by Richard Eskow | Dec 27, 2011 | Blog
"Smokestack Lightnin'," with Hubert Sumlin backing Howlin' Wolf in 1964 This is the time of year when we're reminded of all the famous people who died over the last twelve months, a list which includes two of my favorite guitar players (Hubert Sumlin and Cornell...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 27, 2011 | Blog, Minimum Wage
In the iconic Christmas film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” an angel offers the beleaguered main character, George Bailey, the stark choice between a hometown named for a cruel banker or one created by and for the middle class. The banker’s town, Pottersville, is filled...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 25, 2011 | Blog
Who is our economy for, anyway? In the United States We, the People are supposedly in charge and our country and economy are supposed to be managed for the public good. But that isn't how things have been working out, is it? Let's take a quick look at America over the...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 23, 2011 | Blog
It doesn't matter whether or not you believe in God or which faith you follow if you do. Here's a question worth asking this holiday season: Would Jesus be an Occupy demonstrator? The Bible suggests that He would. Radio Free Heaven A few years ago I was driving...
by | Dec 23, 2011 | Blog
Originally posted at Capital Gains and Games. The fact that his conclusion and headline are correct doesn't mean that there not enough wrong in this column by Charles Krauthammer in today's Washington Post to put together a whole syllabus for a semester-long seminar...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 23, 2011 | Blog
Today Politifact Editor Bill Adair probably ruined his outlet's chances of ever being taken seriously again as an objective debunker of political spin. What a shame. There's a glaring need for somebody to play that role, and Politifact was in a unique position to fill...
by | Dec 23, 2011 | Blog
From the Speakers Office: Bipartisan legislation extending payroll tax relief for working Americans will now include a fix secured by House Republicans that ensures small businesses, already struggling in the current economy, won’t face added confusion and compliance...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 23, 2011 | 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 Next Fight For...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 23, 2011 | Blog
Consider House Speaker John Boehner's U-turn on a temporary extension of a payroll tax holiday a temporary retreat. The tea-party Republicans who lead Boehner show no signs of actually moderating their agenda, and that will make next year's fight to continue the...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog
It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for the Republican party in the run-up to 2012. First, the party had a literal embarrassment of riches, in the form of a field chock-full of candidates with something for just about every major faction and minor fringe the GOP...
by Bill Scher | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog
Yesterday, a chief House Republican talking point was they really, really, really wanted a compromise on a payroll tax cut extension, and were "willing to work over the holidays" to get one. Then, right after voting to ignore the Senate-passed bipartisan compromise...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog
For "renaldomacias" on Twitter, $40 extra a paycheck means "buying a full bag of groceries OR filling the car with gas to get to work. Without that $40, we'll be doing neither." BaldEmotions writes, "#40dollars a paycheck through the entire year is what it costs us to...
by | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog
I haven't yet seen a good scenario for how the stalemate between the House and Senate on the payroll tax extension will play out. The most common thought was making the rounds yesterday was that the House would give in to the Senate and agree on the Senate-demanded...
by | Dec 22, 2011 | Blog
I think this says it all: This is how they roll. They just don't believe in voting: House Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt Wednesday to call up the Senate payroll tax bill by quickly gaveling today's pro forma session to a close. Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 22, 2011 | 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: That $335 Million...
by Jeff Bryant | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog, Education
One good thing you can say about 2011 is that it is a year in which lots of wrong-headed undertakings finally came to their ignominious conclusions -- including, among others, the Iraq War, the Gadhafi regime, the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump, and "The Oprah...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
The Obama Administration announced a $335 million settlement deal with Bank of America to settle charges of discriminatory lending practices. Here is, in ascending order of importance, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Justice Department deserves praise for...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
David Brancaccio's Marketplace story Tuesday, Decline of Kodak offers lessons for U.S. business traced the decline of Kodak and the loss of Rochester, NY's good, middle-class jobs to Kodak's failure to tend its "industrial commons." This is a national problem. For...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
Today's GDP report shows slow growth. It isn't declining growth so technically is not a recession, but not enough growth to lead to job gains. U.S. Economy Grew at a 2% Rate in the Third Quarter, The United States economy grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in the...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
In the day-to-day news about trade problems with China the bigger picture can get lost. America is giving up its competitive position in industries of the present and future and it is costing us. Even the people you would think would defend "free trade" are coming to...
