 29 Miners

Posted on: Apr 14, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The miners are dead because self-serving profiteers in the coal industry use their political clout to fend off safety regulations by the big, bad government.

Hightower: Meet Elizabeth Warren, Gutsy Fighter for Financial Reform

Posted on: Apr 7, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Is there no sanity, no smidgen of integrity in our government? Are no public officials on our side? Meet Elizabeth Warren.

Hightower: Wal-Mart and the Essence of the Inhuman Corporation

Posted on: Mar 31, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Think corporations share some of mankind's key characteristics, like compassion? Think again. As Joseph Casias' case illustrates, they're more ruthless than ever.

Hightower: Just How Nutty is the Texas Board of Education?

Posted on: Mar 24, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Right-wing fanatics are turning "Texas education" into an oxymoron.

Hightower: Two Right-Wing Billionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit

Posted on: Mar 18, 2010, Source: Hightower Lowdown

How billionaires' money took over Washington -- and created the mobs who rant against reform.

Honoring Granny D: Crusader for Democracy

Posted on: Mar 16, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Doris Haddock made her voice heard. She embodied the national yearning for democratic reform and rallied a movement.

Hightower: Why Obama and Dems Seem Incapable of Taking a Firm Stand on Anything

Posted on: Mar 10, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The Obama-ites seem incapable of firm stands. They excite us by boldly addressing our economic woes. But when it comes time to follow through -- it's droopsville.

How the Monsters at Goldman Sachs Caused a Greek Tragedy

Posted on: Mar 3, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Greece's crushing debt has exploded into a full-blown crisis, with the country on the precipice of the unthinkable: the default of a sovereign nation. Thanks Goldman Sachs.

Americans Rise Up Against the Supreme Court Decision to Create Corporate Frankensteins

Posted on: Feb 24, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The five court corporatists seemed to think that their sneak attack on America's democratic ideals would be meekly accepted by the public. Hardly.

Health Insurers More Grotesquely Greedy Than Wall Street Bankers

Posted on: Feb 16, 2010, Source: AlterNet

The great thing about Corporate America is that competition is always fierce for the national title of greediest.

A Cabal in the Supreme Court Has Unleashed a Corporate Frankenstein

Posted on: Feb 11, 2010, Source: AlterNet

No other group in America has anywhere near the voice and raw political power that corporations exert every day. But the Supreme Court decided they needed more power.

Hightower: GOP Is the Party That Thinks Helping the Poor and Hungry Is Like Feeding 'Stray Animals'

Posted on: Feb 3, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Where else can raw ignorance rise to such high places -- and then flaunt itself shamelessly for all to see?

ACORN's Real Crime: Empowering the Poor

Posted on: Jan 24, 2010, Source: Hightower Lowdown

ACORN helps the poor become political and economic players. That's why the money powers unleashed right-wing politics to go after ACORN with a blood lust.

Hightower: Bernanke Wants Even More God-Like Powers for the Federal Reserve

Posted on: Jan 21, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Our financial rulers were so intoxicated with the fumes of their own omnipotence that they failed abjectly as regulators, as public servants and, most certainly, as gods.

Does Kentucky Fried Chicken Own Your City's Fire Hydrants?

Posted on: Jan 13, 2010, Source: AlterNet

Welcome to the latest reach by commercial hucksters to cover every square inch of America the Beautiful with ads.

New Year's Resolutions To Help Make Corporate Fat Cats and Our Politicians Human Again

Posted on: Dec 25, 2009, Source: AlterNet

I was working on my list of New Year's resolutions when it occurred to me that some of the people running our country could benefit from my suggestions.

Hightower: Congress Ethics Rules Undermined by Weasels

Posted on: Dec 16, 2009, Source: AlterNet

The Democratic majority in the House pushed through a widely ballyhooed set of reforms. Pelosi promised "the most honest, ethical and open Congress in history. How'd that work out?

Hightower: What Is Obama Getting Us into in Afghanistan?

Posted on: Dec 2, 2009, Source: Creators Syndicate

Cut the music, and let's all ponder what Barack Obama, Roberts Gates, Stanley McChrystal and Co. are getting us into ... and whether we really want to go there.

The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not

Posted on: Nov 22, 2009, Source: Hightower Lowdown

The war on marijuana is insane; our officials keep sacrificing tax dollars, lives, civil liberties, and their own credibility in this misguided and losing effort.

