by Bill Scher | May 6, 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: Alice In...
by Richard Eskow | May 6, 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." The rabbit hole's got nothing on this place."Let's save Social Security from a 25% cut in 27 years," they told Alice, "by...
by Dave Johnson | May 5, 2011 | Blog
Since China’s admission into the World Trade Organization we have been packing up our factories and sending them over there. We have been buying so many things made in China, but they have not been buying very many things made here, and the resulting “trade deficit”...
by Dave Johnson | May 5, 2011 | Blog, Economy
Congressional Democrats yesterday unveiled the Make It In America plan for the 112th congress. This is a set of specific, detailed, targeted bills that clearly create jobs and restore our economic competitiveness, beginning with a national strategy for manufacturing....
by Jeff Bryant | May 5, 2011 | Blog, Education
Now that No Child Left Behind has become the butt of popular ridicule, and the prospect of forging a new consensus on education policy in DC seems doubtful, you would think that everyone currently clamoring for education "reform" would step back, take a deep breath,...
by Robert Borosage | May 5, 2011 | Blog
Click here to sign the petition: "Draw Down Afghanistan. Build Up America." And click here to hear Robert Borosage tell NPR, "This policy has no clothes and it's going to change." We went into Afghanistan to track down those who launched the 9/11 attacks on America....
by Bill Scher | May 5, 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: Democrats' Plan...
by Richard Eskow | May 5, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
Big banks and credit card companies have made a PR misstep in the fight over debit card charges. They're trying to use the Bush Administration's anti-terror team to convince Americans that exorbitant debit card fees are needed for our nation's security. The timing...
by | May 4, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
Within a week, as the news and analysis of Osama bin Laden's demise fades, the American people will focus once again on the issues that matter most to their daily lives. For most Americans, that includes the jobs market and the state of our economy. But no one is...
by Terrance Heath | May 4, 2011 | Blog
In the aftermath of Osama bin Laden's death, and the celebrations inspired by news of his demise, there's been some discussion of whether Americans should be celebrating and just what Americans are celebrating. Are we celebrating the death of another human being (even...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 4, 2011 | Blog
Just two days after Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., claimed that the "Gang of Six" that he's a member of was making "enormous progress" toward coming up with a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan, a series of news reports indicated that the process is...
by Anne Thompson | May 4, 2011 | Blog
As conservatives in Congress exploit the impending vote to on the debt ceiling to further slash government programs that support working and middle class families, a new poll from the Ms. Foundation for Women shows that the American people want the government to play...
by Richard Eskow | May 4, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
We let him define us for a decade, and now he's gone. After a very American party, the crowds have gone home. Here's one of the more printable Twitter quotes from an online news item entitled "Pornstars Respond to Bin Laden's Death": "Bin Laden is dead. @dirtjunior666...
by Bill Scher | May 4, 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: Questions for a...
by Dave Johnson | May 3, 2011 | Blog
Next week, May 9 and 10, the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue will take place in Washington DC. Since 2009, high-level representatives of the US China, with their delegations, meet each year at one then the other capital. Let's see if the administration will...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 3, 2011 | Blog
Why do Swedes and citizens of other relatively equal nations take their lives at a higher rate than residents of more unequal nations? Four investigators have tapped a wealth of newly available data to help make sense out of a paradox that has dogged the research on...
by | May 3, 2011 | Blog
So I see that Fox and the talk radio wingnuts are already on the latest conspiracy theory: Evidently, it's an article of faith that the administration might have faked the death of bin Laden, ostensibly for electoral purposes. Drudge is heralding a tip that the...
by Bill Scher | May 3, 2011 | Blog
Osama bin Laden's demise came after President Barack Obama restored counter-terrorism operations to America's top national security priority, reversing President George Bush's decision -- before and after the 9/11 attacks -- to deprioritize the effort to destroy al...
by Richard Eskow | May 3, 2011 | Blog
As more details of Bin Laden's life "in hiding" take shape, we may find ourselves with more questions than answers. A quick round of Internet research reveals that he lived in a beautiful climate, in a town along a well-traveled tourist route, near some military sites...
by | May 3, 2011 | Blog
In uncertain times like these, there is a thrill to be had in the occasional moment of moral clarity. Osama bin Laden’s death on Sunday was one such moment. Let’s hope it marks the close of an era lived in the shadow of September 11th, and the start of a period...