by Mary Bottari | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
On Monday, Bank of America (BofA) stocks briefly traded for under $5. Yes, you could buy a share of BofA for less than the noxious debit card fee they tried to force down your throat. BofA is massive, with assets equivalent to 15 percent of U.S. GDP. So why is it...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
The President has adopted the language of the 99%, and it's paying off for him. He's surged from a position slightly behind Mitt Romney in last month'sCNN polling to a 52%-45% lead against the Republican this week. While other factors were involved, his new rhetoric...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
Sometimes my brain finds connections the strangest, seemingly most disparate stories among the many I read online every day. Two years ago, I wrote a rather longish blog post titled "Reclaiming 'We'." It was partly inspired by NY Times columnist Thom Friedman's...
by Bill Scher | Dec 21, 2011 | 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: GOP, Basta! Stop...
by Robert Borosage | Dec 21, 2011 | Blog
The following was written by Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey. House Republicans have left no doubt: all they want is economic pain for political gain. Instead of accepting the bipartisan Senate bill, passed 89-10, to extend the payroll tax cut for a few months so a...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog
If you take a government program, change everything about it, destroy its core purpose, but keep the same name, is it the same program? Politifact.com says yes, and even goes so far as to say it is "The Lie Of The Year" to say it isn't -- because it still has the same...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog
"If I had a world of my own," said Alice, "everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't." I can't take it anymore. I just can't. In fact I'm falling down the rabbit hole even as we speak. 'PolitiFact,' a project...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog
Here is how far we have fallen: Republicans and big corporations are going to extremes, even threatening to shut down entire agencies of the government, just to keep people from knowing what their rights are. They are "investigating" the NLRB for enforcing the laws...
by | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog
It's adorable that Politifact's "lie of the year" is being touted as some kind of overwhelming proof that the Republicans didn't vote to end Medicare when they all voted to replace it with an inadequate voucher program. Does everyone know that the Republicans stuffed...
by Leo Gerard | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog, Economy, Making it in America
Amid prolonged, painfully high unemployment, ABC News Anchor Diane Sawyer for the past year tirelessly advocated a simple solution – buy American-made products. She clearly explained the reasoning: every American dollar spent on an American-made product helps create...
by Bill Scher | Dec 20, 2011 | 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-Wyden -...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 20, 2011 | Blog
This last week we've seen how Washington's elites are able to suppress popular opinion, work against the public interest, and wrap it all up with a bow so that it looks like 'democracy in action.' It's not. What we're seeing isn't democracy, and it isn't a free press...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
House Republicans are expected later today to engage in yet another one of their acts of economic sabotage. After a rare bipartisan agreement in the Senate to temporarily extend a worker payroll tax break and extended unemployment benefits for two months, getting both...
by Terrance Heath | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
Paul Krugman notes Ireland is still "hailed as a success" (right up there with Latvia), when there was never anything about in Ireland's austerity policies — or the whole Eurozone embrace of austerity — that anyone could truly call successful. Not with a straight...
by | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
The Strengthen Social Security Campaign has created a guide evaluating the “friendliness” of six Republican candidates, “Among Republican Candidates, Not a Single Friend of Social Security.” The Campaign has also produced longer individual profiles of Mitt Romney,...
by | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
Politico reported Sunday that the House GOP rank-and-file are in "full revolt" over the payroll tax cut bill the Senate passed yesterday and that the results of the Monday vote on it are in doubt. The bill will pass the House as is if there is a straight up-or-down...
by Richard Eskow | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
On a warm evening in 1991, a colleague and I found an out-of-the-way café in the old part of Prague. Two men with blank expressions stood outside. The interior was dim and close, with room for only eight or nine tables. The place was almost empty. Just a sleepy...
by Greg Colvin | Dec 19, 2011 | Blog
There is a growing movement of people fed up with corporations-as-persons, money-as-speech, elections-for-sale in America. They are ready to amend the US Constitution as the only sure way to reverse the Supreme Court’s decisions in Citizens United v. FEC and Buckley...
by Bill Scher | Dec 19, 2011 | 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: Devastating,...
by Dave Johnson | Dec 18, 2011 | Blog
Conservatives, their movement funded by big oil and king coal, constantly complain about "job-killing regulations." They say that the Environmental Protection Agency is pushing "socialism" because it wants to lower the amount of pollution that energy companies pump...
