132 Articles

Monday, November 16, 2009
Afghan Escalation Would Make One-Year Pentagon Budget Almost As Big as Entire 10-Year Health Bill
(9 comments) There's no attempt to put the costs into any context - specifically, there's no mention that an escalation in Afghanistan would mean outlays for the one-year Pentagon budget is approaching the total outlays of the entire 10-year health care bill.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Why Is the Military Infringing on Obama's Decison-Making Turf?
(9 comments) The Washington Post insisted that Obama's failure to promptly back McChrystal's surge proposal could "dishonor" America, while the New York Times said no matter what the president wants, "It will be very hard to say no to General McChrystal."

Saturday, September 19, 2009
Obsessive Compulsive Bipartisanship Disease
(5 comments) In the blogosphere, we've often discussed Washington's sick fetishization of bipartisanship. Whether it's pundits or politicians, the entire D.C. Establishment has made abundantly clear that it is first and foremost interested in bipartisanship for bipartisanship's sake before it is interested in the ramifications of public policy.

Monday, September 14, 2009
On Racism, Death Threats & The Blindness of Those Who Will Not See
(6 comments) We're living in a world where the behavior of right-wing lynch mobs clearly is far less about ideology, and far more about partisanship and racial hate. The tea party protestors were nowhere to be found when George Bush trampled the constitution and grew the government.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009
CNN Debate on Van Jones: Obama Sells Us Out to Political Terrorist Glenn Beck & His Lynch Mob
(1 comments) I am at once loathe to help fuel this media-manufactured controversy and eager to use this as a kind of "teachable moment" that Obama talks about, but rarely delivers on. If we as a movement cannot stand up for a genuine progressive hero like Van Jones--a guy with a towering record of real-world accomplishment on behalf of issues and grassroots communities--then we will not be able to stand up for anything.

Friday, September 4, 2009
Progressives Pay the Price for Confusing a Party With a Movement
(8 comments) The difference between parties and movements is simple: Parties are loyal to their own power regardless of policy agenda; movements are loyal to their own policy agenda regardless of which party champions it.

Friday, August 7, 2009
The Me-First, Forget-Everyone-Else Crowd
(3 comments) the Me-First, Forget-Everyone-Else Crowd isn't interested in fairness, empiricism or morality. They are merely using the argot of fairness, empiricism and morality to hide its real motive: selfish greed.

Thursday, July 30, 2009
"Parochial Considerations"
As the ridiculous debate over health care "reform" careens from one manipulative boondoggle to another, our citizens, and our democracy itself are in peril. In this article, David Sirota discusses some of the blatant hypocrisy that is driving this discussion.

Saturday, July 25, 2009
How the Ultra-Rich Are Trying to Kill Health Reform
According to government figures, 1-percenters' share of America's total income is the highest it's been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they've faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009
An American Griswold In China, Days 1-3: The Gateway to the Mainland
(3 comments) As some background on our journey, my wife Emily and I visited both coastal and the less-well-traveled interior regions of China for about three weeks in June and July. We were guided around the country by my longtime friend Mike Levy, who was a Peace Corps volunteer in China and who has a forthcoming book about his experiences entitled "Kosher Dogmeat."

Monday, July 13, 2009
Back From My Long Strange Trip
(2 comments) Editor note: This comes via Email, 2 days earlier than David originally promised to be back. So, as he says, Rock the Boat

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Teabags vs. Douchebags Why this May Not be the Second Coming of the New Deal After All.
(2 comments) Teabaggery takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773. Mythologized high-school history texts tell us that colonists tossed British tea into Boston Harbor in America's first populist revolt. Today, as evidenced by the April 15 protests, the original Boston Tea Party has become a transcendent icon of pugilistic radicalism--a symbol of patriotic resistance against unresponsive government and elite douchebags.

