by Isaiah J. Poole | May 15, 2012 | Blog
The Peter G. Peterson Fiscal Summit started today with the dulcet tones of its billionaire conservative patron, Peter G. Peterson, and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner singing in harmony. It was a melody fraught with danger. It was designed to be soothing, even with...
by Bill Scher | May 15, 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: Why We Have A...
by Dave Johnson | May 15, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Polls show that the American Majority is much more concerned about jobs than deficits. So why is DC talking only about deficits instead of jobs, when jobs are the medicine for deficits? And why is DC only talking about budget cuts as a path to fixing the deficits,...
by Dave Johnson | May 15, 2012 | Blog
Deficit theater is coming to DC tomorrow, with a well-funded "fiscal summit." The plot summary is that we have Deficit Trouble - Right Here In River City! so to fix it we need to cut Social Security and Medicare and the things democracy does for We, the People --...
by Leo Gerard | May 15, 2012 | Blog
“What's it all about, Romney? Is it just for the moment we live? What's it all about when you sort it out, Romney? Are we meant to take more than we give. . .” ~With apologies to Burt Bacharach and Hal David who wrote the original song, “Alfie” As Mitt Romney laughs...
by Terrance Heath | May 14, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Told ya so. I said earlier that Newt Gingrich had pretty much written the script for at least one Democratic television spot, with his double-barreled attack on Mitt Romney's vulture capitalist career at the helm of Bain Capital. I just didn't think I'd be saying "I...
by Terrance Heath | May 14, 2012 | Blog
Ann Romney, apparently a "rock star" in the Romney campaign, recently riffed on her husband's difficulty relating to regular folks, and threatened to unleash the "real Mitt Romney" upon us. During a radio interview in Baltimore, Ann Romney responded to suggestions...
by | May 14, 2012 | Blog
This is an interesting post about Romney's high school years as a bully ringleader and what it say about him today: I don’t mean to suggest that Romney is without compassion. I believe, for instance, that he loves his wife and his children, and that he believes in God...
by Bill Scher | May 14, 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: Show Peter...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 13, 2012 | Blog, Financial Reform
A string of surprising 'say on pay' votes has some executive pay critics sensing an impending revolution in corporate boardrooms. But that 'revolution' won't amount to much until mainstream CEO pay reformers start factoring worker pay into the corporate compensation...
by Jeff Bryant | May 12, 2012 | Blog, Education
It was Teacher Appreciation Week this week. Unfortunately, someone forgot the appreciation part. President Obama, for one, kicked off the week by proclaiming that from now on the week would also (instead?) be forever known as National Charter Schools Week. Declaring...
by Dave Johnson | May 11, 2012 | Blog
Last week I wrote about the 99% Spring movement coming to Huntsville to protest the greed of Verizon, a company making billions and tripling its CEO's pay while demanding givebacks from its workers. The Verizon shareholder meeting in Huntsville, Alabama was disrupted...
by Bill Scher | May 11, 2012 | Blog
The five finalists for the Sixth Annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award have been announced, honoring the person in the progressive movement whose behind-the-scenes work and selfless service has made an invaluable contribution to social justice. The public is invited to...
by | May 11, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Well, it's Springtime in DC. Time for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's annual event. The Fiscal Summit, to be held on May 15, better named the Fiscal Cesspool of distortions, half-truths and lies, is a propaganda extravaganza designed to maintain and strengthen the...
by Bill Scher | May 11, 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: Trade Deficit...
by Dave Johnson | May 11, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Another month and another terrible trade deficit report. Why is it that DC elites who profess to care so much about deficits say so little about our worst deficit? The trade deficit drains money from our economy, lowers our wages and forces us into an ever-lower...
by Terrance Heath | May 10, 2012 | Blog
President Obama nearly cost me five bucks. In the build-up to his historic interview with ABC's Robin Roberts, a co-worker announced that he would bet $5 that President Obama would end his evolution on same-sex marriage by announcing his support for marriage equality....
by Dave Johnson | May 10, 2012 | Blog
Is this guy a Presidential candidate from a major party, or a fringe nut? He sounds like Rush Limbaugh. HuffPo: Mitt Romney: Obama 'Takes Marching Orders From Union Bosses', Speaking to a crowd at a campaign stop in Lansing, Mich., on Tuesday, presumptive GOP...
by Robert Borosage | May 10, 2012 | Blog
Europeans across the continent are rising up against austerity policies — turning out politicians who enforce them, no matter what their party allegiance. Yet even as the European public rejects austerity, Washington elites increasingly favor it. If pursued, however,...
by Robert Borosage | May 10, 2012 | Blog
I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?".... I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth crushed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long, because no lie can live...
