by Leo Gerard | Jun 30, 2015 | Blog, Health
The Supreme Court last week ensured that millions of Americans retained their health insurance. Those who kept their coverage sighed with relief. Democrats cheered. Republicans reacted with vitriol and recrimination. Even the GOP dissenters on the Supreme Court...
by Bill Scher | Jun 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
Obama To Give Workers A Raise President Obama announces expanded overtime pay on HuffPost: "... we've failed to update overtime regulations for years -- and an exemption meant for highly paid, white collar employees now leaves out workers making as little as $23,660 a...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 30, 2015 | Blog, Tax Reform
Watch out for this one. With fast track trade authority done, the big corporations are now pushing for massive tax giveaways. This is another exercise of raw corporate power by the few to take what they want from the many. The corporations use complexity to get people...
by Robert Reich | Jun 29, 2015 | Current Issues, Economy, Progressive Vision
Almost lost by the wave of responses to the Supreme Court’s decisions last week upholding the Affordable Care Act and allowing gays and lesbians to marry was the significance of the Court’s third decision – on housing discrimination. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court found...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jun 29, 2015 | Blog
Beth Hughes of Tippecanoe County, Ind., is raising three kids with a fourth on the way. She works part time, and her husband is attending graduate school at Purdue while working as a research assistant. Their total annual income clocks in at $19,200 and they depend on...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 29, 2015 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
There was much rejoicing among proponents of equality and fairness on Friday, when the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality in all 50 states. Among fans of discrimination and inequality, there was despair. After more than a century of defending marriage as a...
by Bill Scher | Jun 29, 2015 | Uncategorized
Greece Braces For Bailout's End Greece shuts its banks until after July 5 referendum. Bloomberg: "The bank controls followed a weekend of turmoil that started with Tsipras’s shock announcement late Friday of a July 5 referendum on austerity ... While Tsipras and his...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 29, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Fast track trade authority passed last week. So many of us fought so hard but The Money won again - this time. What do we do now? We take this awareness and energy into the fight against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). And then, win or lose, we build a fair trade...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 26, 2015 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
It’s been a rough week for right wingers. First, the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare. The next day, it legalized gay marriage across the country. Nothing enrages wingnuts like the “wrong” people enjoying health and happiness. Everyone knew it was coming. Everyone knew...
by Richard Long | Jun 26, 2015 | Democracy, Populist Majority
It took a while, but law finally caught up to public opinion. In this morning’s historic ruling on same-sex marriage, the Supreme Court came around to an idea that the public had been supportive of for years. Marriage equality is now the law of the land, and despite...
by Jacob Woocher | Jun 26, 2015 | Democracy
On the two-year anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that effectively nullified a major part of the Voting Rights Act, hundreds of local and national activists attended a rally in the Roanoke, Va. district of Rep. Bob Goodlatte to demand he take action. The...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 26, 2015 | Blog, Jobs and Growth
Washington is caught in a going-round-in-circles argument about how to "pay for" a surface transportation bill. Various proposals are in the air. Cutting other things to "pay for" this. Raising the gas tax. Telling corporations to bring back the profits they have...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 26, 2015 | Democracy, Progressive Vision
The Washington Post Members of the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington, wearing blue T-shirts emblazoned with the name of a popular gay sports bar in Washington, were on a strategic street corner singing "The Impossible Dream," the Supreme Court to their front and the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 26, 2015 | Uncategorized
Hillary Hears Bernie Footsteps WMUR/CNN poll has Bernie Sanders 8 points behind Hillary Clinton in NH: "UNH political science professor Andrew Smith [said,] 'Historically, New Hampshire has had about 40 percent of the Democratic voters be progressive voters' ... with...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 25, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, Health, This Is The GOP
Now that the Supreme Court has one again upheld the Affordable Care Act, it’s time for Republican governors to stop denying coverage to millions and expand their Medicaid programs. The Supreme Court’s 6–3 decision upholding federal subsidies in the Affordable Care Act...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 25, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
CNBC, the business porn channel for one-percenters, released the results of its latest ratings of "top states for business" and, to its barely disguised surprise, it was not Texas, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Florida, or any of the other states where Republican governors...
by Sarah Anderson | Jun 25, 2015 | Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
I tried to stay emotionally distanced from this one. It didn’t work. When the White House and Republican leaders got the votes they needed in the Senate to advance “fast track” Trade Promotion Authority on Tuesday, June 23, it was crushing. All observers agree that...
by Jeff Bryant | Jun 25, 2015 | Blog, Education
As the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, you can count on seeing a lot of glowing stories about the great education progress made in New Orleans since a natural disaster killed nearly 2,000 people, emptied a beloved city, and gave public school...
by Bill Scher | Jun 25, 2015 | Uncategorized
Justice After Charleston North Carolina "Moral Mondays" leader Rev. William Barber calls for "Justice After Charleston" in The Nation: "If America is serious about this moment, we cannot just cry ceremonial tears while at the same time refusing to support the martyred...
