IPS Blog

This week, OtherWords is running three commentaries and a cartoon regarding the growing number of genetically modified foods that land on our plate whether we realize it or not.

In her debut guest column, Jill Richardson challenges big food companies to boast about their penchant for these modified crops if they're so wonderful. Wenonah Hauter introduces readers to the latest newfangled food making a stir: an apple that doesn't brown when it's sliced long before it's eaten. Jim Hightower discusses the ruse maintained by General Mills, Kellogg, and other huge food companies that have bought out tiny organic outfits and tried to not let consumers know.

Any of these commentaries could accompany Khalil Bendib's Snow White cartoon, which depicts a witch handing her a new kind of poisoned apple. And all three address California's upcoming referendum on a new state rule that would require the labeling of genetically modified food. Known as Proposition 37, this requirement would have national ramifications for the industry because of California's huge market.

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1. Consumer Choice: As American as Apple Pie / Wenonah Hauter
   The creation of a new genetically modified apple highlights once again the need for clear labeling of this kind of food.
2. Iran in the Campaign's Crosshairs / Chris Toensing
   Mitt Romney is playing the same cynical game as Benjamin Netanyahu.
3. The Problem with Craig Romney and his Padre / Jason Salzman
   Mitt's Latino "ambassador" may speak Spanish, but he can't talk about real policies.
4. The Corporate Court's War on Women / Martha Burk
   So far, not so good.
5. Apparently, Suite Crime Does Pay / Sam Pizzigati
   The executives responsible for the financial industry's pervasive fraud are paying no personal price.
6. Big Food Fight / Jill Richardson
   If the products they sell us are as great as they say, what are General Mills, Kraft, and other processed food behemoths hiding?
7. Big Food Behemoths Embarrass their Organic Offshoots / Jim Hightower
   Big Food's mobilization against California's right-to-know law is making more green-minded consumers aware of the companies that own their favorite brands.
8. Just Don't Let the Other Side Vote / William A. Collins
   Texas won't accept your student ID for voting, but your gun permit will do just fine.
9. Poisoned Apple, 2012 / Khalil Bendib (Cartoon)

This week, OtherWords is running an op-ed by Raul A. Reyes that sums up Mitt Romney's lackluster efforts to win over Latino voters and a commentary by Dashka Slater about the disappearance of the kinds of jobs that traditionally provided low-income Americans with economic mobility.

Next week, we'll start distributiing our commentaries and cartoons on Wednesdays. Please don't be alarmed if you don't see our latest offerings appear on Monday Oct. 1. They will appear at OtherWords.org on Wednesday, Oct. 3.

Also that day, the Institute for Policy Studies will release the first congressional report card that grades lawmakers on what they’ve done to narrow our country’s economic divide. The report card will identify the members of Congress most friendly toward the “1 percent” and the “99 percent,” based on their positions on 40 legislative actions. It will also provide grade-point averages for each state’s congressional delegation. 

We'll send out a link to this report in the Oct. 3 OtherWords newsletter. News outlets seeking advance information should contact Lacy MacAuley, the IPS media manager, at lacy@ips-dc.org

As always, I encourage you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and visit our blog. If you haven't signed up yet, please do. 

1. The Islamophobe Fringe / John FefferThe deeper reason for the heated response from the Muslim world is not so much Western rhetoric but Western policy.
2. Romney's Losing Bid to Win the Latino Vote / Raul A. Reyes
   Romney needs to up his game -- pronto.
3. Armed with Irony / Ryan Alexander
   If lawmakers really want to stop blank checks for spending binges, they should start with the Pentagon
4. A Vanishing Act for Good Jobs / Dashka Slater
   For those on the economic ladder's lowest rungs, the middle rungs have almost completely disappeared.
5. The 'Self-Made' Hallucination of America's Rich / Sam Pizzigati
   Like Mitt Romney, most Americans who amass grand fortunes have a substantial head start.
6. A Memo to Mitt and Ann / Katie Halper
   Pretend that you like people.
7. The Price of Admission / Jim Hightower
   Across our country, women are walking away from Regal Cinema's pretentious abrogation of our Fourth Amendment rights.
8. Just Don't Say Climate Change / William A. Collins and Emily Schwartz Greco
   Global warming can't be legislated away.
9. Vote for This Clown / Khalil Bendib (Cartoon)

This week, OtherWords is running Katie Halper's second guest column. Her latest commentary unpacks Rep. Joe Walsh's "greatest hits." We're also featuring an op-ed by Peter Hart about how the important issue of poverty just isn't getting enough campaign coverage.