by Bill Scher | May 10, 2012 | Blog
The five finalists for the Sixth Annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award have been announced, honoring the person in the progressive movement whose behind-the-scenes work and selfless service has made an invaluable contribution to social justice. The public is invited to...
by Bill Scher | May 10, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: How Bank Of America Silenced A Whole Town OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Today was a very good day for Brian Moynihan, the Bank of America CEO whose 2011 compensation package was approved today. As they were preparing to formally approve his lavish...
by Richard Eskow | May 10, 2012 | Blog
You don't have to be good at your job to earn seven million dollars in a year. All you need is a few friends in the right places - places like the Federal Reserve, the Justice Department and the Treasury Department. As the song says: "If I had a friend like Ben ..."...
by Terrance Heath | May 9, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
Last month, blogs were abuzz about recent studies suggesting that wealth reduces compassion — that increasing wealth corresponds with decreasing empathy for others. That's gotta be one of the reasons Mitt Romney — one of the the richest people to run for president in...
by | May 9, 2012 | Blog
Buyer: David Brooks Price: $3.95 million Details: The New York Times op-ed columnist and wife Sarah are trading up — from their longtime home near Bethesda’s Burning Tree Club to a century-old (exquisitely renovated) five bedroom, four-and-a-half bath house in...
by Dave Johnson | May 9, 2012 | Blog
Atrios says it: Eschaton: Planning For 10 Years From Now: The last time the an administration did the supposedly responsible thing, the fiscal "hawks" suddenly decided that the worst possible thing was no longer a deficit, but a surplus, and that therefore it was...
by Dave Johnson | May 9, 2012 | Blog
The National Mediation Board has ordered American Airlines to conduct a union election on May 17, and American Airlines said never mind the law, they won't do it. Seeking to delay the election, they are suing. CBS: American Airlines sues to stop union election,...
by Bill Scher | May 9, 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 Real Deficit...
by Dave Johnson | May 8, 2012 | Blog
Republicans today filibustered a bill to keep student loan interest rates from doubling. If the public understands that this bill keeps interest rates from doubling and that Republicans filibustered this bill, they can decide whether they approve or disapprove and act...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 8, 2012 | Blog
Senate Republicans today filibustered the effort to prevent federal student loan rates from doubling, once again obstructing the majority and putting the finances of millions of college students at risk for the sake of protecting the leather wallets of the 1 percent....
by Terrance Heath | May 8, 2012 | Blog
If you blinked, you missed it. Or you probably missed it because you were fast asleep. Late last night, nearly a month after suspending his own campaign, 13 paragraphs into a 16 paragraph email to his supporters, Rick Santorum finally endorsed Mitt Romney as the...
by Dave Johnson | May 8, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
The trade agreements we have entered into over the last few decades have greatly enriched the already-wealthy 1% but not worked for the benefit of most of us. They have created massive trade deficits that drain our economy. They have cost millions of manufacturing,...
by Bill Scher | May 8, 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: Tell The Senate....
by Leo Gerard | May 8, 2012 | Blog
In a famous “Laugh In” sketch, Lily Tomlin, playing arrogant operator Ernestine, telephones a customer to demand payment of $23.64 for three calls to Topeka and threatens to send a burly serviceman to the customer’s house to rip his phone out of the wall if he doesn't...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 7, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
As the political establishment prepares to do battle Friday over what is likely to be another mediocre jobs report, talk-show host Tavis Smiley this afternoon called for a living-wage jobs program as part of an all-out offensive against poverty in America. "What we...
by Richard Eskow | May 7, 2012 | Blog
And another one bites the dust. French President Nicolas Sarkozy just became the latest politician to lose his job because he wouldn't let economic experience—or political common sense—sway him from the path of austerity. Will Sarkozy's downfall help Democrats learn...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 7, 2012 | Blog
As the Senate prepares to vote Tuesday on legislation that will stop a scheduled doubling of the rate on Stafford student loans on July 1, conservatives are engaged in a shameless (and shameful) effort to detail the effort. That's why, this afternoon and Tuesday...
by | May 7, 2012 | Blog, Too Big To Jail
Must read of the morning, by Peter J Boyer and Peter Schweitzer at Newsbeast: Despite his populist posturing, the president has failed to pin a single top finance exec on criminal charges since the economic collapse. Are the banks too big to jail—or is Washington’s...
by | May 7, 2012 | Blog
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. After a week off for...well, it's not really clear why other than to campaign Congress took the first week in May off...the House and Senate are returning to Washington this week and immediately getting back to their...
by Bill Scher | May 7, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Sarkozy's Fate a Cautionary Tale OurFuture.org's Richard Eskow: "Will Sarkozy's downfall help Democrats learn what he never could? Democrats should consider Sarkozy's fate a cautionary tale - and a call to action. If they rally around the cause of...
