Laura Flanders

In selecting Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain is dusting off an old GOP tool: the estrogen guard. Slap a friendly, female face on a hard core-conservative political platform, and pray to the heavens that he pundits and the public will only talk about gender. It worked for George W.

Remember 1972? It's happening all over again. From the national security state in St. Paul to the Gulf Coast, our government is acting shamefully.

In May, Live From Main Street had its first town hall in Minneapolis and spent a good deal of time talking about civil liberties issues in the lead up to and during the RNC. One of the special guests was Bruce Nestor of the National Lawyers Guild who has been all over the media in the last few days in the wake of police raids.

Not to rain on anyone's Obama parade, but today's conversation on GRITtv is sobering. From Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith and Baratunde Thurston we hear how hard it is to reverse a message once it has been rolled out. From our "colorblindness" panel we hear how reluctant the Obama campaign has been thus far to consciously head off the racist onslaught that's doubtless coming.

It's no surprise that the American electorate is concerned foremost with dollars and cents. Never before on record has poverty been higher and median income lower for working-age people in the US at the end of a multi-year growth. It's a scam of gargantuan proportions: work hard, enhance productivity and grow the country but don't share in the bounty.

There was caution as well as exuberance at the Democratic Convention Monday night. The Pepsi center was filled to way over capacity. The first shout I heard once I reached the floor was the Fire Marshalls telling the stewards to close the doors.The crowd rose to its feet as one after Mass Sen.

Events at the Big Tent in Denver kick off with a live, town hall forum all about change. With Van Jones, Jim Hightower, Donna Edwards, Faye Wattleton, David Barsamian, David Sirota, and Polly Baca .. Wish you could be there? You can: The live stream was here, courtesy of The Media Consortium and GRITtv. Watch the edited version of the show here Monday night on GRITtv.

"How can we possibly tell millions of Americans who registered to vote, who came to the polls in record numbers... to simply get over it and move on?" The moment is captured on Michael Moore's film Farenheit 911. Where there was no one willing to object in 2000, in 2004 there was Ms. Jones. We'll miss her.

What about the forthcoming flood, the one engulfing the entire nation-- the economic demise that is already up to our knees and rising rapidly? The evidence is plain.Food and fuel costs are galloping ahead, as is health care… and wages are not keeping up, not even close. Eighty percent of the American workforce earned 3% less in July than they had a year earlier.

As practiced by the United States, Free Markets aren’t so free. They tend to require a lot of force. At that, this country excels. From silencing word of the 1791 slave revolt in Haiti so enslaved people here wouldn’t find out about it to backing cold war coups in Guatemala, Iran and Chile ,..When it comes to keeping economies set up the way corporation like it, It takes more