by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 4, 2008 | Blog
Sam Zell, an idiosyncratic real estate magnate, is making quite a name for himself these days as the man who is gutting the newspaper chain that owns the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. But he is about to become notorious as a tax evader — a legal tax evader,...
by Terrance Heath | Aug 1, 2008 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Bill Scher | Aug 1, 2008 | Blog
by Sara Robinson | Aug 1, 2008 | Blog
Obamaone1by dollarsandsense123 Having apparently decided that the hole isn't nearly deep enough yet (which is to say: they haven't struck oil, but they do seem have located a big fat gushing sewer main), the Republicans seem doggedly determined to keep digging. This...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Aug 1, 2008 | Blog
Wal-Mart's war against workers has reached a new low, based on information published in Friday's Wall Street Journal. The newspaper not only reports that "thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 31, 2008 | Blog
Today, ExxonMobil reported that it broke its own record for highest corporate profit in a quarter: $11.68 billion. The rest of the Big Oil posse is rocking and rolling as well: Shell's profits are up 33%, BP is up 28% and ConocoPhillips is up 13%. So in case you...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 31, 2008 | Blog
I don't remember how old I was the first time it happened. I couldn't have been more than ten years old. We were in Philadelphia — my mother, my younger sister, and I — visiting my great grandfather on my mother's side of the family. For my sister and me, it was our...
by Eric Lotke | Jul 31, 2008 | Blog
Last year on August 1, the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour. Thirteen people died and more than 100 were wounded. A school bus carrying 52 children teetered on the brink but did not fall. This bridge is not alone. Our nation’s infrastructure is...
by Bill Scher | Jul 31, 2008 | Blog
Pollsters keeping asking this summer about coastal drilling, and support has certainly risen in the wake of a coordinated conservative propaganda campaign and the absence of an effective coordinated response. Blaring headlines have followed: "Americans favor offshore...
by Bill Scher | Jul 30, 2008 | Blog
Conservatives keep saying progressives only say "No" when it comes to energy. But in reality, congressional leaders have repeatedly supported legislation to invest in generating clean American enegy, supporting energy-efficiency and even accelerating oil drilling...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 30, 2008 | Blog
You can tell a lot about a person by what in their medicine cabinet. A quick peek during a trip to the bathroom and the nosy neighbor could find out whose taking anti-depressants or birth control pills. Maybe someone is being treated for heart disease or bipolar...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 30, 2008 | Blog
Like Rodney Dangerfield, this Congress doesn't get much respect. Americans rate it slightly above sludge, but below George Bush, the least admired president in the history of polling. McCain strategists hope to discredit Barack Obama by linking him to Democratic...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 29, 2008 | Blog
If Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives go forward with a floor vote to hold ex-White House chief of staff Karl Rove in contempt of Congress, a petition drive spearheaded by Brave New Films, People for the American Way, the Campaign for America's Future...
by Sara Robinson | Jul 29, 2008 | Blog
Los Angeles rocked and rolled its way through a 5.8 earthquake shortly before noon today. In California, that's considered a good middling-size shake -- enough to throw stuff off bookshelves, pop tile off the walls, instigate minor power and phone interruptions, and...
by Anne Thompson | Jul 29, 2008 | Blog
Campaign for America's Future, in conjunction with the new campaign Health Care for America Now, captures the health insurance industry failing to deliver on its promise to listen to citizens’ ideas about how to create “affordable, high quality health care for every...
by Sara Robinson | Jul 29, 2008 | Blog
We are an odd group, we Unitarians. Conventional wisdom says that we're soft in all the places our society values toughness. Our refusal to adhere to any dogma must mean that we're soft in our convictions. Our reflexive open-mindedness is often derided as evidence...
by Alan Jenkins | Jul 28, 2008 | Blog
There is a saying in many African-American communities that our system of criminal “justice” means “just us.” While overstated, the expression reflects longstanding, as well as very recent, experiences of racial profiling and unequal treatment. For many years the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 28, 2008 | Blog
Who is really going to benefit from opening up our coastal shores to oil drilling? You, or Big Oil? Follow the money and get your answer. Last month, Sen. John McCain changed his position on coastal oil drilling. And all of a sudden, the fossil fuel crowd took a big...
by Bill Scher | Jul 28, 2008 | Blog
The Sunday shows disappoint once again, going 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. Despite the controversy surrounding Sen. John McCain's claim that the "surge" strategy created the "Anbar Awakening" of Iraqi Sunni militias turning against foreign Al Qaeda fighters, when the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 25, 2008 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Bill Scher | Jul 25, 2008 | Blog
As a good liberal returning today from a vacation in Canada, I’m supposed to report back on the awesomeness of Canada for its health care. But I will not. Instead, I report to you about Canada's perverse attitude about Arctic oil drilling. As The Globe and Mail...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 24, 2008 | Blog, Minimum Wage
The second of three annual minimum-wage increases enacted by Congress goes into effect today, raising the wage floor to $6.55 an hour. Late Wednesday the Campaign for America's Future focused on this positive development for workers in its latest issue alert. As we...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 23, 2008 | Blog
By the time a good idea makes it to Congress — and actually gets some serious consideration — it is no longer an idea whose time has come, but one whose time is way overdue. Such is the case as Congress takes up the issue of CEO pay, while staring in the...