Friday, May 22, 2009
Facing Progressive Pressure, Obama Backs off Panama Free Trade Agreement
(4 comments) This is huge news for the Make Him Do It Dynamic: The decision, announced by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Everett Eissenstat at a Senate Finance Committee hearing today, is a reversal from statements in March that the U.S. wanted to pass the accord soon... Eissenstat's comments follow remarks by John Sweeney

Wednesday, May 20, 2009
When An Intern Can Form a Shell Corporation, It's Time For Trade Reform
Bloomberg News this morning reports that U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk gave a speech yesterday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "saying he hopes Congress will approve stalled trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea within the next year." The good news is that Kirk also noted that Bush-written trade policies are "really a tough sell in this environment."

Saturday, May 16, 2009
First Amendment Rights Watch: Criminalizing the Internet
(10 comments) HR 1966 is called the "Cyberbullying Prevention Act" and includes this section: Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Monday, May 11, 2009
Three Questions About Obama's 'Major' Health Care Announcement Today
(12 comments) Today's press conference has the President effectively saying that the health insurance industry should have a major seat at the health-reform table - and that it should be trusted. But any serious health care reform will need to take on the health insurance industry in a way that will make that industry unhappy.

Monday, April 20, 2009
D.C. Reporters Just Make Sh*t Up, Part 1,489,890,992,384
(6 comments) I wonder if instead of working in the factual world, I should just start making shit up. It would save me so much time in my work to not have to, ya know, verify anything. I could write entire columns just saying the first piece of conventional wisdom that came into my mind, without even bothering to see if it was true. Wow...what an easy life that would be.

Friday, April 17, 2009
Columbine questions we still don't ponder
(12 comments) I wish I were surprised that Columbine-like shootings are still happening, or even that our national discussion about violence hasn't yet matured past gun control and video games. I wish I were surprised, but sadly, I'd be surprised if it were any different because we still refuse to ask the most uncomfortable questions.

Friday, April 17, 2009
"Either In the Pocket of the Banks or Incompetent"
(2 comments) Stiglitz said there are conflicts of interest at the White House because some of Obama's advisers have close ties to Wall Street. Stiglitz is reiterating a truth that he and many of us have been saying for months now - a truth that Obama partisans still somehow see as unacceptable to talk about.

Thursday, April 16, 2009
Mainstreaming the Militia
(9 comments) I think between the media coverage of yesterday's Tea Parties and the national Republican Party effectively coming to the public defense of right-wing extremist groups against the Department of Homeland Security, that mainstreaming has gone into overdrive.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Right-Wing Authoritarianism: Gay Marriage & the Selective Indictment of Democratic Institutions
(1 comments) The Right really exhibits a nasty authoritarian streak that lets them, whenever they see fit, offer up selective interpretations of what is and isn't "legitimate" in a democracy - and conservatives are most willing to do this on divisive issues like gay marriage.

Monday, April 13, 2009
The Reward Method of Corruption
(1 comments) If members are interested in someday making the trip across town, Fazio suggested they work more closely with Washington's influence class. "If you want to be respected in the world of Washington outside the Capitol, you need to make yourself open to that, and you learn a lot," said Fazio, who moved in 2005 to the lobbying law firm Akin Gump.

Monday, April 13, 2009
Feeling Sorry for Yourself?
(1 comments) It's called graft - a surefire wealth creator that takes your investments, modifies laws, and delivers returns that the best stock trader could never dream of. This is the ShamWow of strategies, the Flowbee of economics, the Ronco of investing. Just look at the profits it generates!

Monday, April 6, 2009
Hands-Off Attitude Towards Financial Regulation - Cause & Effect?
(2 comments) Was there a quid pro quo whereby Summers took cash from Wall Street and then entered the administration and did Wall Street's bidding? Not explicitly, no. Bribery in our country most often operates in the world of the implicit - Summers got the cash because he was a solid Wall Street investment

Monday, March 30, 2009
Why Can the Auto Industry CEOs but Spare Bank CEOs?
(18 comments) I'm genuinely asking this question, and not in a way aimed at defending Rick Wagoner. I just want to know what possible public explanation there could be as to why the White House would push auto company CEOs around while coddling banking CEOs?

Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Lying Or Incompetent - Either Way, Geithner Needs to Be Fired
(6 comments) This comes on top of Geithner and Summers dishonestly insisting that they are unable to stop the AIG bonuses because of Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-CT) executive compensation legislation that exempted AIG-style bonuses from limits. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal and Hill newspaper long ago reported, Dodd's original bill would have limited such bonuses

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
America Is Really Angry - Obama Aides Still Fretting About Elite Opinion
(1 comments) This was the reason why Obama was originally right when he said "change doesn't come from Washington, it comes to Washington" - because Permanent Washington is predisposed to see public passion and anger as a threat rather than an opportunity.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Is U.S. Trade Policy About to Change?
(1 comments) Because of mixed messages from President Obama on trade, many are looking to his nominee for U.S. Trade Representative, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, to clarify things and answer the fundamental question on trade policy: Which side is the president on? There are encouraging signs.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Um, No - We're Not Governed "In A Way That Is Entirely Consistent With Free-Market Principles"
(1 comments) What's not a good thing is Obama effectively validating the right wing's frame. In going out of his way to insist he's for the "free market," the president is signaling that he believes that the "free market" must always be worshiped and publicly glorified, even though this is an historic opportunity to reframe the entire debate on far more pragmatic, less ideological, terms.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009
"Swinging for the Fences": The Major League Moment In American Politics
(4 comments) Yes, the budget has some bad "business as usual" ideas in it, including more increases in defense spending, and what amounts to a second $700 billion bank bailout. But on the whole, Republican Sen. John Thune (SD) is (gasp!) actually right: the administration is "really swinging for the fences" on progressive policy. That's a paradigm shift from a past era that pretended We the People didn't even exist.

Friday, February 20, 2009
The Growing Anger In the Heartland
(14 comments) [His]passion exemplifies a level of rage out in the country that isn't being fully appreciated in Washington, D.C., as evidenced by everything from the continued no-strings-attached bailouts to the criticism of the most basic "Buy America" laws. The anger out here is real and it is breaking through the Beltway din. It is only going to get worse if genuine change doesn't happen in short order.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Announcement of Audie Award
A feather in the cap of an OEN member: I wanted to let you know the good news - my 2008 book, The Uprising, was nominated for an "Audie" - the publishing industry's most prestigious set of awards for best audiobooks of the year. You can download the audiobook at Audible.com or order the CD at this link:

Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The 4.6% Truth: How Absurdly Small Stimulus Spending Really Is
(1 comments) Of course, that doesn't mean the stimulus bill should be rejected, even in the overwhelmingly mediocre state it's in - but it does mean that we should have a little perspective and stop judging everything by conservatives' know-nothing parameters.

Monday, February 9, 2009
Energy Taxes' Faustian Bargain
Revenuewise, it's easy to see why severance taxes are an attractive target in an era of belt-tightening. Energy companies are making big profits, and severance receipts have doubled in the past five years to almost $11 billion nationwide.In an age of money-dominated politics, that warning may, indeed, be valid - at least in the short term. The trick for severance tax reformers, then, will be to find ways of making deals

Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Blacklisting Progressives: The Untold Story Beneath the Daschle Headlines
(8 comments) Leo Hindery, one of the few business leaders to use his wealth to challenge deregulation, corporate trade deals and anti-worker policies was blacklisted by the Obama administration well before the Daschle flap ever happened.

Thursday, January 29, 2009
There's Something Happening Here
(9 comments) Suddenly, we have a Congress pushing the executive branch to be more progressive - and that's a big deal. If......we're going to close the gulf between the rhetoric of hope and the real action of change, it will be through our work continuing to create the conditions for this new dynamic to thrive. The bolder the Democratic Congress, the more it can reject czarism and reassert its constitutional role.

