by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 25, 2008 | Blog
The Bush administration's gross abuse of presidential power demands that we insist on the next president reversing the damage done to the constitutional principle of separation of powers. The reversal of the imperial presidency, a mainstay of the right from Nixon...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 25, 2008 | Blog
Over the course of my master's program, I've had some tortured conversations with my dean over the direction my research is taking. He's been poking at me (and, being an atheist who was raised by Jesuits, he's one of those gentle souls who knows how to poke sharp and...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 25, 2008 | Blog
One of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's first acts upon taking the gavel was to rule impeachment off the table. She wanted Democrats to focus on challenging the president on the war and on kitchen table concerns — from energy to education to health care. With...
by Bill Scher | Jun 24, 2008 | Blog
After a big PR push to exploit public frustration with high gas prices and open up our coastlines to more oil drilling, the facts on how little drilling can help are starting to surface. Recall that last week, President George Bush said coastal drilling was part of...
by Bill Scher | Jun 23, 2008 | Blog
by Terrance Heath | Jun 23, 2008 | Blog
This Sunday was a real head-scratcher for the Watchdog. Depending on how you look a it we 0-for-3, because none of our questions were asked. On the other hand, maybe we 2-for-3, since two of our questions were answered even though they weren't asked. On ABC's This...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 20, 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 | Jun 20, 2008 | Blog
The latest Bloggingheads.tv installment of The Week In Blog features myself and The Next Right's Jon Henke discussing the Bush-McCain plan to allow oil drilling all across America's coastlines. Check it out below.
by Eric Lotke | Jun 20, 2008 | Blog
Why is it that people who question globalization are treated like Neanderthals? You’re a protectionist, critics charge. Globalization is here to stay; you can’t turn back the clock, you Neanderthal! Besides, look at all the great stuff we get for cheap! Well, we can...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2008 | Blog
After having issued 10 veto threats in May, President Bush has issued another nine in the first three weeks of June, obstructing bills that would help fight global warming, help the long-term unemployed, continue passenger rail funding and provide a comprehensive set...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2008 | Blog
If Washington conservatives are worried about the upcoming federal elections, then you can bet Big Oil is worried too. Sure, at the moment, Senate conservatives can filibuster legislation that would repeal oil subsidies, implement tax policy that prods oil companies...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 19, 2008 | Blog
It's the kind of thing that's easily written off as a photo opportunity: a presidential candidate sitting down with a worried student and a financial aid administrator, working out a plan to help the student pay for her education. But, not if the candidate is one who...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2008 | Blog, Economy
The Government Accountability Office gave American workers and the principle of fairness a victory when it ruled that that a multibillion-dollar Air Force tanker contract was improperly awarded to a consortium that included the French company EADS, makers of Airbus,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2008 | Blog
Much of the political discussion surrounding the call from President George Bush and Senator John McCain for more coastal drilling centers on Florida, a crucial swing state that has long protected its coastline to keep its tourism industry thriving. With Obama inching...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog
The current debate over offshore oil leases has put America's gargantuan energy appetite back on the discussion table this week. I've tried to stay out of it so far for two reasons. The first is that (here comes the full disclosure) I married into a family that's been...
by Bill Scher | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog
President George Bush. The former oilman who had to know that higher oil prices were inevitable yet did nothing in eight years to increase the supply of clean energy alternatives and expand energy-efficiency. The man who said in every single State of the Union address...
by Bill Scher | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog
Fox News Sunday invited the head of the American Petroleum Institute, the lobbying arm of Big Oil, to discuss high energy prices. MSNBC's Morning Joe just had on former CEO of General Electric Jack Welch, who deemed more drilling for tiny amounts of oil in...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog
America's banker isn't happy. At the World Trade Organization, China's representatives call on the U.S. to halt the decline of the dollar that has contributed to the rising price of food and oil (and racked up staggering losses in the value to China's $1.5 trillion in...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 18, 2008 | Blog
First John McCain, then Newt Gingrich, and now president Bush — in an apparent about-face that puts him in the position of opposing both his father and his brother — has taken to peddling offshore drilling as the quickest way to ease consumer pain at the...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 17, 2008 | Blog
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is spearheading a new campaign that obscures the facts about the practical impact of opening up new lands to oil drilling. You may have already seen the ads while surfing the Web: "Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less." Don't be fooled....
