by Bill Scher | Sep 7, 2012 | Blog
President Obama's powerful acceptance speech gave no ground from his last acceptance speech. Despite the anti-government Tea Party spasm that occurred in between, Obama once again offered voters a vision of representative, responsive and responsible government that...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 7, 2012 | Blog
President Obama and Vice President Biden both gave powerful speeches this evening, summoning the ideal of an inclusive nation and effectively distinguishing their mainstream American views from their opponents' radical right-wing vision. The only real false notes were...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog
You have to see Death By China! Today on the Fairness Radio radio show I talked with Peter Navarro, director of the new movie Death By China. This is a documentary about the United States’ trade relationship with China, and the harm that has been done to our country,...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy
First, let me be clear: I take no credit for the messaging or themes of first two nights of the Democratic convention. But in some of the most talked about speeches of the last two nights, I heard echoes of ideas I've been writing about for years. No, it doesn't...
by | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Michelle Obama's speech last night got rave reviews. (If you didn't see it, you can watch it here.) It was a very well written and well-delivered speech, personal and yet political, subtly showing the differences between the Obama worldview and the Romney worldview....
by Richard Eskow | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
Here's a new Zen riddle: What is the sound of money not talking? Sure, it talks sometimes. We heard it loud and clear at the Republican Convention. But sometimes the sound of money in politics is the sound of silence. It's the sound of crooked bankers being let off...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
The old dawg can still hunt. At the top of his game, gaining energy from the crowd, Bill Clinton, the “old country boy from Arkansas” tore it up last night in Charlotte. Political junkies, pundits of all stripes, and Democratic activists were agog, watching the...
by Bill Scher | Sep 6, 2012 | Blog
Democrats have been increasingly frustrated that not even an army of fact-checkers has been able shame the Romney-Ryan campaign from stopping their lies about Medicare savings, welfare requirements, the Janesville GM plant and more. The shamelessness is unlikely to...
by Bill Scher | Sep 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Stopping The Lies OurFuture.org's Bill Scher: "Democrats have been increasingly frustrated that not even an army of fact-checkers has been able shame the Romney-Ryan campaign from stopping their lies about Medicare savings, welfare requirements, the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Sep 5, 2012 | Blog
The 2008 financial crash was accompanied by a stunning level of greed and disregard for the law by some of the leading titans of the financial industry. As a result, millions of people lost homes, retirement savings or were otherwise financially devastated. And yet,...
by | Sep 5, 2012 | Blog
Many Democrats turned away from the Republican convention both incredulous and optimistic. As one put it: “How do these guys think they can win with a such an out-of-touch hard right platform?” The answer is, they don’t. History tells us that when presidents lose...
by Bill Scher | Sep 5, 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: Running On Their...
by Bill Scher | Sep 5, 2012 | Blog
I have never seen opponents so silent about their record … They've run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. Fear and division are all they've got left. -- Republican VP nominee Paul Ryan Come again? Day 1 of the Democratic convention put their record front...
by Richard Eskow | Sep 4, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Last week the Republicans gathered under the hurricane skies of approaching autumn, their convocation punctuated by thunder and underlined by rain. But there are storm clouds over Charlotte, too: clouds of cynicism and despair, clouds of joblessness and fear, clouds...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 4, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Last week Republicans branded themselves as the party of cuts. This week the Democrats have an opportunity to be the party of jobs and growth again. Last week Republicans again and again called for for austerity: government budget cuts that kill jobs and growth. Look...
by Robert Borosage | Sep 4, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
As Democrats gather in Charlotte, N.C., one fundamental challenge remains in President Obama’s reelection campaign. He must use the convention to provide a compelling answer to the basic question on voters’ minds: What does he plan to do to get the economy going and...
by | Sep 4, 2012 | Blog
The Obama administration’s investigation of major international banks for manipulation of the “London interbank offered rate,” or Libor, has been in the headlines lately, and that’s good news. The banks’ actions have cost savers and investors dearly; shaken anew...
by Terrance Heath | Sep 4, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Obama's Challenge: Answer the Question of What Comes Next OurFuture.Org's Robert Borosage: "As Democrats gather in Charlotte, one fundamental challenge remains in President Obama’s re-election campaign. He must use the convention to provide a...
by Leo Gerard | Sep 4, 2012 | Blog
The GOP, the party of exclusion – no gays seeking marriage allowed, also no Hispanics, no black people, no poor people who are on or ever were on welfare, and no women who are on or ever were on birth control – yeah, that private party spent last week taking sole...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 3, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
What is Labor Day? And why is it a national holiday? Labor Day is our national holiday to celebrate the contribution that regular working people make to our country and our economy. It is also a holiday that celebrates the way We, the People democracy can deliver...
