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Fair-Weather Capitalists: Conservative Politics Gone Wild

Feb 29, 2012
7 min

Fair-Weather Capitalists: Conservative Politics Gone Wild

Jeff Schweitzer Jeff Schweitzer – Scientist; Fmr. White House Senior Policy Analyst – Posted: 02/28/2012 5:37 pm As recently as a few months ago, Republicans were betting on beating Obama on the issue of the economy, with an emphasis on unemployment. They were counting on history repeating itself: no president since FDR has won a second term when unemployment rates exceeded 7.2% on election day. The rate was 7.8% when Obama took office, which is about where economists predic

Jesus Concerned About the Poor? You Must Be Joking, Says the Christian Right

Feb 9, 2012
4 min

Jesus Concerned About the Poor? You Must Be Joking, Says the Christian Right

Clay Farris Naff – Science writer, journalist, author Posted: 02/ 8/2012 6:44 pm When President Obama used the occasion of the National Prayer Breakfast to say that for the fortunate to pay a little more to help the less fortunate “coincides” with Jesus’ teachings, he must have touched a nerve. How else to explain the volcanic eruption of hate that has spewed from the right in response? Exposure to the pyroclastic flow of rightwing political lava for more than a moment can ca

Congratulations, President Obama, for Safeguarding Religious Freedom!

Feb 7, 2012
2 min

Congratulations, President Obama, for Safeguarding Religious Freedom!

Angela Bonavoglia – Journalist and author Posted: 02/ 6/2012 6:25 pm The Sunday morning talk shows were a cacophony of apoplectic right wingers like George Will and Matthew Dowd on This Week and David Brooks and GOP Strategist Alex Castellanos on Meet the Press attacking President Barack Obama for finally standing up to Catholic big business. Obama did this by insisting that if a religious institution serves the general public, employs the general public, has a secular purpos

Obama Weekly Address: President Calls For Unity On 9/11 Anniversary

Sep 11, 2011
3 min

Obama Weekly Address: President Calls For Unity On 9/11 Anniversary

WASHINGTON — Summoning the nation to unity and service, President Barack Obama paid tribute to America’s resilience and the sacrifice of its war dead Saturday as the country prepared to mark 10 long years since the horrors of 9/11. A day before the anniversary commemorations, the president made a pilgrimage to Arlington National Cemetery, strolling with his wife, Michelle, among graves filled with dead from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. And he invoked the common purpose that

John Boehner Fights Foreclosure Relief As Housing Crisis Ravages His District

Jun 2, 2011
10 min

John Boehner Fights Foreclosure Relief As Housing Crisis Ravages His District

Regina Moore has lived in her Hamilton, Ohio, home, in the heart of House Speaker John Boehner’s district, for 50 years. Her husband passed away in 2005, and in 2008 she took out a new $72,000 mortgage so she afford to pay her medical bills. She had a steady job, having worked at the Champion Printing Company in Cincinnati for more than two decades. Her monthly payments on her $86,000 home amounted to about $450. It was a simple mortgage for a simple home — no exploding payme

Osama Bin Laden Dead, Obama Announces

May 2, 2011
6 min

Osama Bin Laden Dead, Obama Announces

Osama Bin Laden is dead, President Obama announced Sunday night, in a televised address to the nation. His death was the result of a U.S. operation launched today in Abbottabad, Pakistan, against a compound where bin Laden was believed to be hiding, according to U.S. intelligence. After a firefight, a small team of American forces killed bin Laden and took possession of his body, the president said. “Tonight I can report to the American people and the world that the United St

Budget Showdown Aims To Quietly Exempt Pentagon and Focus All Cuts on Social Programs

Apr 7, 2011
2 min

Budget Showdown Aims To Quietly Exempt Pentagon and Focus All Cuts on Social Programs

David Sirota – Newspaper columnist, radio host (AM760), best selling author Posted: 04/ 6/11 10:00 PM ET The unwritten and unspoken story of the budget showdown in Washington is the tale of both parties deliberately working to once again exempt the ever-growing Pentagon from America’s larger budget/deficit discussion. This is the thrust of the new Republican plan to pass a one-week continuing resolution for non-defense spending and at the same time pass a full year’s status-q

