by Bill Scher | Jun 8, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: 40M Underwater Homeowners? Organize. OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "The number of people living in underwater homes is larger than the number of people living in twenty-two states and the District of Columbia. The residents of those states are...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 8, 2012 | Blog
It sounds like hype to say it, but underwater homeowners can change the course of history. It's not me saying that - it's the numbers. People who owe more than their homes are worth have the power to become the a powerful new political and economic force. They've got...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
There were rumblings that Thursday's Netroots Nation keynote address by Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general and the head of an Obama administration task force on Wall Street fraud, was going to be disrupted by protestors. And indeed, as Schneiderman began...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
I'm at the Netroots Nation 2012 conference in Providence. The weather has been pretty good, a brief rainshower but otherwise sunny and pleasant day. There are panels all day, breakout sessions on various topics, state caucuses, parties, lunches, dinners, parties,...
by | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. Over at TPM, Brian Beutler has a story about House Republican efforts to cut the budget of the Office of Management and Budget. The story is sad and ridiculous: it shows that House Republicans have become just like the kid...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
There is some good news in the fight for homeowners and against the big banks. Homeowners who are facing foreclosures because of unfair and often illegal practices by the major financial Goliaths are learning how to organize, how to shame bank executives and how to...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
Appeared in the June 25, 2012 edition of The Nation. Co-written with Katrina vanden Heuvel. This year will feature the most ideologically polarized election since the Reagan-Carter face-off of 1980. A radical-right Republican Party, backed by big-money interests, has...
by Bill Scher | Jun 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: They Bought Wisconsin. Don't Let Them Buy America. OurFuture.org's Roger Hickey: "Democracy lost in Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker kept his job only after outspending the recall movement 8 to 1. And that doesn’t even count the millions spent by...
by Roger Hickey | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
Democracy lost in Wisconsin. Gov. Scott Walker kept his job only after outspending the recall movement 8 to 1. And that doesn’t even count the millions spent by secretive third-party groups. Now, they are trying to buy the November elections. To stop them, you need to...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 7, 2012 | Blog
Ray Bradbury, whose death at the age of 91 was announced today, played an important role for an entire generation of kids like me. Important? You might even call it "lifesaving." When things around us seemed unbearable, or incomprehensible, or soul-killing, his books...
by | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
Scott Walker survived his recall. In case you were wondering whether our democracy is totally fucked, read this about the last minute ads that poured into Wisconsin: CAV describes itself as a "grassroots advocacy organization created by leaders from a wide array of...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
As I read more about the student movement in Quebec, known as the "Maple Spring" or the "Casserole Revolution," it brings to mind the final scene from Possessing the Secret of Joy, by one of my favorite authors, Alice Walker. In that scene, the main character — Tashi,...
by | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
Two weeks of virtually non-stop protests by tens of thousands of workers in Madison, Wisconsin, represent the epicenter of a fight to defend workers' rights from a wave of unprecedented legislative attacks. That fight has now spread to other states in the...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
The attack on public-employee unions in Wisconsin is in the news because of the large Egypt-style turnout of supporters at the state capital (70,000 on Saturday!), and the dramatic theater effect of Democratic Senators leaving the state to delay a vote on the measure,...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
Wisconsin’s capitol continues to reverberate with the sound and fury of workers and students united — against the 'Mubarak of the Midwest' and the wealthy he so diligently shields from any inconvenience. In 1911, exactly a century ago, Wisconsin enacted...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has launched an all-out attack on public-employee unions, proposing to take away the right to collective bargaining. He has threatened to use the National Guard to put down any action by state workers in response. Here is a clip from...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog
You can barely open a newspaper or turn on a radio without hearing about states and local governments bankrupted by high-paid public employees, their pensions and their unions. How much of what you are hearing is really true, and how much is just one more Wall...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
That Gov. Scott Walker survived the recall in Wisconsin is a tragic setback for the stunning citizen’s movement that challenged his extremist agenda in Wisconsin. Its implications are likely to be exaggerated by the right, and underplayed by progressives. Here are...
by Bill Scher | Jun 6, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
This week, Wisconsin Republican primary gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker caught the attention of Washington pundits with his latest ad, because it features the candidate attacking President Obama with smug condescension and sarcasm. But I was struck because Walker...
by Bill Scher | Jun 6, 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: What Wisconsin...
