On October 3 activists from across the country will gather in Washington at the Take Back the American Dream conference, in the belief that only a citizens movement can save an American dream that grows ever more distant. In the face of a failed economy and a corrupted politics, the only hope for renewal is that citizens lead and politicians follow. MORE...Howie P.S.: There's a local effort in Seattle: "Build the American Dream movement Sunday in Seattle."
Friday, September 23, 2011
"Can a Movement Save the American Dream?"
Robert Borosage and Katrina vanden Heuvel (The Nation):
John Nichols: "Note to GOP Candidates: Obama's No Socialist"
John Nichols (The Nation):
It is certainly true that Barack Obama is not an advocate for any “wild-eyed socialist position.” Nor is he an advocate for any sober and sound socialist position.
Obama’s explicit and frequent rejection of the word “socialist” parallels his rejection of the ideals and ideas associated with that word.
But distancing himself from socialist and social democratic ideals does not make Obama or his policies any more “American”—or any more in sync with the approaches of the country’s great presidents.
Quite the opposite. MORE...
WA: "Special session to deal with billion-dollar deficit to begin Nov. 28"
Chris Grygiel (SeattlePI.com):
Sens. Lisa Brown and Ed Murray, the Democratic majority leader and budget panel chairman, released a statement urged their colleagues not to “draw a line in the sand.”
“Over three years, we have reduced public service levels across the board, from support for kindergarten education to supervision of offenders in our communities. As we approach special session, we must recognize that more cuts – however necessary mathematically – will impact Washingtonians, their families and their communities. As legislators, we have many tools for balancing our budget – including giving the voters the option of approving new revenue to pay for the services they want. We strongly encourage our colleagues in both parties, in the House and Senate, to avoid drawing lines in the sand and instead to arrive in Olympia in November prepared to offer solutions and to be ready to discuss all the possibilities.” MORE...
Keith Olbermann: "Will Bunch, author of ‘The Backlash,’ on mainstream media’s failure to cover Wall Street protests" (with video)
Countdown (Current), with transcript and video (06:52):
Keith and author Will Bunch, senior writer, Philadelphia Daily News, call out the New York Times and other mainstream outlets for failing to cover the Wall Street protests that began on September 17. Comparing their social media strategy to that of the Arab Spring, Bunch hopes that the protesters — promoted on Twitter and by the magazine “Adbusters” and other alternative news sources — refine their goals to appeal to a broader audience.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Ari Melber on "Center-Right Leftism" (with video from MSNBC)
Ari Melber (The Nation) with video (04:28) from MSNBC (Dylan Ratigan Show):
We know one thing about President Obama's new plan to cut the deficit by taxing millionaires more. It's popular. Really, unusually popular. But not according to the Beltway press. MORE...
Greg Sargent: "what the 2012 elections will be all about."
Greg Sargent (linking to E.J. Dionne):
...the choice in 2012, clarified: E.J. Dionne, commenting on the success of Obama’s rescue of the auto companies, deftly ties it to the larger question of whether government can and should act to rectify the unemployment crisis and the damage done by the individual hand of capitalism:We did not have to accept the collapse of our domestic auto companies, and we do not have to accept that the Federal Reserve is powerless to give the economy the boost it needs. There is no reason to believe that the federal government is incapable of investing more in schools, roads and other public goods to build for the future and get more money into the hands of consumers now. We do not have to rely on giving rich people tax cuts and then confine ourselves to offering fervent prayers that they might invest some of the money in creating jobs.We can seek to control our fate, or we can turn the invisible hand into a God who commands us to be helpless.That’s pretty much what the 2012 elections will be all about.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
"Elizabeth Warren on Debt Crisis, Fair Taxation" (video)
LiveSmartVideos, video (02:06):
Elizabeth Warren discussing the debt crisis, fair taxation and other important issues as part of her talking tour.
David Horsey on USA Income Inequality (cartoon)
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE.)Seattlepi.com, cartoon.
Howie P.S.: That piece of middle class pie looks pretty good!
"Feingold says Obama shouldn’t be primaried"
Sam Stein (HuffPo), via John Aravosis:
"I strongly disagree with Ralph Nader. As I've said many times before, I believe that re-electing President Obama is an absolute imperative for our economy, our judicial system, for progressives and for our country," said former Sen. Russ Feingold, who announced recently that he was not running for Wisconsin's open Senate seat. MORE...
(Updated with video) Greg Sargent: "The moderate, centrist elite does not speak for moderate voters"
UPDATE: Rachel Maddow on The Today Show this morning (MEDIAite), with video (03:45):
Maddow continued to push back on the idea that the President has a problem with the base, and cited broad public support for his latest policy proposals.Greg Sargent:
My pick for read of the morning is this piece by Politico’s Glenn Thrush, which gently skewers the caterwauling of the moderate elite (Mark Penn, David Brooks) about Obama’s new populist approach.With the claim gaining currency that Obama’s jobs bill and push to hike high end taxes are all about appealing to the base, and are certain to further alienate independents and moderates, it’s worth reiterating that the use of terms like “moderate” and “centrist” by such opinionnmakers is entirely arbitrary. They have nothing to do with where the center of public opinion, if such a place even exists, actually lies.
