by Sara Robinson | Apr 1, 2008 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
The old joke goes that there are two kinds of people in the world: those who think there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don't. Funny thing is: it's not a joke. In fact, it turns out that this one oddly recursive fact can tell us a whole lot about...
by Bill Scher | Apr 1, 2008 | Blog
In the final debate of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice-President Al Gore argued he would spend more on defense than his opponent. Then-Gov. George Bush retorted, "If this were a spending contest, I would come in second." A fair point. When it comes to public...
by Terrance Heath | Apr 1, 2008 | Blog
"I will restore honor and integrity to the White House." - George W. Bush It's low-hanging fruit, I know, but after reading yesterday's news, I had to chuckle to myself. Not necessarily at the misfortunes of the people involved, but at the context. Three...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 31, 2008 | Blog
Bear Stearns has been rescued, and its shareholders have been placated. Wall Street has several invigorating injections of billions of tax-payer dollars. Now that a great deal of public wealth has gone to prop up private wealth, maybe some of that public wealth can be...
by Bill Scher | Mar 30, 2008 | Blog
The Sunday shows disappoint once again, going 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham was not asked about how the increase in Iraqi sectarian violence squares with his claim last week that Iraq has "turned the corner." Graham was asked about...
by Bill Scher | Mar 28, 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 Robert Borosage | Mar 28, 2008 | Blog
By Rob Johnson and Robert Borosage The world has changed. The market fundamentalism that has dominated our economics over last three decades has been unmasked as a sham, deemed useless by the guardian of the integrity of finance itself, the Federal...
by Bill Scher | Mar 27, 2008 | Blog
This French gentleman (in a beret no less!) has a
by Bill Scher | Mar 27, 2008 | Blog
After Sen. McCain's speech on the credit crisis, our own Robert Borosage wrote: "John McCain delivered what was billed as a major policy address on the crisis – and advocated….essentially doing nothing more." Yesterday, Sen. Barack Obama made a similar charge: "In his...
by Eric Lotke | Mar 27, 2008 | Blog
A brand new Gallup poll reports: “Americans prioritize protecting the environment over economic growth by 49% to 42% -- but this seven-point margin is near the low of the past couple of decades.” This simple, perhaps disappointing poll, hides as much as it reveals....
by Sara Robinson | Mar 27, 2008 | Blog
Can we progressives -- who won't be caught dead these days calling ourselves liberals -- can we stop serving as a punching bag for the right? And speak with depth and conviction about the things that really matter to us? Once and for all, can we break through the...
by Bill Scher | Mar 26, 2008 | Blog
Over at Beat The Press, economist Dean Baker spots more disinformation from the Bush administration to undermine our pillars of retirement security: Bush Appointees Use Trustee Position to Advance Political Agenda That would have been the appropriate headline for a...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 26, 2008 | Blog
Like some middle class kids in my generation, education was a high priority. In my house it was emphasized as the doorway to upward mobility. (The idea of learning for learning's sake was something I discovered later.) If I wanted a "good job," I'd better...
by Bill Scher | Mar 26, 2008 | Blog
The New York Times "Caucus" blog asserts: "There’s also the matter of whether Senator Obama is too liberal to bring about the change and bipartisan unity he speaks about." Has the media ever the raised the question if a candidate is "too conservative" to bring about...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 26, 2008 | Blog
One in ten homes is “under water” – worth less than their mortgages. 2 million homeowners are headed to foreclosure. The shadow banking system verges on collapse. Banks across world are shaken. The world fears global recession. Fearful of a catastrophic unraveling,...
by Robert Borosage | Mar 25, 2008 | Blog
Our McCain ad struck a chord, eliciting both reason and vitriol. It strikes me that it is worth being clear what the ad says and doesn’t say. Other than the bad French accent, it isn’t anti-French, xenophobic or “racist.” It doesn’t accuse the French of taking jobs...
by Bill Scher | Mar 25, 2008 | Blog
Pat Buchanan's latest rantings, put in their place by Isaiah, are merely the starkest evidence of a conservative effort to undermine the objective of Sen. Barack Obama's historic "A More Perfect Union" address, the objective of unity. Not all conservatives are trying...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 25, 2008 | Blog
Part Seven of a Series Imagine that you've come upon two people who have somehow fallen into a very deep hole, which neither of them can climb out of on their own. (Nor, for some reason, can they help one another climb out.) In the course of figuring out what to do,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 24, 2008 | Blog
MSNBC has another Imus problem, and his name is Pat Buchanan. In fact, the racist drivel that Buchanan has recently penned (posted on Human Events, among other places) is arguably more offensive than the insult Don Imus thoughtlessly tossed at the Rutgers University...
