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Progressive Breakfast
MORNING MESSAGE: Deficit Rorschach Test: The Presidents, the Editors, and the Truth
OurFuture.Org's Richard Eskow: "Both political parties have 'an aversion to telling the truth,' says the Washington Post. The truth?
The Party Platforms: What In God's Name?
It's always amusing when God (if — and I know I risk losing a huge chunk of readers by writing this — there is one) gets dragged into politics. After all, with an entire universe to run (unless you're a Deist of the Thomas Jefferson variety), you have to admit it's kind of funny when mere mortals assume that She (or He, if you prefer) has nothing more pressing to do that take sides in everything from our presidential elections to city council meetings. Our knack for turning the sublime into the ridiculous may not match turning water into wine, but it's good for a laugh if it's good for anything.
This past week's sublime ridiculousness comes via politicos who had copies of the Democratic and Republican platforms, and enough skill to use basic search functions to determine which party gave God the most shout-outs in its platform. The almost funny part is that if God took the time to read at least one of those platforms, the most She (or He, if you prefer) would likely say is, "At least you spelled my name right."
The GOP "I Told You So"
Mark Halperin chronicles the many woes of the Romney campaign in the wake of their epic Meh Convention. It's not pretty. If this is the conventional wisdom, they've got to be getting pretty desperate.
But Halperin shares a little inside knowledge from earlier in the campaign that's rather interesting:
Obama, Yes. And Win the House Too.
President Obama is enjoying a post-convention bump in job approval (Gallup says 7 percentage points – from 45 to 52 percent) after the negative and divisive Republican convention, followed by the energetic populism of the Democrats in Charlotte.
Austerity Suicide -- Literally
You might be hearing about the "Fiscal Cliff." And you might be hearing about a "Grand Bargain." You certainly have heard about "Simpson Bowles." You will be hearing more and more about these strangely-named things because the usual suspects are cranking
Progressive Breakfast
MORNING MESSAGE: Obama, Yes.
Progressive Breakfast
MORNING MESSAGE: Obama, Yes.
Online Education's Lucrative Bottom Line
Corporate execs and billionaire ideologues are creating — at taxpayer expense — a network of schools where learning takes a back seat.
Cap'n Mitt and the Pirates of Cracker Bay
Ever since humans first took to the sea, pirates have inexplicably vanished and reappeared along our coasts and waterways. Who were those mysterious figures who appeared along the mist-shrouded docks and beaches of Tampa Bay during last week's Republican Convention? While all eyes were on the Democrats, we decided to find out.
Parsing The Grand Bargain Promises
There are many fine passages in Obama's speech tonight, of course. I would expect nothing less. He's great at this stuff and I'm sure he fired up the base and brought over some undecideds too.
But you had to know that I was going to look at what he said about deficits. Here's the main passage. It's very interesting. He promised not to cut the safety net in return for tax cuts:
