by Eric Lotke | Jun 26, 2009 | Blog
Remember a while ago I wrote about my new novel, 2044? 2044 starts where George Orwell’s 1984 left off. The problem isn’t Big Brother and the leviathan government. The problem is Big Brother Inc., and the all-powerful marketplace. The 2044 story is about water. Giant...
by Bill Scher | Jun 26, 2009 | Blog
It took a very long time to end the fallacy that you can't protect the environment and grow the economy at the same time. But that day has come. The nail in the coffin of the canard was delivered this week, as both the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers formally endorsed...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 26, 2009 | Blog
The debate over health care reform has taken a particularly worrisome turn. Suddenly we're in a place where passing something kind of like reform may be more important than getting to reform itself. In the name of "compromise" and in interest of getting...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 26, 2009 | Blog
Behind every defective U.S. private enterprise, suggests a surprising new report from inside Corporate America, sits a top executive effective at grabbing for windfalls. Corporate takeover deals that pay off big — for executives — typically follow a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 26, 2009 | Blog
I suspected there was something being left unsaid when the headlines began streaming this morning that personal incomes in May surged 1.4 percent. And, indeed, there was. It is in the actual press release issued by the Commerce Department Bureau of Economic Analysis,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Climate Vote Expected Today in House Politico on the head count: "By late Thursday, aides and lawmakers said Democrats were within a dozen of the 218 votes needed to pass the legislation. Democratic sources said their leaders aimed to lock in 230 yes votes — and...
by Bill Scher | Jun 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
President Holds Prime-Time Health Care Town Hall Health Care '09 rally and lobby day in DC today, organized by Health Care for America Now! Jonathan Cohn on presidential prime-time health care town hall: "...he used the occasion to hammer away at a key point--one...
by Bill Scher | Jun 24, 2009 | Blog
As Mother Jones recently chronicled, the environment community is fractured on the House clean energy and climate protection bill, though the bigger pieces -- Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense C
by Sara Robinson | Jun 24, 2009 | Blog
Sometimes, when you're up to your chin in alligators, it's hard to focus on the fact that there's a big, broad, alligator-free world waiting somewhere out there, beyond the edge of the swamp. In this case, it's hard for most Americans to even imagine that nobody in...
by Steven Capozzola | Jun 24, 2009 | Blog
The Obama administration has announced that it will bring its first trade case against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has launched a case against China for imposing...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 24, 2009 | Blog
The administration has rolled out its financial reform plan, which the president accurately calls the "the boldest set of reforms in financial regulation in 75 years." Rep. Barney Frank, the chair of the House Banking Committee, promises to act rapidly, hoping to pass...
by Bill Scher | Jun 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Can There Be Effective Health Care Compromise? Baucus and Conrad telling Bloomberg that WH wants them to compromise with GOP: "White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is 'open to...
by Bill Scher | Jun 23, 2009 | Blog
Last night came the surprising news that Speaker Pelosi is speeding the comprehensive clean energy and climate protection bill to the House floor this week despite uncertainty whether it will pass. And today, President Obama sought to boost the bill's chances by...
by Brian Dockstader | Jun 23, 2009 | Blog
This morning my breakfast was ruined, ruined by an anti-health care reform ad on TV. Now I've seen innumerable slimy, disingenuous attacks ads in my days, but for some reason this one in particular struck a nerve. Perhaps it was just that the flat-out lies and...
by Bill Scher | Jun 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
Carbon Cap Going to House Floor Friday Despite incomplete negotiations with rural Dems, House climate bill will head to the floor. Bloomberg: "The U.S. House of Representatives plans to vote on a proposed 'cap-and-trade' law to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the end...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 23, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
President Obama will get an opportunity in the coming weeks to show American workers that he has the mettle to get tough with China when that country flouts the basic principles of fair trade, and it will be on an issue in which he does not have the luxury of...
by Bill Scher | Jun 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
Will Senate Listen To 3/4 of US on Health Care? Second major poll finds huge support for public plan option. NYT: "72 percent of those questioned supported a government-administered insurance plan — something like Medicare for those under 65 — that would compete for...
by Leo Gerard | Jun 22, 2009 | Blog
Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele appears to be suffering from philosophical identity confusion. He’s got an organization named United STEELE Workers Union, white hardhat emblem and all, collecting members for him on Facebook. It had 255 worldwide as of June...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 21, 2009 | Blog, Economy
In a down economy, apologists for the awesomely affluent are having to dig deep for inspiration. In the process, they're getting dirty and looking dopey. In tough economic times, work for some people can suddenly become significantly more difficult. Take, for...