As Thrush puts it, saying what must never be said in polite centrist company:
Polls show the major components of the plan, particularly the tax hikes on families earning $250,000 or more — and the “Buffett tax” on millionaires, polls well with all voters, including swing state independents.This happens to be true. Key takeaway: Self-proclaimed centrist and moderate opinionmakers and pollster types do not speak for moderate voters. MORE from Sargent's The Morning Plum...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Greg Sargent: "Obama really has hit the "reset button" on his presidency"
Greg Sargent:
A changed landscape? On the morning after Obama vowed to veto any deficit deal that cuts entitlements without raising revenues, and accused Republicans of waging class warfare on behalf of the wealthy, the sense is unmistakable that a page has been turned, that the President is trying out an approach that’s fundamentally new. Commentators had constantly asked — in the awful Beltway cliche — how Obama would move to “hit the reset button” on his presidency. We now have our answer. The reset button has been pressed. MORE...Howie P.S.: Ezra Klein (via AMERICAblog) wonders: Is the White House finally "manning up"?
Monday, September 19, 2011
Krugman: Austerity is "The Bleeding Cure" (with video from SNL)
Paul Krugman with video-"When's the last time you've had a leeching?"- (03:01):
Doctors used to believe that by draining a patient’s blood they could purge the evil “humors” that were thought to cause disease. In reality, of course, all their bloodletting did was make the patient weaker, and more likely to succumb.H/t to "TODAY’S MUST-READ" @ The Stand.
Fortunately, physicians no longer believe that bleeding the sick will make them healthy. Unfortunately, many of the makers of economic policy still do. And economic bloodletting isn’t just inflicting vast pain; it’s starting to undermine our long-run growth prospects. MORE...
Frank Rich on the new Suskind book about the Obama White House
Frank Rich (via AMERICAblog):
"...could someone else have done better? Not the out-of-it McCain, not Hillary (an equivocator in her own right and one who would have embraced the same Clinton administration alumni and Wall Street crowd that Obama did). I still believe Obama was our best hope, and I still hope, however quixotically and self-deludedly, that he might learn from his mistakes." MORE...
Obama's opening supercommittee bid: "abandoning the strategy of pre-compromising"
Greg Sargent has a roundup of reactions and early reports of Obama's supercommittee strategy:
As a number of us have argued, Obama’s continuing demand that Republicans pass the whole American Jobs Act — and his willingness to take it straight to the American people — represents a new approach by the White House. Rather than signaling a willingness to give early ground on core liberal principles in the name of compromise as a desirable end in itself, Obama and his advisers laid down some hard lines at the outset in a manner designed to increase leverage in the battles ahead.Howie P.S.: Robert Reich is curbing his enthusiasm:The initial reports about what Obama will propose as his opening bid today for the deficit “supercommittee” suggest that they are sticking with it.
The key details, per Zachary Goldfarb: MORE...
Apparently Obama will propose that people earning more than $1 million a year pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class earners. That's aiming mighty low. MORE...
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Senator Bernie Sanders on Poverty in America on The Bill Press Show (audio)
The Bill Press Show, audio (11:55).
Howie P.S.: Click on "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on the Census poverty report" under the "SHOW HIGHLIGHTS" heading.
Bill Clinton on Obama: "when he’s got a real opponent ...we’ll be in a different world politically.” (with video)
MEDIAite with video (02:47)from CBS' Face the Nation:
Former president Bill Clinton argued on Face the Nation today that President Obama has, in essence, made himself his primary opponent leading up to the 2012 presidential election, and emphasized the role of compromise in contemporary politics.
Host Bob Schieffer asked Clinton if he agreed with James Carville (a former Clinton advisor) in saying that now is the time for President Obama’s team to panic and shake up their entire reelection strategy. Clinton did not take this view, but rather gave Obama credit for his jobs speech last week, which the former president thought was a good first step in taking care of the debt problem.
Clinton looked at President Obama’s struggle right now as a powerful political one. MORE...
Ezra Klein: "How much could a tax on millionaires raise?"
(Andrew Harrer - BLOOMBERG) Ezra Klein (WaPo):
On Monday, the Obama administration will call for a new tax on income over $1,000,000. The details aren’t available yet, but various versions of of a millionaire’s tax have been floating around for some time now, so it’s possible to get a rough sense of what the tax could raise. MORE...
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Tacoma teachers: "Video from the picket line – Strike day 4" (video)
"Striking Tacoma teachers walk the picket lines in front of Jason Lee Middle School in Tacoma on Wednesday, September 14, 2011." Jeremy Harrison/Staff photographer (Jeremy Harrison/The News Tribune)Tacoma News Tribune, video (03:11).
Papantonio: "America's Income Disparity Explained" (with video)
golefttv, with video (10:09):
While 68.3 million Americans struggle to get enough food to eat and wages are declining for 90 percent of the population, US millionaire household wealth has reached an unprecedented level. According to an extensive study by auditing and financial advisory firm Deloitte, US millionaire households now have $38.6 trillion in wealth. On top of the $38.6 trillion, they have an estimated $6.3 trillion hidden in offshore accounts.