Friday, January 23, 2009
U.S. Moving Toward Czarism, Away From Democracy
(12 comments) [T]his culture of "presidentialism," as Vanderbilt Professor Dana Nelson calls it, has justified the Patriot Act, warrantless wiretaps and a radical theory of the "unitary executive" that aims to provide a jurisprudential rationale for total White House supremacy over all government. But only in the past three months has American czarism metastasized from a troubling slow-growth tumor to a potentially deadly cancer.

Monday, January 19, 2009
Busting myths that FDR prolonged Great Depression
(1 comments) ...the truism we must all remember in 2009: As conservatives try to obstruct a new New Deal, they're not making any arguments that are remotely serious. "Excepting 1937-1938, unemployment fell each year of Roosevelt's first two terms (while) the U.S. economy grew at average annual growth rates of 9 percent to 10 percent," writes University of California historian Eric Rauchway.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008
The Sign I've Been Waiting For
Many of have our own "signs" - the things we take from our lives that seem to suggest a deeper force in the universe. Most of these signs are mundane - a breeze here, a coincidental encounter there. This week, though, I found my superstitious sign that something very different - very special - is happening. That sign came in the form of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Sunday, October 19, 2008
Here Comes the Onslaught
(3 comments) This Newsweek cover piece is the starting gun of the elite pushback against what could be a new progressive era. Penned by one of the most reliable peddlers of Establishment talking points, Jon Meacham, it argues that a President Obama will have to govern America as a slightly more moderate Ronald Reagan.

Friday, August 8, 2008
West will be where it's won
From Butte, Montana, David Sirota considers how the West is listening to Democrats. His syndicated column appears in the Denver Post.

Monday, April 28, 2008
Clinton Criticizing Closure of Indiana Factory That Clinton Helped Close
(3 comments) Clinton is airing a television ad in Indiana, bemoaning the closure of a defense contractor Magnequench's manufacturing plant in Valparaiso (she is also echoing this line in her stump speeches). Looking at the camera, she tells us she's upset that the 200 jobs that were sent to China, and that "now America's defense relies on Chinese spare parts." Problem is, it was Bill Clinton who could have stopped it.

Thursday, March 20, 2008
White House Papers Expose Lies of Clinton, Emanuel & Gergen On NAFTA
(2 comments) Finally, the dishonesty is being unmasked. Finally, we see just how much we're being lied to when it comes to economic policy. Finally, we see it hasn't just been Hillary Clinton lying about her role in championing NAFTA, but we see it is the entire Clinton machine. The facts are clear: The Clinton machine joined with K Street to manufacture the very international economic policies that are destroying the economy.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The Ohio Debate Primer on Trade
Campaign For America's Future, 2/26/08

Sunday, February 10, 2008
Local Pressure Builds On Superdelegates
What we have on our hands is a potential back room effort to use undemocratic "superdelegates" to anoint a Democratic presidential nominee - with many superdelegates potentially using their power in defiance of how their states and communities voted.

Monday, January 21, 2008
Are We Ready to Rise Up Again?
(1 comments) The question on this Martin Luther King Day is - are we ready to discard our pessimism and rise up to the challenge like generations past?

Thursday, January 3, 2008
As Predicted, Populism Is On the Rise - Who's Laughing Now?
(9 comments) The mainstream media are ignoring the major role populism is playing for both parties. Voters are POed and populism is the answer

Monday, September 10, 2007
The Innocent Bystander Fable Goes Into Overdrive
The Washington Post is the latest Establishment media organ to push what I have called the Innocent Bystander Fable. This is the myth that Democrats have no power to stop the war, despite controlling both houses of Congress.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Democrats Beware: An Economic Populist Is Rising In the GOP's Presidential Primary
(2 comments) Huckabee has an extraordinarily different message than any of the other Republican presidential contenders - a populist economic message that may be shunned by conservative operatives and K Street lobbyists in the GOP-dominated Money Party in Washington, but likely has an appeal among rank-and-file working-class Republican voters.