by Bill Scher | Jun 25, 2015 | Blog, Climate
Republicans, who have complained for years that the Left wants to drum religious voices out of the "public square," suddenly want the Pope to stick to Sunday mass. "I think religion ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 24, 2015 | Conservatism, Election 2016, Reviving Strong Unions
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is finally running for the GOP 2016 presidential nomination. Jindal was a rising star in the Republican party, when he passed on the chance to run in 2012. Now, he’s entering the 2016 race at the bottom of the ever-growing pile of GOP...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 24, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
Members of the Senate Environment and Public Works committee congratulated themselves today on their ability to send to the Senate floor a six-year surface transportation bill, but the rest of us should hold our applause. It is indeed noteworthy that a bipartisan bill...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jun 24, 2015 | Blog
Sen. Bernie Sanders has taken some heat as a presidential candidate for seeming to not be a strong progressive ally on immigration reform. Last week, Sanders moved to clear the air. Sanders (I-Vt.) pledged his support for comprehensive immigration reform this past...
by Bill Scher | Jun 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
Fast Track Filibuster Fails Cloture vote sets up final fast track passage in Senate today. The Hill: "Thirteen Democrats backed fast-track in Tuesday’s vote, handing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a major legislative victory. [Past supporter] Sen. Ben...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 24, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Fast track passes. Our Congress - the supposed representatives of We the People - voted to cut themselves and us out of the process of deciding what "the rules" for doing business "in the 21st Century" will be. How do the plutocrats and oligarchs and their giant...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 23, 2015 | Blog, Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Days after 21-year-old Dylann Roof shot and killed nine people during a Bible study at Charleston, South Carolina’s historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the discovery of his online manifesto shed more light on his motives. It also reveals the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 23, 2015 | Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
A majority in the Senate today took sides against working families and with Wall Street and the multinationals, voting 60-37 to grant the executive branch fast-track trade promotion authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership and future trade deals. "This is a day of...
by Bill Scher | Jun 23, 2015 | Uncategorized
Tight Vote Today On Fast Track Sen. Ted Cruz threatens "no" vote on fast track in Breitbart oped: "I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired. And, Congress must also pass the...
by Joshua Ferrer | Jun 23, 2015 | Blog, Democracy
The state of North Carolina is finally about to face a federal judge over its passage of what has been deemed the harshest voter suppression law in the nation – one of nearly 30 voter suppression laws passed since the Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act in...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 23, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
In a close vote last week, a majority in the U.S. House chose to continue glomming onto the same tired old broken-down trade tactics that have closed American factories, cost American jobs and caused massive trade deficits. The majority voted to sustain for the next...
by Bill Scher | Jun 22, 2015 | Blog
Eight years ago, when Campaign for America's Future and Media Matters for America issued the report "Progressive Majority: Why a Conservative America Is a Myth," George W. Bush was still president, Barack Obama was trailing by 15 points in the Democratic primary and...
by Bernie Horn | Jun 22, 2015 | Blog, Democracy
We’ve had this discussion before. Over recent years, state and local governments have gradually recognized that flying the Confederate battle flag is offensive and inappropriate. For example, Florida took down that flag in 2001, and even South Carolina took a partial...
by Bill Scher | Jun 22, 2015 | Uncategorized
Fast Track Vote Looms Fast track cloture vote "as early as Tuesday" reports The Hill: " ... the Senate would also take up Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) ... as part of a [separate] trade preferences bill ... McConnell sought to reassure Democrats that TAA could...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 22, 2015 | Blog, Democracy, Progressive Vision
The doors of “Mother Emanuel” – the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C. that was savaged by the act of racial terrorism that killed nine of its members, including the head pastor – opened for regular services on Sunday. Blacks and whites, members and visitors...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 22, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Wait, back up: the Senate is voting Tuesday to agree to limit debate and not to amend a "trade" deal that we haven't even seen yet – no matter what is in it? What? It's called "fast track" and the vote will in essence preapprove the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a...
by Jacob Woocher | Jun 19, 2015 | Jobs and Growth
The minor blow that Uber was dealt earlier this week by the California Labor Commission could ultimately be a very big deal for those working in the modern “sharing economy.” At issue is whether Barbara Ann Berwick, a former Uber driver, should be classified as an...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 19, 2015 | Conservatism, This Is The GOP
Even as the rest of the country reeled from the horror of the shooting that killed nine at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, the right-wing began its shameful spin of what can only be called an act of terror. Those familiar with the long history...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 19, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Candidate Hillary Clinton has spoken up about the fast track trade promotion authority (TPA) that is currently headed for a Senate vote as early as Tuesday. After the first fast track vote failed in the House last week, Clinton said Obama should work with Democrats to...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2015 | Uncategorized
Fast Track Bill Back To Senate House clears stand-alone fast track bill, heads back to Senate. Politico: "The vote was 218-208. Backing the bill were 190 Republicans and 28 Democrats ... Separating the workers aid package from the trade promotion bill is a gamble...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 19, 2015 | Blog, Trade, Trans-Pacific Partnership
Now that the House passed a stand-alone fast track trade promotion authority bill Thursday, the action shifts to the Senate and a likely Tuesday rush vote. Fast track in essence preapproves the still-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and future...
