The Big Con
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Governing on Empty
December 21st, 2011
The Senate, having struck its compromise, has gone home. The House, controlled by delusional Republicans, has gone home. Payroll taxes are slated to rise, and unemployment insurance is set to expire before they return in January. The compromise wasn’t just between the two parties in the Senate, apparently. According to Wednesday’s Washington Post, House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor met with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell on Friday and told him they’d get the votes to pass the two-month extension deal he’d worked out with Harry Reid. But Boehner, who is turning out to be the weakest speaker since the House was first gaveled to order in 1789, couldn’t hold his troops, whose caucus meetings, by numerous accounts, increasingly resemble the pep rallies of cults that have lost all feel for how other humans think.
Featured Issues
Battling Messages: Democrats Need to Enter the Fray
By Digby
March 23rd, 2011
New polling with the same results:
more »
The GOP Payroll Tax Plan Does So Stink
December 1st, 2011
No doubt Republicans know the fight over extending the payroll tax is one they could lose. Thus, they've pivoted away from opposing the extension, and have presented a plan of their own — one that Timothy Noah says the Democrats should be willing to work with because it "doesn't stink."
Well, in my experience, just because you can't smell something doesn't mean it doesn't sink. Some things "pass the smell test" because of a faulty sniffer; not because they don't stink. And the GOP's payroll tax plan does so stink.
... more »
GOP’S Dirty Air Hit List Sacrifices Americans’ Health
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) recently announced his legislative priorities for the upcoming months, and they consist of the same old reckless attacks on health and environmental safeguards for all Americans. Creating an apocalyptically titled hit list of his "Top 10 Job-Destroying Regulations," Cantor takes aim at an astonishing 12 clean air safeguards, and five other labor, environmental, and health care standards. But problems with basic arithmetic are the least of the concerns with this "top 10" list. The House Republican dirty air hit list reflects a baseless and ideological tirade against clean air protections that would put Americans' lives at risk, while doing nothing to create jobs. American families cannot afford to see these clean air standards rolled back.... more »
The Case
Why We Call It "The Big Con"
Conservative government during the past few years has failed—even some conservatives acknowledge that. But the problem is not just that conservatism has failed to live up to its promise; it is that conservatism cannot live up to its promisemore »
Conservatism: Flawed By Design
Inherent ideological flaws cripple the ability of conservatives to govern:
The Facts
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
How do you make indefinite detention without trial work alongside the 5th Amendment in the land of the not so free?
Simple - you declare the US a war zone.
Any illusions you may have about living in a red, white and blue constitutional democracy have vapourised.
This dictatorship thing is easy peasy.
The Writ of Habeas Corpus
Habeas corpus (Latin: "you may have the body")[1] is a writ, or legal action, through which a prisoner can be released from unlawful detention, that is, detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. The remedy can be sought by the prisoner or by another person coming to his aid. Habeas corpus originated in the English legal system, but it is now available in many nations. more »
The News
Joe Manchin's oddly inspiring debate performance
October 19th, 2010
Florida Republican: Put Immigrants in "Camps"
August 13th, 2010
The Case
It Takes Dark Money to Make Dark Money
When Crossroads GPS, the conservative nonprofit started by GOP political gurus Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, isn't dropping millions of dollars on anti-Obama ads, it's doling out tens of millions more to like-minded groups. "The ATM of the Right," Politico recently called Crossroads. Between May 2010 and December 2011, new tax records show, Crossroads gave $4 million to Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform and $500,000 to former Sen. Norm Coleman's American Action Network, among others. But there was another recipient of Crossroads cash that stood out: the Center for Individual Freedom, which snagged $2.75 million. Among political money experts, CFIF is known for its aggressive legal strategy aimed at toppling disclosure laws at the state level. In other words, Crossroads GPS, which doesn't name its donors, gave millions to another dark-money group whose goals include fighting to keep dark money in the dark.more »
Romney's Message: Obama's Not a Real American
Ted Nugent's violent remarks at the NRA's annual paranoia-fest triggered (pun intended) a new round in the always-good-for-cable debate over extreme rhetoric in the political discourse. The episode showed — no surprise — that GOP presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney was unwilling to condemn an out-of-bounds Obama-hater when his campaign released a mealy-mouthed response to the uproar, ignoring Nugent's specific comments and noting that "Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil." And Nugent's threatening words were nothing new; in 2007, he held up two machine guns at a concert and told Obama to "suck on my machine gun," adding, "Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch." But his latest rant was part of a never-ending Republican/conservative crusade to portray the president as not a true American. And it's an effort that Romney has played footsie with.more »
Latest from our Bloggers
apr
30
2012
10:49 pm
10:49 pm
Not kidding, read it for yourself: New Obama slogan has long ties to Marxism, socialism, more »
apr
30
2012
2:47 pm
2:47 pm
Depending on your point of view, the results on austerity are in. The roll call European countries with shrunken economies, mired in recession, is identical to the list of European countries yoked to austerity economics — Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Greece (of course), and now the UK. Those countries are experiencing varying degrees of public reaction against austerity policies. In Prague, Czechs staged the biggest demonstrations their country has seen since the fall of communism, in protest of the austerity measures and corruption in Czech Republic's center-right government. In France, president Sarkozy now faces a runoff, after elections that were a reaction against austerity. In the Netherlands, the prime minister resigned after EU austerity demands caused the government to collapse. In Romania, the government has collapsed in a no-confidence vote after violent protests against austerity toppled its prime minister in February.