Friday, September 16, 2011
"The TALKERS Interview: A conversation with MSNBC and Dial Global progressive talk star Ed Schultz"
talkers.com:Ed Schultz is one of the most-listened-to progressive radio talk show hosts on the air in America today and a burgeoning presence in the cable news/talk television scene. His daily radio show syndicated by Dial Global RadioNetworks –– now in its eighth year –– broadcasts live weekdays from New York City 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm ET on more than 100 affiliates across the country. In addition, he hosts a prime time 10:00 pm ET weekday cable television program (Monday through Thursday) on MSNBC. The Talkers Interview with Ed Schultz was conducted by Michael Harrison. MORE...
"As Republicans Approach The Ropes On Jobs Bill, Democrats Reach For The Towel"
Tommy Christopher (MEDIAite):The President has kept the pressure on Congress in a series of speeches, and it appears to be working, at least a little bit. House Republicans like Boehner, Eric Cantor, and even Paul Ryan have sent signals that some kind of deal might be possible, a sign that, even if they’re just stalling so they can regroup, the President’s push has them back on their heels somewhat.
The President can always count on members of his own party to go all weak in the knees whenever there’s a crucial fight, and this time is no different. Several Democrats are already signaling opposition to President Obama’s plan, which completely undercuts the best leverage the President has. MORE...
"Sustainable West Seattle takes on Tox-Ick!"
Cate White (Sustainable West Seattle): Toxic runoff comes from many everyday sources, including soap, paint, fertilizers and herbicides, and even dog poop. According to the Department of Ecology, toxic runoff is the No. 1 threat to the health of Puget Sound. Each year, 14 million pounds of pollutants wash from our streets and driveways directly into our rivers and streams, and ultimately into the Sound. Sustainable West Seattle takes on Tox-Ick! “Most people I talk to think that polluted runoff from our streets and driveways go to facilities to remove contamination,” said Cate White, leader of Sustainable West Seattle’s toxic runoff outreach group. “However, that isn’t true. Most runoff is not treated. Our campaign helps people understand how they can reduce that flow of toxic runoff.” MORE...Howie P.S.: This group is sponsoring a series of educational events in West Seattle starting September 11 and ending November 19 at various locations. The next one is Saturday, September 24th @ 10am @ the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center.
Taibbi: "The $2 Billion UBS Incident: 'Rogue Trader' My Ass"
Matt Taibbi:The U.S. missed its own chance for ringfencing when a proposal for a full repeal of Gramm-Leach-Bliley was routed during the Dodd-Frank negotiations.That means we’re probably stuck here in the states with companies like Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup, giant commercial banks in charge of stewarding trillions in client bank accounts and consumer credit accounts who also behave like turbocharged gamblers via their investment banking arms.
Sooner or later, this is going to blow up in our faces, and it won't be one lower-level guy with a $2 billion loss we'll be swallowing. It'll be the CEO of another rogue firm like Lehman Brothers, and it'll cost us trillions, not billions. MORE...
"Papantonio: Soulless Republicans Will Never Sign Onto Jobs Bill" (video)
golefttv, with video (12:23):
Mike Papantonio and Ed Schultz talk about whether or not the GOP will ever support the President's jobs bill. They also take a look at some of the crazier moments from Right Wing talkers.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Elizabeth Warren: "My Announcement" (video)
ElizabethForMA, with video (01:35):
Elizabeth Warren announces her decision to run for U.S. Senate so she can fight for hard-working Massachusetts families.Howie P.S.: Warren may have appeal as a candidate for national office, someday.
"Conservative Democrats Strike Again"
Jonathan Cohn (The New Republic);
If you’ve read this blog lately, you’ve read a lot of criticism of Republicans for talking economic nonsense, placing their political fortunes ahead of the country’s good, or some combination of the two. But sometimes Democrats, particularly conservative Democrats, do the same things. And now is one of those times.
Tom Carper, Mary Landrieu, and Jim Webb – I’m looking at you. MORE...
H/t to Greg Sargent.
Doonesbury on Palin (cartoon)
(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE)Gary Trudeau:
SMALL BLUE ISLANDJim Davis | Atlanta, GA | September 13, 2011The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has also pulled the Palin strips. They've apparently given in to the fact that they're on a small blue island in a very large red sea. Ralph McGill must be up to 3600 RPM in his grave.
MORE...COPOUTJean Ray | Canton, GA | September 13, 2011I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not running this week's strips, due to "stong political content..." What a copout! Keep up the good work.
"Melody Barnes Speaks on the Administration's Accomplishments" (with video)
whitehouse, with video (02:28):
At the Interactive One Open for Questions event hosted at the White House, Domestic Policy Advisor to President Obama, Melody Barnes, talks about the administration's accomplishments since the President took office two and a
half years ago. September 13, 2011.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
From 1-22-2010: "Combative Obama pushes job creation bill" (with video)
AP with video (02:48):
A combative President Barack Obama exhorted Congress Friday to pass a new job-creation bill, taking a populist appeal to America's recession-racked Rust Belt in an effort to recapture the excitement of his campaign.Howie P.S.: I still can't believe this is from 1-22-10.
Obama weaved us-against-them rhetoric into his appearances, telling a town hall audience that he "will never stop fighting" for an economy that works for the hard-working, not just those already well off. MORE...
