Bear Left! logo: a road sign with a left arrow

Bear Left!

Where else would you get your leftist bearings every week?

Volume III, Number 17: 28 June 2003 (Posted 9 July 2003. Next issue expected in a week or so.)

Our New Weblog

For news and brief rants on a more quotidian basis, check out our brand new weblog at K-Marx.com.

*Red Diaper Watch

Tim's second child, Leah, was born on 23 May. She's growing like a weed and taking up lots of his time. The next issue will be in one week or so, not in five.

This Week's Articles:

Has America's Chemistry Changed?

Paul Corrigan

Has something in America's chemistry changed? Do George W. Bush and his administration represent our wants and aspirations? Do we not care that our president lies, cheats, and steals as long as he bullies the rest of the world and the weakest amongst us at home?

I hope not.

George W. Bush does not dream my dreams. Bush has chosen to ensure that America's material prosperity, indeed the prosperity of the world, is something to be hoarded, not shared. Bush's tax cut plan is more than a windfall for the rich; it is a cynical strategy to force cuts in the most basic of social services.

Faith-Based Political Manipulation

Paul Corrigan

A majority of Americans support President Bush. That support is faith-based, not fact-based. If you believe that there is a supreme being in the heavens who created the universe and is keeping tabs on all of our deeds, I guess belief in Bush is not so far-fetched. For those of us with our feet and minds planted in reality, having faith in Bush is just plain dumb.

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Last Issue's Articles:

Another Republican Moral Crusade Rooted in Politics

Paul Corrigan

Is that Ken Starr playing governor of Massachusetts? No, it's Mitt Romney.

Pardon me for confusing the latest Republican moral crusader with the infamous Mr. Starr. Governor Romney is pursuing University of Massachusetts President Bill Bulger with the same zeal that Starr pursued United States President Bill Clinton. In both cases, a Republican has unsuccessfully tried to oust from office a highly competent public servant because the individual in question lacks, in the mindset of that Republican, the moral authority to hold public office. Behind the stated motives are the clear objectives to take down successful Democrats who have thwarted Republican political agendas. The zeal of the pursuits is surpassed only by the personal and political destruction left in their wakes. At least Mitt was elected to the position from which he conducts his witch-hunt.

Upper Class Welfare

Tim Francis-Wright

The rich are different than you and me: they get the government to do their bidding. The latest tax cut proposals in the United States House and Senate demonstrate just how different they are. In the face of rising unemployment, a stagnant economy, and fiscal crises in dozens of states, the Republican Party has devised tax cut plans that show its true colors. The centerpieces of its plans will do next to nothing to help the economy, but will amply reward the investor class, Americans who live off their investments, to the detriment of anyone who has to work for a living. Radical tax cuts on dividend income are well nigh useless for their stated purposes, boosting the economy or creating jobs, but they serve the real purposes of the Republican party very well.

[Click on a title to read a particular article.]

Older Articles:

Over two hundred articles from previous weeks reside in our archives. If you're not careful, you might learn something.

Our mailing list

If you like, sign up for our mailing list to get an update in your mailbox when we update this site, generally once per week. It's guaranteed to be more fun than spam.

Copyright issues

All of our original material—almost everything on the bear-left.com website— is now subject to a license from Creative Commons. It lets anyone copy or distribute our work for noncommercial purposes, with certain restrictions. In other words, copy but don't steal. Click on the Creative Commons logo on our of our pages for more information, including other types of licenses that are available.

What's with the new look?

We have finally fixed the coding problem that was preventing the third column from showing with the proper alignment. Even better, we have finally figured out how to put the weblog links on the left side of this page but have that information be near the bottom of the page of code. (This template works best in Mozilla 1.4, but it also works in Internet Explorer 5.5 and 6.0, and Netscape 4.76.)

Links of the Week, er, Month

Links of Previous Weeks are in our voluminous archives.

Check out our Link Library for news, opinion, and just plain interesting stuff!

Fact of the Week

In 2000, the 400 taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross incomes reported over 1 percent of all income reported to the IRS that year. Their average tax rate was 22.3 percent. If the Bush tax cuts of 2002 and 2003 had been in effect, their tax rate would have declined to 17.5 percent, with an average savings of $8.3 million. These taxpayers are the biggest beneficiaries of these tax cuts. To make the top 400 in 2000, a taxpayer needed taxable income of $86.8 million.

Sources:
New York Times, 26 June 2003;
IRS report, June 2003.

