Sanders: Time to Take a Hard Look At Private Contracting in the Military

Senator Bernie Sanders said today it is time to rethink the privatization of the United States military. In Iraq alone, there are roughly 180,000 private contractors working for American government agencies, including about 30,000 heavily-armed guards. The most notorious contractor, Blackwater USA, has been embroiled in controversy over the deaths last month of 17 Iraqis. A State Department contract with

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The Income Gap

The richest 1 percent of Americans earned more than 21 percent of all U.S. income in 2005, according to Internal Revenue Service data. That is a big increase from 2004, when the top 1 percent earned 19 percent of the nation’s income. What’s more, the gap between America’s rich and poor is wider than at any time since the Roaring Twenties. “The time is long overdue,” Senator Bernie Sanders said, “for members of Congress to look beyond the needs of their wealthy campaign contributors and begin add

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Global Warming Principles

As a key Senate committee prepares to take up legislation to reverse global warming, Senators Bernie Sanders and Frank Lautenberg set down a set of principles that will guide their consideration of legislation. Sanders and Lautenberg both serve on a subcommittee that will consider legislation expected to be formally introduced on Thursday by Senator Joseph Lieberman, the subcommittee chairman, and Senator John Warner, the panel’s ranking Republican. “We need to work together to address the most

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Green Jobs

“As we move away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and renewable energy, we can create millions of good paying jobs that will help us create a stronger economy,” Senator Bernie Sanders recently predicted at a hearing that he chaired on green jobs. Now, Newsweek magazine has weighed in with its own take on what’s happening at the crosscurrents of our economy and our ecosystem. “With oil prices near record highs and more companies concerned about their carbon footprints, workers are f

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Unhappy Anniversary

House Joint Resolution 114 passed the House on October 10, 2002 by a vote of 296-to-133. It passed the Senate on October 11 by a vote of 77-to-23. It was signed into law by President Bush on October 16, 2002. The resolution required the president to employ diplomatic efforts at the United Nations Security Council to “obtain prompt and decisive action by the Security Council to ensure that Iraq abandons its strategy of delay, evasion, and noncompliance and promptly and strictly complies with all

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