By Charles Hugh Smith December 25, 2009 The bail-out of Wall Street and the banking and mortgage industries is not monetary policy; it is a massive transfer of wealth from future taxpayers to the Financial Power Elite. The monetary-policy terminology of “quantitative easing” and “bail-out” is a masterstroke of propaganda, for it purposefully masks an [...]

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Filed under: Economy, Opinion, Politics

By Ralph E. Stone December 24, 2009 What happened to the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009? Did it fall through the cracks along with the public option? Because there is unlikely to be a public option in the forthcoming healthcare legislation, Congress must repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act antitrust exemption for the health [...]

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Filed under: Healthcare, Law, Opinion, Politics

Authors Geoffrey King (left) and Sunny Angulo, with City Attorney Dennis Herrera, pose for a picture during a release party event for their new book, Such a Bitter Sweet Day: Marriage Equality in the Wake of Prop 8. Photo by Luke Thomas By Luke Thomas December 21, 2009 Co-authors Geoffrey King and Sunny Angulo held [...]

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Filed under: Arts and Entertainment, Culture, Human Interest, Law, Politics

Houston Mayor-elect Annise Parker is the first openly gay activist to be elected mayor of a major US city. Photo courtesy AnniseParker.com By Larry Bush, guest columnist December 20, 2009 Somewhere in Houston, a few lucky people are pulling out of their closets a T-shirt that reads “Oddwads and Queers.” In 1979, that’s how one [...]

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Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Politics