By Micah L. Sifry, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. The Supreme Court made a critical decision on Monday that shocked Republican ideologues and warmed the hearts of activists everywhere working for campaign finance reform. The decision affirmed what nearly every American believes: that big money plays a pernicious role in our politics and that we have a compelling interest to reduce corruption.
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "None of the presidential candidates is closer to Wall Street, or more indebted to it, than Bill Bradley. And yet, 'the politics of ambiguity' generates so much fog on the media landscape that quite a few people view him as a progressive alternative."
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "By decreeing that presidential hopefuls will only be allowed to join national debates if polls show they have the support of 15 percent of voters, the Commission on Presidential Debates has assured that only the Democrats and Republicans will be presented to the public."
By Will Durst, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "In politics, it's not enough to be a winner, you got to be a big winner. But the biggest winners of all are the residents of Iowa, who don't have to suffer through another invasion of carbon based manure spreaders for another four years. Big big losers? The people of New Hampshire, next on the list of the soon to be fertilized."
By Mad Dog, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "The Internet causes brain damage. I'm not sure how, and I'm not sure if it's reversible, but there's no question it's worse than anything a dippy little cell phone could do even if you glued it to your ear for the next four years and listened to Moviefone 24-hours a day."
By Carrie Ching, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. A new measure on the California ballot threatens to push thousands of young people into the state's already overcrowded prisons. Curiously, the initiative is sponsored by the state's former Governor Pete Wilson and a band of multinational corporations, including Chevron and Transamerica. What stakes do corporate sponsors have in a punitive state-level juvenile crime initiative?
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "They're off and running! The quadrennial presidential horserace is underway with the candidates rounding the first turn in Iowa and New Hampshire. But what the media pundits and pollsters don't tell us is that IT'S ALREADY OVER!"
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Food-processing conglomerate J.R. Simplot Co. is taking full advantage of NAFTA to move U.S. guacamole-making to Mexico, paying poverty-level wages there to mass-produce what amounts to a sort of industrialized green glop, then shipping the guacamole paste back here to Taco Bell, TGIF, Bennigan's, Chili's, and other restaurant chains."
By Tamara Straus, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. In an age of mammoth media mergers and the quest for global 'mind share,' a new breed of media organization has thankfully surfaced -- the independent, online media conglomerate. MediaChannel.org, which launched on February 3, is following the lead of its corporate competitors by creating "synergy" through partnerships with 300 media-oriented sites.
By Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. The Chlorine Chemistry Council (CCC) has reason to be worried about Joe Thornton's new book. In it, Thornton argues that chlorine and the organochlorine chemicals made from it pose a global health and environmental threat.
By Mad Dog, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Daniela Tobar, a 21-year-old actress in Santiago, Chile is spending two weeks in an 8-foot by 8-foot glass-enclosed building while people watch her go about her life. It's much like the windows that look into the studio of The Today Show except no one's holding up signs saying Hi to their family in Moose Butt, Minnesota and luckily Al Roker keeps his clothes on."
By Donella H. Meadows, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Campaign reform is number one on McCain's list and on mine. In fact it's the only item on my list, because everything else depends on it. Without it the will of the people means nothing. Without it we have no democracy; we have a plutocracy, a nation ruled by those with money."
By Will Durst, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Gary Bauer's Primary Day Schedule: 8:00: dig up graveyard looking for fetuses ... 12:00: spank naughty boys at Concord Orphanage ... 7:00: victory party in old Photomat booth near airport."
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "The fact that Donald Barlett and James Steele's investigative report -- "Big Money and Politics: Who Gets Hurt?" -- made a splash in Time magazine is encouraging. But other media, including wire services, big daily newspapers and broadcast networks, failed to pick up on the superb cover story."
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you on the ultimate vacation -- outer space itself! How about a week or two aboard the beautiful MIR space station, orbiting earth 16 times a day, 225 miles above everyone else? If Mr. Walt Anderson has his way, the abandoned Russian space station will become an out-of-this-world vacation spot for the rich and beautiful. Get your ticket now -- round trip for one is a mere $25 million!"
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "If someone was hanging around the schoolyard gathering information on your children, wouldn't you want to do something about it, like tell the creep to scram? Well, that 'someone' is the ZapMe!"
By Tamara Straus, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. Whither feminism 20-plus years after the cries for liberation and the rush to the workplace? Is it paralyzed by its own success? Or is it stumped by the negative consequences it has wrought? Today's leading feminists debated these issues, and many more, at a recent UC Berkeley gathering.
By Michelle Holcenberg, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. A billboard campaign targeted at changing the public's perception of breast cancer has ignited a firestorm of controversy in the San Francisco Bay Area. The billboards feature topless models striking come-hither poses -- but with a twist. In place of voluptuous breasts the models sport striking mastectomy scars. Should the ads be banned in public spaces?
By Judith Gorman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "When it comes to waffling, it seems George W. is not the only candidate who checks to see which way the wind is blowing before he takes a stand. Hillary has flopped and floundered like a fish out of water. Turns out kissing up is not as easy as it looks. "
By Donella H. Meadows, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "When the Hungarian news announced that fish were mysteriously dying all along the river on their eastern border from a wave of cyanide from an Australian gold mine, the word 'inevitable' leaped out of me. To those on the short end of the stick, globalization really means carelessness, unaccountability, greed and destruction."
