by Bill Scher | Sep 5, 2013 | Climate
In many ways President Obama's energy policies have been a huge success. Carbon emissions are down. Oil consumption is down. Renewable energy consumption is up. North America is projected to be effectively energy independent by 2020, and the United States by 2030....
by Jeff Bryant | Sep 5, 2013 | Education
There are undoubtedly wonderful charter schools in existence, and Americans generally have a favorable opinion of charters, but hardly a week goes by without news of a scandal or a study tarnishing their image. With schools reopening everywhere across the country, the...
by Bill Scher | Sep 5, 2013 | Uncategorized
Syria Resolution Clears Cmte, Faces Uncertain Congress McCain gets amendment supporting a "change the momentum on the battlefield in Syria." TPM: "McCain’s addition doesn’t quite say 'regime change' — and the White House has said that would not be the purpose of...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 5, 2013 | Economy, Making it in America, Minimum Wage
If you're like millions of Americans, Labor Day was an actual holiday. While you enjoyed a day off, Labor Day was just another workday for many of the low-wage workers who went on strike for livable wages in over 60 cities last week. According to a survey from...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 5, 2013 | Health
Of all of the things that conservatives have tried to do to undermine the Affordable Care Act – the countless repeal votes by House Republicans, the rumor-mongering about "death panels," trumpeting and inflating stories of businesses cutting employees and work hours...
by Stan Collender | Sep 4, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, This Is The GOP
It wasn't too long yesterday after House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced his support for the president's position on Syria that the blogosphere erupted with speculation that the White House had cut a deal. Boehner, it was said, had quickly signed on to U.S....
by Thom Hartmann | Sep 4, 2013 | Blog
My uncle, King Saunders Jr., was a newspaperman. He reported for several papers during his career, and from 1938 to the 1950s, he was the editor of the Motorwheel News, a weekly newspaper for one of the big auto plants in Lansing, Mich. Although the newspaper was paid...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 4, 2013 | Blog
For 12 years now they've been touting New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as a model for the politics of the future. Beltway pundits have pushed hard for his amalgam of economically conservative policies and social-issues liberalism. They seized on Bloomberg’s...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 4, 2013 | Making it in America
The July trade report is out. Exports are rising, but imports are rising even more. So our vast, humongous, enormous, out-of-control trade deficit continues its upward trajectory, sucking more jobs and money from our economy. Our deficit with China, of course, is the...
by Bill Scher | Sep 4, 2013 | Uncategorized
First Syria Vote May Be Today Senate Foreign Relations Cmte slated to vote today. Politico: "A new use-of-force resolution for Syria sets a 60-day deadline, with one 30-day extension possible, for President Barack Obama to launch military strikes against the regime of...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 4, 2013 | Shutdown
Congress returns next week and no doubt will provide fresh reasons for us to cry, "What fresh Hell is this?" They will take up Syria first, but then Republicans will try their damnedest to hold the continued operation of the government hostage over defunding...
by Mary Bottari | Sep 3, 2013 | Federal Reserve Chair, Financial Reform
The Washington Post's Ezra Klein reports that Larry Summers is the "overwhelming favorite" of the Obama team for the job as Federal Reserve chairman. To convince the American public that one of the chief architects of the 2008 financial crisis should be the chief...
by Joshua Holland | Sep 3, 2013 | Conservatism, Health, Shutdown
This summer’s heated battles over the implementation of “Obamacare” are a microcosm of a much larger and longstanding ideological clash over the role of the government in society. The hard-right is taking a scorched-earth approach, obstructing the law’s implementation...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 3, 2013 | Blog
Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to poach jobs from yet another state, offering businesses low taxes and wages. At the same time budget cuts are forcing Texas to convert paved roads to gravel and deep cuts to education continue. What does Texas' job-poaching do to...
by Digby | Sep 3, 2013 | Democracy
It has come to my attention that I haven't sufficiently praised the president for taking the wholly unexpected step of consulting congress on Syria. And I haven't. But I should. This piece by Walter Shapiro puts it into historical perspective and it really is a big...
by Leo Gerard | Sep 3, 2013 | Blog
America’s fortunate workers, those who had Labor Day off, spent the holiday resting and playing, rejoicing and picnicking. Much of that activity occurred in public parks across this nation, places that are community commons, purchased, developed and protected by...
by Bill Scher | Sep 3, 2013 | Uncategorized
Obama Faces Uphill Fight In Congress W. Post's Chris Cillizza and Sean Sullivan lay out Obama's political challenge: "...consider that roughly 40 percent of House Democrats voted against the use of force resolution against Iraq in 2002 ... [Obama] is playing for his...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 2, 2013 | Blog
Once again our nation is contemplating an act of war, entering into one of the most solemn debates a society can have. It's worth restating some fundamental principles as that debate begins, especially for those of us who support economic justice, progressive ideals...
by Sam Pizzigati | Sep 1, 2013 | Blog
Over the last 20 years, the annual lists of America’s highest-paid chief execs — our corporate ‘best and brightest’ — have included an amazingly high concentration of outright frauds and flops. On Wall Street, they’re giving Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer the bum’s rush....
by Dave Johnson | Aug 30, 2013 | Blog
Tea Party types say the "sequester" is just cutting "waste" out of the government - and government spending is a bad thing anyway. In Santa Clara County, California, 18,000 families face possible homelessness Sept. 1. That's just one county. There are 3,144 counties...
