Archive
Democracy vs Plutocracy Public Transportation
Here is a letter in a recent "Mr. Roadshow" column in the San Jose Mercury News. The letter illustrates the problems in plutocratic/libertarian thinking vs democracy. (Note: Caltrain is the commuter-rail line serving towns between San Francisco and San Jose.) Your...
Individual Mandate For Guns Not Unconstitutional Just Stupid
Conservative lawmakers in South Dakota think they've found a brilliant way to provide that the provision in the health reform law requiring most everyone to obtain insurance is unconstitutional. The Argus-Leader reports: Five South Dakota lawmakers have introduced...
The Reagan Ruins
The celebration of Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday doesn't come until early March, but the devotions have been going on for years. For conservatives, Reagan is the lodestar, the genial demigod to whom all must avow fealty. In a Time cover story, Michael Scherer and...
The Buffett Balanced-Trade Idea
I want to bring attention to a post today,Balance Trade—Make Jobs, by Bill Parks. In the post Parks writes about the harm being caused by our trade imbalances: The U.S. trade deficit—like an infected appendix—not only won’t get better on its own, it will get worse....
Reagans Trajectory
Greg Sargent highlights a post by Brendan Nyhan about the myth that Reagan turned the American people against government and adds: The key takeaway here is that public attitudes towards government are not fixed in stone, and if there's one thing that can get folks to...
Why Judges Matter
Republicans have obstructed the confirmation of unprecedented numbers of Obama judicial nominees. Vacancies have grown so bad that even Justice Roberts, the partisan Chief Justice, urged the Senate to act, since the undermanned courts were getting overwhelmed. But the...
Progressive Breakfast - 2/1/2011
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to affect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: Jobs, No. Narrow...
99 And Counting Where Are the Damn Jobs
While the rest of us as asking "Where are the damn jobs?", Republicans are apparently focused on everything else but jobs. Republicans won dozens of elections last fall after claiming Democrats had focused too little on creating jobs. Now GOP lawmakers stand...
The Founding Fathers Supported Socialized Medicine
Those pesky founding fathers. You'd think guys who so long ago shuffled off that old mortal coil would find it harder to surprise us. With them safely dead for so long, you'd think we could easily appropriate and their past and politics in support of our own, without...
The Chamber Wants Infrastructure Prove It
Last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a joint statement with the AFL-CIO supporting President Obama's call for increased public investment in infrastructure, which read: Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and...