 

Weblogs We Like (and why)

K Marx the Spot:
more from the brain trust behind Bear Left.
The Lefty Directory:
a canonical list of left weblogs, with outliers.
The Agonist:
up-to-the-minute (literally) weblog on war and foreign policy.
Alas, a blog:
politics, cartooning, and political cartooning.
Altercation:
politics, culture, plus Bruce Springsteen.
Bartcop:
anti-Bush, anti-Limbaugh, pro-tequila.
Beyond Corporate:
excellent weblog on work and social and corporate responsibility.
BlogLeft:
ambitious academic weblog on media and politics.
The Bloviator:
super weblog on medicine, politics, and the politics of medicine.
Body and Soul:
deep and nuanced weblog on politics, religion, and culture.
Bush Watch:
daily compendium, all about the President per curiam.
Counterspin:
prodigious left-leaning weblog on politics, the media, and the Right.
Cursor:
excellent coverage of politics, punditry, and whatnot.
The Daily Kos:
pithy and pointed takes on American elections and politics.
Defensetech:
news on war, crime, and national security from a liberal viewpoint.
Brad DeLong:
amazingly prodigious weblog on economics, politics, and culture.
Eschaton:
excellent and constantly updated liberal take on politics.
The Hamster:
combination weblog and soapbox, full of timely, sound analysis.
The Hauser Report:
useful links and cogent opinion on law, politics, and baseball.
Ignatz:
great resource on labor law, law in general, and politics.
Into the Breach:
excellent weblog on politics, science, and religion.
The Joe Kenehan Center:
super stuff on labor and American politics.
Madelaine Kane:
serious politics and highbrow humor.
Dan Kennedy:
straightforward and accurate takes on the media and politics.
Liberal Oasis:
daily of politics, plus a ton of good links and a humor column! Like us, only better and more frequent.
Limited, Inc.:
discursive and intriguing essays on politics and whatnot.
MaxSpeak:
great weblog on economics and public policy, plus tons of links.
Media Views:
FAIR's links to current media criticism and media news.
Media Whores Online:
no-holds-barred analysis of the American media.
Mikhaela's News Blog:
a doubly good political dose of writing and cartoons.
MyDD:
truly indispensible site with heaps of data on American elections.
Nathan Newman:
informative and reflective weblog on technology, law, and public policy.
New Pages Weblog:
weblog on books, music, and the media and the forces that shape them.
Noosphere Blues:
especially good on culture and literature, plus analysis of media and politics.
The Online Gadfly:
incisive essays on environmental ethics and public policy.
Orcinus:
more historical and cultural insight than most webloggers dream of.
PLA:
insight, pith, and ire on Politics, Law, and Autism.
Political State Report:
in-depth and timely analysis of politics from every state.
Polygon, the Dancing Bear:
level-headed analysis of civics, history, and Michigan politics.
John Quiggin:
useful and learned weblog on economics and politics in Australia and abroad.
The Rittenhouse Review:
where to go for insight, pith, good taste, plus more links than a suit of chain mail.
The Road To Surfdom:
a super weblog on American and Australian politics and culture, and it looks great, too.
Robot Wisdom:
sure-fire source for great links (and pithy descriptions thereof) to all sorts of interesting news and opinions.
Ruminate This:
lots of insight on politics and political activism.
Seeing the Forest:
looks at the issues, not just the horse races, in American politics.
The Sideshow:
American politics (and other topics) as seen from Britain.
skippy the bush kangaroo:
skippy eschews capitalization, but always has something smart and original.
Smirking Chimp:
10-15 daily articles from around the world about the president per curiam.
Stand Down:
cross-ideological weblog against an impending war with Iraq.
Summary Opinions:
good source for links to liberal opinions from the current press.
Talking Points Memo:
a Washington insider tells it like it is.
Talk Left:
a huge amount of information on American politics and criminal justice.
Tapped:
acronymic weblog of The American Prospect.
TBogg:
prolific and often hilarious weblog on American politics and pundits.
Thinking It Through:
pithy observations on politics in Missouri and the United States.
This Modern World:
informative weblog of editorial cartoonist Tom Tomorrow.
Through the Looking Glass:
Charles Dodgson's view of absurdities in politics and in life.
TomDispatch:
an in-depth view of foreign affairs, with an eye to new perspectives.
Two Tears in a Bucket:
timely and informed writing on politics, in California and in general.
Utne Webwatch:
the Utne Reader's own weblog.
Immanuel Wallerstein:
twice-monthly commentaries on current events from a world-systems perspective.
The War in Context:
left-leaning look at the "war on terrorism" and the Middle East.