Progressive Media Advocates
Michael Sigman: In the heat of the 2008 presidential race, the popular conservative blog Red State lambasted candidate Barack Obama’s remarks during a Berlin appearance as a “Kumbaya speech” filled with “nothing but platitudes and leftist, and multicultural, rah-rah.”
Carl Matthes: Bitterly disappointed that their big ideas were solidly rejected by American citizens, Romney/Ryan, vapid and insipid Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, are now trying to digest a heaping-helping of crow covered with sour grapes.
Brent Budowsky: MDemocrats are attuned to the tectonic plate of American politics in 2012. Rightist- dominated Republicans, who have offended too many voters on too many issues and demonized even moderates in their own party, are at war with it.
Robert Reich: It doesn’t even matter that the new Republican tax cut plan would probably raise taxes on many lower-income Americans, All that matters is the headlines.
Robert Illes: But if the absolution of Ebenezer Scrooge and the election of 2010 and the Arab spring and the Wisconsin summer and Herman Cain fall (pun intended) have taught as anything, it’s that we are in the middle of bizarro world.
Berry Craig: Todd’s on the money when he said Colbert is mooning the Fourth Estate. I suspect that’s mostly what got Todd’s goat.
Joseph Palermo: If someone like Todd who represents a “liberal” network can’t see Colbert’s parody for what it is then it truly illustrates how disconnected the corporate media have become.
Walter Brasch: Those who are elected to our city councils, state legislatures, Congress, and the Presidency do have an impact upon us. And we deserve a lot better than the arrogance of the news clan reporting the contests as if they were sporting events.
Denis Campbell: Yet the entire GOP is deluded into thinking they will regain all three branches of government with a policy of tax cuts for the rich and ignoring the 99%?
Anthony Samad: The Los Angeles taxpayer would be astonished with the number of unexcused absences council members have, but these two small-minded council persons — Parks and Perry — wanted to send a message and get some press out of it—and they did.
Steve Hochstadt: Palin and Cain are not foolish. They recognized that the elemental ideas of the Tea Party supporters could be exploited by slick slogans and political gimmicks.
Tom Degan: It’s oodles of fun these days to watch a moderately intelligent guy like Romney stumbling around the country saying all sorts of mind-jarringly stupid things.
Julie Driscoll: Call me crazy, but shouldn’t the “morality and values” party believe that cheating and lying and deceit and trashing of marital vows and violations of who knows how many biblical rules and regs shouldn’t be reduced to Sarah Palin’s “boys will be boys?”
Michael Sigman: Congressman Ron Paul will pull out of politics entirely. Since his son Rand is also a member of Congress, Ron will become the first politician ever to leave public life so he can spend less time with his family.
Charles Hayes: If we elect a Republican as president in 2012, we deserve the calamity that will follow. After all, “stupid is as stupid does.”
Julie Driscoll: Is she gonna channel Hillary, and stand by her man, or is she gonna do a Jenny Sanford, and tell the schmuck he’s on his own, file for divorce and leave him to his shenanigans – in this case, an Atlanta, instead of Argentinian, mistress?
Randy Shaw: The voters 2012 have heard it all before. Only Occupy offers something new, which is why its agenda of inequality and democracy for the 99% could become the key election issues next year.
Andy Love: What Cain has done, thanks to the insanity of the Republican nominating process and a gullible and compliant media, is become another right wing celebrity.
Berry Craig: A fierce anti-intellectualism fires much of the Fox faithful. They’re not troubled by the serial goofs and gaffes of GOP presidential hopefuls like Herman Cain, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry.
Steve Hochstadt: According to Cain, most African Americans are unable to escape the mind-control black magic of those long-time political criminals, led by their Brainwasher-in-Chief, Barack Obama.
John Peeler: So now they’re left with, of all people, Newt Gingrich! This man has so much baggage he needs a train to haul it.
Ted Vaill: Is he a legitimate contender for the White House, or just running a book tour? Is he a stalking horse for the Koch Brothers? Has he sexually harassed female subordinates?
Tom Degan: You know your candidacy is pretty much blued, screwed, and tattooed, when a certified headcase like Herman Cain is leading you in every poll.
Robert Reich: All flat-tax proposals benefit the rich more than the poor for one simple reason: Today’s tax code is still at least moderately progressive. The rich usually pay a higher percent of their incomes in income taxes than do the poor. A flat tax would eliminate that slight progressivity.
Gary Corseri: There are four great reasons why the Occupy movement will not go away, why it will grow stronger as we advance into winter and next spring: It is inter-generational, international, and life-saving and essential.
Walter and Rosemary Brasch: Mitt Romney, once standing straight, is now leaning so far right that he is likely to be kissing the floor soon. Perhaps he could dress as the Cowardly Lion and hope to find some courage.
Steve Hochstadt: The Republican candidates for President often say that government should be run like a business. Yet businesses take a very different attitude toward the science of global warming than Republican politicians.
Robert Reich: Simple fairness requires three things: More tax brackets at the top, higher rates in each bracket, and the treatment of all sources of income (capital gains included) exactly the same.
Robert Reich: Without bold alternatives, Americans desperate for big solutions are attracted to bold crackpot ideas like Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” proposal, which would raise taxes on the poor and cut them for the rich.
Randy Shaw: Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time—and his political capital—is running out.
Steve Hochstadt: The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s finally made an issue of fathering. If women were going to get out of the house and into the workplace, men had to change their roles, too.
The Frying Pan: A successful mayor and council cannot be satisfied with merely coping as issues arise, but must be able to anticipate and define the city´s needs for the next four years. As our newly elected leaders prepare for their roles, we´ve asked writers to share their thoughts about what lies ahead for Los Angeles.
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Cain Case Shines Light on Workplace Sexual Harassment
Michael Sigman: If the credible-sounding charges from Sharon Bialek — a conservative Republican — are to be believed, Herman Cain’s behavior was a bridge way, way too far.