by Bill Scher | Apr 23, 2008 | Blog
You may not know this, but our media often reports on important issues that affect our lives. However, the reporters on the presidential campaign beat and the punditocracy then choose to assume voters care more about guilt-by-association charges, silly surrogate...
by Sara Robinson | Apr 22, 2008 | Blog
One of the trickiest parts of dealing with the extremist right is figuring out whether a given group is just harmless garden-variety crazy -- or harboring the special kind of insanity that will lead to acts of local violence or outright domestic terror. it's a...
by Bill Scher | Apr 22, 2008 | Blog
You may recall that last year, the Bush administration issued new State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) regulations that threatened states trying to provide health insurance to kids from squeezed middle-class families, which could put pressure on states to...
by Bill Scher | Apr 22, 2008 | Blog
Just before the Iowa caucuses, I wrote that the process let us know what Iowa voters wanted: economic populism, health care for all, clean energy, affordable education and ending the Iraq occupation. And just before the Pennsylvania primary, we know that political...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 22, 2008 | Blog
It's now more clear than ever that the so-called economic stimulus package Congress passed earlier this year is inadequate. It is now time to demand that Congress get to work on finishing the job by passing a second economic stimulus package in the coming weeks—and do...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 21, 2008 | Blog
Perhaps the ultimate workplace expression of conservative "you're-on-your-own" ideology is FedEx Ground, where all of the workers who deliver packages are not FedEx employees but are independent contractors. FedEx sells that as "the ability to grow your own business."...
by Bill Scher | Apr 21, 2008 | Blog
With an extra dose on attention on ABC's George Stephanopoulos after the "Worst Debate Ever," he still failed to put the Watchdog's key questions to Sen. John McCain. He came close, bringing up McCain's contradictory statements on the economy -- even doing the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 18, 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 Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 18, 2008 | Blog
by Bill Scher | Apr 17, 2008 | Blog
Hey ABC. Next time, instead getting your debate questions spoon-fed from Sean Hannity, maybe listen to those of us here at Campaign for America's Future. Then you won't get your reputation mocked by your peers in journalism, and more importantly for their bottom...
by Bill Scher | Apr 16, 2008 | Blog
President Bush just finished his latest empty speech on global warming. As usual, it was designed to give of appearance of action without actually acting. He did not take questions, presumably because he knows the flimsy rhetoric could not withstand five seconds of...
by Bill Scher | Apr 16, 2008 | Blog
Last week, Al Meyerhoff offered a series of thoughtful questions for tonight's debate between Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, 8 PM ET on ABC. In the desperate hope it won't be 90 minutes of blather about supposed gaffes that voters appear completely...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 16, 2008 | Blog, Economy
On Wall Street, the masters of the universe have turned to prayer and worry beads. At the Federal Reserve, a full night’s sleep is a fading memory. Across Main Street, the recession is starting to hit, stores are shutting down, bankruptcies are spreading, houses are...
by Sara Robinson | Apr 16, 2008 | Blog
John McCain, who from the early 1980s worked hard to establish himself the one of the Senate's shining champions of Vietnam veterans' issues, completed his betrayal of the Iraq-era troops today. Brandon Friedman of vetvoice.com has the details: Yesterday VoteVets.org...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 15, 2008 | Blog
It's almost quitting time, and if you've put off your taxes and haven't paid them online, you've probably scoped out the post office in your neighborhood with the latest closing time. Or maybe you're planning to speed to the nearest one before it closes. Chances are...
by Tula Connell | Apr 15, 2008 | Blog, Minimum Wage
In August 2004, Hector Alino Martinez and three other Colombian trade unionists were dragged out of their homes and assassinated in the streets of Caño Seco. The men were among 96 unionists killed in Colombia that year. But supporters of Bush's drive to ram the...
by Bill Scher | Apr 15, 2008 | Blog
Today is Tax Day, the deadline for filing our tax returns. It is fundamentally a patriotic day, the day where we citizens fund our own government. We are no longer ruled by monarchs who govern by the power of their own wealth. With taxation, we have representation. We...
by Bill Scher | Apr 14, 2008 | Blog
It was nearly one year go when a conservative filibuster stifled the new congressional majority, did the bidding of the pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and kept the ban on Medicare from negotiating with companies to lower drug costs. So what's been happening...
by Bill Scher | Apr 14, 2008 | Blog
Sen. John McCain, today, from The Politico: Asking for a dose of straight talk, AP's Liz Sidoti asked McCain if the country had entered recession. "I certainly think so," McCain replied. John McCain, January 10, 2008, at a GOP presidential debate: And by the way, I...
