Peter Dreier: In the next decade, America will be transformed by a new wave of progressive activism, led primarily by organizers, thinkers, and politicians born after 1960.
Why I’m Boycotting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Book
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Peter Dreier: People of conscience don’t have to buy his books or buy tickets to his movies, and can urge others to do likewise. He is an embarrassment to all Californians.
The Romney Campaign’s Situational Demagoguery
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Joseph Palermo: Worse than Swift Boating, worse than Willie Horton, Mitt Romney is running the most craven, dishonest, and hypocritical campaign we’ve seen in contemporary American politics.
Kony 2012: Whiteness, Social Media and Africa
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Jessie Daniels: Kony 2012 is, then, an endorsement of the moral superiority of white values of reason, order, and now social media against the supposed chaos and violence of Africa.
Mocking the Mockery
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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.
Stephen Colbert Befuddles Even “Liberal” Chuck Todd
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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.
Satire Is Very Serious
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Tina Dupuy: Judging by the reaction to The Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s championing the Zadroga 9/11 responders bill to a successful passage during the lame duck session – most of the media doesn’t understand comedy either.
Why Jon Stewart Is Wrong
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Randy Shaw: America is not threatened by isolated “selfish jerks,” but by an organized cadre of wealthy individuals and powerful corporations whose agendas are far more destructive to other people and the planet than a selfish driver.
The Real Center of American Politics: A Reflection on Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
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Robert Reich: In other words, the political center isn’t about what we decide It’s about how we decide. The center American democracy is a commitment vigorous debate, done honestly and civilly.
Did Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert Restore Hope?
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Sharon Kyle: So, in sum, things may look better after you attend a rally like the one yesterday, but in the final analysis, we’ve still got a bunch of insulated decision-making elites who need to be kept in check by the voters. If you haven’t already voted, please do it on Tuesday and encourage all of your friends and loved ones to do the same.
Will Sanity Be Restored and Fear Be Kept Alive?
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David Swanson: If our government is, uniquely among wealthy countries, denying people healthcare, shouldn’t we talk about that? How “sane” can it be to always seek out the middle ground and believe whatever propositions lie halfway between advocacy for peace and justice and advocacy for glorified racist ignorance and corporatism?
Fey’s Fantastic, But Never The Twain She’ll Meet
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Michael Sigman: Given the commodification of dissent in corporate America, it’s doubtful Fey or anyone else will achieve Twain’s trifecta of talent, courage and mass popularity. But worrying about what we can’t control will only invite the kind of unhappiness that caused the great man himself to reflect that, “My life has been a series of disasters, most of which never happened.”
Watching Conan Twitch
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Mike Price: Listen up, O’Brien’s band of merry suits. Twitching may have killed ‘em at the Hasty Pudding Editorial Planning Brunch, but it won’t fly with people who have grown-up wants, needs, and programming options.
Civic Discourse Jumps the Shark
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Adam Eran: When the nation’s most trusted newsman is Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, it’s no surprise that sensible debate about public policy is at least hard to find. Lately, however, such policy debates have become positively surreal.
“He Knows When to Turn the Light Sabre On:” Obama and Washington One Year Later
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Washington DC is so stuck in its traditions it is literally the land that time and technology forgot. Press galleries off the House and Senate floors are musty old museum chambers lined with musty leather couches, antiquated black wall telephones and 1940s era phone booths. One could envision reporters of that age bursting from the floor vote to call or Telex in their copy to the National desk then retire to a local tavern.
To Hell and Beck
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Who other than His Nuttiness would praise nurses for their knowledge, care, and understanding when they tended to him after he was hospitalised following botched hemorrhoid surgery only to turn on them a year later for supporting health care reform so people who don’t have Fox News’ lush group plan can get insurance?
Reader Feedback: Moral Crossroads
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Weekly the LA Progressive features a comment that was particularly noteworthy. This week we are featuring a comment submitted by Michael, commenting on Please Investigate War Crimes Now: Please by Charley James. Michael writes: I think you are exactly right. Without acknowledging the problem and making sure that the people who caused the problem are [...]
Please Investigate War Crimes Now: Please
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The Obama Administration is beginning to remind me of a woman I dated some years ago who developed a drinking problem. Not only did she refuse to admit having trouble, discussing her addiction was taboo, off-the-table, “it’s not up for discussion” and, once, even pleading with me, “Let’s just think about the future.” But her [...]
Requiem for the War on Terror: Goodbye GWOT, Hello OCOs
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This is the way the Global War on Terror (also known, in Bush-era jargon, as GWOT) ends, not with a bang, not with parades and speeches, but with an obscure memo, a few news reports, vague denials, and a seemingly off-handed comment (or was it a carefully calculated declaration?) from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: [...]
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Why Liberals Don’t Stand a Chance in the Corporate Media
Joseph Palermo: Our political spectrum, as refracted through the lens of corporate media, runs from center-right to far-right. No wonder the conventional wisdom in Washington holds, without evidence, that the United States is a “center-right” country. Those making that argument might not be real, informed commentators — but they play them on TV.