As Independence Day approaches, the question of the day remains--just how independent are we?

Our Declaration signed on a July 4th declared us so to be. And, dutifully, generations of Americans have believed we were and always would be. The late Michel Jackson even had us singing...

Can it possibly be true that the Congress can't walk and chew gum at the same time? This question is prompted by the announcement that financial reform is being pushed back as health care becomes the priority.

This makes me nervous for two reasons. First, it portends...

You still want to like him, even if it has now been confirmed that the President of the United States travels with an official food taster or so the French news agency reported.

"They have someone who tastes the dishes," said waiter Gabriel de Carvalho from the "La Fontaine de...

"No Investigation, No Right To Speak"-- Chairman MAO

Anniversaries are always pretexts for news pegs, and when the 20th year since the Tiananmen protests and massacre in China rolled around, it was not surprising that every media outlet outside of China marked the event with pages of reminiscences and...

Is this an age of financial reform, or plunder without end? Will all the financial reforms lead to change or just prop up the status quo?

New York, New York: It is almost axiomatic to argue that renewal comes out of chaos. And reform and change are born in crisis.

So many of us know in detail about all the false warnings and exaggerated claims that were used to justify the war in Iraq. By now, six years later, and after many books, reports, news stories and films (hopefully including my two books and film, Weapons of Mass...

Can the Latest Technology Be Useful for an Aging News Dissector?

I am now following and being followed -- still not sure what that means -- but I am told it's a good start. I am on Twitter, tweeting to the beat.

I realize I am really a retrograde product...

I recently was advised by American Express, a company whose credit cards I pay in full each and every month, and with whom I have been a paying "member" since 1981, that my credit card limit is being cut. I have become unworthy.

I took it personally until I realized...

How would you do on a "stress test? " Even as the soundness of banks is supposedly measured--with many expected to show signs of insolvency---the whole stress idea demands a broader focus.

How many of the as many as 20 million Americans out of work could pass a stress...

The Battle with the Banks is on: Protests and PItchforks
As New Bank Bailouts Seem Likely, There Is More to Speak Out Against

There's a phrase that's worked its way into the Japanese language: "Lehman Shokku," translated as Lehman Shock. It refers to what happened to 460,000 people after...

The eyes of the world have been on the Economic Summit in London but the ideas of the world were mostly conspicuous by their absence. Here we have a global crisis. The house is on fire. Unemployment is climbing. The real estate contagion is now claiming condos and even shopping...

NEEDED: A NEW COMMISSION TO PROBE CORPORATE CRIME

Another day. Another ponzi scheme.

This time it's the Millennium Bank in the Eastern Caribbean accused of a mere $65 million dollar rip off. (Ponzi king Bernard Madoff allegedly took in $65 Billion.) Regulators say there is a "ponzimonium" underway with scores...

Is the Hunter Being Captured by the Game? -How the Permanent Power Structure Is Trying to Stop Obama

By Danny Schechter
Author of Plunder

Some things don't change. Obama may be in the White House, shuffling between the safety of the center and the language of change ("changeguage?"), firm...

KREMS, AUSTRIA: Obsessed as we are about our own crumbling economy, it's hard for most Americans to see and appreciate the global nature of the crisis and how it is impacting and will impact others throughout the world. We don't recognize how many in other countries blame the fall of...

As the economic situation declines, Obama has to stop centrist diddling.

Last week, television was filled with programs marking Abraham Lincoln's birthday. We watched reports on how the civil war erupted and was almost lost by the Union side. We were reminded of how many died and were wounded in...

It became clear Friday night that our economy may not recover until our politics do.

To President Obama, the delays and endless Congressional carping about his recovery plan was "inexcusable." He was reduced to reading the latest unemployment numbers aloud as if to say, what world are you guys...

It is time for a euphoria check or maybe a check on euphoria, a time to start raising our own questions about government plans rather than reflexively rallying behind the Democrats just because the Republicans are so obstinate and revolting.

It is important to recognize that behind the GOP's "Just-Say-No"...

In the old days, circuses were known for three rings and a side show. The economic debate that got underway this week feels a bit like that. It began in earnest just as police in Los Angeles announced the dramatic killing of five members of a family by a man...

Every President has a honeymoon, but Barack Obama's won't last long, probably because the real world won't give him a pass. The markets showed their lack of sentimentality by dropping sharply on Inauguration Day. The Repugs are looking to knock off a Cabinet nominee, and do anything they can to...

Can The Breach Between Jesse Jackson And Barack Obama Be Healed?

Somehow, a man with three names has been reduced to four words. Say Martin Luther King Jr and the phrase "I have a dream" comes to mind as if that sums up his life or his relevance to...