by Greg Kaufmann | Aug 30, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy, Minimum Wage
There is much to celebrate in marking the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, as Congressman John Lewis rightly noted on Wednesday. “Sometime I hear people saying nothing has changed,” said Representative Lewis, “but for someone to...
by Digby | Aug 30, 2013 | Conservatism, Democracy, Economy
This new Washington Post story about the intelligence services black budget (taken from documents provided by the inveterate narcissist, Edward Snowden) is a real blockbuster. It's going to take some time to fully digest what it means, but this is what jumped out at...
by Bill Scher | Aug 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
Grand Bargain Looks Dead Bipartisan deficit talks collapse after Republicans balk on taxes. NYT: "The meeting between senior White House aides, including Denis McDonough, the chief of staff, and eight senators ended with no date set for the next meeting and blunt talk...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 29, 2013 | Federal Reserve Chair, Financial Reform
It takes a special kind of magic to bring together groups as diverse as progressive Democrats, Californians, conservative Republicans, feminists, a number of prominent economists, and a large chunk of the global investment community. Lawrence Summers has that kind of...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 29, 2013 | Blog
Here are three words or phrases currently being used widely that back up Republican anti-government propaganda. And here are some ideas about what you might want to say instead. Gridlock I keep reading that Congress is suffering from “gridlock.” But if they were...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 29, 2013 | Economy, Minimum Wage, The Unfinished March
Update: This morning, I wrote that fast food workers were expected to walk off their jobs in 35 cities today. They've done way more than that. Fast food workers in 60 cities walked off the job today, in the biggest strike ever to hit the $200 billion dollar fast food...
by Bill Scher | Aug 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
Petition To Stop Summers Gains Steam Sign the the joint Campaign for America's Future-Daily Kos petition to stop Summers: "Over a hundred thousand people have already sent a message to the President rejecting his nomination." Women's groups rally behind Yellen....
by Robert Borosage | Aug 29, 2013 | Federal Reserve Chair, Financial Reform
A White House aide has now floated the word that Larry Summers is being “vetted” for nomination to head the Federal Reserve. Whatever the president’s preference, it is clear that the “boys club” that dominates administration economic policy is all in for Summers....
by Richard Eskow | Aug 28, 2013 | Blog
A new briefing paper from the Economic Policy Institute provides an overview of the income stagnation currently plaguing the vast majority of Americans. "A Decade of Flat Wages," by Lawrence Mishel and Heidi Shierholz, offers valuable background on one of the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 28, 2013 | Progressive Vision, The Unfinished March
This is what a missed opportunity looks like: When President Obama finished his speech at the Lincoln Memorial Wednesday afternoon at the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, the crowd that lined the Reflecting Pool applauded briefly,...
by Chris Shillig | Aug 28, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy
“Nobody got shot, eh?” he asked, explaining that stories about Mexico as a modern-day Wild West originate in towns just south of the U.S. border, about 27 hours away from the Caribbean beach where we stood. After all, he noted sadly, we had seen the people of the...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 28, 2013 | Blog
Here is one thing Congress could do that would create more jobs, boost the economy and reduce both the budget deficit and the trade deficit. This one thing would not only provide a big boost now, but would provide an ongoing boost from now on. Congress should modify...
by Stan Collender | Aug 28, 2013 | Conservatism, Economy
As I've said before, I'm calling the end of this year's debate two things: budget bedlam and "#cliffgate." No matter which name you use, it will begin when Congress returns to Washington next week. There will be only 9 legislative days before fiscal 2014 starts on...
by Bill Scher | Aug 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
Today, The March Honored Presidents Obama, Clinton and Carter to speak today for 50th anniversary of March on Washington beginning at 11:30 AM ET. Obama previews speech on Tom Joyner Show: "When it comes to the economy, when it comes to inequality, when it comes to...
by Jesse Jackson | Aug 28, 2013 | The Unfinished March
Today, on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “Dream” oration, President Barack Obama will speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, joined by former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Much of the press is...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 27, 2013 | The Unfinished March
As we remember Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech, it is a good time to reflect on our own dreams of what our society could become. What is my dream? It all starts with jobs. But it goes on from there. This week Terrance Heath wrote, in "Fifty Years Later:...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 27, 2013 | Financial Reform
Anat Admati makes a compelling case for effective financial reform in a recent New York Times op-ed entitled “We’re All Still Hostages to the Big Banks.” Admati, a leading voice for meaningful regulation of the banking sector, makes the following key points: “Nearly...
by Alexis McGill Johnson | Aug 27, 2013 | Democracy, Economy, Education
The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington presents a critical opportunity for this nation and the African American community to redefine the 21st Century vision for racial justice and freedom. To succeed, this must be a collective vision focused on changing...
by Bill Scher | Aug 27, 2013 | Blog
The unofficial end of summer is upon us, and the climate is leaving its mark. As of last week, 51 wildfires were still burning across the country, prompting the federal government to raise the national firefighters preparedness level to its highest rating effectively...
by Leo Gerard | Aug 27, 2013 | Blog
Right now, eager 18-year-olds from across the country are Tweeting with bravado photos of their newly postered dorm rooms and scanning with private fear their freshmen class schedules. They’re embarking on a journey to capture their piece of the American Dream....
