Smithfield Foods is trying to use the courts to intimidate and silence those who are publicizing dangerous and otherwise unpleasant conditions at Smithfield's packing plant.

On October 17, Smithfield filed a racketeering lawsuit against a union and community groups that are organizing workers at Smithfield's plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.  Among the activities that Smithfield alleges are criminal: publishing a report, passing resolutions, and speaking to the press.

In October, Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture, gave a huge gift to the Monsanto company.

Bovine growth hormone (BGH) is an artificial additive used by industrial dairies to increase milk production.  Wolff issued an order banning dairies from using labels that say their products are free of BGH - even when those labels are telling the truth.

Don't let this happen in your state!

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has hired the investment firm Morgan Stanley to advise him about whether the Pennsylvania Turnpike should be privatized.

Will Morgan Stanley's advice be objective and accurate?  Or will their advice be biased and worthless because Morgan Stanley makes money when roads are privatized?

Recently, Republican Senator and Presidential hopeful John McCain urged his party to return to "common sense conservatism".

But is conservatism, common sense or otherwise, good for America?  And does McCain truly believe that "the government that governs least governs best"?  What about Somalia?  Or Iraq?  And is McCain being a hypocrite?  After all, he thinks Washington politicians, like himself, should have the power to restrict womens' reproductive choices.

Again this morning, NPR is pushing conservative spin on the election results.  They've been telling us ever since the election that the takeover in the House was led by "Blue Dog" - that is, conservative - Democrats.  This in spite of the fact that the most prominent Blue Dog candidate, Harold Ford, lost while many of the people who won are progressives.

Crossposted from unbossed

Conservative politicians and rich folks sometimes propose the following solution to poverty:  if people would just major in the right subjects in college (say, business), then enter a lucrative profession (say, finance), then they, too could become rich.

Voila!  No more poor people!

A recent opinion piece by economist Ben Stein makes this argument.  However, his proposed solution violates the most basic law of economics.

Why, on Labor Day, of all days, does NPR invite a writer for the Wall Street Journal to speak to the condition of American Workers?  Was NPR unable to find a single union leader who was willing to appear on the air?  Did NPR even try?

I recently finished reading Senator Byron Dorgan's (D-North Dakota) new book, "Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain-dead Politics are Selling Out America".

On trade issues, Senator Dorgan "gets it".  None of this namby-pamby "it's the responsibility of American workers to get more education so they'll be more competitive in the global economy" like we get from the corporate lapdog wing of the Democratic party.

The U. S. Senate will vote in early June on repealing the Estate Tax.  Like most Republican Senators, Wayne Allard from my state of Colorado wants to repeal it.

Allard's latest statement on this subject is full of falsehoods.  After all these years of Senate debates on this issue, you'd think he'd have his facts straight by now.

More disturbing is that many Senators believe that wealthy heirs should simply be handed huge sums of money tax free, while we ordinary citizens should not only have to work for a living, but we should pay taxes on what we earn.