Does the latest wave of uprisings finally sound the death knell for austerity? Not if austerians stay the course, and don't get spooked by protests in the streets and at the ballot box. If their protests have no impact, and austerity happened anyway, people will go home. They'll forget about solidarity, worry more about survival, and arrive at the next phase of austerity's impact on their lives.
apr
30
2012
1:38 pm
1:38 pm
Finally, someone's giving NJ governor Chris Christie (whom fellow blogger Richard Eskow rightly dubbed, "The Heartless, Smug, Bullying Embodiment Of The Republican Party") as good as he dishes out. At the Daily Beast, author Stephen King has posted a response to Christie's suggestion that Warren Buffett should just "shut up and right a check." A top-selling horror writer, King isn't the least bit scared of Christie's bombast. It's one of the best things I've read today, and not to be missed.
What groups like the Patriotic Millionaires and candidates like Elizabeth Warren have said with more civility and eloquence, King puts in language even Christie can understand.
apr
26
2012
12:08 pm
12:08 pm
In today's Progressive Breakfast: Republicans say student-loan interest rates are high because of "Obamacare." House Republicans are trying to block the Violence Against Women act, using a ruse. They oppose the Dream Act and offer a false compromise to make it look like they support the concept. more »
apr
25
2012
2:57 pm
2:57 pm
It comes to us all, eventually: that epiphanic, "come to Jesus moment" when the light of day finally penetrates our cloud of delusion, and undeniable reality slaps us hard across the face. That moment finally came for Newt Gingrich, who annouced that he will suspend his bid for the presidency. Tuesday night's five-state Romney sweep apparently did what a bounced check and a penguin bite could not.
Since it's unlikely that he's going away anytime soon, it's time to say "See you later" to Newt Gingrich. Oh, and "Thank you."
Why thank New Gingrich? It's only right to thank someone for giving a gift, especially one that keeps on giving like Newt's viciously accurate attack on Mitt Romney's vulture capitalist resume.
apr
24
2012
3:45 pm
3:45 pm
When I graduated from high school, my parents expected that I would go to college. I say "expected," but it was really closer to a demand than an expectation. As my father said, "I don't know where you'll go, but you're going to somebody's university." Education was a high priority in our home. Even though neither of my parents went to college, they saw a college degree as the first step towards a "good job" and upward mobility.
We were comfortably middle class. So, I didn't qualify for much in the way of financial aid. But my parents could not afford to foot the entire bill for my education, even at the public university I chose to attend. My grades were good enough to get me a few scholarships to make that first year easier, but that was it. Like a lot people, I financed my education through student loans.
I was 18-years-old when I went into debt to get an education — as an investment in my future. That was over twenty years ago. Last year, at the age of forty-two, I finally paid off that debt.
Getting an education shouldn't mean decades of crushing debt. Tell Congress to stop student loan interest rates from doubling.
apr
24
2012
10:28 am
10:28 am
When Greek prime minister Lucas Papademos, in his statement concerning the austerity-driven suicide of 77-year-old pensioner Dimitris Christoulas, called on Greeks to "support those next to us who stand in despair," he either missed or ignored the same point that austerity boosters here at home blithely ignore. How can people "support those who stand next to us in despair," when so many have already reached that last stop before oblivion, and those who haven't yet are being driven there down a wide road called "Desperation"?
What else is Papademos — appointed to ensure that Greeks got austerity, and got little or no say in the matter — to do? He's there to make sure the people he really works for get what they want. So, the prime minister has to ignore that Greece's Independence Day celebrations required tight security — such that citizens were banned from entering Syntagma Square the very square where Dimitris Christoulas put a bullet in his brain — because of very real fears that anti-austerity protesters would attack politicians. He has to ignore the reason why 4,000 police officers (plus more than 800 riot police) had to lock down the city of Athens, to ensure things went off without a hitch.
Just as his government ignored the tens of thousands of protestors on its doorstep, to pass he austerity measures, had to recognize the despair inherent in Dimitris Christoulas' suicide while ignoring the desperation that drove him to it, and how austerity has made desperation part of every day life for many Greeks.
apr
23
2012
5:12 am
5:12 am
"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." This quote shows how far the Rep more »