"Howard Dean: Obama’s America Jobs Act Is A ‘Brilliant Political Move’" (with video)
Zara Golden-MEDIAite, with video (04:03):
“I think the President’s team has been rather brilliant in putting this one together,” said former DNC chair Howard Dean, speaking on the American Jobs Act with Lawrence O’Donnell last night, sounding confident and convinced that the bill puts sufficient pressure on Republicans to get passed. “It would be hard to devise a better bill than this to put these guys on the griddle,” he said. “They’re in big trouble.” MORE...
"Obama Proposes to Cut $467 Billion in Tax Breaks For Companies, Wealthy Americans" (with video)
Democracy Now! with video (14:24):
The White House said Monday President Obama is proposing cutting $467 billion in tax breaks for wealthier Americans and some companies to offset the cost of his job-creation plan. Obama is proposing limiting itemized deductions for Americans making $250,000 or more a year and ending tax breaks for oil companies, corporate-jet owners and investment-fund managers. Jack Lew is the White House Budget Director.
Jack Lew, White House budget director: "At it’s most simple level, what the President said on Thursday night stands and is profoundly true: we can’t afford everything. We have to make choices. And I think if the American people were asked to make a choice between tax breaks for investment fund managers who get preferential treatment for carried interest and oil and gas industry tax breaks that treat oil and gas more favorably than other investments and corporate jets that are treated more favorably than commercial, that is not a hard choice for most Americans. If the choice is creating economic growth and jobs or tolerating the results of many years of inequities in the tax code."
Monday, September 12, 2011
George Packer on Obama's Job Speech (with video)
George Packer (The New Yorker):My guess is that the House will give him just enough of his plan—further cuts to payroll taxes paid by employers and employees—to be able to say, We’re not rank partisans and blind ideologues: we are doing something. But this wouldn’t be nearly enough to reverse the downward economic slide, allowing the opposition to go on playing the game it’s played since Obama’s inauguration—to lay the blame on him for the results of their own acts of legislative sabotage. Power without responsibility requires a high degree of self-restraint, something lacking in the contemporary Republican Party. MORE...Howie P.S.: Greg Sargent says
Anyone who is still wondering whether Obama intends to go all in with his push to get his jobs plan passed as is — and not piecemeal — should be encouraged by the new ad the DNC has released today ratcheting up pressure on Congress to pass the bill. MORE...
Sunday, September 11, 2011
“There’s definitely something going on here at Lewis-McChord that’s not being taken care of.”
Noah Hagemann, 6, holds a picture of his father, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Jared Hagemann, who was found dead on June 28 with a gunshot wound to his head. His wife, Ashley Joppa-Hagemann, left, believes he committed suicide., Elaine Thompson / AP PhotoWinston Ross (The Daily Beast):
At an Army base near Seattle, soldiers are committing suicide, murdering their families—and in one case, waterboarding their own kids. Winston Ross reports from a base on the brink.---Hubert wound up at Coffee Strong, where she’s surrounded by folks who agree that the Army isn’t doing enough to help soldiers who come back from war. In the first year the shop was in business, there were about 170 soldiers coming in a month. Now, the number is up above 300, says Carter.
The group is now asking for an investigation at Lewis-McChord to find the root of the suicide problems, says Carter. But he’s already certain of one of them: “They’re sending soldiers on multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and when they come back they’re expected to be ready to deploy again in a year or 15 months. That’s not enough time to recover from trauma.” Nor do soldiers who know they’re going back to war really want to deal with their issues, he says. “I’ve had soldiers tell me ‘I don’t want to go to therapy. I’ve got to keep my edge.’”
So far, the military solution has been to throw money at the problem, says Carter. The Army recently built a $53-million barracks facility for a transition battalion, for example. “That makes for something you can put on the news, but it doesn’t fix the problem,” he says. “Soldiers are starting to catch on to the fact that if the military really cared about them, they’d be doing more to help.”
Champion wants to see counseling upon a soldier’s return—at least a month’s worth—not as an option but an order, so that there’s no stigma associated with getting help. When her son went into the Army, she told him she wasn’t worried he’d get physically hurt, but that “there are some things you never ever need to see in your entire life. I don’t want you to come back with your head all screwed up. That’s what happened.”
“The Army failed my son. All they do is treat them like a damned number,” she says. “You’re not supposed to bury your children.” MORE...And for failing to help him, Champion blames the military.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
"The President's Story and the Progressive Response"
Mike Lux (CROOKSANDLIARS):
President Obama's speech Thursday night was one of his best ever delivered, and thank goodness he is making a huge political push on the all-important jobs issue. It was a good night for him, and he needed this badly for his political standing. But progressive activists should neither fall into a posture of uncritical support, or just focus on the negative sides of the speech, policy, and political strategy, as sometimes is done by our more hardcore brethren. We should take a critical eye to what is good and bad about the policy, and enthusiastically support the good side while strongly opposing what is bad; we should applaud that he has gone bigger and bolder than conventional wisdom in DC said he would or should, while calling for even more boldness because this package isn't enough to get this economy out of the deep, deep hole it is in. The President needs to have a left flank, not just because of political positioning but because progressives have a moral imperative to stand strongly for what the right thing to do is.
