by Robert Borosage | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
I am saddened to hear that progressive champion Sen. George McGovern is reported to be at the end of his days. He has lived a life nearly as large as his heart. McGovern will be remembered as a stalwart of American liberalism. For my generation, he was beloved for his...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
In the debate Mitt Romney heartily endorsed Affirmative Action, claiming he sought out "binders full of women" that he could put in high positions. And it turns out that even that was a lie. Sheesh. In the second presidential debate Tuesday Mitt Romney came prepared...
by | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Everyone's talking about Romney's "binder full of women" comment last night and it's clear that, once again, he lied. But I think it's worth taking a second look at it anyway: ROMNEY: Thank you. And important topic, and one which I learned a great deal about,...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Note - See also, Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China? Sensata is a Bain-owned company that is closing a factory in in Freeport, Il to move the jobs to China. The workers have set up a camp they call "Bainport" and...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog, Economy
See also: Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China? There is a real-life story playing out in real time in Freeport, Illinois, which is west of Chicago. Bain Capital is closing a Sensata factory there, to move the jobs and...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Note see also Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China? Workers facing outsourcing by Bain Capital are camping outside the Sensata factory in Freeport, Ill. They are asking Mitt Romney to show up and help save their jobs....
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog, Economy
On the campaign trail Romney says we shouldn't ship jobs to China and should "crack down" on China trade problems. But he refuses to help or even meet with the Sensata workers whose jobs are being shipped to China right now. Why the refusal to line up his actions with...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Uppdate -- See More Arrests At #Sensata Factory That Is Moving Jobs To China then come back for details. If you are hearing about a company names Sensata, here is the story. Right now this company is moving equipment out of a factory in Freeport, Il. and shipping it...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Today there were six more arrests at the Sensata factory in Freeport, IL as people hold sit-ins and try to block trucks moving equipment out for shipment to China. What Is Sensata? Sensata is a company that makes sensors for the automobile industry. In modern...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney's bullet-point, detail-free, policy-free economic "plan" contains a section on cutting the deficit. What is Romney's approach, and what is the effect on our economy and our lives? The Deficit "Crisis" Any discussion of the deficit "crisis" should start...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Campaigning alongside Pat Robertson today, Mitt Romney implied that President Obama plans to "take God off our coins." "That pledge says 'under God.' I will not take God out of our platform. I will not take God off our coins. And I will not take God out of my heart."...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
After all the fact-checkers and many in the media denounce the Romney campaign's blatant fabrication that Obama is "gutting" the welfare work requirement, Romney/Ryan doubled down, going full-on Angry White Male. The campaign says they are doing this because "it's...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Republicans said Obama "tripled the deficit" but they were talking about Bush's last budget year. They said Obama massively increased spending, but Bush did that and Obama did not. They said Obama raised taxes, but he cut taxes. And now they say that we have fewer...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
The Republican Party seems to have become a party of "say what you need to say to get in the door." And what happens when they do get in that door? The Green Cheese Campaign "Obama is mining green cheese on the moon and putting it in school lunch milk." The things...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Now Mitt Romney is saying that President Obama gave us ":four straight trillion-dollar deficits." Since we are in Obama's third budget year, a different President must have brought us trillion-dollar deficits. Was it Bill Clinton? The Romney Claim Mitt Romney is...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
A new Romney ad says President Obama "used his health care plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to go against their faith." Apparently the Romney campaign can't find any criticisms of President Obama that are actually true. The Ad A new...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
The Romney campaign has turned to a strategy of swamping the public with flat-out, blatant lies, one after another, again and again, endlessly and lavishly repeated. They do this because they are making a calculation that it will work! So what is going on? And can...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Did President Obama tell business owners they didn't build their businesses. That's what the entire right-wing media machine is saying he said. What did he really say? Drudge Report headline: "Obama Goes Wild: 'If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
The Romney campaign is fabricating things again and the right's media machine is again echoing the lie to the public. Repetition, repetition, repetition and soon the lie becomes a 'truth.' This one is absolutely preposterous, designed to distract attention from...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Now Mitt Romney is using another selectively edited video to make it sound like President Obama is a communist who wants to seize all the wealth of the rich and hand it out to … negroes and communist party members? This week the Romney campaign dragged out a...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Mitt "I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I" Romney has accused President President Obama of running a "campaign of division and anger and hate." WTF? FOX News: Romney unleashes on Obama, accuses rival of running campaign of 'anger and hate', Mitt Romney, capping off a...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
A new Romney ad claims … OK, wow, just watch the ad:
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
There is a pattern to Romney's campaign of lies: accuse President Obama of the very things candidate Romney is doing. This "I know you are but what am I" tactic, in PR-speak, "provides cover." And this one is a big one, with Romney accusing Obama of cutting Medicare....