by Robert Borosage | Jul 23, 2008 | Blog
Now we're in the presidential campaign's silly season. The primaries are over; the conventions yet to come. Americans are tuning out politics and dialing in baseball and the Olympics, vacations and the price of gas. Senator Barack Obama is traveling abroad,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 22, 2008 | Blog
The health insurance industry is launching a public relations and lobbying campaign today that is designed to convince people that they are on the side of reform even as they support a status-quo solution suspiciously similar to one pushed by Sen. John McCain and...
by Terrance Heath | Jul 21, 2008 | Blog
It looks like another 0-for-3 weekend for the watchdog, as the Sunday shows and their guests managed to avoid the watchdog's questions. Rarely has so much been said, in fact, while providing so few answers. Henry Paulson, on Face the Nation, mentioned "regulators"...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 21, 2008 | Blog
Netroots Nations participants have four clear priorities for the next president: ending the war in Iraq, addressing the global warming crisis, obtaining health care for all and clsing the growing gap between the rich and poor, according to a straw poll done by...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 21, 2008 | Blog
It’s not just the country’s energy usage that has to urgently move from fossil fuels to new, sustainable energy sources, environmental and social justice activist Van Jones told Netroots Nation participants. The progressive movement itself, he said, has to go “from...
by Bill Scher | Jul 20, 2008 | Blog
At Netroots Nation, I talked with Melinda Gibson of the Health Care for America Now coalition, soon after she debuted a new (and hilarious) video taking on the insurance companies in advance of an expected battle between the public interest and special interest....
by Bill Scher | Jul 19, 2008 | Blog
Long-time Texas populist Jim Hightower shared a few minutes with me at Netroots Nation to talk about how blogging is changing the face of Texas politics, giving progressive populists a revitalized voice in the Lone Star State. He also discussed the degree of populism...
by Bill Scher | Jul 19, 2008 | Blog
Every Friday in our Weekend Watchdog feature, we post suggested questions for scheduled Sunday guests. You can add your own questions in the comment thread. We'll also include contact information for the shows, so we can let them know what their viewers want asked....
by Bill Scher | Jul 19, 2008 | Blog
A second environmental panel at Netroots Nation focused on "Debunking The Issue Silo Myth," the myth that environmental issues only exist in their own "silo," when in fact they are directly relevant to economic growth, poverty, health and national security issues....
by Bill Scher | Jul 18, 2008 | Blog
Following the Netroots Nation panel on fighting for the middle-class, I spoke with panelist David Goldstein of HA Seattle, and got his take on the challenges bloggers face in framing the issues that impact the middle-class.
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 18, 2008 | Blog
I was sitting in an Austin, Texas, restaurant, eating a concoction made with corn chips, chili and cheese, when the federal government announced that tomatoes that had been suspected as the source of an e.coli outbreak were now safe to eat. The jalapenos that topped...
by Bill Scher | Jul 18, 2008 | Blog
Energize America is a 20-point plan to achieve "Energy Security by 2020, and Energy Freedom by 2040," developed by citizen activists who gathered at DailyKos.com. The leaders of Energize America, joined by several rising political stars, just completed a Netroots...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 18, 2008 | Blog
It seems that whenever that old cliche applies, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," the Bush administration finds new ways to respond, "We're breaking it. The fix is in." One of the things that the Bush administration is breaking now is public transportation for school...
by Bill Scher | Jul 18, 2008 | Blog
In a Hill article about certain Washington Democrats skittish about the timing of Al Gore's call to "end our reliance on carbon-based fuels," Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) makes a illuminating, short-sighted statement: I think the American public will be much more...
by Bill Scher | Jul 17, 2008 | Blog
Individualistic "netroots" bloggers are at the forefront of new media technology, and are looking for ways to improve coordination and broad the reach of their ideas. Labor unions have been organizing and coordinating for decades, and are looking for ways to maximize...
by Leo Gerard | Jul 17, 2008 | Blog
With a motorcycle police escort, the United Steelworkers' "Toxic Trader" puppet lurched down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House, on his way to the Grand Hyatt Hotel on H Street in Washington, D.C. on July 9. That is where the Bush administration-backed Import...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 17, 2008 | Blog
Earlier this week, MoveOn's Tom Matzzie raised the alarm about the success the alliance of conservatives and Big Oil has had in convincing voters that massive amounts of new drilling for oil is essential to solve our energy crisis. And he was right to. As he pointed...
