During the height of last summer's firefight over health care reform, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal sensibly pointing out what he felt were policy flaws in the current incarnation of the bill. The reaction from his more liberal customers was swift and well publicized — they began a boycott of Whole Foods. But perhaps more ironic than the store's most loyal customers turning on the company was how quickly a counter boycott (or "buycott") was organized. Tea Partiers and formerly indifferent shoppers flooded stores in several Midwestern states, ... Read More
Oil Spill Fouls Up Climate Bill
May 13, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
The environmental movement has been pushed forward since its inception by catastrophes like the oil spill now spreading in the Gulf Mexico. The 1969 blowout off the coast of Santa Barbara helped spur the creation of the first Earth Day and, not long after, the Environmental Protection Agency. By the time the Exxon Valdez tanker started spewing oil in 1989 off the coast of Alaska, a grassroots movement had grown into a political force, some groups with Washington offices and lobbyists of their own. “They barely have to move, and the media are already describing this as an environmental ... Read More
Data Seizure at the Airport
May 12, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
Two years ago a freelance journalist named Bill Hogan returned home to Virginia from a trip to Germany and had his laptop seized at Dulles International Airport. U.S. Customs agents reportedly told him he'd been selected for a random investigation. The agents went through photos on his digital camera, he said, and impounded the computer for two weeks. He was especially angry because "they knew I was a reporter," he said at the time. "They did not seem to give a rat's patootie." One underreported aspect of border security in America since 9/11 is that U.S. Customs and Border Protection ... Read More
Waiting for the Train Wreck
May 11, 2010 • By • 2 Comments
Over the weekend, reliably conservative three-term Sen. Bob Bennett pretty much lost his job. Delegates to the nominating convention before Utah's Republican primary decided Bennett, after 18 years in Washington, was no longer conservative enough to be their party's candidate this fall. His transgression? He voted in 2008 for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the bank bailout that garnered 74 votes in the Senate (including that of GOP leader Mitch McConnell), as well as the support of numerous economists. And he attempted at one point last summer to work with Democrat Ron Wyden on a health ... Read More