Progressive Media Advocates
Victoria Defrancesco Soto: With close to three-quarters of the Latino electorate indicating that they trust President Obama and the Democrats to make the right decisions to improve our economic conditions the message is clear–Latinos have said adiós to Romney.
Charley James: We are losing democracy because the GOP and movement conservatives believe, “We’re rich enough. We’re clever enough. And, doggone it, people may not like us but we can do it anyway.”
Charley James: “Romney Was Lying”, said Ginger a woman who considers herself a low information voter who pays no attention to politics until there’s an election.
Charley James: I finally put my finger on what it is about the Republican who would be president that is so bothersome: There is something fundamentally untouched about Willard “Mitt” Romney, something offensively virginal.
Walter Brasch: Because of an inner need to believe they matter, the media predict who will win the nomination, changing their predictions as quickly as a fashionista changes shoes.
Bill Fletcher: The “circle of clowns” of Republican candidates seems increasingly intent on proving that they are the voices of ignorance, fear and irrationalism. I cannot get over it.
Robert Reich: Suddenly, manufacturing is back – at least on the election trail. But don’t be fooled. The real issue isn’t how to get manufacturing back. It’s how to get good jobs and good wages back. They aren’t at all the same thing.
John Peeler: The Republican primary electorate is predominantly reactionary, far-right-wing, on both economic and social issues, so it should not be so surprising that they are warming to Santorum.
Scott Prosterman: Republicans are in a snit because their selection process is so Darwinian. Whatever rises to the top of that vat surely won’t be cream.
With one statement on Thursday, Newt Gingrich, who constantly reminds voters about his past as a college professor, managed to mangle the facts while resorting to old-fashioned racist stereotypes to gain votes. With his poll numbers sinking, and his presidential campaign desperate, Gingrich told a crowd at a senior citizens center in Plymouth, New Hampshire, “I’m prepared, [...]
We have been back in the United States about two weeks now but I immediately realized why I had “opted out” of this system. I had not fully unpacked from our trip to Vietnam when my e-mail was flooded with messages from my conservative friends reminding me that the president was “black”, not really from [...]
Robert Reich: Occupiers and others have had enough.
Yet paradoxically the presidential race that officially begins a few months from now is likely to be as passionless as they come.
Tom Hall: The mainstream media has had little to say about Obama’s accomplishments. Why would they? The mainstream media is owned by, and serves, a handful of huge corporations in New York.
Paul Loeb: Most campuses are relatively quiet, with students inhabiting what a University of Wisconsin Green Bay student called “a bubble of insulation,” one that leaves crucial political debates barely visible in the distance.
Paul Loeb: For all the strengths of online engagement, people still need to gather together, eat, joke, flirt, tell their stories, attach names to faces, and ultimately build deeper levels of trust.
Paul Hogarth: Four years after the first netroots convention, the bloggers are back in Vegas – with an eye on the November 2010 elections. Voters still want change like they did in 2006 and 2008, but now that Democrats control both Congress and the White House there’s a real fear that Republicans could benefit.
Tina Dupuy: Whitman has said that her cap on donating to her own campaign is $150 million dollars. She spent half of that on the primary. This is a governor’s race. One state. Just to put this into perspective, in 2008 John McCain spent $350 million total to run nationally for president. That’s all 50 states.
Robert Reich: Obama has no ass to kick until he’s in charge. Obama should take over BP’s rescue operation. That’s the only way the public can be sure all necessary resources are being put to the job, that public risks are being properly weighed, and it’s getting the truth.
Randy Shaw: The nonsense and political disinformation around the politics of the BP oil spill is stunning. Each day we are told that President Obama’s entire agenda has been undermined by BP’s reckless action, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Anthony Samad: The sophistication of the black voter is always called into question lately. The black community gets blamed when somebody’s issue (ballot initiative) doesn’t win or somebody’s candidate takes a fall…it’s the black voter’s fault. Voter turnout wasn’t high enough, or voters didn’t “get in” in time to make a difference. Most of the time, our community does get it.
Michele Waslin: Immigrant advocates will be asking themselves what role immigration played in the primaries. The fact is that the immigration issue probably plays a small role, if any. Quite frankly, Members don’t have much of a record on the issue for voters to base their votes on because Congress has been too scared to take on the issue and see what their constituents say about it. But the sentiments behind the immigration debate echo what we saw in the polls—the public has grown tired with inaction.
In order to get anything meaningful through this session of Congress, then, the President will have to give Congressional Democrats far more leadership and more cover. Doing so is harder now than before the recess, when he was still basking in the afterglow of a honeymoon and 60% favorabilities.
A key provision of the Voting Rights Act (first adopted in 1965), provides that jurisdictions with a history of racial and ethnic discrimination must get prior federal approval before changing election laws. Many, but not all Southern states, and a scattering of states, counties, and municipalities elsewhere, remain subject to that stipulation. In June, the [...]
The ultra racist British National Party (only native born white Brits can become party members) had an Adolph Hitler in the 1930s moment and captured two European Parliamentary seats (a body they wish to see destroyed but whatever means needed) for the first time ever in UK-wide elections. Geert Wilders far right Dutch Nationalist Party [...]
Robert Reich: Who needs Republicans when Wall Street has the Democrats? With the help of congressional Democrats, the Street is rolling back financial reforms enacted after its near meltdown.
Peter Dreier: The Waltons could end to the company’s longstanding practice of keeping its employees in poverty, with low wages, poor benefits, and unpredictable schedules that make parenting even harder than it already is.
Dan Bacher: Despite intense political pressure by the oil industry, the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 29 approved three bills proposing to halt fracking, a controversial method of oil and natural gas extraction, in California.
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Media Criticism of Sarah Palin is Gender-Neutral, But GOP and Far Right Are Not
A friend of mine who is a Republican contends the rampant criticism of Sarah Palin in the media is largely based on the fact that she is a woman. My friend also blames the John McCain campaign for “mishandling” Palin and comes to her defense, stating that Palin is “ . . . a woman [...]