Archive
"Can't Survive On $7.25!"
The minimum wage has not been raised in forever – more and more people are falling behind. A few are getting fabulously wealthy from this arrangement. The Progressive Caucus held a Netroots Nation event today to launch the kickoff of their “Raise Up America” Campaign....
The United States of ALEC: Privatizing America One Statehouse At A Time
A national consortium of state politicians and powerful corporations, ALEC — the American Legislative Exchange Council — presents itself as a “nonpartisan public-private partnership”. But behind that mantra lies a vast network of corporate lobbying and political...
Attracting the Best and Brightest to Teaching
Quick: List the most important jobs in America. Odds are “teacher” made that list. According to a Harris Interactive Poll, teachers ranked among the five most prestigious jobs in America. That is why Lee Iacocca, former president and CEO of Chrysler said, “In a...
How Conservatives LIke E.W. Jackson Damage Black Families
Republicans have a long and peculiar relationship with America's "peculiar institution." White conservatives can't stop talking about it. One minute they declare that African-Americans should "get over slavery," The next minute, they suggest that Blacks should be...
10 Years Later: The Howard Dean Legacy
I've commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the formal beginning of the Howard Dean presidential campaign with an article at The Week, "4 ways Howard Dean changed American politics." Dean helped make liberalism respectable again, strip the bark off the Republican...
“BS. It’s What’s For Dinner”: Conservatives & Cattlemen Coddle Rich Kids, Stiff Seniors
I always liked those scenes in old Westerns where the ranchers get together to face a common threat to their livelihood, usually some greedy family dynasty that's scheming with a big bank, railroad, or mining operation. The scene always starts the same way: “Boys,...
A Declaration To Reset The Education Debate
You may have seen stories about the poor quality of Washington, D.C.’s public schools. You probably have also heard about how Michelle Rhee was brought from near-obscurity to take over the city’s schools, overnight becoming a national symbol of dramatic education...
Can Your Boss Really Do That?
Can your boss do that? Really? What can you do about it? Can your boss deny you vacation time? Can your boss cut your pay? Can your boss fire you for calling in sick? Can your boss make you work in a dangerous area? Can your boss make you stand all day? Can your boss...
Work That Needs Doing: Fixing Our Aging Bridges
Every day, Americans take more than 260 million trips over structurally deficient bridges to visit friends and family, pick up their children from school, and go to work, according to a new report by Transportation for America. And that aspect of America’s crumbling...
AFSCME's Lee Saunders on Why Unions Are Needed Now More Than Ever
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees president Lee A. Saunders took to the pages of The Huffington Post this week to call conservatives out on the "class war" they are waging against workers and to assert that unions are "the first and last...
