by Bill Scher | Jan 18, 2012 | Blog
After a painfully wobbly response to a debate question regarding whether he would release his tax returns, Mitt Romney has relented and said he would release his 2011 tax return once it was filed in April. Why should this be considered full disclosure? There could be...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 18, 2012 | Blog
It if seemed as though Newt Gingrich — veteran of pitched partisan battles, and no-holds-barred ideological cage matches — had been off his game of late, he came roaring back during the GOP debate in South Carolina. After flip-flopping on his attacks on Mitt Romney's...
by | Jan 18, 2012 | Blog
James Fallows has some reader follow-ups to an earlier discussion of Newtie's "food stamp president" quip. And they've made me rethink whether or not this is a real dogwhistle. One of his readers says that it wasn't racist in the least, that it was simply a dry,...
by Bill Scher | Jan 18, 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: Newt's Race Card...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 18, 2012 | Blog
Because our fight for a people-powered democracy and an economy that works for all Americans depends on a free and open Internet, OurFuture.org today is standing in solidarity with the many websites that are protesting two bills pending in Congress that are direct and...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 18, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney probably pays a lower percentage of Federal income tax than you do. At a press conference today, Romney said that the effective rate he's been paying is "probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything."1 Mitt makes out like a bandit because capital...
by Mary Bottari | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog
The petition drive to recall and remove Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has surpassed all expectations, collecting one million signatures in just 60 days. The signatures represent the largest recall effort in the history of the United States.Petitioners were only...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
The United States is losing ever more jobs and becoming ever less competitive as our universities are cut back and companies move R&D jobs to Asia. We lost 687,000 high-tech manufacturing jobs lost since 2000. Universities cut back 20% on public research. 85% of...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog
In the fight over what little soul is left of the Republican Party, Mitt Romney has shown his willingness to double down on racial injustice. Romney did so in his support for the expansion of laws that deny people convicted of felonies the right to vote after they...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog
Congress is back in session and Republicans are right back to shutdown threats. Once again Republicans are trying to use shutdown threats to bust unions (the 99%), once again doing it for pay, for a specific company (the 1%). Funding for the Federal Aviation...
by | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog
Here's some video of an arrogant white man lecturing a black man about what black people have a right to be offend by --- on Martin Luther King day: I especially liked the laughter at his nasty, sarcastic "well, first of all, Juan..." Those dogwhistles were so loud...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 17, 2012 | Blog
It looks like the old joke about the weather — "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes and it'll change" — is also true about Newt Gingrich. If you don't like this Newt Gingrich, wait five minutes and he'll change. When it comes to his attack on Mitt...
by Bill Scher | Jan 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: Law and Order,...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jan 14, 2012 | Blog
The rich don't much like paying taxes when tax rates run high. They don't much like paying taxes when tax rates run low either. Any tax system that subjects rich people to high taxes is asking for trouble. Or so the politicians who cater to people of means incessantly...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog
"We could use a massive, dramatic confrontation on behalf of the more than 27 million who are unemployed or underemployed today," I wrote one year ago. "The spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. would certainly be in its midst." Little did I know when I wrote those words...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Economy
It looks like attacking Mitt Romney's Bain resume has become the bane of Newt Gingrich's campaign. In his latest flip-flop, Newt wants a do-over on his 28-minute Romney attack ad. Newt Gingrich has called on a pro-Gingrich super PAC to edit a 28-minute film attacking...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Economy, Minimum Wage
Here it comes again. This holiday weekend we'll see a lot of media coverage of Martin Luther King, Jr. But we'll hear very little about what he really was - a brave and visionary leader whose vision is as relevant today as ever. One year ago I listed ten quotes by Dr....
by | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog
With Michael Winship The traveling medicine show known as the race for the Republican presidential nomination has moved on from Iowa and New Hampshire, and all eyes are now on South Carolina. Well, not exactly all. At the moment, our eyes are fixed on some big news...
by | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
As I've noted numerous times, conservatives are very confused these days. Of course, many liberals are confused as well. (I won't even talk about the libertarians.) Seems to be the zeitgeist. Perhaps tough times and elite failure always have this effect. And who...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Economy
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. laid down this marker during his "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963: In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of...
by Bill Scher | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney says that anyone who criticizes his record while CEO of Bain Capital is putting "free enterprise on trial." But this doesn't make any sense. I have yet to have seen an argument from anyone on the left or the right criticizing Romney based on the notion...
