Jim Hightower

It's hard to believe President George Bush gave a speech in New Orleans about disaster recovery and failed to mention the word 'farm' or the word 'rural.'

Well, I've been in the political arena all of my life, and 10 years of that as a candidate and elected official, and that's about enough.

There's enormous progressive activism and, more often than not, success at the grassroots level - everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

The corporations don't have to lobby the government anymore. They are the government.

The issue isn't just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.

Do something. If it doesn't work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.

Populism is not a style, it's a people's rebellion against the iron grip that big corporations have on our country - including our economy, government, media, and environment.