Friday, August 10, 2007
Memo to Dems: How the Immigration Debate Can End the Iraq War
How to End the War? Make GOPers Decide Between Bush and Their Base

Sunday, August 5, 2007
Following YearlyKos Debate, Edwards Uses Corruption to Frame Race as Him vs. Clinton
(1 comments)

Monday, July 16, 2007
More Proof the West Is A Heckuva Lot More Colorful Than Red vs. Blue
From the Rocky Mountain West's Department of Shifting Politics comes dispatches out of two key states that show, once again, how fractured the old Republican coalition has become, and how many opportunities there are for Democrats - if they can shake off their Wall Street wing and embrace their populist roots.

Monday, July 9, 2007
SECRET TRADE DEAL - DAY 60: Dems Reassure Bush As K Street Begins PR Push
This is another in a series of ongoing posts following the announcement of a secret free trade deal on May 10, 2007 between a handful of senior Democrats and the Bush administration. That deal encompasses free trade agreements with Peru, Panama, South Korea and Colombia, and is designed to pave the pay for the passage of presidential fast track authority - the authority that lets presidents eliminate all labor, environ...

Monday, May 28, 2007
The Innocent Bystander Fable
The Innocent Bystander Fable teaches that every politician in America except the President of the United States has absolutely no power at all to stop or even slow down the escalation of the war in Iraq - an escalation that is expected to deploy "more than 200,000 [troops to Iraq] -- a record high number -- by the end of the year..." The Innocent Bystander Fable is convenient for all players involved, even if it is a fable -

Thursday, May 24, 2007
We Gave Them Our Hearts, They Gave Him A Blank Check
(2 comments) Today was a dark day in our nation's history. That sounds melodramatic - but it is true. Today America watched a Democratic Party kick them square in the teeth -

Monday, May 7, 2007
Lou Dobbs Challenges The Great Objectivity Scam
(1 comments) CBS 60 Minutes' piece on Lou Dobbs last night told us a lot more about traditional journalism's biases than it did Dobbs' on any given issue he covers.

Monday, April 30, 2007
Disturbing Questions On A Monday Morning

Thursday, March 22, 2007
VOTE ALERT: GOP & 11 Dems Vote Down Property Tax Relief
(1 comments)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Where is America's true center?
Polls showing more conservatives than liberals mean little in terms of party policy.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Congress's upcoming "free" trade fight: The good, the bad & the ugly
in the new Congress the battle is going to be fierce and nasty over "free" trade (read: trade deals that are filled with protectionist measures for corporate profits but free only of protections for human beings).the trenches being dug by both sides, and incredibly - when many senior congressional Democrats aren't helping the K Street crowd dig its trench, they are making threats of retribution against their own freshmen

Monday, February 5, 2007
Progressive Senators Learn How to Use Ben Nelson-ism for Themselves
(1 comments)

Tuesday, January 9, 2007
The Iraq War Is Not Michael Jordan
Kennedy's new legislation will force lawmakers to publicly state whether they have the guts to exercise their constitutional responsibilities or not.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Rangel: Preserve Millionaire Tax Cuts, Consider Soc. Security Cuts, Pass More Free Trade Pacts
(3 comments) In the weeks after the congressional election, Rangel has expressed interest in preserving President Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy; considering Social Security benefit cuts and retirement age hikes; and supporting lobbyist-written trade pacts that have no wage, environmental or human rights protections in them.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
For the Love of God, Please Stop. It's Embarrassing. Like, Really Embarrassing
(3 comments) take a quick look at what's going on in the race for House Majority Leader between anti-Iraq-War leader Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) and recently-reconstructed pro-war mouthpiece Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) In the last few days, both the DLC and Hoyer's own allies on Capitol Hill have mimicked Lieberman's tactics in an effort to reposition Hoyer as one of the longtime leaders of the global anti-war movement.