We should not let the fact that we are conflicted on the President's proposal slow down our willingness to take action to fight for what we believe in, either. We need to be strong and clear in what we are calling for, and fight for everything we believe in with every muscle we have. MORE...
"Fordson Extended Trailer" (video)
forsonthemovie, video (05:03):
Fordson" is a feature length documentary film that follows four talented high school football players from Dearborn Michigan as they gear up for their big senior year rivalry game during the last ten days of Ramadan, a month when Muslims traditionally fast every day from sunrise to sundown.
The story is set against the backdrop of the stunningly beautiful Fordson High School, a public high school built by Henry Ford in 1922, which was once all white, but now boasts a 98% Arab population. As our team readies itself to play its affluent, cross town rival, we unearth the adversity faced by a community that is desperately holding onto its Islamic faith and trying to gain acceptance from their fellow U.S. citizens in post 9-11 America.
Through the eyes of the team, their coaches, and their fans, we get an unprecedented glimpse inside the lives of a community that is home to the largest concentration of Arabs in any city outside of the Middle East, and their determination to hold on to the American Dream.
You can contact the producers at fordsonthemovie@gmail.com
Thom Hartmann & Ari Berman - "The GOP War on Voting" (video)
thomhartmann, with video (09:26):
Thom Hartmann and Ari Berman, Contributor-Rolling Stone Magazine; Political correspondent-The Nation Magazine; author "Herding Donkeys" discuss the dirty tricks Republicans will use to disenfranchise you.Howie P.S.: Here's the link to the article Ari wrote for the Rolling Stone that is discussed in the interview. Tidbit:
In a campaign supported by the Koch brothers, Republicans are working to prevent millions of Democrats from voting next year.
Papantonio and Winstead On The ED Show on Obama and the Republicans (video)
golefttv, video (05:31):
Mike Papantonio talks with MSNBC's Ed Schultz and Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead about the pathetic "debate" among the Republican presidential hopefuls, as well as the ups and downs of President Obama's jobs speech.
Friday, September 09, 2011
"Congressional Black Caucus cheers Obama's speech" (video)
MSNBC-ED Show, video (07:56).
Howie P.S.: Reps. Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison and Emanuel Cleaver react to President Obama's job speech.
"The world after 9/11: Naomi Klein prevails again"
Gerald Kaplan (The Globe and Mail-CA):Osama bin Laden inflicted a terrible crime on the American people. America’s elites and their allies have done the rest. MORE...
Democracy Now!: "Obama Jobs Plan Bolder than Expected, But Is It Enough?" (video)
Democracy Now, with video (13:00):
Before a joint session of Congress, President Obama laid out a $447 billion package of tax cuts and new government spending Thursday night to help stimulate the economy and create new jobs. His speech comes at a time when 14 million people are unemployed and another 8.8 million are working part-time but seeking full-time work. The official unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, and the White House is predicting the rate will not fall below six percent until 2017. The jobs crisis is particularly severe for African Americans, who face an unemployment rate that soared to 16.7 percent in August—the highest it’s been since 1984. We speak with Dedrick Muhammad, senior director for economic programs for the NAACP, and Scott Paul, founding executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. [includes rush transcript]
Fineman: "Obama Puts Passion Into Jobs Speech Rarely Seen In His Presidency" (with video)
Howard Fineman with video (05:49):Most presidents kick off their re-election campaigns with a speech on the campaign trail somewhere, or from the Oval Office. President Obama did it in a novel, telling and shrewdly chosen place: in the middle of an address to Congress.Howie P.S.: Some are not yet ready to celebrate:
If people were wondering what template Barack Obama would choose for his re-election effort -- some had suggested FDR in 1936 or Ronald Reagan in 1984 -- we now have an answer:
Harry Truman in 1948, the "Give 'Em Hell Harry" who challenged Congress to tackle with the post-war nation's problems and castigated the Republican Congress for its obstinate failure to do so. MORE...
Lee_Rosenberg:Obama has given several great speeches in his presidency. And they've often been followed by legislative failures.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
"Obama Transition Team Member Explains Why Administration Chose Not to Prosecute Torture"
David Swanson:
So, who is the source of these belated explanations?
The Dean of the University of California at Berkeley Law School Christopher Edley, Jr. His comments will probably be showing up on video, but here is a report I was just sent by long-time peace and justice activist extraordinaire Susan Harman:
(SNIP)
"Then Dean Chris Edley volunteered that he'd been party to very high level discussions during Obama's transition about prosecuting the criminals. He said they decided against it. I asked why. Two reasons: 1) it was thought that the CIA, NSA, and military would revolt, and 2) it was thought the Repugnants would retaliate by blocking every piece of legislation they tried to move (which, of course, they've done anyhow)." MORE...