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Media alarms have been loud recently: Electronic commerce is under siege. Any site is vulnerable to e-vandalism, no matter how big. And though we might not shed any tears for the likes of E*Trade and Amazon.com, I won't cheer for cyber-saboteurs either. Efforts to censor or block communication are odious -- whether based in government offices, corporate suites or secret hacker locations."
By Will Durst, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "As damage control, George II is supposedly calling major donors and party stalwarts to let them know although the ship may be have a tiny hole, its still full speed ahead. Sounds to me like the same plight the S.S. Minnow experienced. And that was a mere three hour tour."
By Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Faced with the threat of the existing DaimerChrysler Jeep plant closing, Toledo put together a $281 million local, state and federal subsidy package to support company plant expansion plans. But a lawsuit on behalf of a number of residential and small business plaintiffs will challenge the massive subsidy as unconstitutional, and an unfair burden on average taxpayers."
By Tate Hausman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. By February 15, America's prison population will have reached two million for the first time in history. The U.S. now has the world's highest incarceration rate, and the most prisoners of any nation on Earth. With crime rates down and the economy strong, why are we locking more people away than ever?
By Mad Dog, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "A survey done last year found that 80 percent of the young people in this country can't decipher a bus schedule, compute the change they should get back when they buy the new Backstreet Boys CD, or understand that Lara Croft isn't going to the prom with them no matter how many times they ask."
By Tamara Straus, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. Dave Eggers, the 29-year-old author of one of this season's hottest books, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," thinks people do not understand the word irony. In a complex and probing interview, Eggers explains why his latest literary endeavour defies irony, why writing shouldn't be so serious, and why -- at a time when people are fed up with tear-jerking books on incest and miserable childhoods -- his memoir is being hailed as the voice of Generation X.
By Mad Dog, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "A Harris Poll found that 38 percent of adults think finding and picking up a penny is good luck, 24 percent believe seven is a lucky number, and 16 percent say they knock on wood for luck. Is it any wonder seven-foot-tall prostitutes with wooden legs named Penny are in such demand?"
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "What if a big restaurant chain announced that it was hiring a chief inspector -- and filled the job with the person who'd been in charge of the company's kitchens? That's akin to what National Public Radio did when it hired its first ombudsman in two decades 'to independently investigate editorial standards in its programming.'"
By Christine Triano, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. Fox's newest game show, "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" may be crass, and crassly commercial, but is it really cause for moral indignation? Personal ads are commonplace, Webmatch.com unites countless couples everyday and AOL chat rooms are full of the late-night lovelorn looking for connection. What's wrong with uping the ante by dispensing with the process of courtship and cutting straight to the vows?
By Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. A trademark dispute erupts between the makers of the Clark Bar and a small North Dakota firm selling a Lewis and Clark candy bar to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Today, Spaceship Hightower takes you into a teensie-weensie world -- the world of fine print on product packages. There's the incredible shrinking bar of Ivory Soap, and the cereal box that offers consumers an actual race car! Engine not included, of course."
By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "The Sprint corporation picked on the wrong guy when they messed with Burton Caine. He knew his rights: That it is against the law for retailers, banks, employers and other corporate entities to demand a social security number for service."
By Will Durst, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Brothers and Sisters, step right up to see the strangest collection of political candidates this side of a Louisiana governors race. Freaks of nature. Chameleons. Shape shifters. If things keep going the way they're headed, Bush will end up the fighter pilot, and McCain will transform into the favorite son of Texas with vocabulary dyslexia."
By Norman Solomon, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "From a powerful microphone, Dr. Laura Schlesinger spews abuse at gays and lesbians, asserting that homosexuality is 'a biological error.' But now she's facing a well-organized challenge. A Feb. 24 letter to Dr. Laura, signed by more than 100 prominent clerics, medical, child-welfare and civil rights organizations, asserts that 'The anti-gay beliefs you espouse on a regular basis -- that homosexuality is 'deviant' and that gays can and should be cured -- are entirely outside the mainstream of scientific thought.'"
By Donella H. Meadows, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "The technology of carbon sequestration takes carbon dioxide, which accounts for two thirds of greenhouse gases, and buries it deep underground or in the ocean. Though it could be a great advance, carbon sequestration also poses the dangerous possibility that this will be the end of the story, that we will relax, thinking we've found a magic bullet that lets us go on driving gas-guzzling SUVs to our hearts' delight."
By Judith Gorman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "On an annual basis, more people die from medical mistakes than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS. The majority of medical errors are not due to individual recklessness, but result from basic flaws in the way the health system is organized."
By Mad Dog, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "What do women want in a man? If I could answer this with any semblance of certainty I'd be rich, famous, and hated by women everywhere. Yes, hated. They relish the mystique, like keeping us guessing, and the last thing in the world they want is to think that we understand them. Trust me, they have nothing to worry about."
By Will Durst, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Its awards season again! The "Too Little Too Late Too Short Award" goes to George W. for leaping onto the campaign finance reform bandwagon by the edge of his fingernails. The "Roll Over And Scratch My Belly You Adorable Beast Award" goes to the media for their hard hitting coverage of John McCain. And the "At Least He's Got A Future As A Short Order Cook Award" to Gary Bauer."
By Russell Mokhiber, Robert Weissman, AlterNet. April 26, 2000. "Think Big Tobacco has been whupped? Think again. Philip Morris and company aren't throwing in the towel. With a series of image-enhancing ad campaigns that cast them as 'caring, responsible members of the community' Big Tobacco hopes to reform itself in the eyes of Americans."