by Radhika Raman | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
Senate Republicans this afternoon voted to block the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 3220), yet another petty political move designed to stick it to the Democrats and eject President Obama from the White House. Let’s be honest though - it isn’t some Democratic...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
The new CBO report is out, and it's a huge disappointment. Their report misrepresents both our nation's economic situation and the range of policy solutions available to the Federal government. We'll review the report in greater detail in the days to come, but here...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America, Minimum Wage
It's almost a shame that Americans are paying very little attention to the GOP's "Pledge To America." But maybe that's because most of it has nothing to do with them. What is not mentioned in the document makes it clear that it doesn't speak to the urgent ...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
This week on The Breakdown we reviewed our nation's ongoing financial mess with Firedoglake's David Dayen, talked with housing superheroes from the Home Defenders League, and prepped for the Wisconsin governor's recall with journalist Amanda Terkel and activist...
by Dave Johnson | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
A pro-labor column in a major newspaper? I'd better look out my window and see if pigs are flying down the street. Nope, they're not! Hell hasn't frozen over. And hey, monkeys aren't even coming out of my butt! In today's NY Times Joe Nocera writes, in Turning Our...
by | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. Alan Greenspan would have been proud of the Ben Bernanke-coined “fiscal cliff.” That’s exactly the kind of phrase Greenspan would have used when he was chairman of the Federal Reserve — an expression with no...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Everyone is talking jobs and saying nothing. The inadequate recovery is sputtering and no one is doing anything. In the war on unemployment, no one has picked up a gun. We’re going through the motions, waiting for the misery to ratchet up, the cities to blow,...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog, Economy
At the June 18-20 Take Back the American Dream conference, we'll organize to stop Simpson-Bowles from passing Congress in the December "lame duck" session. Hear Robert L. Borosage, Van Jones and Melissa Harris-Perry on "Winning in November – So We Can Win in December...
by Bill Scher | Jun 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: The Jobs Babble...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 5, 2012 | Blog
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s reaction to high unemployment is creepy. During an interview with CBS reporter Jan Crawford last week, Romney smirked as he mentioned that unemployment has remained above 8 percent for 39 months. Then, as the interview ended,...
by | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
I was going to write a "day before" rundown of the Progressive Super Tuesday races, but Howie did such an awesome job that I think it would be superfluous. Please click over and read it, you won't be sorry. Wisconsin is ground zero, of course, but Blue America also...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
In less than 36 hours, a petition by Rebuild the Dream calling on the Department of Justice to focus on prosecuting crimes done by Wall Street executives during the financial crisis has collected more than 50,000 signatures. "Tell the DOJ: Done with Edwards?...
by | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. The increasingly repeated assumption in the aftermath of this past Friday's jobs report seems to be that this is what was needed to push the Federal Reserve over the edge for another round of monetary policy-induced...
by Mary Bottari | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
Madison -- Since September of 2010 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (MJS) has been detailing an ongoing "John Doe" criminal investigation being run out of the Milwaukee County District Attorney's office involving Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's former staff and...
by | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
The current recession will soon become the longest since the Great Depression. The U.S. is losing over 500,000 jobs each month, and a new president, elected overwhelmingly, is pleading for unity and urgent action on a scale not seen since the New Deal. At such a...
by Bill Scher | Jun 4, 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: No Middle-Class...
by Richard Eskow | Jun 4, 2012 | Blog
Once again a Democrat's letting the Right set the terms of the debate. This time it's House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who's undercutting her party's tax policy in an odd way: by redefining "middle class" so that it includes people making a million dollars a year....
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 2, 2012 | Blog
Sugary soft drinks, as Michael Bloomberg reminds us, do our nation no good. But if we really want to narrow our waistbands, we’re going to have to narrow the income gaps that divide us. The billionaire mayor of New York wants his city’s Board of Health to ban...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 1, 2012 | Blog
For the progressive movement, it's put up or shut up time in Wisconsin. We said that we despise the agenda of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. We cheered the thousands of people who occupied the state capitol in 2011 to protest Walker's ramming legislation crippling...
by | Jun 1, 2012 | Blog
I have always loathed Alan Simpson going all the way back to the 80s. His pro-choice and LGBT rights record always gave him cover as a "moderate" and everyone enjoys his colorful language. But he's a hardcore fiscal conservative who thinks that everyone can make it in...
