httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKb35NK0F0&feature=related * While we’re either gnawing our knuckles or blissfully unaware there’s a debt ceiling hostage crisis now in its —th week . . . While the putatively Democratic President again invites the Republican House...
Politics/Economy
Disaster Capitalism Will Solve U.S. Budget Deficit?
Ask New Orleans and Wisconsin
David in our Berkeley bureau, whose last dispatch was about global warming and extreme weather (May 24), observes that the G.O.P. hard-liners insisting on reducing the deficit only by cutting Medicare and privatizing other “common good” safety net programs are simply...
On Independence Day, with Help from a Founding Mother
“In the new code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I desire you would remember the ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember all men would...
“They Need to Do Their Job.”
Obama Bitch-Slaps G.O.P. Deficit Hardliners, Hell-Bent Extremists “Before we ask our seniors to pay more for health care, before we cut our children’s education, before we sacrifice our commitment to the research and innovation that will help create more jobs in the...
Obama’s Troop Drawdown Is Little, Late, But a Start
In Announcing 15-month, 1/3 Troop Reduction, Is President Ignoring or Responding to Public Opinion and Bipartisan Congressional Trend Against War? The announcement of a 33,000-troop drawdown is more than we would have gotten from the previous president; bu though...
Mission Accomplished: Bin Laden Is Dead.
Now Focus on Threats Closer to Home.
* [ cross-posted at Daily Kos ] Last September, Levees Not War raised the question whether Hurricane Katrina was a more significant catastrophe than 9/11, more emblematic in terms of chronic ills afflicting the United States. Now the question is raised whether the...
How Deep Is Our Disgust with Obama and PussyDems
Obama and Democrats Must Defend Social Security, Medicare—and the Middle Class—Before They’re Gone In “Our Cowardly Congress,” New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof points out that last week’s Shutdown standoff happened only because the cowardly Democrats—the...
Mad Tea Party with Chainsaws and Clowns
“From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step.” —Denis Diderot (1713–1784) “I love gridlock. I think we’re better off when we’re gridlocked because we’re not passing things.” —Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), Feb. 2010 * Amid all the talk and worry of a Shutdown...
Going to War Is Easy
“A continual state of war”: No need to consult Congress or those who must pay the cost. Ned Resnikoff at Salon.com’s War Room writes a fine piece on “The Real Reason We Rushed into (Another) War.” Fine and troubling. But don’t let that stop you: Mr. Resnikoff’s piece...
Tyranny Disguised as Fiscal Discipline
* “. . . to secure these rights [including life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. . . . whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is...
Public Works in a Time of Job-Killing Scrooges
[ A modified version of this piece appears at New Deal 2.0, a project of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. ] Last week we went to a panel discussion on public works and infrastructure at the Museum of the City of New York: “Roads to Nowhere: Public...
Republican War on Working Families
It’s Not Only in Wisconsin, America This TV ad is being launched today in Wisconsin against Gov. Scott Walker and the Republicans. Please help Democracy for America spread the word by clicking here to contribute. Thank you....
“Shock Doctrine” in Wisconsin
First, a few notes about Wisconsin: • Speaking with Rachel Maddow, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett observes that when Gov. Scott Walker spoke last week with the “fake David Koch,” he made no mention of a “fiscal crisis” that he claims compels him to strip public workers...
Taxing the Rich: Still a Good and Fair Idea
Budget cutting is all the rage; a recent attempt to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire was defeated by Obama’s deal with the Republican congressional leadership. (See our reaction to that regrettable deal here and here.) In this time of (unnecessary) revenue shortfalls...
In Wisconsin, as in Egypt, “This Is What Democracy Looks Like”
“Dr. King’s last act on earth, marching in Memphis, Tenn., was about workers’ rights to collective bargaining and rights to dues checkoff. You cannot remove the roof for the wealthy and remove the floor for the poor.” —Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. (shown at right holding...
Praying for Change in Egypt
* This photograph of Egyptian Christians joining hands to protect their Muslim fellow citizens bowing in prayer in Cairo is both heartening to see and conveys the support we feel for the democracy movement in Egypt. (Christians in Egypt, known as Copts, are some 10 to...
A Letter from Senator Mary Landrieu
* Landrieu on Her Reluctant Vote for the Republican Obama Tax Deal In December during the fight against renewal of the Bush tax cuts (now the Republican Obama tax cuts) for millionaires and billionaires, we posted a tribute to Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s strong...
Yes We Can Pass Good Legislation
Our last post was illustrated with a big YES and this can do no less. Congratulations to the 111th Congress—especially Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (with emphasis on “Leader”) and the suddenly productive Senate in the last days of this so-called lame duck...
Good Riddance to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”
This will make for happier holidays. We applaud the long-awaited, hard-fought repeal of the destructive policy commonly known as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell by a Senate vote of 65 to 31. It is good for American society and its individuals, and it’s good for the U.S. armed...
Sanctimonious Purists Unite
“People will have the satisfaction of having a purist position, and no victories for the American people. And we will be able to feel good about ourselves, and sanctimonious about how pure our intensions are and how tough we are.” —President Obama, in reply to a...