<![CDATA[Illinois Times - National - Jim Hightower]]> <![CDATA[Vermont leads the way]]> “We have a problem,” said House Speaker Shap Smith of Vermont. “We need to solve it.” This comment reflects a no-nonsense, hands-on, can-do attitude you rarely find in legislat]]> <![CDATA[The airline industry’s fee-for-all]]> <![CDATA[Why Democrats lose]]> <![CDATA[The Kochs and the guv stir up a hornets’ nest]]>  Thank you, Scott Walker! And you, too, Charles and David Koch! Thanks for being so ham-handed in pushing your self-serving, virulently anti-union agenda on the schoolteachers, health care worker]]> <![CDATA[What’s for dinner? ]]> <![CDATA[Small town USA averts police state takeover]]> <![CDATA[Protest more. Protest louder.]]> Untitled Document Let’s be blunt. It’s no longer the Sunni insurgents, Shiite militias, or al Qaeda bombers who are killing our troops in Iraq. Washington is killing ]]> <![CDATA[The inhuman essence of a corporate ‘person’]]> I’m curious about those five Supreme Court justices who recently decreed that a corporation is a “person” with human rights: Do you think they ever met Mr. Walmart? If they had, they]]> <![CDATA[America’s worsening jobs crisis ]]> <![CDATA[Lord help us – bosses gone berserk]]> <![CDATA[Banker hubris knows no bounds]]> <![CDATA[Welcome to GOP nutland!]]> <![CDATA[Bleeding-heart Republicans]]> Who says that Republican Congress-critters don’t care about minorities in our society? Why, at this very moment, they are pushing hard to pass a $372 billion federal program to lift the economic]]> <![CDATA[America’s leaders are small, but Americans are not]]> “We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secur]]> <![CDATA[Disclosing the meekness of the ‘DISCLOSE’ bill]]> At last, after weeks of analyzing, calculating, pondering, consulting and crafting, Democratic leaders in Washington have unveiled their much-awaited legislative response to the Supreme Court’s ]]> <![CDATA[Perry is peddling Texas snake oil]]> Step right up, ladies and gentlemen, and get your ticket to see ‘Rick the Wonder Worker!’ Texas Gov. Rick Perry is less than revered back home, where he is widely ridiculed as Gov. Good Ha]]> <![CDATA[Wal-Mart's new look]]> The modest working-class persona is passé. Wal-Mart is on the way up! Deciding to market to a more affluent clientele, the retailing behemoth is working up a new fancier look for its workers. I]]> <![CDATA[Corporate welfare roulette]]> One thing that governors and mayors absolutely love to do is win a prize in the national game called “Corporate Welfare Roulette.” It’s a simple casino-style game in which politicos ]]> <![CDATA[A “smart choice” that isn’t]]> Smart is the new cool thing. There’s a smart car, cities now tout smart growth and you can buy a smart refrigerator. Now comes another breakthrough: Even your breakfast cereal has gotten smart.]]> <![CDATA[Black liquor moonshine]]>