A Time for Celebration, but Not for Complacency Has it really been ten years already? Indeed it has: a long ten years. And the work of rebuilding, the labors of love and determination, dedication, devotion, and sometimes of desperation—aided by countless volunteers...
barack obama
We Support Nuclear Agreement with Iran
On Thursday, April 2, in Lausanne, Switzerland, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that negotiators had reached an agreement on key elements of...
Annus Horribilis : 2014 in Review
* Good Riddance to a Bad Year In a speech in late 1992, Queen Elizabeth II used the phrase “annus horribilis” to describe Great Britain’s no-good, very bad year (tabloid-quality marital troubles of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, a fire at Windsor Castle, etc.)....
Wishing America a Happier Birthday
. . . And Many Happy Returns We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to secure these rights,...
Obama Sends Troops to Protect U.S. Embassy in Baghdad
ISIS supporters rally in Mosul, Iraq. BBC photo. * White House Considers Special Forces to Advise Iraqis; Smells Like “Early Vietnam” Again “The United States has provided a $14 billion foreign military aid package to Iraq that includes F-16 fighter jets, Apache...
Congress, Now Is the Time to Vote “Hell No”
Wrong War, Wrong Place, Wrong Time Not out of indifference to the plight of the Syrian people, and not from an automatic rejection of any and all military action, but rather out of grave concern about the uncontrollable consequences that a U.S. missile strike upon Syria could trigger—such as, quite possibly, a war between Iran […]
Obama Wins More Time to Repair, Lead America Forward
Solid Victories for Progressive, Liberal Candidates, Reforms [ cross-posted at Daily Kos ] “The task of perfecting our union moves forward” “I have never been more hopeful about America. . . . I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that...
Fun in Philly: Getting Out the Vote, Door to Door
Volunteering Relieves Election Anxiety [cross-posted at Daily Kos] * Everyone knows the best cure for blues or worries is work. In the same way, the best antidote for election anxiety is volunteering and going door to door, making phone calls from a roomful of other...
Our Barack Is Back—and We’ve Got His Back
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...
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....
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...
The Social Contract, Explained by Elizabeth Warren,
Paul Krugman, and Robert Kuttner
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htX2usfqMEs&feature=player_embedded * “There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. . . . You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate.” *...
“Pass This Jobs Bill”
* “I am sending this Congress a plan that you should pass right away. It’s called the American Jobs Act. There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been supported by both Democrats and...
Go Big, Obama: Give Us a 10-Year Jobs Plan
* As Long as They’re Calling You a Socialist, Go All the Way What does “Labor Day” mean to the 15+ million unemployed? Below is our Happy Labor Day card to President Obama in advance of his address to the nation Thursday, Sept. 8, about proposals for alleviating the...
A Heartland Question for the President
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd quotes a politely phrased but hard-hitting question put to the president last week by an Iowa voter, a mother named Emily who is an Obama supporter, during a town hall meeting with the good folks of Decorah, Iowa. Dowd notes that...
What a Deal
Is This What “Winning the Future” Feels Like? “Our enemies could not have designed a better plan to weaken the American economy than this debt-ceiling deal.” —Joe Nocera, “Tea Party’s War on America” (see below) “With all this incessant emphasis on deficit reduction,...
Memo to White House: Time to Use the Constitutional Option
* It’s Time to End This Hostage Crisis This has gone far enough. Whereas Speaker John Boehner has failed to persuade his own party in the House to support his proposed bill to lift the debt ceiling short-term—which the Senate and the President would have rejected...
NObama! No Cuts to Social Security, Medicare;
WPA-, CCC-style Jobs Programs Now
“We put those pay roll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and their unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.” —FDR,...