by Sam Pizzigati | Sep 3, 2012 | Blog
In our current economic and political environment, we're letting top corporate executives expropriate our public 'property' for private gain. The resulting rewards, for both corporations and their CEOs, can be immense, as the recent Apple patent triumph over Samsung...
by Dave Johnson | Sep 1, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
First, a great music video, We Are The Union, from CWA. I love this one, "Brooklyn Cablevision workers saw through the corporate lies, organized to join CWA, and immortalized the experience in this amazing song." One of my favorites, What Have The Unions Ever Done For...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog
Rick Santorum finally had his moment on the RNC convention stage, all b. The man who barely endorsed Mitt Romney barely mentioned the Republican nominee in his keynote address. (Indeed, of the three prime time speakers Tuesday night — Santorum, Chris Christie, and Ann...
by | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog
Written with Bernard A. Weisberger. Originally published at BillMoyers.Com. We might wish the uproar from the convention halls of both parties these busy weeks were the wholesome clamor of delegates deliberating serious visions of how we should be governed for the...
by Bill Scher | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog
On Wednesday, Jonathan Cohn asked if Paul Ryan's address was "The Most Dishonest Convention Speech … Ever?" Now that Mitt Romney had his turn, I decided to answer the question. After reviewing presidential and vice-presidential nominee acceptance speeches...
by Bill Scher | Aug 31, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Romney and the Republican Memory Hole OurFuture.org's Robert Borosage: "'Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever' … Say what? Obama inherited an economy in free fall, losing 750,000 jobs a month, with recession spreading...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney laid out his case to the American people last night. The speech was long, bloated with the sleep inducing poll tested patriotic treacle and banal pieties that have become inescapable on these occasions. Mitt Romney campaigns in prose, with a mind given to...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 31, 2012 | Blog
When we turned on the TV to watch the Republican Convention this evening we saw what appeared to be a hyperactive GOP advance man gesticulating from the stage. But he wasn't barking out canvassing instructions to local ward heelers or scouting Holiday Inns to find the...
by Jeff Bryant | Aug 30, 2012 | Blog, Education
[My guest blogger today is Rob Levine. Rob is a Minneapolis-based researcher whose writing focuses on the media, conservative philanthropy and education. His writing can be found at the Cucking Stool blog.] “Odds-beating charter school.” Those words are like an...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 30, 2012 | Blog
This Republican convention is the convention that assumes (hopes) that everyone has amnesia and will forget … everything. They hope you forget that the budget was balanced before they got in last time, that the economy was doing great before they got in last...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 30, 2012 | Blog
Their opponents shouldn't be too quick to call Republicans "crazy." It makes more sense to employ that time-honored investigative principle: Follow the money. Sure, they've said crazy things -- in their speeches and in their official platform. But crazy? Like a fox....
by Bill Scher | Aug 30, 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: Ryan Puts The Con...
by Bill Scher | Aug 30, 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 Hard Truth...
by Robert Borosage | Aug 30, 2012 | Blog
Rep. Paul Ryan’s bravura performance last night at the Republican convention gave full display of the skills honed by a career pol who has spent his entire adult life in the Washington watering holes of the right. Ryan has learned to look straight into the camera and...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 30, 2012 | Blog
Where can we find one of those "new ideas" we keep hearing about, the ones that the supposedly "serious" Paul Ryan brings to the Presidential ticket? Not in their plan to turn us into a nation without Medicare. That idea isn't any newer than the song stylings of Patti...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 29, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
How's this for a radical, anti-American statement? The Republican Party's draft platform mocks American workers' pensions as useless artifacts which were "born in an old industrial era beyond the memory of most Americans." Republicans talk about restoring American...
by Richard Eskow | Aug 29, 2012 | Blog
The presence of scandal-ridden accounting firms on Mitt Romney's fundraising list got me to thinking: What do they expect to get for their money? And why does the accounting profession seem to be so riddled with corruption? And it reminded me of something that...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 29, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Come the revolution, rich, white, male conservatives will be the only people left who can "play the race card" and get away with it. Actually, that revolution is already here. And, with apologies to Gil Scott-Heron, it is being televised — in the form of Mitt Romney's...
by | Aug 29, 2012 | Blog
Ok, this is just getting ridiculous now: Gov. Mitt Romney's campaign toasted its top donors Wednesday aboard a 150-foot yacht flying the flag of the Cayman Islands. The exclusive event, hosted by a Florida developer on his yacht "Cracker Bay," was one of a dozen...
by Dave Johnson | Aug 29, 2012 | Blog
China's official media expressed concerns this week that Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is using incendiary, militaristic, "Cold War" language that could serious harm relations between China and the United States. Foreign Policy Magazine writes in,...