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 17, 2008 | Blog
The propaganda machine supporting school vouchers, headquartered in the office of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, is determined not to let the facts get in the way of conservative ideological spin. The press release for a report released Monday on the D.C....
by Bill Scher | Jun 17, 2008 | Blog
As Sen. John McCain gears up to give a speech in Houston, repeating his call to lift the moratorium on most drilling off America's shores, MSNBC's First Read suggests, "McCain’s call for lifting the ban could ... be seen as a pragmatic, short-term solution to high...
by Bill Scher | Jun 16, 2008 | Blog
As chronicled here, first Sen. John McCain delivered a incoherent global warming speech, offering a set of principles for legislation that are contradictory. The incoherence continued, when he expressed support for global warming legislation from his close ally Sen....
by Alan Jenkins | Jun 16, 2008 | Blog
The nation’s eyes are again on Iowa this week, as its residents struggle with the aftermath of violent storms and devastating flooding. People from Cedar Rapids to Columbus Junction to Des Moines are dealing with the tragic loss of life and the grim destruction of...
by Bill Scher | Jun 16, 2008 | Blog
In the latest Bloggingheads.tv installment of "The Week In Blog" with The Heritage Foundation's Conn Carroll and myself, Conn offered a talking point I've been hearing a lot from conservatives lately: that America has the second highest corporate tax rate in the...
by Sara Robinson | Jun 13, 2008 | Blog
Twenty years ago this spring, the small software company I was working for hired in a new vice president of advertising to be, among other things, my boss. The guy, who'd come from running his own agency, was a CEO crony. He had all kinds of old-hippie cred (he'd...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 13, 2008 | Blog
McClatchy Newspapers is scheduled on Sunday to release a major investigation of the facts behind the detention of some 66 people in Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan by the U.S. government. It will bolster one inescapable conclusion: President Bush, by sanctioning a...
by Terrance Heath | Jun 13, 2008 | Blog
Part Eight of a Series Remember subprime mortgages? They've been nudged out of the headlines by gas prices lately, but they — and the crisis catalyzed by the collapse of the subprime market — are still news. Bear Stearns (Remember them?) is finally,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 13, 2008 | Blog
What we've been calling e. coli conservatism is a major factor in the salmonella outbreak in tomatoes that has led to at least 228 illnesses and one suspected death. The outbreak took place several months after the Food and Drug Administration, the agency responsible...
by Bill Scher | Jun 12, 2008 | Blog
Earlier this week, I noted that media stars Charlie Gibson and Maria Batriromo have pushed the idea that households earning $200,000 are not wealthy, even though they are in the top 3.5% of the country. This morning, conservative commentator Ben Stein upped the ante,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 12, 2008 | Blog
Both the Obama and McCain campaigns see a need to reach out to Sen. Hillary Clinton's predominantly female hard-core supporters. There is growing pressure on Obama to deliver a speech on sexism as good as his speech on race relations to retain Clinton backers. And...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 12, 2008 | Blog
The appointment of Jason Furman as economic policy director for the Barack Obama presidential campaign has caused a stir. Furman was executive director of the Hamilton Project, a project created by Citibank chair and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, largely to...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 12, 2008 | Blog
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is on a path to finish the job Hurricane Katrina started, destroying the public infrastructure that served, however imperfectly, poor and working-class New Orleans residents. Jindal, the young wunderkind who is being touted as...
by Bill Scher | Jun 11, 2008 | Blog
After passing last month a penny-ante compromise bill on energy, Senate leaders finally launched a real confrontation over the direction of our energy policy. And the Senate conservative minority was exposed, as they
by Robert Borosage | Jun 11, 2008 | Blog
Monday in Raleigh, North Carolina, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama opened the general election fight, taking the gloves off against the "tired and misguided [economic] philosophy that has dominated Washington for too long," and offering a clear challenge to the Bush-McCain...
by Eric Lotke | Jun 10, 2008 | Blog
I had the privilege Tuesday morning of attending a hearing by Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on the issue of America’s decaying infrastructure. It was an important hearing and everyone said the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 10, 2008 | Blog
One of America's most well-known "business" journalists believes that households who earn more than $200,000 a year are "not rich." In reality, they make up the top 3.5% of all American households. CNBC's Maria Bartiromo made her mis-observation to the New York Post,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 9, 2008 | Blog
Last month, Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton effectively tried to tag-team Sen. Barack Obama on the gas tax, with the two advocating a summer suspension of the gas tax, and Obama countering that it's a gimmick that wouldn't provide real short-term relief nor...
by Bill Scher | Jun 9, 2008 | Blog
Last month, Democrats and Republicans released competing energy bills. The only thing they agreed on was a temporary suspension of filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, although estimates said it would knock 5 cents, at best, off the per gallon price. That...
by Bill Scher | Jun 9, 2008 | Blog
Not fair to say the Sunday shows were bereft of issues on Sunday, yet they still flinched from the tough questions and went 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. No supporter of the Iraq invasion and occupation was asked about the bipartisan Senate report finding the Bush...
