Truthout - All Articles

Henry Giroux: Rethinking the Promise of Critical Education

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:25:02 -0500

President-elect Barack Obama has expressed interest in improving public education. (Photo: Reuters)

States Want $176 Billion Slice of Stimulus

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:14:00 -0500

Governors to ask Obama to set aside federal funds to boost local economies.

When President-elect Barack Obama arrives at Philadelphia's Independence Hall today to meet with the nation's governors, the main question will be not whether he will deliver fast fiscal relief to the states, but how much?

Obama and congressional Democrats have promised that soon after Inauguration Day he will sign an economic stimulus bill that could exceed $500 billion.

A Consensus Emerges: Build, and Build Big

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:05:50 -0500

Everybody is saying the same thing. Stimulus plans don't mean tax rebates worth a few tanks of gas and a restaurant dinner. Stimulus plans means new roads and bridges, aid to states so they won't lay off nurses and teaching assistants, and a down payment on a new energy economy with windmills and commuter rail.

Most importantly, people have turned the corner on money. Stimulus will take real money, measured in hundreds of billions of dollars and percents of GDP.

The GOP's McCarthy Gene

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:02:45 -0500

Think Goldwater is the father of conservatism? Think again.

Ever since the election, partisans within the Republican Party and observers outside it have been speculating wildly about what direction the GOP will take to revive itself from its disaster. Or, more specifically, which wing of the party will prevail in setting the new Republican course - whether it will be what conservative writer Kathleen Parker has called the "evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy" branch or the more pragmatic, intellectual, centrist branch.

High Court Case Tests Power Plants' Water Rules

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:29:35 -0500

The US Supreme Court hears an important environmental case Tuesday, testing whether utilities must use the best technology available to minimize harm to the nation's waterways. At issue is the physical impact on fish and the financial impact on companies.

The nation's 550 power plants use water - lots of water in some instances - that comes from lakes and rivers. Each day, more than 214 billion gallons of water is sucked into power plants across the country.

Federal Workers Unions Want "Burrowers" Lists

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:26:13 -0500

Two powerful employee organizations are pressing the Bush administration to prove that in its final weeks, political aides are not improperly winning career government jobs at the expense of more qualified workers.

Leaders of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers, and the Senior Executives Association, the group representing federal executives, said they want the government to release lists of political appointees who have been hired for career jobs

Activists Expect Clinton to Propel Women's Rights

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:22:33 -0500

It was a startling speech coming from a first lady - indeed, Hillary Rodham Clinton's 1995 speech at the United Nations Conference for Women in Beijing is credited as a watershed moment.

"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls," the first lady told the international gathering. "...

Economy Could Add to Medicare Woes

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:18:21 -0500

Washington - Federal health officials estimate that the struggling economy will speed up by one to three years the exhaustion of the Medicare trust fund covering hospital and nursing home care.

Trustees for the Social Security and Medicare programs warned last March that the trust fund for Medicare Part A would become insolvent in 2019.

Ohio GOP Rush to Change Voting Rules Is Ruse

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:14:53 -0500

Before the election, there was lots of fretting that things could go really badly in Ohio and that the state could end up looking like Florida in 2000.

People said that in 2004, too, and what do you want to bet that they'll say it in 2012?

But Election Day went fine, thank you very much, and, for that, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and the 88 county boards of elections deserve kudos.

Obama and Beyond

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:19:15 -0500

On November 4, Americans made history by sending Barack Obama to the White House. Only decades after blacks were murdered for simply trying to vote, it was a powerful and inspiring moment.

Now, Americans have the chance to make the future. By electing Obama, we've created a window of opportunity to make progress on a range of concerns, from ending the war in Iraq to establishing health care as a universal right to preventing climate change. But Obama can't do it alone. He must collaborate with Congress, of course, but he also needs organized voices outside of Washington,