by Alan Jenkins | Nov 15, 2011 | Blog
If you have any doubt that the Occupy movement is changing the American culture and capturing the imagination, check out this ridiculous ad for Mabelline lip balm in which supermodels carry signs and line the streets to protest—wait for it—dry lips. “We want lip balm...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 14, 2011 | Blog
This holiday season, let's spare a kind thought for the decent people who toil inside Washington's legislative machinery. These good folk must live and work inside the dreamlike bubble that is today's policy and media world. Each day they strain to see reality through...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 14, 2011 | Blog
When Egyptians stood up to Mubarak they were met with tear gas and clubs. Once upon a time America had freedom of assembly, speech and protest. Even now, as long as protests don't take on the 1%, they are OK. But in today's America-for-the-1% protests, assemblies and...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 14, 2011 | Blog
Some Democrats have come under a lot of criticism lately, much of it deserved, for abandoning popular and important programs that were historically associated with their party. But some of the other Democrats -- the ones who are trying to act in the country's best...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 14, 2011 | Blog
Two new reports suggest that the President and Congressional Democrats are about to betray everything Democrats once stood for. Under pressure from Barack Obama, Democrats on the "Super Committee" have sketched out an appalling "compromise" proposal that would almost...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 14, 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: Newt's "Ideas"...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 13, 2011 | Blog
Ten years ago we were on a path to paying off the country's debt. In fact, if we had stayed on the same trajectory the debt might be paid off already. But then we cut taxes even more, and raised the military budget even more, and the deficits and resulting debt...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 13, 2011 | Blog
If you paint black roofs white you save a lot on energy use, and you create some jobs. So how come something as simple as this is so hard to get going? I'm at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) - America. CGI is about a "process" of bringing attendees together to get...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 13, 2011 | Blog
Haley Barbour articulated Republican economic thinking yesterday, saying "government sucks money out of the economy." Apparently he thinks it puts tax money under a big mattress. During yesterday's Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) -- America, Mississippi Governor and...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 13, 2011 | Blog
At the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) - America yesterday the AFL-CIO announced a $10 billion commitment to invest in America's infrastructure. This commitment puts labor’s money where their mouth is. This initiative will help create mechanisms to finance...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 13, 2011 | Blog, Economy
This week I travel to Chicago to cover CGI America, a special session of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). CGI America will bring together "business, government, and civic leaders to focus on economic recovery and job growth." I have covered several Clinton Global...
by Sam Pizzigati | Nov 12, 2011 | Blog
Another super-slick global financial analysis firm has just tallied how much net worth is sloshing around in the pockets of the world’s most spectacularly wealthy. So when will the time finally come to stop the counting — and start the taxing? In today’s astoundingly...
by Greg Colvin | Nov 11, 2011 | Blog
We’ve seen the signs and heard the chants: “Abolish Corporate Personhood!” I’m very sympathetic to the cause of reducing the power of big business corporations to control our government, our economy, our consumer culture, our society, and our lives. We can’t have...
by Jeff Bryant | Nov 11, 2011 | Blog, Education
With the collapse of the No Child Left Behind policy that has driven American education policy for at least the past decade, one would think that our nation's leaders would pause to consider the faulty thinking that brought this erroneous policy to life to begin with....
by Terrance Heath | Nov 10, 2011 | Blog
This year, Veterans Day should be a day for all of us — all 99 percent of us — to stand with the 1 percent. Not, as Jim Hightower writes, the "corporate CEOs and hedge fund billionaires," but the "extra-special 1 percent of our society"...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Nov 10, 2011 | Blog
According to a document produced by Democrats serving on the congressional deficit-reduction supercommittee, the Democrats are proposing to cut $350 billion from Medicare as part of a $2.3 trillion "grand bargain" to reduce the deficit. It's time for the people to say...
by Scott Hochberg | Nov 10, 2011 | Blog
The 12-member Super Committee is down to its final two weeks to produce a plan to cut at least $1.2 trillion from the federal budget. According to recent reports, both Democratic and Republican proposals have contained sizable cuts from Social Security, Medicare, and...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 10, 2011 | Blog
By now you've probably heard about the new supplemental poverty measure produced by the Census Bureau, which says 49.1 million Americans are living in poverty, compared to 46.2 million under the official measure. But did you know that the supplemental measure blows a...