by Bill Scher | Apr 14, 2008 | Blog
A particularly shameful day for the Sunday shows, which once again went 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. It is simply pathetic that ABC's This Week failed to ask National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley about the latest bombshell report, from ABC no less, that senior Bush...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 13, 2008 | Blog, Economy
Honest discussion about the roots of working-class angst and how to address it has gotten seriously burned in the firestorm of controversy fanned around comments by Sen. Barack Obama that working-class people are "bitter" about the economy and government. However...
by Bill Scher | Apr 11, 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 | Apr 11, 2008 | Blog
Two weeks ago, I criticized the McCain campaign for claiming it was proposing solutions for the housing crisis, while refusing to offer any policy ideas. But after some supporters chided McCain for offering nothing of substance, he tried for a re-do, delivering a new...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 10, 2008 | Blog
These are excerpts of remarks delivered April 9 at the Conference on a New New Deal in Washington, sponsored by the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Let me offer a simple set of propositions. 1. Conservatism has failed—and conservatives, while they...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 10, 2008 | Blog
It's almost a shame that the subprime mortgage bonanza burned out before the sun finally sets on the George W. Bush administration. After all, they managed to lure Americans into a war we didn't need and couldn't afford, then stuck us with a ballooning bill and never...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 9, 2008 | Blog
by Bill Scher | Apr 9, 2008 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
Earlier this week, I mentioned that the conservative blog RedState is trying to pressure the traditional media to treat critiques of John McCain's embrace of a 100-year occupation of Iraq as lies and distortion. Today, RedState sent an email alert to readers to...
by Robert Borosage | Apr 9, 2008 | Blog
The economy is tanking. Gas is headed to $4 a gallon. One in ten homes are “under water,” worth less than their mortgages. The International Monetary Fund predicts up to $1 trillion in financial losses, meaning banks and securities firms that have written off abut...
by Bill Scher | Apr 9, 2008 | Blog
Based on the opening statements from Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker, shifting blame onto Iran for the continuing violence in Iraq appeared to be a major objective of their congressional testimony. Establishing that blame helps conservatives make a...
by Sara Robinson | Apr 9, 2008 | Blog
In last week's essay, I noted that our ability to function effectively as a nation has been deeply compromised by the conservative movement's reflexive reliance on Us-versus-Them politics. Allowing a winners-and-losers worldview to dominate our country is a dangerous...
by Bill Scher | Apr 8, 2008 | Blog
When Gen. David Petraeus testifies today about the status of the Iraq occupation, I'll be thinking about my neighborhood elementary school. Because the Bridge Street School in Northampton, Mass., may have to close for lack of funds, while we continue to waste billions...
by Bill Scher | Apr 7, 2008 | Blog
Conservatives continue to complain when people bring up Sen. John McCain's support of a 100-year military presence in Iraq. We don't want 100 year of war, they insist. They just want our troops to, in McCain's words, "maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 7, 2008 | Blog
Despite an attempt to take a bigger bite, the watchdog came up short once more, going 0-for-5 on the Sunday shows. On Meet the Press, Sen. Bob Casey was not asked about the Senate's comprise bill on foreclosure relief, in which actual funding for foreclosure relief...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 4, 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 Terrance Heath | Apr 4, 2008 | Blog
We are all, as Sean Gonsalves wrote, morally exhausted from dealing with and talking about race. But, to borrow from an old spiritual, we have little choice but to "run on, see what the end will be," because the exhausting race is the only way forward. It's the door...
by Bill Scher | Apr 3, 2008 | Blog
It's an annual Beltway ritual. The group Citizens Against Government Waste releases the "Pig Book," detailing all the so-called "pork" coming out of Congress. Outrage is ginned up over all the wacky things congresspeople are funding: Fruit fly research! Bear DNA!...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 3, 2008 | Blog
Well, that didn't take long. Ya gotta admire people who know how to get results, and get them fast. For that reason, I've got to take my hat off to the National Association of Home Builders, for pulling off something almost worthy of Wall Street: their own version of...
by Bill Scher | Apr 2, 2008 | Blog
I feel like I see ads for the deceptively-named "Free Credit Report" more and more and more, as if the worse the economy gets, the more companies seek to prey on those who are struggling. As you may know (but obviously not enough do), Free Credit Report is a...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Apr 2, 2008 | Blog, Minimum Wage
“You know, Jesus reminded us in a magnificent parable one day that a man went to hell because he didn't see the poor. … And I come by here to say that America, too, is going to hell, if we don't use her wealth. If America does not use her vast resources of wealth to...
by Bill Scher | Apr 2, 2008 | Blog
At yesterday's House Energy Independence and Global Warming committee hearing, oil executives railed against proposals to invest in renewable energy. In particular, ExxonMobil executive J. Stephen Simon said, "government mandates and subsidies distort market forces...
