Bear Left!
Where else would you get your leftist bearings every week?
Volume III, Number 17: 28 June 2003 (Posted 9 July 2003. Next issue expected in a week or so.)
Our New Weblog
For news and brief rants on a more quotidian basis, check out our brand new weblog at K-Marx.com.
*Red Diaper Watch
Tim's second child, Leah, was born on 23 May. She's growing like a weed and taking up lots of his time. The next issue will be in one week or so, not in five.
This Week's Articles:
Has America's Chemistry Changed?
Has something in America's chemistry changed? Do George W. Bush and his administration represent our wants and aspirations? Do we not care that our president lies, cheats, and steals as long as he bullies the rest of the world and the weakest amongst us at home?
I hope not.
George W. Bush does not dream my dreams. Bush has chosen to ensure that America's material prosperity, indeed the prosperity of the world, is something to be hoarded, not shared. Bush's tax cut plan is more than a windfall for the rich; it is a cynical strategy to force cuts in the most basic of social services.
Faith-Based Political Manipulation
A majority of Americans support President Bush. That support is faith-based, not fact-based. If you believe that there is a supreme being in the heavens who created the universe and is keeping tabs on all of our deeds, I guess belief in Bush is not so far-fetched. For those of us with our feet and minds planted in reality, having faith in Bush is just plain dumb.
[Click on a title to read a particular article.]
Last Issue's Articles:
Another Republican Moral Crusade Rooted in Politics
Is that Ken Starr playing governor of Massachusetts? No, it's Mitt Romney.
Pardon me for confusing the latest Republican moral crusader with the infamous Mr. Starr. Governor Romney is pursuing University of Massachusetts President Bill Bulger with the same zeal that Starr pursued United States President Bill Clinton. In both cases, a Republican has unsuccessfully tried to oust from office a highly competent public servant because the individual in question lacks, in the mindset of that Republican, the moral authority to hold public office. Behind the stated motives are the clear objectives to take down successful Democrats who have thwarted Republican political agendas. The zeal of the pursuits is surpassed only by the personal and political destruction left in their wakes. At least Mitt was elected to the position from which he conducts his witch-hunt.
Upper Class Welfare
The rich are different than you and me: they get the government to do their bidding. The latest tax cut proposals in the United States House and Senate demonstrate just how different they are. In the face of rising unemployment, a stagnant economy, and fiscal crises in dozens of states, the Republican Party has devised tax cut plans that show its true colors. The centerpieces of its plans will do next to nothing to help the economy, but will amply reward the investor class, Americans who live off their investments, to the detriment of anyone who has to work for a living. Radical tax cuts on dividend income are well nigh useless for their stated purposes, boosting the economy or creating jobs, but they serve the real purposes of the Republican party very well.
[Click on a title to read a particular article.]
Older Articles:
Over two hundred articles from previous weeks reside in our archives. If you're not careful, you might learn something.
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Copyright issues
All of our original material—almost everything on the bear-left.com website— is now subject to a license from Creative Commons. It lets anyone copy or distribute our work for noncommercial purposes, with certain restrictions. In other words, copy but don't steal. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our of our pages for more information, including other types of licenses that are available.
What's with the new look?
We have finally fixed the coding problem that was preventing the third column from showing with the proper alignment. Even better, we have finally figured out how to put the weblog links on the left side of this page but have that information be near the bottom of the page of code. (This template works best in Mozilla 1.4, but it also works in Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, and Netscape 4.76.)
Fact of the Week
In 2000, the 400 taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross incomes reported over 1 percent of all income reported to the IRS that year. Their average tax rate was 22.3 percent. If the Bush tax cuts of 2002 and 2003 had been in effect, their tax rate would have declined to 17.5 percent, with an average savings of $8.3 million. These taxpayers are the biggest beneficiaries of these tax cuts. To make the top 400 in 2000, a taxpayer needed taxable income of $86.8 million.
Sources:
New York Times, 26 June 2003;
IRS report,
June 2003.
Presidential candidates: who's left?
Our favorite links on the war in Iraq
- For breaking news, check out The Agonist, which is updated constantly.
- Many of the weblogs in the far column are updated very frequently, especially Eschaton, by the psuedonymous Atrios.
- Red Pepper news on Iraq.
- No Rush to War: a collection of articles from The Nation.
- Target: Iraq from Global Security.org.
- Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
- New York Times op-ed ad signed by 33 international relations scholars (HTML version of the ad).
- Stand Down cross-ideological, anti-war weblog.
- Alternative Resources on the US-Iraq Conflict: like it says, from the American Library Association.
- Iraq War Debate: a huge collection of links from the University of Michigan.
- Project on Defense Alternatives: Analyses of Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Anti-War Links: Heaps of them, from The Guardian.
- United for Peace: Broad-based anti-war coalition.
- Inspections in Iraq: A Primer: some blasts from the past from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
- Al-Qaida and Iraq: How Strong is the Evidence?": it's not very strong at all (from The Guardian).
- Claims and Evaluations of Iraq's Proscribed Weapons: just the facts, and just about weaponry.
- Bin Laden Tape: Text: The transcript of an al-Jazeera broadcast, ostensibly of Osama bin Laden.
- Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein: Tons of original documents, from the National Security Archive.
- Robin Cook's Resignation Speech: Robin Cook explains his decision to resign from Tony Blair's cabinet.
- More, alas, likely to come.
We have scads of links to articles and views about Enron!
Last Enron update: 18 December 2002.
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© 2003, Paul Corrigan and Tim Francis-Wright. The Creative Commons license governs all original content on this website.
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