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
"Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult"
Mike Lofgren:
The reader may think that I am attributing Svengali-like powers to GOP operatives able to manipulate a zombie base to do their bidding. It is more complicated than that. Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class - without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking.What do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style "centrist" Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.[3]
While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. To be sure, the business wing of the Republican Party consists of the most energetic outsourcers, wage cutters and hirers of sub-minimum wage immigrant labor to be found anywhere on the globe. But the faux-populist wing of the party, knowing the mental compartmentalization that occurs in most low-information voters, played on the fears of that same white working class to focus their anger on scapegoats that do no damage to corporations' bottom lines: instead of raising the minimum wage, let's build a wall on the Southern border (then hire a defense contractor to incompetently manage it). Instead of predatory bankers, it's evil Muslims. Or evil gays. Or evil abortionists. How do they manage to do this? Because Democrats ceded the field. MORE...
"McGinn: Can this mayor be rescued?"
Joel Connelly (seattlepi.com):
It's funny, though. I'm still rooting for McGinn to catch his political sea legs, whatever the critical stuff I've written about him and in spite of the press conference set-to.A hopeless mayor hurts a city. Grant money -- the taxpayers' dollars -- gets wasted if it is used to create a feast for interest groups. If government is keyed to specific groups' agendas (e.g. Cascade Bicycle Club, Transportation Choices, Sierra Club) those left out resist and we witness the kind of conflict seen on the tunnel.
So, here's hoping the "Green Economy" isn't a Potemkin promise, that competent contractors get brought in, workers trained and homes weatherized. Mayor McGinn has it in his powers to shut me up.
On the other hand, it's our duty to shake off the choreography and spin and demand an answer to the question immortalized by an old lady named Sarah Peller in those famous Wendy's ads: "WHERE'S THE BEEF?" MORE...
The Onion: "Obama Earns Money For U.S. By Appearing In Japanese Television Commercial"
A scene from the president's advertisement for Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese.The Onion:
In an effort to obtain badly needed revenue for the ailing U.S. economy, President Barack Obama recently appeared in a 30-second television spot for the popular Japanese snack product Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese, White House sources reported Wednesday.
According to aides, the advertisement will air nationally throughout Japan and will feature the president endorsing a savory, stick-shaped cracker snack manufactured by the Ezaki Glico corporation, which agreed to pay Obama a one-time fee of $300,000 plus residuals, compensation to be used exclusively for U.S. economic stimulus purposes.
Glico executives say they hope consumers associate the president's face with Pretz Ham & Cheese from now on.
"While the president does not ordinarily endorse retail products, he was willing to make an exception for Glico Pretz Ham & Cheese as a way of easing the current financial burden on our country," said White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, stressing that the commercial's quick, two-day shoot outside of Yokohama took little time out of Obama's schedule and was of the highest production quality. "Also, we have been assured by Ezaki Glico CEO Katsuhisa Ezaki that the TV advertisement, and accompanying billboard and bus ads, will only be seen in Japan and will portray the president in a very flattering, elegant light befitting a world leader of his stature." MORE...
Ari Melber--"an essential liberal disconnect: The narrators are far angrier than the audience"
Ari Melber (Politico):Has President Barack Obama hit bottom?
His approval ratings are at an all-time low. The president faced a summer of withering second-guessing from prominent supporters, who questioned his negotiating skills, economic priorities and liberal credentials. Obama seems impervious. Yet that is no surprise — if you do the math. MORE...
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Matt Taibbi on "Obama and Jobs: Why I Don't Believe Him Anymore"
Matt Taibbi:I was hours early for a flight and stuck in a relatively small terminal crammed with people. Only one area in the whole wing had empty seats; an unused gate that contained a TV blaring the CNN broadcast of Obama's Labor Day speech at full volume.
So it was either sit underneath a full-volume broadcast of our fearless president bellowing out his latest hollow promises, or the hellish alternative: retreat to gates full of screaming five year-old children, all of them jacked up on sugar and bawling their eyes out because it was the end of Labor Day weekend and their cruel parents were dragging them home from Disneyworld. MORE...
"Obama & the Left's Not So Magical Thinking" (video)
SamSeder, video (06:23):
Joined by Ari Berman of the Nation, Sam discusses the recent article by Jonathan Chait on "What the Left Doesn't Understand About Obama."
REPORT: "The American Middle Class Was Built By Unions And It Will Decline Without Them" (with chart)
Zaid Jilani (Think Progress):...despite the many benefits unions have provided the United States, right-wing politicians and business interests have for years sought to undermine the ability of Americans to organize to demand better pay, benefits, and conditions. From the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act to the recent GOP-led efforts to kill public worker collective bargaining rights, these assaults have successfully decreased union membership over time. In the prosperous 1950′s, nearly one in three Americans was in a union. Today, it is closer to one in ten. MORE...H/t to Marcia Kato.
"Tar Sands Action: Visit to Seattle Obama Campaign Office" (with video)
StopKeystoneXL, with video (03:51):
A group of citizens visit an Obama 2012 campaign office to make it clear that they will only donate and volunteer for the campaign when President Obama stands up to Big Oil and denies the permit for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
Michael Moore: "30 Years Ago Today: The Day the Middle Class Died"
Michael Moore:
This decline will only end when we demand it. And not through an online petition or a tweet. We are going to have to turn the TV and the computer and the video games off and get out in the streets (like they've done in Wisconsin) MORE...