Hightower: Obscenely Rich Bankers Claim to Do God's Work -- They Can Go to Hell

Posted on: Nov 17, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Top executives were initially hurt by the public's moral outrage. But their sense of entitlement quickly kicked in, and now they claim they're the good guys.

Real Recovery Is Easy to Spell: J-O-B-S

Posted on: Nov 11, 2009, Source: AlterNet

The latest job numbers mock the smiley-faced claims of economists and polticos that the Great Recession is over.

Right-Wingers in Congress Love Their Own Govt.-Run Health Care, But They Hate Sharing It

Posted on: Oct 29, 2009, Source: Creators Syndicate

Members of Congress and their families are blessed with their very own gold-plated, taxpayer-financed, Washington-run health care system.

A Corporation So Arrogant, It Thought It Owned the Word 'Monster'

Posted on: Oct 21, 2009, Source: Creators Syndicate

When the tiny Rock Art Brewery in Vermont decided to name its beer "The Vermonster," they soon discovered that a behemoth drinks company was trying to push them around.

Hightower: Obama, Time to Work on Creating Jobs for Hardworking Americans

Posted on: Oct 15, 2009, Source: AlterNet

FDR, when he faced deep and spreading national insecurity, made jobs first -- not last. And so should Obama.

Why Was a Lightweight Montana Senator on the Finance Committee Tasked to Take on Health Care Reform?

Posted on: Oct 9, 2009, Source: Hightower Lowdown

Entrusting Baucus with the heavy job of shepherding health care reform through the upper chamber is like asking Tweety Bird to lift a bowling ball.

Wall Street Plans to Tap into $26 Trillion Life Insurance Market, Cashing in When People Die

Posted on: Oct 1, 2009, Source: Hightower Lowdown

The bankers who brought us the disaster of 2008 have created a new financial instrument called "life settlements" -- call it morbid capitalism.

Food Industry Is Now Calling Junk Food 'Healthy' - Why Could That Be?

Posted on: Sep 16, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Food corporations are hoping to cash in on the growing public concern about nutrition by launching a program that labels some junk food healthy.

Big Oil Gets in on Right-Wing Astroturf Game

Posted on: Aug 28, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Since Astroturf itself is made up of petroleum, there's a certain poetic symmetry in having Big Oil produce the silliest astroturf campaign yet.

Hightower: Starbucks' Bizarre Branding Strategy -- Hide Its Name, Pretend to Be 'Authentic' Local Coffee Shop

Posted on: Aug 12, 2009, Source: Creators Syndicate

Starbucks is now striving to be the anti-Starbucks, dressing up as funky neighborhood coffeehouses with a cool vibe.

Hightower: Think Your Food's Organic? Think Again

Posted on: Aug 5, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Thanks to corporate-friendly policies enacted under the Bush Administration, the legal organic standard is filled with loopholes.

Big Bankers Mounting Sneak Attack on Consumers

Posted on: Jul 9, 2009, Source: AlterNet

The largest banking chains are going out of their way to stiff us.

This July 4th, Rebel and Agitate for Change

Posted on: Jul 3, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Agitators created America, and it's their feisty spirit and outright rebelliousness that we celebrate on our national holiday.

Gas Pump Thievery: Who's Really Behind the Rising Prices at the Pumps?

Posted on: Jun 24, 2009, Source: AlterNet

What's going on here is not the "magic of the marketplace," but some hocus-pocus by brand-name dealers.

The Hummer: America's Favorite Wasteful Toy Has Moved to the Land of Mao

Posted on: Jun 11, 2009, Source: AlterNet

China now owns one of the West's most decadent consumer products.

Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains

Posted on: Jun 7, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Now is the time for us to flex some grass-roots political muscle and force Obama to stick to his promise to stop mountaintop coal removal.

Deadly Salmonella: Frozen Food's Newest Ingredient

Posted on: May 27, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Contamination has become so widespread that major frozen food purveyors admit they can no longer ensure the safety of their products.

Why Goldman Sachs Is the Greediest and Most Dastardly of the Wall Street Pigs

Posted on: May 21, 2009, Source: AlterNet

Goldman holds billions in taxpayer cash, plans for billions in exec bonuses this year, and has powerful friends in Obama's govt. up the wazoo.

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