Joe Bageant: Lost on the fearless plain

Big Brother's got that ju-ju, Gaia's got the blues -- hologram, carry me home!

 Ajijic, Mexico

  I've spent most of this week watching American television and movies. I leave the TV on all night long. I toss and turn with my bad back, and bad lungs, catch a rerun episode of “Two and a Half Men,” or “CSI,” and conk out again. Then I awaken to the U.S. morning talk shows. It's a grueling regimen, only for the strong… or the lonely. For periodic relief, I switch to Mexican television (be patient, I really am going somewhere with this). 

  Mexican TV is not one iota better than American television, but is veeerrry heavy on the booty. More than heavy… astronomical. Think all-but-bare tits and ass close-ups every fifteen seconds, straight through commercials, dramas, comedy shows, history shows, and even the news where possible. Every show but the bullfights and that old nun who comes on at 10 pm, who invariably drives me back to the U.S. channels.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Grading the Alabama Legislative Session

  When compared to the other three years of the quadrennium the 2010 legislative session should be considered a success. First of all, anytime the legislature passes the budgets on time it should be considered an accomplishment. This year they passed the Education and General Fund Budgets with days to spare but very little time or effort was expended in crafting and drafting these budgets. The documents have no rhyme or reason when compared to the actual fiscal needs. The legislature simply passed something knowing full well that the wheels are going to come off about the same time that the budgets go into effect in October.

Daniel Hawes: Throwing mud at the Tea Party

  Due to the vast majority of minorities in this country voting for more liberal candidates, politicians and clever special interest groups have perverted the notion of conservatism into many people's minds as "the opposition." Race is perhaps the most divisive issue facing our country today, whether or not you believe it is, and it is most often the liberals pushing the ideas on the rest of us when their views otherwise are not well received. A recent example can be the liberal's depiction of the Tea Party movement and the citizens associated with the cause.

Sheldon Richman: Immigration, civil liberties, and the drug war

  Arizona’s horrid law empowering cops to demand that people show their “papers” when suspected of being in the country without government permission holds an important lesson for both so-called progressives and conservatives. It’s a lesson about a seemingly separate issue: drugs.

Christian E. Weller, Luke Reidenbach: The Cost of risk in the oil market: How risk premiums are paid

  The inexorably spreading oil disaster on the Gulf Coast highlights once again the risks associated with drilling, pumping, transporting, and refining petroleum. The costs of this particularly catastrophic oil gusher won’t be known for years, but they will certainly be large, including the clean up, and the lost current and future business for fisheries and tourism (and the wide range of manufacturing and services sectors that depend on these two industries) along the Gulf Coast. Then there’s the money spent on cleaning up this Texas-sized mess that could have been used more productively for other purposes.

Gary Palmer: Broken promises: A Summary of the last four years

  Most of the media coverage of the 2010 Alabama legislative session has been an evaluation of what was, or was not, accomplished in the last session. To get an accurate picture, Alabama citizens should evaluate the entire body of work of the legislature and look at the four legislative sessions since the election in 2006.

  The first thing to note is that the first legislative session following the 2006 election was convened in the midst of an investigation of state legislators and two-year colleges and the final session closed with the FBI investigating corruption involving state legislators and gambling interests.

Charles C. Haynes: Take 'national' out of National Day of Prayer

  Last month U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb dared go where no judge has gone before and declared the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional. Don’t look for her name on the short list of Supreme Court nominees anytime soon.

  Judge Crabb stayed her order pending appeal, permitting official prayer-day observances to go forward as planned today.

  In her emperor-has-no-clothes decision, Judge Crabb exposed the long-standing but much-ignored contradiction between the First Amendment’s prohibition against government endorsement of religion and annual presidential proclamations calling on Americans to pray.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: Will Alabama's Congressional delegation get shaken up this year?

  Last week we examined the probability of Republicans picking up seats in Congress in this year’s midterm elections. These seats were won because of the economy and they may be lost because of the economy. The economy was bad in 2008. It is still bad in 2010. If you live by the sword you die by the sword. If you win because of the economy you will lose because of the economy.

  What about our seven member Alabama delegation? For two decades we had five Republicans and two Democrats. That changed in 2008 when Bobby Bright captured the 2nd District, which had been in Republican hands for 44 years. That made us four Republicans and three Democrats. However, that only lasted for one year as freshman Democrat Parker Griffith turned coats and became a Republican after one year in Congress. This was somewhat of a surprise. The more likely switch would have been Bright, who was sitting in a proven Republican seat.

Michael Josephson: Character Counts: Do bad people think they’re good?

  When she was 6, my daughter Carissa asked, “Do dumb people think they’re smart?” Answering her own question, she added, “They probably do because they’re dumb.”

  This made me think: “Do bad people think they’re good?” I wouldn’t be surprised if most do. In fact, I think all of us are ethical in our own eyes. The human tendency to rationalize, to justify our conduct in our own minds, provides a powerful anesthetic to our conscience. Think of all the athletes, politicians, religious leaders, and business executives who’ve been caught in wrongdoing who feel more like victims than villains.
Self-interest has a powerful tendency to disable our objectivity and befuddle our commitment to live up to moral principles.

Michael Ciamarra: The 2010 winner is Rep. Jack Williams and the ban on human trafficking

  The 2010 regular session of the Alabama Legislature ended as it began: with three big issues looming over everything else. The bills were often accompanied by boisterous and contentious political posturing and the rhetoric was colorful and at times, way over the top. Weary legislators faced a final gambling vote (take care of special interests), ten-year road projects (special interests approving election year goodies), and a short-term solution to the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition shortfalls (44,000 PACT contract holders and well-organized grassroots lobbying efforts) in the final two days of the session.