The Dirty Dozen Tax Scams of 2012
Today the IRS released its annual “Dirty Dozen” ranking of tax scams, reminding taxpayers to protect themselves against a wide range of schemes, from identity theft to return preparer fraud. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman advises, “Scam artists will tempt people in-person, on-line and by e-mail with misleading promises about lost refunds and free money. Don’t [...]
The Myth of the Progressive
Go to Wikipedia today, and you’ll discover the myriad groups that have utilized the word “progressive” today. Search for “Progressive Party” in the US and you’ll find three different ones, led by such disparate figures as Theodore Roosevelt, Robert M. La Follette, Sr., and Henry Wallace; none of which represented the same thoughts. The use [...]
Beyond Occupy
About half a decade ago, I sat in my college freshman orientation class and it was discussed that my generation was apathetic, detached, and essentially unresponsive to the issues that faced us. This is a common refrain about my generation, the Millennial Generation, and typically, newspaper articles have been written about it. That day we [...]
It’s Black History Month and the Sankofa Bird Speaks
History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they’ve been and what they’ve been; where they are and what they are. History tells a people [...]
One More Step Toward Prop 8′s Doom
In the summer of 2010, when I skimmed Judge Walker’s ruling on Prop 8, I said, “It’s all over but the crying.” The 9th Circuit’s decision on February 7, 2012 was another inevitable move in the legal end-game of marriage equality. I also predicted that the US Supreme Court would decline to hear the case. I’m sticking to [...]
Philadelphia-based Feminist Media Activist Group Led By Providence Native, Nuala Cabral, Launches Campaign Supporting Ethnic Studies in Arizona
Click here to check out my recent interview with Nuala Cabral and Denice Frohman of FAAN Mail, a Philadelphia-based media activist group that has launched a social media campaign (on Twitter, primarily, #WishiLearnedinHS), “Wished I Learned in High School,” in response to policies in Arizona restricting ethnic studies programs. Cabral is graduate of Moses Brown [...]
Fighting for Rhode Island
The last few years have been tough for our great Ocean State. Across Rhode Island, I’ve organized community dinners, main street tours, and coffee hours where I’ve heard firsthand from so many people struggling to find work, seniors worried about their Social Security and Medicare, families being crushed by unfair credit card rates, and students [...]
Imagination, Collective Struggle, and the Inclusion of Artists and Ordinary People: Angela Davis Speaks at RISD in Providence
PROVIDENCE, RI – Click on the image above to hear a short podcast with Dr. Angela Davis. It is from a brief interview I conducted with her after a keynote address she gave on Monday, June 23, 2012 at Rhode Island School of Design. More information about her talk is below; in the podcast/interview, I [...]
Apple: The Company No American Should Be Proud Of
When most Americans think of Apple, they think of the hip commercials, the latest must have gadgets, and the industry leading innovation. What most do not realize is the untold story of how Apple has perfected stealing the seeds of American ingenuity and harvesting them under a complex system of third world slave labor. Throughout [...]
Eleven Shocking Facts About Campaign Finance (or Why We Need Publicly Funded Elections)
Over at The Nation, they have a list of Eleven Shocking Facts About Campaign Finance (and they’re not pretty): The amount of independent expenditure and electioneering communication spending by outside groups has quadrupled since 2006. [Center for Responsive Politics] The percentage of spending coming from groups that do not disclose their donors has risen from 1 percent to 47 percent since [...]
Join Obama for America – Rhode Island at a State of the Union Watch Party in Your Neighborhood
Scores of Rhode Islanders are getting together next Tuesday night in homes, restaurants and college campuses across the state to watch President Obama’s State of the Union address. And it’s not too late for you to join them! “This is an important speech—one you, your friends and your family can’t miss,” says Devin Driscoll, Rhode [...]
Congress Needs to Start Working to Put the American People Back to Work
When I decided to run for Congress in 2010, I began my campaign with the conviction that no issue was more important than putting men and women across Rhode Island back to work. For too long, national policies had left behind far too many working families in our state. In cities such as Woonsocket, factory [...]
Republican Presidential Candidates’ Tax Policy Would Destroy the Economy (Even More)
There’s nothing quite like a political campaign to demonstrate just how extreme the national Republican Party and its primary voters are. The Center for Tax Justice has an analysis of the GOP Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans which shows just how much they favor the wealthiest 1% of Americans. Some high(low)lights: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s [...]
Right to Work (for Less)
Waging war on public sector unionized employees last year, with Governors Walker, Kasich and LePage leading the charge, lawmakers are now gearing up to take on private sector employees in this year’s sessions in legislatures in states across this country. Indiana is in the forefront of the war against workers’ rights with its governor, Daniels, [...]
Getting Kicked Out and Arrested at a Romney Event
My friend Matt from the Harvard Kennedy School has a blog post up about a disturbing situation at a Mitt Romney campaign event he was attending, which, in my opinion, is emblematic of a larger trend of slowly taking away the rights and freedoms of people to speak out in dissent. We see this occurring [...]
Wyden vs. Whitehouse on the Fate of the Internet
Most bills in the U.S. Congress have a ‘companion’ bill setup between offerings in the House of Representatives with similar bills in the Senate. However, if SOPA was “just” a threat to our personal freedoms on the Internet, PIPA makes that threat seem somewhat small by comparison… this new threat would also have the potential [...]
Creating Boss Culture: These are Dangerous Days
Update from Sunday Morning. Seems even the epitome of mainstream media, The Washington Post, is asking the very same question about why American’s aren’t protesting. Join David S. Meyer as he chats about his latest Outlook piece, “Americans are angry. Why aren’t they protesting?” Monday, Aug. 15 at 1 p.m. ET. In his piece, Meyer writes, [...]
Celebrate The World Wide Web’s 20th Birthday — Ask Your Lawmakers To Oppose The Internet
It was twenty years ago this week that Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN, put the world’s first website online. It announced his new creation: the World Wide Web. Last year while urging Internet users to sign Demand Progress’s petition against the Internet Blacklist Bill, Berners-Lee wrote this about the principles that underpin his project: [...]
Erica’s New Book On The Wisconsin Fight
Many of you know Erica Sagrans from her time in Providence as a student and activist. This month she’s self-publishing an awesome new book about the labor fight in Wisconsin: In February of 2011, the people of Wisconsin changed the political landscape in America overnight. In response to their Republican governor’s move to strip workers [...]
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