Author Archives: CheezWhiz

Millionaires on Food Stamps?

A December 12 article in the New York Times noted that Republicans, in their latest take on the Cadillac-driving Welfare Queen theme, are working to make sure that unemployed millionaires aren’t allowed to collect unemployment benefits or food stamps. Every … Continue reading

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“White Man Speak With Forked Tongue” – Tonto

More proof that Republican hypocrisy knows no bounds. Refusing to approve President Obama’s nomination of Caitlin Halligan to be a federal appeals court judge, the New York Times reported this week that Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, led … Continue reading

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Parsing Chancellor Birgeneau

So here’s my take on Cal Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau’s incredibly lame email to the “extended Berkeley Community” explaining the police brutality that took place on the campus where the free speech movement was born.  His words are in quotes. … Continue reading

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Best Definitions of a Corporation

The most quotable words I’ve heard this week come from Stephen Colbert and Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor. Secretary Reich: “I will believe that corporations are people when Georgia and Texas execute them.” Stephen Colbert: “[Corporations are] Born in … Continue reading

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Pepper Spray at UC Davis

This morning I received an email from UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, attempting to explain why student protestors there were casually assaulted by police with pepper spray.  Here is my response: Chancellor Katehi: I do not accept your explanation that … Continue reading

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Occupy a Hostile Work Environment

My first job out of college was waiting tables (and yes, college-educated Baby Boomers had a hard time finding jobs, too).  An older, more experienced waitress told me that the owner/manager often made crude sexual comments but he was “just … Continue reading

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An Economic Bill of Rights for Occupy Wall Street

There is no need for demonstrators to reinvent the wheel when it comes to articulating a manifesto.  Franklin D. Roosevelt said it beautifully in his 1944 State of the Union Address, excerpted here: “The Economic Bill of Rights” It is … Continue reading

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Look Out 19th Century: Here We Come

  When Newt Gingrich was Speaker of the House he suggested that we should build more orphanages to warehouse children whose families couldn’t  care for them properly.  Never mind the documented abuses from time immemorial (think Oliver Twist, Catholic orphanages … Continue reading

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Shape Up or Ship Out! (I’m talking to you, Tea Partiers.)

I’ve been thinking about my dad a lot lately.  He was a lifelong Republican except for the time he voted for FDR.  I wonder what Dad would think about what’s going on in Washington, D.C. these days. When his kids … Continue reading

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Shake it up Baby: Congressional Reform Act of 2011

The Following proposal has been making the rounds on the Internet and has appeared in the body of several comments in the New York Times.  It may be a better solution than one I’d thought of, which was to let … Continue reading

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