by Bill Scher | Nov 10, 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: Americans Decide...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 10, 2011 | Blog
It's great when we can disagree in a civilized way, but it's getting pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that the phrase "right-wing logic," as delivered by the GOP and mimicked by Mitt Romney, has become the mother of all oxymorons. They tell us corporations are...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog
Many of the efforts around the country to advance an extreme, right-wing, corporatist agenda on the public were repudiated Tuesday night. The message is clear: An informed and energized 99 percent can prevail over those in the 1 percent who are working to strip them...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog
A huge part of the reason we can't get out of this unemployment slump is the trade deficit. We don't buy American and neither do our "trade partners." We buy from them, they sell to us -- that's not "trade." Stimulus means we buy from them. Cutting taxes means the...
by Bill Scher | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog
While the traditional media continue to chase the Herman Cain reality TV show presidential campaign into the abyss, that other Republican presidential candidate polling at the top also keeps saying really stupid things. Except that when Mitt Romney says stupid things,...
by Mary Bottari | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog, Economy
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has promised to create 250,000 new jobs. In advance of a planned gubernatorial recall election, Walker announced last month that the State Legislature would focus "like a laser" on job creation. With his "special session" on jobs now...
by Bill Scher | Nov 9, 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: After Ohio, Run...
by Robert Borosage | Nov 9, 2011 | Blog
Yesterday, Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected the effort to revoke basic worker rights, delivering a stunning rebuke to conservative Gov. John Kasich. That spark was lit in Madison, Wisconsin last winter when workers took over the state capitol and launched...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog
There's talk that the president and other elected officials will try to tap the Occupy Wall Street movement's energy to boost their campaigns. It's good to see the rhetoric finally moving in the right direction. Even better, now there's an easy way to prove it isn't...
by Dave Johnson | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog
Our captured government won’t do its job. It doesn't keep Wall Street and banks and giant corporations from ripping us off and doesn't prosecute them after they do. It doesn't stop polluters - even as the effects of climate change increase. It doesn't enforce...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
The New Bottom Line, one of the organizations leading the "move your money" movement and the national "Bank Transfer Day" on Saturday, announced today that nearly $50 million had been removed from Bank of America and other Wall Street banks. With that as a start, the...
by | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog, The Sequester
Originally published at Capital Gains and Games. I predicted two things in the Sept. 6 Fiscal Fitness — the first published after the Budget Control Act was signed into law this past Aug. 2 — that are coming true faster than I, even on my most cynical days, would have...
by | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog
Brian Beutler has the latest on the Super Committee machinations: Super Committee Republicans are floating a trial balloon that would produce new tax revenue, in apparent contravention of Grover Norquist’s taxpayer protection pledge, according to Wall Street Journal...
by Steven Capozzola | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
America's defense supply chain put at risk by purchase of counterfeit, salvaged products from China. The U.S. Department of Defense has been buying counterfeit electronic parts from China. A Senate Armed Services Committee investigation led by Sens. Carl Levin (D-MI)...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 8, 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. A Super Committee "Failure"...
by Bill Scher | Nov 7, 2011 | Blog
Ed Luce of the Financial Times made an astute observation today, regarding the mostly Republican group of senators that filibustered the most recent legislation to invest $60 billion in creating infrastructure jobs: Until now, America has never faced an ideological...
by Robert Borosage | Nov 7, 2011 | Blog
“I have great respect for each of you individually, but collectively I’m worried you’re going to fail — fail the country,” former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles, a co-chairman of President Obama’s fiscal commission, sternly told the congressional...
by Terrance Heath | Nov 7, 2011 | Blog, Economy
I am beginning to understand George Will. Normally, that would worry me in too many ways to count, and it would be cause enough for my progressive friends to stage an intervention. So let me be clear, before I find myself facing just such a situation, I did not say I...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 7, 2011 | Blog
We started to make a list of people throughout history who might be considered Occupy Wall Street's spiritual forefathers and mothers, but it got so long it felt like the album cover for Sgt. Pepper. Remember all those faces? So with great difficulty the list has been...
by | Nov 7, 2011 | Blog
This analyses of our current economic battle by Thomas Edsall gets to the heart of the issue: The economic collapse of 2008 transformed American politics. In place of shared abundance, battles at every level of government now focus on picking the losers who will bear...
by Bill Scher | Nov 7, 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: "Super Committee"...
by Richard Eskow | Nov 6, 2011 | Blog
Incredible but true: In a television interview, Rick Perry told the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators not to think about money so much. "Just find your passion," said Perry. "Stop thinking about money." The other day Yours Truly co-hosted The Young Turks with Brian...