by Bill Scher | Mar 24, 2008 | Blog
Holding guests accountable for their past statements proved too much for the Sunday shows, which went 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. On CBS' Face The Nation, Sen. Lindsey Graham was not asked to explain his 2007 observation of the Iraqi government: "If they can’t do it by...
by Bill Scher | Mar 22, 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 | Mar 21, 2008 | Blog, Economy
The Campaign for America’s Future has released a 30-second video that mocks Sen. John McCain’s involvement in an Air Force tanker contract that, as a result of McCain’s intervention, has gone to the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), the parent...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 19, 2008 | Blog
Given the headlines of the past few weeks, it's perhaps no surprise that the number one issue on the minds of Take Back America participants is the economy, according to a poll done by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and Politico.com. "The economy and jobs" was...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 19, 2008 | Blog
I sat on the panel on "Blog Power: 2008 and Beyond" at the Take Back America conference Tuesday, alongside Pam Spaulding, Digby, Tracy Russo, and Chris Bowers. Towards the end, someone in the audience asked a question that made me think about what being a progressive...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
Norman Lear was the too-rare Hollywood producer who could get television audiences to laugh heartily and think deeply at the same time. Television shows like "All in the Family," "The Jeffersons" and "One Day At a Time" not only entertained but enriched by tackling...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
One of the underappreciated success stories of 2008 is the growing ability of the progressive movement to accumulate resources and use them to push toward a set of common goals. That was on clear display at a news conference here at the Take Back America conference,...
by Sara Robinson | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
A while back, while I was deep in the midst of my maundering three-week wander
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
At the "New Green Deal" luncheon, Majora Carter of Sustainable South Bronx just delivered one of the most powerful presentations heard at Take Back America 2008, detailing her efforts to bring green-collar jobs and open spaces, sparking a transformation of the poorest...
by Bill Scher | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
Earlier this morning at Take Back America 2008, some of the leading lights of the progressive blogosphere -- Chris Bowers, Digby, Terrance Heath, Tracy Russo and Pam Spaulding -- gathered to discuss how blogs have successfully influenced the political and media...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 18, 2008 | Blog
In the heat of the 1960s civil rights movement, Rev. Jesse Jackson was a young lieutenant to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Roger Wilkins was a White House insider. But reflecting on their different vantage points at the Take Back America conference, they have...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 17, 2008 | Blog
Starting with Monday's panel, "Health Care For All: The Plan to Get There," during Take Back America we're talking about health care. Every day. It's obvious why. Health care is a concern for every family in America — those with insurance and the 47 million...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 17, 2008 | Blog
A rattled Wall Street. Families imperiled by record foreclosures and rising unemployment. A stymied Congress. A five-year war in Iraq that continues to take lives. The Take Back America conference launched Monday amid some of the most dismal headlines in years, and...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 17, 2008 | Blog
In a previous post last week I alluded to the news that right now Iraq has something we haven't had in a while: a budget surplus. Apparently, oil revenues are so good that Iraq is rolling in oil money. But even though that surplus isn't going to pay for the basic...
by Bill Scher | Mar 15, 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 | Mar 14, 2008 | Blog
When free market fundamentalists like those in the Bush administration start at federal government action, after two interest rate cuts didn't do much to stall stop the economy sliding into recession, you know things have reached a crisis point. By the time they start...
by Tula Connell | Mar 14, 2008 | Blog
What is it about teachers that reactionaries don't like? Maybe it's because an educated electorate poses a threat to those who seek to control the public—"Danger: Educated Union Member" is one of our favorite phrases—and so teachers pose an easy target for the...
by Eric Lotke | Mar 13, 2008 | Blog, Economy
Modern conservatism is dying. There’s still an election to be held, but conservatism as we’ve known it since Ronald Reagan is failing—ground down in the desert of Iraq, drowned in the floods of Hurricane Katrina, foreclosed by the housing crisis and poisoned by...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Mar 13, 2008 | Blog
On the eve of this year's "Take Back America" conference, that phrase is no longer a rallying cry to a distant goal—it is something that now, more than ever, progressives can concretely and imminently accomplish. The signs are everywhere, according to the report the...
by Terrance Heath | Mar 13, 2008 | Blog
So, say you're the Bush administration. If you've invaded a country and launched an occupation that's cost thousands of American lives, untold Iraqi lives, and shattered others, and left some damaged beyond repair, what do you do if — after pouring over 600,000...
by Sara Robinson | Mar 11, 2008 | Blog
Part I Part II The conservative worldview has succeeded so wildly -- and is still holding such tenacious sway over the ways Americans approach their current stack of problems -- because the conservatives started out 30 years ago with a focused plan that put promoting...
