Blog Archive: April, 2012

Not kidding, read it for yourself: New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism, more »

More »»

In one sense, Sunday's New York Times story on how Apple avoids paying U.S. taxes is not a surprise. more »

More »»

President Obama spoke today at the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department Legislative Conference in Washington, asking Republicans to stop blocking infrastructure and transportation projects. more »

More »»

Depending on your point of view, the results on austerity are in. The roll call European countries with shrunken economies, mired in recession, is identical to the list of European countries yoked to austerity economics — Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Greece (of course), and now the UK. Those countries are experiencing varying degrees of public reaction against austerity policies. In Prague, Czechs staged the biggest demonstrations their country has seen since the fall of communism, in protest of the austerity measures and corruption in Czech Republic's center-right government. In France, president Sarkozy now faces a runoff, after elections that were a reaction against austerity. In the Netherlands, the prime minister resigned after EU austerity demands caused the government to collapse. In Romania, the government has collapsed in a no-confidence vote after violent protests against austerity toppled its prime minister in February.

Does the latest wave of uprisings finally sound the death knell for austerity? Not if austerians stay the course, and don't get spooked by protests in the streets and at the ballot box. If their protests have no impact, and austerity happened anyway, people will go home. They'll forget about solidarity, worry more about survival, and arrive at the next phase of austerity's impact on their lives.

More »»

Finally, someone's giving NJ governor Chris Christie (whom fellow blogger Richard Eskow rightly dubbed, "The Heartless, Smug, Bullying Embodiment Of The Republican Party") as good as he dishes out. At the Daily Beast, author Stephen King has posted a response to Christie's suggestion that Warren Buffett should just "shut up and right a check."  A top-selling horror writer, King isn't the least bit scared of Christie's bombast. It's one of the best things I've read today, and not to be missed.

What groups like the Patriotic Millionaires and candidates like Elizabeth Warren have said with more civility and eloquence, King puts in language even Christie can understand.

More »»

• MORNING MESSAGE: Higher "Productivity" Is Not The American Dream
• Austerity Destroying Youth
• No Growth Plan From GOP
• Obama "Green Team" Steps Up
• Breakfast Sides

More »»

Bits and bytes would be doing a lot more to help make our lives less nasty, brutish, and short if we shared wealth as routinely as bandwidth. From San Francisco, a new lesson in that reality.

more »

More »»

Today's false equivalence award goes to Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein for their Washington Post op-ed titled, Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem. more »

More »»

Two Occupy movement volunteers, a Chicago community organizer, an Atlanta health care activist and a crusader against "prison-based gerrymandering" have been nominated for the annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award, which honors an unsung progressive hero. more »

More »»

People who follow politics often reach the conclusion that average Americans are kind of dopey and don't really understand what's going on. After all, they often hold contradictory views and vote against their self-interest.

But sometimes there's just no denying that being outside the political bubble has its advantages: they see through the bullshit.

More »»