by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2007 | Blog
Michael Moore and CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta faced off yesterday on Larry King Live, following Moore's on-air criticism of Gupta's anti-SiCKO piece which accused Moore of "fudg[ing] some facts." Moore, on his website, is ably taking Gupta to task on the factual points....
by Bill Scher | Jul 11, 2007 | Blog
A new bipartisan global warming "cap-and-trade" bill is being unveiled today by Sens. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. and Arlen Specter, R-Penn., and the sponsors are succeeding in getting the media to christen it with the coveted "middle ground" and "compromise" labels. But...
by Bill Scher | Jul 10, 2007 | Blog
Yesterday, Michael Moore slapped CNN silly. CNN's The Situation Room ran a piece taking inaccurate shots at Moore's SiCKO right before having Moore on to be interviewed. Moore proceeded to rip CNN's credbility, and later, posted a point-by-point rebuttal on his...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 10, 2007 | Blog
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has lately been taking a tough line on ending the Iraq war. That comes in the face of weeks of stubborn Republican opposition to any attempt to bring the troops home or to even curb President Bush’s imperial use of power to keep the...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog
As I've reported twice before, Rep. John Dingell, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and longtime ally of automakers, has been sending mixed messages about his intentions on global warming. It's been unclear if that's because his views were evolving in a...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog
As MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser predicted Friday, Saturday's Virtual Town Hall Meeting on the Climate Crisis was highlighted by the leading presidential candidates embracing a "cap-and-auction" approach to slash global warming pollution. And pretty much across the board,...
by Roger Hickey | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog
Americans want big changes in our heath care system. And now Michael Moore's great new film, "SiCKO," is helping to turn a desire for change into a crusade for change. Now breaking box office records in its second week in theaters, "SiCKO" conveys powerfully...
by Bill Scher | Jul 9, 2007 | Blog
For the third week in a row, the Sunday shows go 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. None of the shows raised the possibility that the commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence is an act of obstruction of justice, even though the Founders did not believe the pardon power...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2007 | 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 6, 2007 | Blog
Earlier today, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., Apollo Alliance President Jerome Ringo and MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser addressed the media, offered their support for tomorrow's global event Live Earth, and turned the spotlight towards solutions to the climate crisis. Ringo...
by Bill Scher | Jul 6, 2007 | Blog
One of the many contentious issues in crafting clean energy policies is the role of biofuels -- particularly ethanol, which now primarily comes from corn. They help reduce the need for fossil fuels and foreign oil, but the process to create the fuel potentially...
by Bill Scher | Jul 5, 2007 | Blog
Saturday’s Live Earth global event will hopefully take the global warming issue beyond raising awareness and towards rallying support around a comprehensive solution. As Eric Alterman and I said in our recent bloggingheads.tv segment, the film “An Inconvenient Truth”...
by Bill Scher | Jul 3, 2007 | Blog
Michael Moore's SiCKO is not only impacting the box office -- earning the 2nd-highest opening in history for a documentary -- it's also sparking health care activism at the local level. Moore generated much attention last month when joined the California Nurses...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jul 2, 2007 | Blog
"Sicko" is required viewing, not because it's a contender for the Oscar for Best Picture—though given this year's paltry offerings, anything is possible—but because it is far better than the play now being staged by the White House. Two days before Michael...
by Bill Scher | Jul 2, 2007 | Blog
I had the pleasure of doing a BloggingHeads.tv segment with Eric Alterman, where we had a lively discussion about how to handle the obstructionist conservative minority, how SiCKO will impact the health care debate, and more. To watch our entire diavlog, click here....
by Bill Scher | Jul 2, 2007 | Blog
Over the weekend, bloggers responded to Robert Borosage's call to "Expose The Obstructionists" and sign our petition, urging Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to force conservatives to filibuster popular legislation in broad daylight. Digby deemed the petition smart...
by Bill Scher | Jul 1, 2007 | Blog
For the second week in a row, the Sunday shows go 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. ABC's This Week allowed Sen. Joe Lieberman to go on-and-on about bipartisanship, yet failed to ask him what he would do to stop the litany of conservative obstruction. On CBS' Face The Nation,...
by Bill Scher | Jun 29, 2007 | 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 29, 2007 | Blog
In my update on energy legislation in the House, I neglected to mention that included in the energy package is funding for training in high-skill, clean energy jobs. That's a similar initiative to what already cleared the Senate, making it very likely to be part of...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 29, 2007 | Blog, Minimum Wage
Americans elected a new Congress to get things done. But the conservative minority has chosen a strategy of obstruction in the Senate. They have used the threat of a filibuster to delay or block virtually every major initiative. Bills with majority support—raising the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 28, 2007 | Blog
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and several House committee chairman held a press conference earlier today to announce their initial energy independence package. Depending on how things play out, it could make the Senate energy bill stronger, or it could make it...
