Archive
Letting Pepsi Police Itself Isn’t Very Sweet
If you drink Mug Root Beer or the apple-flavored Manzanita Sol soda, you might unwittingly become one of the first people to try a brand new artificial sweetener. The new product is called Sweetmyx 617, and PepsiCo is blending it with high fructose corn syrup to...
Obama’s Kabuki Theater
The sales push behind Washington's latest "free-trade" agreement amounts to Kabuki theater. What's Kabuki? It's a 17th-century form of Japanese drama, featuring elaborate sets and costuming, rhythmic dialogue, and stylized acting and dancing. That pretty much sums up...
Two Sides of the Gunslinging Crisis
The Reverend Who Won the Airwaves
Toward the end of his life, civil rights champion and Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall was asked how he wanted to be remembered. "He did the best he could with what he had," Marshall replied. That's really the most any of us can do, and those who achieve it...
A Perfect Portrait of Corporate Crime
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here's one worth a thousand times that. It's a shot of three Volkswagen board members, gathered for a press conference to announce the resignation of Martin Winterkorn. VW's disgraced CEO was forced out after the auto giant was...
In OtherWords: September 30, 2015
This week in OtherWords, John Kiriakou, Cecilia Velasco, Jill Richardson, and I unpack Pope Francis's whirlwind visit. The pontiff had a lot to say about climate action, justice for immigrants and the incarcerated, and making amends for the Catholic Church's past...
Jeb Bush Blows It on Race
The Republican Party has struggled for years to attract more voters of color. In a recent campaign appearance, candidate Jeb Bush offered yet another useful case study of how not to do it. At a campaign stop in South Carolina, the former Florida governor was asked how...
A Pilgrimage for Love, Justice, and Dignity
One hundred women walked 100 miles to welcome Pope Francis to Washington. Their goal? To bring attention to the U.S. immigration crisis — and to touch the hearts of our nation’s leaders. They started their pilgrimage outside the immigration detention facility in York,...
You Can’t Fire Us, We Quit
One by one the Republicans are falling away. First it was Rick "Oops" Perry. Maybe the former Texas governor hoped his new horn-rimmed glasses would make him look smarter after his flop in 2012. Alas, he still became the first of the 2016 candidates to walk the plank,...
Francis Gets Served the House Specialty
With his gentle grace, disarming humility, and penchant for saying “God bless America” like he means it, Pope Francis appeared to sweep Washington off its feet. Cheering throngs accompanied his every move. The powerful and powerless alike made a fuss. Take Senator...