Thursday, September 21, 2006
The Tidal Wave Heading Straight For the Hall of Mirrors
(1 comments) There are times every now and again where you just have to step back and behold the absurdity of it all. You have to step back from the day-to-day trench wars and just marvel at how entrenched power really is in this, the country where we still cling to Horatio Alger fables or "anyone can grow up to be president" myths. Amazing-- the propaganda system that holds this whole structure up.

Sunday, September 17, 2006
The Prima Donnas Endangering A Democratic Victory In 2006
Last week, in response to an awful article in Roll Call newspaper, I posted an open letter to Nancy Pelosi asking her to tell her fellow House Democrats to stop running to reporters bragging about how they are shaking down Big Money interests for cash. Such behavior insults the intelligence of voters, since it is happening at the same time Democrats are hammering the GOP for its "culture of corruption."

Thursday, September 7, 2006
Fear & Loathing In the Senate Democratic Club
(1 comments) Change does not come easy - it never does. And change never comes from D.C. - it is always forced on that city. But I must confess - for some reason (call me a naive idiot) I thought change among Democratic lawmakers in Congress would occur after Democratic primary voters spoke. Apparently, I was wrong. In a spate of stories today, we see that Democratic Senators yesterday tripped over themselves to applaud Sen. Joe Lieberman

Monday, September 4, 2006
The War on Workers
(1 comments) Republicans are waging a war on the very workers they purport to care about this Labor Day as they make their rounds of stump speeches.

Friday, September 1, 2006
GOP Bankruptcy Vote Comes Back to Crush U.S. Troops
The GOP corporate-written Bankruptcy Bill is punishing US troops, especially National guardsmen who are forced to take a pay cut from their regular jobs when they are called into service and deployed overseas. Lord knows our soldiers serving in Iraq have enough to worry about...

Sunday, August 27, 2006
Beltway Media Distorts GOP Position on Iraq
top Republican leaders have repeatedly gone on record making statements or taking concrete steps that support actually KEEPING large amounts of U.S. troops in Iraq indefinitely.

Friday, August 25, 2006
Lieberman Defended FEMA Director Before and AFTER Katrina
(1 comments) How could our congressional leaders allow an inexperienced Republican political campaign operative like Mike "Brownie, You're Doing a Heck of a Job" Brown to head up FEMA? How could he be allowed to be put in such a position, especially considering his nomination was overseen by a Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate? The answer is found in one man: Joe Lieberman

Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Politics 101: Don't Reinforce Your Opponents' Lies
Progressives who say they aren't "moderate" or "centrist" or who claim their opponents are more "moderate" or "centrist" are by definition saying they believe they themselves to be "extreme" or "more extreme."

Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Rejecting the McGovern Complex
(1 comments) The psychology of the middle-aged, self-described partisan/media political "expert" is something of a puzzle to me. Strip away all the bloviating, all the self-importance, all the haughtiness, and you'll find a deeply-rooted hatred of all things relating to George McGovern.

Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Lamont's Victory & Lieberman's Insult to Democracy & the Democratic Party
Creepo Lieberman, running as independent, disrespects Democracy and Democratic party.

Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Bush Walks Right Into Castro's Trap
In political campaigns, the worst thing a candidate can do is publicly walk into their own stereotype.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006
CAUGHT ON TAPE: Tom Friedman's Truly Shocking Admission
(1 comments) Now, in a little-noticed interview, Friedman actually went on record admitting he advocates for specific trade deals without knowing anything about what's in the trade deals he is writing about.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006
REPORT: Oman Trade Pact Permits Foreign Ownership of U.S. Nat'l Security Assets
(2 comments) In an explosive report tonight, top House Democrats discovered provisions in the controversial Oman Free Trade Agreement that would permit foreign ownership of U.S. ports and other key national security assets. