http://www.texasobserver.org/lege.php The Texas Observer Archives en webmaster@texasobserver.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-20T16:12:18+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-price-of-privatization http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-price-of-privatization/#When:14:38:35Z Gather ‘round, and a true tale I’ll tell about how privatization does not go so well.In the past decade or so, public officials have rushed to privatize government functions. Corporations, they cried, can do any public job better and cheaper. So on that theoretical assumption, everything from water systems to social services has been turned over to corporations for their fun and profit. In case after case, the profits came at the expense of the public. The corporations achieved their so-called “efficiencies” by replacing experienced government employees with low-wage workers and cutting service to the people. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-11-18T14:38:35+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/obama-must-get-going-on-jobs http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/obama-must-get-going-on-jobs/#When:16:32:56Z Just before taking office, Barack Obama called on the millions of people involved in his campaign to stay active: “I don't want them to just sit around and wait for me to do something,” he said. “I want them to be pushing their agendas.” Well, since he asked for it, let's shove this agenda forward: Jobs. Middle-class jobs. Jobs with a future and a satisfying purpose. Lots and lots of those jobs. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-11-04T16:32:56+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/big-tobaccos-big-whine http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/big-tobaccos-big-whine/#When:13:51:27Z Do you hear that long, low, wheezing whine? That’s Big Tobacco, moaning that it’s being picked on by a new law passed this year to restrict cigarette company advertising. Picked on? This is the industry that continues to profit by picking on the public with addictive, carcinogenic products that kill 440,000 Americans a year. This is the industry that has lied repeatedly to consumers and regulators about the deadly dangers of its products, that secretly juiced up the products’ nicotine levels to hook unsuspecting customers, that cynically used its marketing muscle to lure children into cigarette addiction, and that aggressively pitched “light” cigarettes to young women, falsely asserting that these products are safer. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-10-07T13:51:27+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/online-voter-registration http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/online-voter-registration/#When:15:11:52Z Ah, progress! I’m not exactly a model citizen for the technologically advanced, Internet-connected world we inhabit. For example, I don’t have a doorbell at my house. Yet while I’m something of a Luddite, I do have a Web site, and I couldn’t do what I do without it: www.jimhightower.com. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-09-16T15:11:52+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/a-traitorous-assault-on-our-democracy http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/a-traitorous-assault-on-our-democracy/#When:13:07:00Z In opposing Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court nomination, Republican senators loudly denounced judicial activists who would use the bench to rewrite the founders’ intent and invent new laws to advance a political agenda. However, it is unlikely that these same champions of strict constructionism will be on their high horses again in September, when Chief Justice John Roberts and others on the corporate wing of the court will try to pervert the founders’ intent, nullify the will of the people, and radically rewrite a century of legal precedent, all to advance the political agenda of corporate power. At issue are longstanding laws that ban corporations from spending their bottomless financial resources directly on election campaigns. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-09-03T13:07:00+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-gooberhead-sessions http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/the-gooberhead-sessions/#When:18:09:18Z Time for another Gooberhead Award, presented periodically to those in the news who’ve got their tongues going 100 miles per hour, but forgot to put their brains in gear. Today’s Goober is Pete Sessions, a run-of-the-mill Republican Congress critter from Dallas. Like many of his GOP colleagues, Pete has been on his ethical high horse this year, pointing a finger of shame at the new Democratic majority for letting special-interest earmarks slip into appropriations bills. On his Web site, Sessions piously posits that these backroom tax-dollar giveaways are “a symbol of a broken Washington.” Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-08-19T18:09:18+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/of-friends-and-fruit http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/of-friends-and-fruit/#When:17:14:09Z Some years ago, a young, sorta-hippyish couple knocked on my front door. They had noticed I had fig trees in the yard laden with summer fruit. If I wasn’t going to pick them all, they asked, could they harvest some? Since I was about to take a trip, I said sure, have at ’em. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-08-05T17:14:09+00:00 http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/driven_a_geely_lately http://www.texasobserver.org/hightower/driven_a_geely_lately/#When:18:36:37Z What are we going to be driving a few years from now? GM is in bankruptcy, Chrysler is now run by Fiat and the future hardly seems rosy for Ford. Who'll be the next king of America's roads—Toyota, Honda ... or maybe Geely? Who? Geely Automobile. It's one of China's largest auto manufacturers. Along with Chinese automotive giants BYD and Chery Automobile, Geely has big designs on the American market. Never heard of ’em? Get ready to be introduced. Departments, Jim Hightower 2009-06-10T18:36:37+00:00