by Bill Scher | Jun 21, 2009 | Blog
The Senate and the Beltway media got the vapors last week when the Congressional Budget Office estimated the government cost of two draft Senate health care proposals to be above $1 trillion. With the media presenting the preliminary CBO price tag devoid of any...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2009 | Blog
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has been doing his best to block the most critical element of health care reform—a public health insurance option that can keep private insurers honest. Behind the scenes, progressive groups are preparing to fight back with the proposals that...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
Baucus Draft Dumps Public Plan Option W. Post's Ezra Klein assesses new health care draft from Senate Finance Cmte: The numbers tell the story. In that plan, subsidies reached 400 percent of poverty. In this plan, they've been cut to 300 percent. In that plan,...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 18, 2009 | Blog
It's been a wild couple of weeks for those of us in the wingnutology business. Our services have been in tremendous demand as the mainstream media tries to sort out the meaning of what Scott Roeder and James von Brunn did. I've done an average of one radio show every...
by Bill Scher | Jun 18, 2009 | Uncategorized
Despite Huge Support for Public Plan, Senate Slows Health Care Reform NYT offers misleading headline, "Obama Poll Sees Doubt on Budget and Health Care," yet NYT poll does not ask about the specifics of Obama's health care proposal. NBC/WSJ poll does ask, and finds...
by Eric Lotke | Jun 17, 2009 | Blog, Economy
I’m torn. On one hand, a wonderful event is taking place today, the annual U.S.-India Business Council “Synergies Summit” in Washington, DC. It is a high-powered business summit in the beautiful flag room of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. India West describes the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 17, 2009 | Blog
There's a reason why lawbreakers don't get to negotiate the terms of their punishment or their parole. There is no bartering to be done between the protectors of law and order and the violators of law and order. There are only two basic questions for the person who...
by Bill Scher | Jun 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
Fed To Get More Reg Power Under WH Plan W. Post receives WH white paper for market reform: "The administration's plan leans heavily on the Fed, expanding its role as the regulator of the nation's largest banks ... to include other giant financial firms ... The agency,...
by Tula Connell | Jun 17, 2009 | Blog, Making it in America
There they go again. Those running the show at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are attacking again the Buy American provision in the economic stimulus package. Ignoring, once more, that Buy American makes fundamental economic sense by ensuring at least some of our...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 17, 2009 | Blog
We're headed into the end game for health care reform. The president has put himself in the arena. The insurance lobby is unleashing the scare campaign. A strong bill will pass the House. But at this point, too many senators are still standing in the way. The reform...
by Bill Scher | Jun 16, 2009 | Blog
As the health care debate heats up, it becomes clearer why most politicians flinch from tackling major reforms, and why it's so difficult to engage grassroots citizens to influence policy debates. The clear philosophical debate -- should our government provide a...
by Bill Scher | Jun 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
Beware Incomplete CBO Health Care Analysis NYT and AP hand obstructionists new talking points and hype preliminary CBO analysis of Sen. Ted Kennedy's health care bill showing a "cost at least $1 trillion over 10 years but [would] only insure about 16 million" leaving...
by Alan Jenkins | Jun 15, 2009 | Blog
I learned last week that my friend and law school classmate Luke Cole had died in a car accident while vacationing with his wife in Uganda. Luke was an incredible guy with an infectious positive energy about him and the belief that he could change the world for the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
Obama Faces The AMA Health Care Blog's Michael Millenson previews today's presidential address to the AMA: "Look for Obama to remind the doctors how many more uninsured patients they’re seeing today and how much more involved Medicare has become in setting doctor pay...
by Sam Pizzigati | Jun 14, 2009 | Blog
Remember that $500,000 pay cap for bailed-out banking execs the White House announced in February? Under Treasury Secretary Geithner’s new rules for bailout pay, that max has become a minimum. Early this past February, amid escalating public fury over $165 million in...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 12, 2009 | Blog
Dear Conservatives: Your fellow Americans demand an answer -- and we want it now. Just one simple question: Are you deliberately trying to start a civil war? Just answer the question. Yes or no. Don't insult us with elisions, evasions, dithering, qualifications, or...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 12, 2009 | Uncategorized
Health Care Reform Hits the Road The health care reform battle is heating up on several fronts. While the president takes his reform message the people, the volunteers who powered his campaign are listening to Americans and gathering their stories. USAToday:...
by Tula Connell | Jun 11, 2009 | Blog
Big Business wants it both ways: It wants to wrap itself in the ol' red, white and blue while feeding the decline of the U.S. economy through its actual practices. Here's the latest example of such corporate hypocrisy. Over the Memorial Day weekend, J.C....
by Eric Lotke | Jun 11, 2009 | Blog
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched yesterday “a sweeping national advocacy campaign … to defend and advance America’s free enterprise values in the face of rapid government growth and attacks by anti-business activists.” The Chamber of Commerce doesn’t get it. They...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
Does the road to health care reform run through Wisconsin? Could the shape of health reform to come be based on a Wall Street model? Maybe, if you believe the reports that the health care reform outline circulating on the hill includes a scheme for a health insurance...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 10, 2009 | Blog
The storm I've been warning about is coming in faster now. It is time for the right to stand up against the escalating tide of violence fueled by its own rhetoric. To get a sense of just how fast, you only need to take stock of what's been happening on the right wing...