by Bill Scher | Jan 13, 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 MLK Might Say...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Economy
There's one Newt Gingrich flip-flop I left out of my previous post about his latest flip-flop, concerning his on-again-off-again-on-again attack on Mitt Romney as a vulture capitalist. It's a big one, and — in typical Newt fashion — he says it really...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog, Economy
The Romney campaign's "Bain problem," which is also now the Republican party's problem, doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon. Sure, Republicans are figuring out that this is not a winning issue for them. Thus they've circled their wagons around Romney, and...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 13, 2012 | Blog
What would Martin Luther King do if he were alive today? Monday is the Martin Luther Kind national holiday, when we mark his birth and reflect on the ongoing movement for civil rights. human rights and economic opportunity and equality. King worked hard to help poor,...
by Jeff Bryant | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog, Education
There's a reason why accountants traditionally wore green eyeshades. In their "vision-intensive, detail-oriented" work, they were prone to "eyestrain" caused by scrupulous attention to columns and rows of numbers on a ledger. Now, of course, the strain is lessened by...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog
Bain Capital must seem like a Frankenstein monster to Mitt Romney's campaign. Like Mary Shelley's creature, it's stalking its creator just as he's about to claim the thing he loves most. But Bain Capital—and Bain capitalism—isn't Mitt's creation. It was sewed together...
by Robert Borosage | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog
Republicans continue to expose the real Romney: In Politico, Richard Viguerie, the New Right mass mail mogul, makes the case that Romney is a lowlife "crony capitalist" To Mitt Romney, venture capitalist, the average worker is an expendable line on a spreadsheet,...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog
It's starting to look like Newt Gingrich has more in common with Mitt Romney than just a background in vulture capitalism. During the Iowa primaries, Gingrich attacked Romney's "flip-flops" on a number of issues, but Newt has his own list of "flip-flops." Yesterday he...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Former Campaign for America's Future staffer Anne Thompson got a scoop this past weekend when she asked presidential candidate Mitt Romney about his position on the minimum wage, and he responded by saying he supported indexing the minimum wage "so it adjusts...
by Bill Scher | Jan 12, 2012 | Uncategorized
MORNING MESSAGE: Outsourcing Is Out. Insourcing Is In. OurFuture.org's Scott Paul: "President Obama, to his great credit, gathered about a dozen businesses and many more experts at the White House to strategize on how to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Here...
by Alan Jenkins | Jan 12, 2012 | Blog
On January 3rd, America lost one of the greatest champions of equal opportunity and human rights that our nation has ever known. Judge Robert L. Carter, civil rights lawyer, jurist, and fierce defender of justice, passed away at age 94 after suffering a stroke. Judge...
by | Jan 11, 2012 | Blog, Making it in America
Insourcing. That’s at the top of my trending list for 2012. But, how do we make reshoring—bringing job back from overseas—real? For America to have a thriving economy and lower unemployment, we need to create more good-paying jobs. And to do that, we’ll have to win...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 11, 2012 | Blog
The Obama White House continues to push for a settlement that would let bankers avoid being punished - or even investigated - for a wave of mortgage-related crimes that includes perjury, tax evasion, and several types of fraud.[1] Despite the President's new-found...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 11, 2012 | Blog
Mitt Romney, with a win the New Hampshire primaries under his belt, seems ready to take the GOP presidential nomination in a walk. However, if the last few days are any indication, it's not going to be a cakewalk. There's plenty of time for Romney to stumble, and...
by Dave Johnson | Jan 11, 2012 | Blog
President Obama is hosting a forum on "insourcing" today. We need to bring jobs back to America, and restore our "industrial commons." One way to help move this along is for states to require "Buy American" in their procurement rules. This is legal and here's the big...
by Bill Scher | Jan 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: 'New' Bank Fraud...
by Richard Eskow | Jan 11, 2012 | Blog
Congratulations, Mr. President. This week you followed your increasingly populist rhetoric with some decisive action on behalf of the middle class. Republicans have been waging a sabotage campaign against the lawful functions of government. With these recess...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jan 10, 2012 | Blog
Stunning but true: It's "true Reagan conservative" Newt Gingrich who has asked what should be a fundamental question of the 2012 presidential race: “You have to ask the question, is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the...
by Terrance Heath | Jan 10, 2012 | Blog
Yesterday, I posted about Newt Gingrich's scathing — and utterly truthful — attack on Mitt Romney, just in time for the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries. Now, Newt is catching heat from conservatives for hitting a front runner none of them seem...