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Note -- see the update at end of post, in which the Romney campaign uses astonishingly doctored audio, to make it seem as if Obama said something he never said. Early in this campaign the Romney team put out an ad with a doctored Obama quote. Now Romney is again...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
In April, 2011 American pastor Terry Jones burned a Koran which set off days of riots in Afghanistan that killed 12 people, including four UN guards. Now Jones has released an online film mocking Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, depicting him having sex. This set off...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Back when Bill Clinton was President there was a huge media-swarm controversy because a decade before her husband was elected Hillary Clinton had made $100,000 over ten months by investing in cattle futures. Now, skip forward to 2012. Report after report circulates...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Did Mitt Romney really "create 100,000 jobs" with Staples? Simple answer: only if no one else was selling office supplies, stationery, etc. before Staples came along. What Staples did was force many competing stationery, office supply and computer stores out of...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Apparently the press is not calling the Romney campaign out for using a fabricated quote in their new ad. Seeing this, at least one other campaign has launched an ad that also fabricates a quote. Got Away With It -- So Doubled Down On Deception The Romney campaign got...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says a Bain Capital partner told him Mitt Romney won't show his tax returns because he paid no taxes for ten years. Romney offers a nonsense response - essentially challenging REID to show us Romney's tax returns, to prove it. Romney...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
After a series of blatantly dishonest Mitt Romney campaign ads have been saturating the airwaves -- one even editing audio to make it sound as if the President said something that he never said --our media elites have finally found an ad to click their tongues at. A...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog
Earlier I pointed out Romney biggest debate lie: Obama did not "double the deficit" he cut it by almost 1/3. Here are three more big Romney debate lies. 1) Unemployment rate. Obama promised to bring unemployment down to 5.4%. This is another lie -- Obama never...
by Bill Scher | Oct 18, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Romney Full Of "Wind Jobs" OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "'I appreciate wind jobs in Iowa and across our country,' said Romney. But there are wind jobs and there are 'wind jobs.' Romney's campaign has stated unequivocally that he would end the Wind...
by Richard Eskow | Oct 18, 2012 | Blog, Climate, Economy
Mitt Romney's "binder full of women" comment has gone viral, which is pretty entertaining but has had the unfortunate side effect of crowding the phrase "wind jobs." That's a real loss, because that term could become a very useful part of our political vocabulary....
by Bill Scher | Oct 17, 2012 | Blog
I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak -- President Barack Obama, 3/25/09 The right is in a tizzy claiming that Candy Crowley tipped the debate by "fact-checking" Mitt Romney on President's Obama statements regarding the Benghazi attack, then saying...
by | Oct 17, 2012 | Blog
Michael Moore points out that Romney proved last night that he plays by different rules. Here's the president making the claim: OBAMA: Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan. He has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Oct 17, 2012 | Blog
Echoing the memo that Stan Greenberg of Democracy Corps published Monday, I called on President Obama to offer a bold agenda on jobs and the economy on Tuesday night, one that would lay out specific contrasts to the empty suit of the Mitt Romney agenda and would...
by Robert Borosage | Oct 17, 2012 | Blog
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty,...
by Bill Scher | Oct 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Each morning, Bill Scher and Terrance Heath serve up what progressives need to effect change on the kitchen-table issues families face: jobs, health care, green energy, financial reform, affordable education and retirement security. MORNING MESSAGE: The Empty Suit...
by Dave Johnson | Oct 16, 2012 | Blog
Two items in the news: a congressional committee warns that Chinese telecom companies might be spying on us, and the Secretary of Defense warns about "cybersecurity." One report even says that Chinese-made equipment used in businesses here sends data to China at...
by Terrance Heath | Oct 16, 2012 | Blog
Last summer I compared the GOP to a mutinous first-mate on the Titanic, steering the economy into an iceberg in hopes of taking over when the captain goes with the ship, while forgetting that they're "in the same boat." If our economy was the RMS Titanic, Republicans...