"Teamsters President: ‘No Regrets’ After Fiery Speech Draws Right-Wing Criticism"
Evan McMorris-Santoro (TPMDC):"How is that different than Mitch McConnell saying he wants to take out Barack Obama?" Hoffa said.Progressive Fox News watchdog Media Matters For America charged that the clip had been deceptively edited in Fox's re-airing of it.
Hoffa said his tough tone reflects the nature of the forces massed against unions -- and tells the truth about the dangers faced by organized labor and their allies in the progressive movement during the Republican ascendancy.
"The right wing -- the tea party, backed by the Koch brothers, the Chamber of Commerce and the Walton family are underwriting, you know, bills to take away collective bargaining," Hoffa said. "Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor want to take away Social Security and Medicaid."
"The answer to that is, people that do that, is we're going to declare war on them," he added. MORE...
Fineman: "Obama Aide Discusses 2012 Campaign Strategy"
Howard Fineman:...as he and the Republican field launch the active, above-ground phase of the 2012 presidential campaign, Obama’s strategists are planning to focus less on his record –- which is spotty at best -– than on what they regard as the frightening prospect of a Republican Party not only of wrong but medieval thinking.
The strategy will be more accusatory, alarm-filled and defensive than the one used during the uplifting, even joyous campaign of 2008, symbolized as it was by depicting the first letter of the candidate's name as a rising sun.
Asked how President Obama could win reelection in the face of persistently high unemployment, a stagnant economy and restiveness in his own Democratic base, a top Obama strategist gave a three-part answer: MORE...
Obama Labor Day Speech" (video/transcript)
truthdig, with video (24:18) and transcript:
On Monday the president celebrated working people and the contributions of unions to our society and he previewed some of the proposals in his forthcoming jobs plan at an AFL-CIO-sponsored speech in a GM parking lot. MORE...
Monday, September 05, 2011
"Labor Day and the spirit of Joe Hill": Joan Baez At Woodstock (with video)
Huffington Post with video (01:47):...a clip of Joan Baez singing a song for Joe Hill at Woodstock, 40 years ago...Howie P.S.: "Labor Day and the spirit of Joe Hill" (Clancy Sigal-GuardianUK):
Hill was a labor activist and member of the Wobblies executed in 1915.
Anyone who is a fan of Billy Bragg, as I am, or Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie or the sixties protest singer Phil Ochs knows that radical America's greatest songwriter-educator Joe Hill is still alive in the young-in-heart on this besieged Labor Day. MORE...
Sunday, September 04, 2011
"Rep. Maxine Waters: We Need To Spend A Trillion Or More On A Jobs Program" (with video)
Josh Feldman (MEDIAite) with video (01:33) from "Meet the Press":
On Meet the Press today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters called for President Obama to take a more forceful approach to a jobs program, and likely made Republicans drop their jaws with the amount of money she argued the United States should invest in such a plan.
David Gregory asked Waters if it would be possible for the president to take on an ambitious role in working on job creation in Congress, given the recent partisan fights over the debt ceiling. Waters put the impetus on Obama to take the first step.
“The president must be bold. I agree that he must have a jobs program, he must create jobs. I’m talking about a jobs program of a trillion dollars or more. We’ve got to put Americans to work. That’s the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work, they earn money, they spend that money, and that’s what gets the economy up and going.”
Waters insisted any kind of effective jobs plan could not “shrink” to the demands of Republicans or give tax breaks to those in the highest income tax brackets.
"U.S. Wasting Billions While Tripling No-Bid Contracts After Decade of War in Iraq, Afghanistan" (with video)
Democracy Now! with video (31:40):
As the war in Afghanistan approaches its 10th anniversary, a pair of new reports reveal how the Pentagon has squandered tens of billions of dollars while tripling the amount of no-bid contracts. The bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting concludes that between $31 billion and $60 billion spent on projects in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last 10 years has been lost to waste and fraud. MORE...
"Obama’s Boeing Union Headache"
Chaplain Rob Dewey of the Coastal Crisis Chaplaincy leads government officials and company workers in a prayer to bless Boeing Co.'s $750 million assembly plant in North Charleston, S.C. on Friday, June 10, 2011., Bruce Smith / AP Photo
Jill Lawrence (The Daily Beast):
Republicans are savaging the administration for opposing a non-union Dreamliner plant in South Carolina. Jill Lawrence on how the tag of jobs killer could be used against Obama in 2012. MORE...
AP: "Labor unions adjust to new reality under Obama"
In this March 5, 2011, file photo, people protest against legislative efforts to do away with teachers' collective bargaining rights in Nashville, Tenn. The measure passed in Tennessee this year and ended collective bargaining for teachers unions in the state. Photo: Mark Humphrey / AP
Sam Hananel (AP):
"Obama campaigned big, but he's governing small," said Larry Hanley, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union.Labor remains a core Democratic constituency and union leaders will stand with Obama in Detroit this Labor Day, where he will address thousands of rank-and-file members during the city's annual parade Monday.But at the same time, unions have begun shifting money and resources out of Democratic congressional campaigns and back to the states in a furious effort to reverse or limit GOP measures that could wipe out union rolls.
The AFL-CIO's president, Richard Trumka, says it's part of a new strategy for labor to build an independent voice separate from the Democratic Party. MORE...