by Robert Borosage | May 3, 2011 | Blog
President Obama is receiving the well-deserved gratitude of the nation for success in taking out Osama bin Laden. The nation applauds, with less exaltation than exhaling, as if we were holding our breath for the last decade without knowing it. The president's judgment...
by Bill Scher | May 3, 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: Deficits Are The...
by Alan Jenkins | May 3, 2011 | Blog
So I’m trying to convince my wife that we should raise chickens in our back yard—it’s a suburban Green Acres thing, you might not understand. She has been, shall we say, cool to the idea, despite my promises of fresh eggs, cute chicks, and benefits to the environment....
by Richard Eskow | May 2, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
Before President Obama announced Bin Laden's death the big topic in Washington was the deficit. Pundits and politicians alike eagerly anticipated a possible "bi-partisan" budget-cutting deal forged by "selfless" Republicans and Democrats. Deficits will be the hot...
by Bill Scher | May 2, 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: Will Anyone Cover...
by Bill Scher | May 2, 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: Proposed Spending...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 2, 2011 | Blog
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said on Sunday that the so-called "Gang of Six"—three Democratic and three Republican senators trying to forge a deficit-reduction deal—has made "enormous progress" toward its goal. Don't...
by Dave Johnson | May 2, 2011 | Blog
Republicans took the unemployed hostage and won huge tax cuts for the rich that greatly worsened the deficits. Then they took the government hostage, threatening to shut it down if they didn't get what they wanted, and won big concessions. Now they are threatening to...
by Sam Pizzigati | May 1, 2011 | Blog
America's top bankers and CEOs don't have any more talent than millions of other Americans. They do have, two timely new data dumps remind us, plenty of generous friends in pivotal places. We Americans, former Reagan White House budget director David Stockman told a...
by Richard Eskow | Apr 30, 2011 | Blog, Financial Reform
The President's plane touched down at Tuscaloosa Regional Airport at 10 am this morning, local time. That's Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. These are the moments that bring us together as a nation, and as people. Just like 9/11 did, before people used it to divide us. I...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 29, 2011 | Blog
The Republicans voted to phase out Medicare and use the money for even more tax cuts for the rich. The public found out and turned out. So now they are coming up with new ways to mask the same thing. They call them "triggers," "across-the-board cuts" and "spending...
by Bill Scher | Apr 29, 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: Trade and...
by Dave Johnson | Apr 29, 2011 | Blog, Making it in America
Sometimes you can just see glimmers of something through the DC brain fog, other times it becomes so clear that you can't ignore it. The current DC brain-fog motto is, "if it doesn't work, do it more." Today's GDP-growth report shows that austerity isn't working, so...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog
Race & Reality, Pt. 2 When the jobs-focused plenary panel at America's Future Now convenes— with Angela Glover-Blackwell, Rich Trumka, Jared Bernstein, and Bob Herbert — it's likely they will continue a discussion America desperately needs, and that...
by Bill Scher | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog
Before ExxonMobil announced a 69% jump in their profits today, the oil giant's top lobbyist launched an attack on Democrats who have long proposed ending subsidies to Big Oil and instead invest in clean energy. Politico reported: “Over the last week as earnings season...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog
The first quarter growth figures—annual growth of 1.8% during the first three months of the year—are an ominous reminder of the reality that Washington has forgotten. This economy is in trouble. For most Americans, the recession has not ended. Growth is...
by Bill Scher | Apr 28, 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: Bernanke Gives Up...
by Leo Gerard | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog
The Clearwater Paper Corp. in Lewistown, Idaho chose the king cobra to symbolize its workplace safety program. A cobra. One of the deadliest snakes on the planet. Every day on his way to and from work at Clearwater, John Bergen III drove past a billboard in the...
by Jeff Bryant | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog, Education
To all those out there who are clamoring for "market-based" approaches to education reform, please tell me this: What kind of a business slashes inventory in the face of increasing demand? Because that is exactly what's going on with public education in America today....
by Richard Eskow | Apr 28, 2011 | Blog
Ben Bernanke's voice has been known to put humans into a trance even under the best of circumstances, and I was under the influence of a fever and some cold medications. Still, other observers reported a similar reaction to my own. The Fed Chair's press conference...
