Carl Bloice: Any member of Congress who thinks obstructionism is the way to win elections should know that in two years we will be sure that voters will know who stood in the way of jobs. We have an energized membership that’s ready to fight, and we’re going to give it everything we have.
Not a Post-Mortem: Checking Debris After a Big Wave
By
John Peeler: The Republican takeover of the House was largely a matter of taking back the seats they lost in the last two elections, many of which are either majority Republican or conservative enough to have voted for McCain in 2008.
Looking for a Few Good Characters
By
Steve Hochstadt: Many American voters appear ready to ignore character, to vote for liars and jerks, as long as they say they will cut taxes or shrink government or whatever the popular panacea of the moment happens to be.
African American Youth Joblessness and the “New Normal”
By
Carl Bloice: If it remains almost impossible for a couple of generations of young women and men to earn a decent living, it is calamitous for black people and the country. They cannot become the personification of the “new normal.”
A Helleva of a Choice (but I’ma Have to Support My President)
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Anthony Samad: As ugly as it is out there for some Democrats, one in particular-in California-y’all know who I’m talking about, I’m going to have to trust the President on this election.
The Incredible Shrinking Women
By
Tina Dupuy: Here’s the thing about women candidates: they are more interesting to the press than their male counterparts. The media just likes them more. There’s an obsession with female candidates’ gaffes.
U.S. Border Czar Calls on Congress to Get Serious about Immigration Reform
By
Seth Hoy: While some candidates continue to make political fodder out of immigration and border security on the campaign trail, administration officials are pushing Congress to get real about overhauling our broken immigration system.
Young Immigrant Breaks Down While Sharing Her ‘Greatest Fear’ With Obama
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Andrea Nill: The Obama administration can do something about processing backlogs, however it’s up to Congress to reform the immigration system.Currently, the visa system is currently outdated by over twenty years and does not meet the needs or demands of a 21st century globalized economy — let alone immigrant families.
Why It’s Foolish to Weaken the Dollar to Create Jobs
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Robert Reich:I keep hearing the only way we’re going to get jobs back any time soon is with a weak dollar. Baloney.
Senators Menendez and Leahy Introduce the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2010
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While this bill provides a strong starting point for Congress to honestly debate meaningful immigration reforms, many wonder whether obstructionists in Congress will continue to use immigration as a political piñata in the name of election politics or put partisanship aside and fix our broken immigration system.
Health Care Reform – Six Months Later
By
Peter Dreier: Lots of reporters and pundits-all of whom have good, employer-provided health insurance plans-now say that Obama invested too much capital getting the Affordable Care Act through Congress when he should have been concentrating on the economy.
Taking the Fight to Orange County
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Despite minimal support from the Democratic Party leadership, Orange County has great potential to fare well in the November elections. The Obama 2008 campaign did better in Orange County than any other Democratic presidential candidate in history, raising eyebrows among some party activists.
Congress Should Pass the “Medicare You Can Buy Into” Act
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Tracy Emblem: Grayson’s simple public option plan is more cost-effective for many individual’s who are held hostage now by the BIG Four. Buying into Medicare’s larger insurance risk pool brings down individual premiums.
How Corporations Own Congress
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Shamus Cooke: A “lesser of two evils” approach to politics equals evil politicians for labor, no matter who wins. In fact, the lesser-evil Democrats have become increasingly evil over the years, to the point where the party as a whole is more Conservative than the Nixon-era Republicans.
Obama Throws White House Support Behind DREAM Act
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Seth Hoy: Although the President has pledged his support for the DREAM Act, mounting GOP opposition will make it increasingly difficult for Sen. Harry Reid to find the 60 votes necessary for cloture on the amendment next week, assuming the Defense Authorization bill makes it through round one, the motion to proceed, next Tuesday.
Book Burning and the New Red Scare
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Tom Hall: As the new Tea Bag Republicans virtually guarantee gridlock and a forced double dip depression, the voters will again turn on them, giving a chance, in 2012, to candidates who offer real solutions, real progress, real hope. If we can find any.
Net Neutrality Supporters Visit Rep. Henry Waxman
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Sylvia Moore: It’s terrific that Waxman remains on the right side of this issue. For those of us hoping that he would use his position to make net neutrality a higher priority in the House, we were disappointed.
Getting Progressive Voices in Congress: By Hook or By Crook
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Dick Price: LA’s progressive political community is rallying behind David Segal, a rising young star looking to capture the Congressional seat Patrick Kennedy is leaving in Rhode Island.
SB1070-Inspired Activity Continues in the States
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Michele Waslin: Even though a judge ruled that it could not be implemented, Arizona’s immigration law, SB1070, has sparked a great deal of activity across the U.S. Unfortunately, it’s not the type of activity that’s going to result in meaningful solutions.
Republicans Used to Like the Whole Constitution
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Berry Craig: In today’s uber-conservative Republican party, President Eisenhower would be a socialist, too, even a Red, and Nixon would be a liberal.
The Jobs Emergency
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Robert Reich: We need a response proportional to the crisis. Obama, Pelosi, and Reed should summon Congress back to Washington for action on the jobs emergency.
Obama Administration Considers Bypassing Congress on Immigration Reform
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Marcus Stern: Supporters of comprehensive immigration reform are certain to welcome any effort by the Obama administration to unilaterally open pathways to citizenship for many currently in the country illegally. But the draft is also sure to outrage immigration-restriction groups.
State of Denial: After the Big Leak, Spinning for War
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Norman Soloman: And if, these days, “U.S. troops in the field” are not as inclined to express “frustration at having to fight a war without sufficient resources,” the latest boosts of Pentagon outlays for war in Afghanistan merely reflect the unhinged escalation of a war effort that should not exist.
Jobless Benefits Battle Holds Millions of Americans Hostage
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David Love: A group of mostly Republican lawmakers refuses to reauthorize an extension of $33 billion in unemployment benefits. And in blocking the legislation during desperate times, they are holding 2.5 million Americans hostage, all for a political stunt. T
SB-1070 Proponents Accuse DOJ for Not Going After ‘Sanctuary Cities’
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Andrea Nill: Proponents of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB-1070, have a new talking point: they are now arguing that if the Department of Justice (DOJ) is going to legally challenge SB-1070, it should also go after “sanctuary city” policies as well. “Sanctuary city” is a right-wing derisive term used to describe cities that have adopted community policing policies that prevent police from asking about the immigration status of or detaining and arresting immigrants solely for being undocumented.
BP’s Oiled Pelicans: “They Look Like Dead Angels in the Sand”
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Georgianne Nienaber: Rehabilitation of wildlife has become a moneymaking government enabled bureaucracy with a bunch of federal sock-puppets taking orders from BP.
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Does the First Amendment Separate Church and State?
Is Thomas Jefferson’s famous phrase “wall of separation between church &
state” too broad an interpretation of the First Amendment? Historian Jon
Butler argues that original intent of the First Amendment was even broader
than that.