by Bill Scher | Jun 28, 2007 | Blog
How to deal with a noxious but prominent commentator like Ann Coulter? Confront her bigoted remarks and outright falsehoods? Or ignore her in hopes of dimming her spotlight? It would seem to be a lose-lose proposition. Getting a rise out of her political opponents is...
by Bill Scher | Jun 28, 2007 | Blog
When the mess of an immigration compromise collapsed earlier this month in the Senate, I wrote: One can only hope Congress' leaders finally absorb the lesson. The conservative minority will aim to obstruct legislation no matter how hard you try to accommodate them --...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 27, 2007 | Blog
Desperate TV producers, caught in a competition for ratings, are clearly without shame. Chris Matthews, a knowledgeable and experienced commentator, is under ratings pressure at MSNBC. The result is a descent into the foulest gutter available – inviting on Tuesday the...
by Bill Scher | Jun 27, 2007 | Blog
You may not know it, but there's lots of hot energy bill action going on in the halls of the House, following last week's passage of the Senate version. Today, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., is crafting its bill. But...
by Bill Scher | Jun 26, 2007 | Blog
Minutes ago, Senate conservatives filibustered progress and stifled the voice of the majority once again. They killed the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have minimized employer interference in the choice of workers to unionize. As the Institute for America's...
by Bill Scher | Jun 25, 2007 | Blog
Way too many folks rolled over when John Roberts and Sam Alito were nominated for the Supreme Court. And now we're seeing the consequences. In my recent book, I characterized the conservative judicial activist agenda as "elitist government, no longer representative of...
by Bill Scher | Jun 25, 2007 | Blog
After an above average performance last week, the Sunday shows fell backwards, going 0-for-3 for the Watchdog. Not only did Fox News Sunday fail to ask Sen. Trent Lott about the reason behind his vote against the energy bill (even after Lott brought it up on his own),...
by Bill Scher | Jun 22, 2007 | 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 22, 2007 | Blog
When the energy bill hit the floor of the Senate, I echoed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid observation that it's "just the first step." And I also raised concerns that special interests could dirty up the bill and make it not even that. Now, the bill has passed the...
by Robert Borosage | Jun 22, 2007 | Blog
The Take Back America Conference this year drew 3,000 leaders and activists from 40 states, 150 speakers, a bloggers’ boulevard and radio row larger than ever, and an energy that couldn’t be contained. This year was not only a larger gathering than any previous year;...
by Bill Scher | Jun 21, 2007 | Blog
Politico.com just announced the results of the presidential straw poll of Take Back America attendees. The percentages are: Obama 29 Edwards 26 Clinton 17 Richardson 9 Gore (write-in) 8 Kucinich 5 Biden 1 Dodd 1 Gravel 1 Isaiah J. Poole writes: Illinois Sen. Barack...
by Bill Scher | Jun 20, 2007 | Blog
Sen. Hillary Clinton being booed during her remarks is likely to be the big story coming out of Day 3 of Take Back America. What the boos were actually about is likely to be misreported. Byron York at the National Review writes that the boos began after Clinton said,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2007 | Blog
The pundits have been saying that Sen. Barack Obama lost his stride at the most recent presidential debates, but there was no evidence of that Tuesday when he made a passionate, forceful speech at the Take Back America conference. What a standing-room-only-crowd heard...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2007 | Blog
For an audience that was eager to hear a presidential candidate say that they would not compromise progressive principles for political expediency, former Sen. John Edwards knew what to say. When it comes to ending the war in Iraq or issues such as universal health...
by Bill Scher | Jun 19, 2007 | Blog
Presidential hopeful Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., addressed Take Back America earlier this hour, and as far as I know, this was the first time he criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards by name for not supporting his position...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2007 | Blog
Campaign for America's Future co-director Robert L. Borosage debated staunch Iraq war defender Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., on the MSNBC news talk show "Hardball with Chris Matthews." Borosage offered a realistic assessment of the reality of the war and the truth about...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 19, 2007 | Blog
The three freshman progressive senators who participated in the "kitchen table" discussion at Take Back America Monday night all said they would support a strategy of not backing down from efforts to end the war in Iraq in the face of veto threats and political...
by Bill Scher | Jun 18, 2007 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
The Take Back America session was titled "How Conservatism Has Failed," but with the strong desire for positive change, discussion quickly moved to how to turn that failure into progressive action. Our own Rick Perlstein succinctly summed up why conservatism failed,...
by Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 18, 2007 | Blog
Freshman congressman Keith Ellison took on one of the movement’s most serious problems when he told progressives not to allow their frustrations with Congress’ inability to stop the war in Iraq to divide them. “You might be mad at the Congress because they didn’t and...
