Leighton Akio Woodhouse is the Political Director at Brave New Films. Prior to arriving at BNF, Leighton organized healthcare workers in a democratic, worker-led union, and served as Executive Director at DrivingVotes.org in the 2004 election. Leighton has a Masters degree in Sociology from UC Berkeley.

Blog Entries by Leighton Woodhouse

The Destruction Of The Inland Empire

1 Comments | Posted December 3, 2009 | 01:10 PM (EST)


Drive eastbound from Los Angeles on Interstate 10. Just beyond downtown, travel through a long stretch of the San Gabriel Valley suburbs. After passing Pomona, then crossing over the L.A. County line, the scenery takes a turn toward the exurban. Layered over the hardscrabble desert landscape like a carpet is...

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Obama's Anti-Stimulus

28 Comments | Posted October 1, 2009 | 12:08 PM (EST)


When voters cast their ballots for Barack Obama last year, they could have been forgiven for harboring the expectation that they were voting for, among other things, a more humane American immigration policy. On the campaign trail, Obama had made such enlightened statements as:

Ultimately, the danger to the...
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The Insurance Lobby's Strategy: Class Warfare from Above

8 Comments | Posted August 18, 2009 | 03:43 PM (EST)


One of the most timeworn and tiresome tactics of the right is to accuse anyone who talks publicly about the widening gap between rich and poor, the tax privileges of the affluent, or any other morally significant economic issue of engaging in "class warfare." The device usually achieves its desired...

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Raping Afghanistan

Posted April 6, 2009 | 02:30 PM (EST)


What a pickle for the human rights hawks spraining their wrists to applaud President Obama's renewed focus on "The Right War" in Afghanistan. As it turns out, despite Laura Bush's much publicized entreaties on behalf of Afghan women, the government her husband put in place as the...

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Van Jones and the Green Economy

Posted December 23, 2008 | 12:02 PM (EST)


Check out Van Jones on Meet the Bloggers.

I just heard what I think might be one of the most creative policy ideas of the year, and it came from - of all people - Click and Clack on Car Talk.

I believe it was Clack's idea, to be...

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John McCain's Cancer

Posted September 22, 2008 | 01:33 AM (EST)


It's impolite to talk about cancer.

That's about the best reason I can think of to explain why John McCain's stage IIA (or is it IIIB?) melanoma isn't the subject of every political chatterbox show on cable news. It certainly isn't because McCain has ever come clean and settled the...

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Proving Sarah Palin

Posted September 6, 2008 | 07:23 PM (EST)


**UPDATE: Guess I was wrong...it's ABC. Maybe it'll be a real interview after all. (Or not, judging by Charles Gibson's performance during the primary debate.)**

**UPDATE 2: Read this and smile.**

With Sarah Palin breathing new life into an otherwise listless presidential campaign, John McCain has been, pathetically,...

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Red Alaska

Posted September 2, 2008 | 03:11 AM (EST)


Here's an interesting tidbit about Sarah Palin's home state of Alaska: it's socialist.

When pundits refer to Alaska as the 'reddest of red states,' they could as easily be referring to its oligopolistic resource extraction-based economy and its redistributionist state taxation regime as to its electoral tendencies. Eighty percent of...

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The Palin Trap

Posted August 31, 2008 | 02:03 AM (EST)


On Friday, following McCain's announcement that Sarah Palin was his choice for running mate, like way too many others I allowed myself to indulge in the fantasy that this was the stupidest decision of a GOP presidential candidate since Dan Quayle was tapped for the role. Now that my post-DNC...

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Code Pink yelling, trying to steal the limelight. Again. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 19, 2008

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Gore would rather be an organizer than a bureaucrat on climate change. No thanks (for now) to joining an Obama administration. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 19, 2008

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Ugh. Code Pink in the house. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 19, 2008

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If Ford is so big on Obama and proud of the DLC he should take this opp to denounce former DLC Chair Lieberman for voting McCain. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 18, 2008

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Tune in now for the live premiere: meetthebloggers.org - also being simulcast on the big screen here at Netroots Nation. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 18, 2008

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Michael Waldman discussing contempt charges for Rove. Funny he should mention it: http://sendkarlrovetojail.com/ #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 18, 2008

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All together this time: Meet The Bloggers premieres today at 10am PT/1pm ET at meetthebloggers.org. Noon lunch screening at NN08. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 18, 2008

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Not to miss: lunch on Friday. Brave New Foundation broadcasting live premiere of 'Meet the Bloggers' on the big screen. Be there. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 17, 2008

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Worst thing about going to Austin: not being able to continue reading The Shock Doctrine for three days. #

- Leighton Woodhouse, tweeted July 17, 2008