Conservatives Ignore Their Own Recent Views of Gaddafi

Mar 24, 2011
2 min

Conservatives Ignore Their Own Recent Views of Gaddafi

Jackson Williams: Austin-based writer, Posted: March 23, 2011 11:38 AM On Tuesday night’s O’Reilly Factor, the Fox News host again showed his carnival barker’s chutzpah. Bill O’Reilly, leading off his “talking points” segment with a call for the absolute ouster of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, insisted it’s the only viable outcome because, after all, the guy “killed Americans.” This was a reference to the ’88 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 253 on board

Instead of Bombing Dictators, Stop Selling Them Bombs

Mar 23, 2011
4 min

Instead of Bombing Dictators, Stop Selling Them Bombs

By Medea Benjamin and Charles Davis When all you have is bombs, everything starts to look like a target. And so after years of providing Libya’s dictator with the weapons he’s been using against the people, all the international community — France, Britain and the United States — has to offer the people of Libya is more bombs, this time dropped from the sky rather than delivered in a box to Muammar Gaddafi’s palace. If the bitter lesson of Iraq and Afghanistan has taught us a

Wisconsin Continues Right-Wing Structural Reforms That Have Transformed the United States

Mar 16, 2011
5 min

Wisconsin Continues Right-Wing Structural Reforms That Have Transformed the United States

Mark Weisbrot: Co-director, Center for Economic and Policy Research, Washington, D.C. Posted: March 15, 2011 04:15 PM With the latest turn of events in Wisconsin, Republican state senators have circumvented the need for a quorum vote on Scott Walker’s budget bill by leaving out the fiscal clauses and passing the new laws curbing collective bargaining rights for state and public employees. This dubious tactical maneuver strips away the pretense that Walker and his GOP allies

The Third Economic Revolution — Boom or Bust for America?

Feb 3, 2011
4 min

The Third Economic Revolution — Boom or Bust for America?

Andy Stern – Georgetown Public Policy Institute and Former President, SEIU Posted: February 2, 2011 08:53 AM Last Thursday the leaders of the Senate, in contrast to President Obama’s State of the Union speech, reached an agreement on rule changes which shows again that they may be able historians, but they fail miserably as futurists and leaders of change. Sadly, this is simply the latest in a series of American leaders failing to choose to change and maybe make history, pre

Today’s Civil Rights Struggle: Saving Health Care Reform

Jan 29, 2011
2 min

Today’s Civil Rights Struggle: Saving Health Care Reform

By Mark Ridley-Thomas – Supervisor for the Second Districtmin Los Angeles County Posted: January 27, 2011 02:48 PM Don’t be fooled. The superficial display of civility during the State of the Union speech Tuesday night was just that. President Barack Obama’s annual address to Congress may have been received without blatant hostility from Republicans — we were thankfully spared another apoplectic outburst from South Carolina Republican Joe “You Lie” Wilson — but the GOP is mob

State of the Union? Too Many Jobs Moving to China

Jan 25, 2011
3 min

State of the Union? Too Many Jobs Moving to China

Gilbert B. Kaplan: Former Deputy Assistant and Acting Assistant Secretary of the U. S. Department of Commerce – Posted: January 24, 2011 10:05 AM As President Obama prepares his State of the Union message, focusing on jobs, he should squarely face up to the problem of U. S. companies moving manufacturing jobs to China. All of the friendly handshakes with President Hu have not changed that. Just a week ago, Evergreen Solar, a leading U. S. solar panel producer, announced that

How Obama and JFK Evoke the Ideals of the Commons

Jan 24, 2011
4 min

How Obama and JFK Evoke the Ideals of the Commons

Jay Walljasper – Author, All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons Posted: January 23, 2011 12:04 PM This week the country awaits to hear what direction Barack Obama charts for the next two years in his State of the Union speech. A masterful orator, Obama often reaches higher toward the common good in his vision than in his policies. He’s one of a number of American leaders who have evoked the ideals of the commons, including John F. Kennedy and Paul Wellstone. “I belie

Size Matters: The GOP and Health Care

Jan 18, 2011
3 min

Size Matters: The GOP and Health Care

Ethan Rome; Executive Director, Health Care for America Now Posted: January 17, 2011 11:59 PM During the health care debate in 2009 and 2010, a serious issue emerged — the number of pages in congressional bills. I’m not kidding. The Republicans wanted short bills, and the health care reform bill was way, way too long (proving that it did too much and would end civilization as we know it). There was outrage across the country. Angry opponents of reform went to congressional to

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