Ever seen the fourth season of Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper?

It’s long been understood among the traveling public that Mexico is problematic. Police corruption and endemic kidnapping long were reasons to stay away from sites that were off the beaten path. Now, with the gang warfare that plagues our southern border, those trying to make a living by farming also are leaving.

So it’s pretty clear that Obama’s political strategy is to antagonize the Democratic base in order to appeal to the independents (who, I must point out, would never be as motivated to turn out as diehard Democrats would).

William Upski Wimsatt is one of those writers that one tends to either not know, or feel passionately about – there is little if any middle ground. If you’ve read Wimsatt’s cult classics No More Prisons and Bomb The Suburbs, then you already know why his work inspires so much feverish devotion, along with why his earlier, fearless examinations of race, power and politics were bound to instigate the occasional controversy. You also, if familiar with Wimsatt’s work, have made up your mind on reading through this salon. So rather than write to those folks already in the know, I’m going to provide a quick introduction to Please Don’t Bomb The Suburbs as a standalone work, distinct from his previous efforts, that has something to say of singular importance to progressives working in this historical moment.

The recent announcement by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay for further study its proposed emission standards for smog and toxic chemicals has been hailed by the Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufactures and condemned by both environmental and health advocates.

After Obama’s tax cuts for billionaires deal earned him a David Broder pat on the back, we get this truly virtuostic hackery from Dana Milbank.

The Democrats now officially are Republicans. Trickle-down stimulus. Useless government.

The forces of wealth and power will stop at nothing to protect themselves. Lessons from the Spanish Civil War, sad reminders in today’s America, and a lesson from Hemingway: we will have to fight.

For turn of the century Progressives, Populists and good government reformers, securing the right of direct democracy was often a top goal. Individuals such as Samuel Gompers, Robert La Follette, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Jennings Bryan all advocated for direct democracy through ballot initiatives and referendums. Because of efforts by Progressives, Populists, women’s suffrage advocates, Socialists, government reform advocates and organized labor, the right to direct democracy was secured in almost all Western states.

I don’t really know what’s surprising about a right-winger being suspicious of federal agents. It seems to me the Feds are who the right-wing feared all the time Bill Clinton was mapping the flight-paths of the black helicopters and Janet Reno was plotting ATF raids on red-state day care centers.