Oh, How I Love The Progressive

I make no secret of my left, liberal, progressive leanings. I am proud to be a registered independent voter and I enjoy my subscriptions to The Nation and The Progressive. And it is with great pleasure that I share a couple of highlights from my reading yesterday of the August issue of The Progressive.

First of all, I got a kick out of this small paragraph in the "No Comment" section. It contains news blurbs submitted by readers from all over the country from any number of publications. There are always interesting quotes or stories which cause me to utter, "Does he/she have any idea what he/she just said?!" or "I thought this was 2007!" This particular submission wasn't so much infuriating or ridiculous, but certainly thought provoking.

It comes from William M. Arkin of The Washington Post:

"I went to a Red Sox game on Saturday, and up above home plate I couldn't help but notice the press box: five, six, seven tiers of desks, filled with print, radio, television, and who knows what other media all reporting every move and anomaly. It dawned on me that there are more reporters covering the Sox, just one baseball team, than cover the Pentagon."


To quote the host of my favorite late night show of the 1990's: "Things that make you go hmmmm . . ."

However, that was just the beginning. Just a couple of pages later I read Barbara Ehrenreich's column, "Banish the Bloated Overclass" which takes a look at the real consequences of the rich getting richer. While I'm not starving and my children have plenty of toys and we live in a nice house that doesn't mean that I should be OK with the fact that the rich have more political clout and influence, that higher education is quickly becoming a privilege of the wealthy (unless I want my children to go tens of thousands of dollars in debt), etc. It's a really great column and I highly recommend you give it a read. And I'd love to hear your opinions on it as well.

There's also a great interview with Elizabeth Edwards which just reinforced why I respect her so much as a woman, a wife and a mother. She's a smart, down to earth lady and I respect her efforts in working to get her husband elected to the office of President. I would be honored to have her as my First Lady.

And just one more mention. (I told you this was a great issue!) Editor Matthew Rothschild wrote a powerful column on why Cheney should be impeached. I will let the column speak for itself by giving you the first two sentences:

"You don’t have to dust for long before finding Dick Cheney’s grimy fingerprints all over the Bush crime scene. It’s becoming clearer by the day that behind every one of Bush’s illegal actions lurks the shadow of the Vice President."

Now if that doesn't spark your interest, I have no idea why you read my political rantings at all ;)