As always, I encourage you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and visit our blog. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. Baseball Escapism / Saul Landau
   It's a big business, like all professional sports, that uses good old American values to lure customers.
2. The Latest Battle in the War on Voting / Marge Baker
   The kind of big government the Right likes is the kind that keeps certain people from voting.
3. Poor Visibility / Peter Hart
   The mainstream media needs to step up its reporting on poverty as a campaign issue.
4. Disabled on the Job, Fired without Severance or Benefits / Jess Hunter-Bowman
   A GM subsidiary is providing an unlikely test for the U.S.-Colombia trade deal's labor provisions.
5. Chicago and the Psychology of Teacher Bashing / Sam Pizzigati
   In a deeply unequal society, the affluent will always sneer at public services and the men and women who provide them.
6. Joe Walsh's Greatest Hits / Katie Halper
   It's not easy to disrespect the disabled and the military in the same breath.
7. Ryan Runs Into the Truth / Jim Hightower
   Whether you run a marathon or run for office, facts and integrity matter.
8. Cigarettes: The Killer that Won't Die / William A. Collins
   Taxes trump cancer every time.
9. Second-Hand Smoke / Khalil Bendib cartoon

This week, OtherWords is running a debut column by Katie Halper, our new guest columnist. Katie, a young writer who is also a stand-up comedian, has shared an “unedited” (that is, a painfully honest and entertaining) draft of Ann Romney’s speech with our readers.

Thanks to all the newspaper editors who are now running Sam Pizzigati’s column — this week he unpacks the shortcomings of the growing business of teaching K-12 public school kids online through for-profit enterprises. As always, I encourage you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and visit our blog. If you haven't signed up yet, please do.

1. A Glimmer of Military Budget Sanity / Miriam Pemberton and Gabriel I. Rossman
   Even House Republicans can't stomach spending $17,000 on a helicopter drip pan.
2. Illegal Interns / Eric Glatt
   Unpaid internships have metastasized into a labor market scourge.
3. We Won the War on Poverty, then Lost the Peace / Salvatore Babones
   If America could eliminate most serious poverty in the United States in the 1960s, surely we could do the same today.
4. The Drought Lottery / Ryan Alexander
   Our lawmakers should spend the next month figuring out how to reduce our $16 trillion debt instead of showering special interests with even more wasteful subsidies that have nothing to do with the drought.
5. Virtually, Anything Goes with Online Education / Sam Pizzigati
   State officials are allowing tax dollars to underwrite K-12 virtual disasters.
6. Ann Romney's Unedited Convention Speech Leaked / Katie Halper
   Sometimes the elevator for our cars takes an inordinate amount of time.
7. Radioactive Ties / Jim Hightower
   Whether corporate political money shouts or whispers, it still corrupts.
8. Just Another Corporate Profit Center / William A. Collins
   Americans who want to know what caused Haiti's devastation need to look in the mirror.
9. Military Pork Shield / Khalil Bendib (Cartoon)

1. The Six Stages of Climate Grief / Daphne Wysham
   I have discovered a new sixth stage, beyond acceptance of the truly depressing climate science: doing The Work.
2. AT&T's Upside-Down World / Craig Aaron
   If we had actual competition for mobile phone services in America, AT&T's decision to charge you more for less would never fly.
3. Indefensible: The Truth about Pentagon Spending / Suzie Dershowitz
   A mountain of misleading rhetoric from big Pentagon contractors has buried the facts.
4. Losing Latino Votes / Raul A. Reyes
   The more we know about Ryan, the more obvious it becomes that he and Romney aren't a winning combination for America.
5. Who's Really Winning the Smartphone Wars? / Sam Pizzigati
   We're letting top executives of giant corporations expropriate public "property" for private gain.
6. The Koch Brothers' Moonshine / Jim Hightower
   The paper industry's titans have teamed up with practitioners of the legislative black arts to turn their sludge into a slick tax loophole.
7. Sorry, You Can't Get There From Here / William A. Collins
   The United States has invested big time in roads, but not rails.
8. Ryan at the Trough / Khalil Bendib (cartoon)