GRITtv: Bill McKibben: "Growing Global Movements" (video)
GRITtv, video (23:17).
Howie P.S.: Bill McKibben on the status of the politics of climate change and the price of energy.
Saturday, September 03, 2011
"Olbermann Excoriates Obama's Reversal On Smog Regulation" (with video)
HuffPo with video (11:25):
Keith Olbermann excoriated President Obama on his Friday show for halting the impending toughening of environmental regulations against smog.
The announcement from the White House that it would keep widely criticized 2006 regulations in place until at least 2013 did not sit well with Olbermann. In the voiceover introduction to his show, he thundered, "what the hell is going on in the White House? MORE...
Robert Reich: "The Zero Economy"
Robert Reich:
Since this Depression began at the end of 2007, America’s potential labor force – working-age people who want jobs – has grown by over 7 million. But since then the number of Americans with jobs has shrunk by more than 300,000.
If this doesn’t prompt President Obama to unveil a bold jobs plan next Thursday, I don’t know what will. MORE...
Friday, September 02, 2011
Is the left too hard on Obama?
"Mistakes of the 2008 Democratic primary" (Joan Walsh-Salon):
I find myself wondering if progressives are over-focused on Obama's perceived shortcomings when it comes to dealing with Republicans, because we likewise don't want to deal with the amoral political savagery of the enemy he faces. MORE...
"Brunch with Bernie and Thom: Sept. 2, 2011 (with audio/video)
FreeSpeech TV, video (15:00):
Thom Hartmann hosts Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) every Friday to talk about important progressive issues of the day.
"Secretary Of Labor: On Getting Americans Back To Work" (NPR-audio)
Tell me More (NPR), with audio (11:55):
August job numbers are showing a stagnant 9.1 percent unemployment rate. Concern is growing over whether the government could do more to boost job growth. Host Michel Martin speaks with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis about the administration's efforts to create new jobs and what can be expected from President Obama's jobs plan next week.
"Jim Hansen: Call to President Obama" (video)
StopKeystoneXL, with video (01:08):
Jim Hansen, NASA's leading climatologist, addresses Tar Sands protesters shortly before his arrest. Video produced by Dahlman Cook Productions.
"Obama Halts EPA Regulation On Smog Standards"
Julie Pace and Dina Capiello (HufPo):The withdrawal of the proposed regulation marks the latest in a string of retreats by Obama in the face of Republican opposition. Last December, he shelved, at least until the end of 2012, his insistence that Bush-era tax cuts should no longer apply to the wealthy. Earlier this year he avoided a government shutdown by agreeing to Republican demands for budget cuts. And this summer he acceded to more than a $1 trillion in spending reductions, with more to come, as the price for an agreement to raise the nation's debt ceiling. MORE...
Daily Mail (UK)--"Cheney fears trial as war criminal': Colin Powell aide hits out at former VP"
Daily Mail (UK):An aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has hit out at Dick Cheney, saying the former Vice President s fears being 'tried as a war criminal'
Powell's long-time aide and chief of staff, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told ABC news Cheney, 'Was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration,' adding, '[He] fears being tried as a war criminal.' MORE...
Valerie Plame Wilson on The Stephanie Miller Show (audio)
The Stephanie Miller Show (podcast-audio):To listen to an audio podcast (CLICK ON #1), mouse over the title and click Play.Howie P.S.: The discussion covers Cheney, Plamegate and the use of torture, among other topics.
"Howard Dean responds to Salon"
Justin Elliott (Salon):
Howard Dean's spokeswoman, Karen Finney, has responded to my story on Dean's turn into paid advocacy work, accusing me of engaging in "lazy journalism." I think the adjective is not accurate.Salon has nothing personal against Dean. But we felt that a liberal champion's reliance on paid advocacy work reveals something significant about our political culture, and possibly about Dean himself. Finney’s statement is presented here in its entirety, along with my responses. MORE...
NPR: "Afghanistan Future Uncertain As US Drawdown Looms" (with audio/text)
Talk of the Nation (NPR), with audio (30:14) and text: The first phase of withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan began in July, in preparation for a full transition of power to Afghan forces in 2014. While some welcome the beginning of the end of the war, others worry that hard-fought progress will be lost as troops leave.
Guests-Rajiv Chandrasekaran, senior correspondent, The Washington Post
Jonathan Landay, national security & intelligence correspondent, McClatchy newspapers
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Attention Seattle drivers---"SR 99 construction bypass: Keeping traffic moving through SODO" (video)
wsdot, with video (03:44):
On Oct. 21, we will close SR 99 and begin demolishing part of the viaduct. When SR 99 reopens to traffic on Oct. 31, both north and southbound traffic will be traveling on the first of two new bridges currently being built to the west of the existing viaduct. Drivers will pass through a large bypass located between South King Street and South Royal Brougham Way. The bypass will connect the new SR 99 bridge to the existing viaduct at South King Street. It also keeps traffic on SR 99 moving while giving central waterfront viaduct replacement crews enough space to work.Howie P.S.: Is this a "temporary" viaduct?
South of South King Street, SR 99 will have two lanes in each direction. North of South King Street the viaduct will remain in its current configuration with three lanes in each direction.
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