by Bill Scher | Jun 4, 2007 | Blog
The Watchdog had a better than usual day with the Sunday shows this week. Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer kicked off his interview with the anti-immigrant Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. I wanted Schieffer to ask: You criticize the Senate immigration deal as an "amnesty...
by Bill Scher | Jun 4, 2007 | Blog
The Watchdog had a better than usual day with the Sunday shows this week. Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer kicked off his interview with the anti-immigrant Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. I wanted Schieffer to ask: You criticize the Senate immigration deal as an "amnesty...
by Bill Scher | Jun 4, 2007 | Blog
The Watchdog had a better than usual day with the Sunday shows. Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer kicked off his interview with the anti-immigrant Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., citing poll numbers similar to what was mentioned here, and concluding that "American people seem...
by Bill Scher | Jun 1, 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 Isaiah J. Poole | Jun 1, 2007 | Blog
To members of Congress who intend to offer health care proposals: Do not be afraid to be bold. That's the lesson that elected officials should take away from the mixed reaction to some of the proposals that have been offered for discussion in the past few weeks. Any...
by Bill Scher | Jun 1, 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 | May 31, 2007 | Blog
President Bush today is getting a fresh round of favorable headlines for announcing this ahead of next week's summit of the powerful G-8 nations: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To help...
by Bill Scher | May 31, 2007 | Blog
Today, President Bush is getting a fresh round of favorable headlines for announcing this ahead of next week's summit of the powerful G-8 nations: By the end of next year, America and other nations will set a long-term global goal for reducing greenhouse gases. To...
by Bill Scher | May 30, 2007 | Blog
To read today's Washington Post, you'd think the debate over the immigration bill is between Amnesty and No Amnesty. The paper asserts that "the specter of amnesty has persistently haunted the debate -- and could jeopardize the bill's chances for passage" and...
by Bill Scher | May 30, 2007 | Blog
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., met his March pledge to release a health care plan by this month. And there's been a flurry of blog reaction. Ezra Klein says, "Props to the Obama team for coming out with a public option and serious insurer regulation." But Klein also...
by Bill Scher | May 29, 2007 | Blog
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., met his March pledge to release a health care plan by this month. And there's been a flurry of blog reaction. Ezra Klein says, "Props to the Obama team for coming out with a public option and serious insurer regulation." But Klein also...
by Bill Scher | May 29, 2007 | Blog
Despite widespread disappointment at Congress' capitulation to the White House on Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was not asked on CBS's Face The Nation about his prominent role in publicly caving in to President's Bush demands even before the veto was issued...
by Bill Scher | May 29, 2007 | Blog
Despite widespread disappointment at Congress' capitulation to the White House on Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was not asked on CBS's Face The Nation about his prominent role in publicly caving in to President's Bush demands even before the veto was issued...
by Bill Scher | May 29, 2007 | Blog
Despite widespread disappointment at Congress' capitulation to the White House on Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was not asked on CBS's Face The Nation about his prominent role in publicly caving in to President's Bush demands even before the veto was issued...
by Bill Scher | May 29, 2007 | Blog
Despite widespread disappointment at Congress' capitulation to the White House on Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was not asked on CBS's Face The Nation about his prominent role in publicly caving in to President's Bush demands even before the veto was issued...
by Bill Scher | May 28, 2007 | Blog
Once again, the Sunday shows strike out on Weekend Watchdog. Despite widespread disappointment at Congress' capitulation to the White House on Iraq, Sen. Carl Levin was not asked on Face The Nation about his prominent role -- publicly caving in to President's Bush...
by Bill Scher | May 25, 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 Robert Borosage | May 25, 2007 | Blog
Congress has just voted to fund the war for another year — $100 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. How could that happen when two-thirds of the public are opposed to the war and the Democrats just gained the majority of both houses in the Congress with a mandate to...
by Bill Scher | May 25, 2007 | Blog
It’s Memorial Day in America / Everybody’s on the road / Let’s remember our fallen heroes / Y’all be sure and drive slow -- James McMurtry, "Memorial Day" Gas prices are at all-time highs, yet more drivers -- 38 million total -- are expected to hit the road this...
by Bill Scher | May 24, 2007 | Blog
I'll be discussing The Failure of Compromise on Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow Show at 7:30 PM ET. Click here to listen online or find a station near you.
by Bill Scher | May 24, 2007 | Blog
In one of Sen. Harry Reid’s first radio addresses after the Democratic victories in November 2006, he said the new majority’s first guiding legislative principle was “bipartisanship”; Democrats “intend to reach out to President Bush and our Republican colleagues in...
