Clearly Obama President Obama listens as the human Etch A Sketch changes positions yet again during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University, Oct. 16, 2012. * . . . when [Romney] said behind closed doors that 47 percent of the country considers themselves...
Levees Not War
Republicans Against Medicare: A Long, Mean History
“. . . let’s be brutally honest here. The Romney-Ryan position on health care is that many millions of Americans must be denied health insurance, and millions more deprived of the security Medicare now provides, in order to save money. At the same time, of course, Mr....
No Core Beliefs: “The Most Dangerous Opponent”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPgfzknYd20 * “His legendary flip-flops aren’t the lies of a bumbling opportunist—they’re the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision,...
Reserved Professor Obama Misses Opportunities, and Slippery Romney Takes ’Em
Is President Overconfident? (He Shouldn’t Be.) We want to put down a few first impressions about last night’s first presidential debate before we look at what anyone else has said. Mitt Romney performed with more energy and desire to win than did President Obama....
Jobs, Jobs . . . Senate Republicans Keep Vets Unemployed
“The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” “Where is our honor? Where is our valor? Where is our sacrifice?” —Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), leading opposition to Veterans Jobs Corps Act “I care deeply about the...
Rising Tide 7 Is Sat. Sept. 22 at Xavier > Register Now!
Everyone within walking, flying, or hiking distance of the Croissant City is urged to sign up now for the seventh annual Rising Tide conference on the future of New Orleans. This year’s keynote speakers—why have...
Bush White House Ignored 9/11 Warnings
The Deafness Before the Storm * Briefly noted, highly recommended: Kurt Eichenwald, a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a former reporter for the New York Times, wrote a strong but restrained op-ed piece for the Times yesterday describing in more detail than is...
Democrats Grow a Backbone
John Kerry, Deval Patrick, and Other DNC Highlights httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVxRmNO6Qs0 * My message is this—it is time for Democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe. Quit waiting—quit waiting, quit waiting for pundits or polls or super...
Forward: Four More Years for Mr. President
“When you pick up that ballot to vote, you will face the clearest choice of any time in a generation.” * “. . . the election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you. My fellow citizens, you were the change. You’re the reason there’s a little girl with a heart...
The Big Hug
Clinton Wows Dems, Urges 2nd Term for Obama * In Tampa, the Republican argument against the president’s reelection . . . went something like this: “We left him a total mess. He hasn’t cleaned it up fast enough, so fire him and put us back in.” Listen to me now. No...
Hurricane Isaac and Tampa’s Blizzard of Lies
What Would Romney-Ryan Mean for FEMA and Infrastructure? [ cross-posted at DailyKos ] * “One of the themes of the Tampa convention will be the failure of government, and the prosperity that will result if it is cut to ribbons. But in a different corner of the...
Isaac Aims at Mouth of Mississippi, Greater New Orleans
* On exactly the seven-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29), Tropical Storm Isaac is heading toward the mouth of the Mississippi River, likely to make landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, and possibly as a Category 2, with wind speeds up to about 100 m.p.h....
Tom Hayden, SDS and SNCC Alums:
Happy 50th, Port Huron Statement!
SDS National Council Meeting, September 1963. Tom Hayden stands at far left. [Photo by C. Clark Kissinger] * “We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. . . . First,...
Todd Gitlin on Port Huron Statement’s 50th Anniversary
Early ’60s idealism: The mimeographed mission statement of a new generation [ Part 1 of a 2-part series | also @ DailyKos ] “The genius of the Port Huron Statement, as it was structured, was placing its declaration of values up front. The movement would not be guided...
RFK, MLK: “This mindless menace of violence in America”
“Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit [of hatred and revenge] flourish any longer in our land.” —Robert F. Kennedy, April 5, 1968 * On the day after the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., then senator...
4/4, 44 Years Ago . . .
“Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” —Aeschylus * It was the night of April 4, 1968, when word spread that the Rev. Martin Luther King...
Do They Know It’s Mardi Gras?
* Outside of New Orleans and southern Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras generally comes as news—if it comes at all—to people in the rest of the United States when they see footage on network and cable news. Oh, it must be Mardi Gras again. Look at all those...
Framing the Case for Infrastructure Investment, Taxing the Rich
Attn.: Pro-Infrastructure Activists and Democratic Strategists: In a Feb. 4 letter to the editor of the New York Times, Rick Stone of Madison, Wisc., makes a point that more of us should heed: If the wealthy knew with certainty that their increased taxes would make...
IEA Sees “Irreversible Climate Change in Five Years”
“I don’t know who and where the climate leadership in the administration is. It doesn’t exist. There is no resolve in the Obama administration to do anything.” —Tim Wirth, U.N. Foundation president “What do you get for pretending the danger’s not real?” —Pink Floyd,...
“There Is a Creative Force in This Universe”
The Poor People’s Campaign, 40 Years before Occupy Wall Street “Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes. . . . God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others...