by Bill Scher | May 23, 2007 | Blog
Over at the Take Back America 2007 blog, I've posted the announcement of the finalists for the first annual Maria Leavey Tribute Award. And the final honoree will be selected by your votes. Check out the Take Back America 2007 blog for more.
by Robert Borosage | May 23, 2007 | Blog
President Bush forced Democrats to “fold,” the press reports. He vetoed the Iraq funding bill that set a deadline for getting U.S. troops out of the war. The Republican minority blocked any effort to overturn the veto. Now Congress is about to vote on a funding bill...
by Bill Scher | May 23, 2007 | Blog
Yesterday evening, the Senate voted to keep a temporary guest worker program in the immigration bill. Big mistake. While the bill would sensibly create a path to earned citizenship for the 12 million immigrants currently here illegally, it then starts the problem...
by Bill Scher | May 23, 2007 | Blog
Yesterday evening, the Senate voted to keep a temporary guest worker program in the immigration bill. Big mistake. While the bill would sensibly create a path to earned citizenship for the 12 million immigrants currently here illegally, it then starts the problem...
by Bill Scher | May 22, 2007 | Blog
ABC News reports that average gas prices are as high as ever been recorded, after adjusting for inflation: $3.22 a gallon. High prices for fossil fuels wouldn't be a big deal, if consumers had affordable, cleaner alternatives. But we don't, thanks to years of...
by Bill Scher | May 22, 2007 | Blog
Yesterday, Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., defended plans for a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, saying, "The president can keep him. He has the constitutional power to do it. But we have the constitutional power to try to pressure the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Yesterday, Senator Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., defended plans for a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, saying, "The president can keep him. He has the constitutional power to do it. But we have the constitutional power to try to pressure the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Senator Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who opposed last year's immigration bill, is trying to sell the new compromise to his fellow conservatives by touting the end of "chain immigration," how nativists describe the policy of allowing legal immigrants to unite their families. But...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
As the Capitol Hill debate on "cap and trade" global warming legislation continues, always keep in mind that not all caps are the same. Loopholes and poor structure can make a cap ineffective. Here, we've talked a little more about possible loopholes than the overall...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 21, 2007 | Blog, Rick Perlstein
Columnist Paul Krugman on Monday wrote that he did something highly risky: He ate a salad. We are well familiar with the e. coli contamination of lettuce and spinach, and the more recent cases of pet food contamination. But Krugman, following on the heels of...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Once again, the Sunday shows go 0 for 3 on our Weekend Watchdog questions. Here's the questions we were hoping to get answered. • For Newt Gingrich (NBC's Meet The Press): You're one of the intellectual architects of the current foreign policy strategy in the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Once again, the Sunday shows go 0 for 3 on our Weekend Watchdog questions. Here's the questions we were hoping to get answered. • For Newt Gingrich (NBC's Meet The Press): You're one of the intellectual architects of the current foreign policy strategy in the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Once again, the Sunday shows go 0 for 3 on our Weekend Watchdog questions. Here's the questions we were hoping to get answered. • For Newt Gingrich (NBC's Meet The Press): You're one of the intellectual architects of the current foreign policy strategy in the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
Once again, the Sunday shows go 0 for 3 on our Weekend Watchdog questions. Here's the questions we were hoping to get answered. • For Newt Gingrich (NBC's Meet The Press): You're one of the intellectual architects of the current foreign policy strategy in the...
by Bill Scher | May 21, 2007 | Blog
UPDATE: Listen to the Weekend Watchdog segment from yesterday's "Seder on Sundays" Air America Radio show. Once again, the Sunday shows go 0 for 3 on our Weekend Watchdog questions. On NBC's Meet The Press, die-hard Iraq war supporter Newt Gingrich was not asked about...
by Bill Scher | May 18, 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 Robert Borosage | May 18, 2007 | Blog
Confronted with the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, rising gas prices and the "inconvenient truth" of global warming, Americans are looking for leadership on energy independence and the threat posed by catastrophic climate change. Even George Bush, Big Oil's pocketed...
by Isaiah J. Poole | May 18, 2007 | Blog
Do you know how you could eat on just $21 a week? This week, you may have heard about the four members of Congress who have decided to try living on the amount of food they could buy with $21, the average weekly Food Stamp program allotment. One of the members,...
by Bill Scher | May 18, 2007 | Blog
...Congressional leaders tried to cut a deal with the White House on the Iraq bill, offering President Bush the ability to waive -- effectively, ignore -- timetables to redeploy combat troops out of Iraq. The White House rejected the deal as not being a big enough...
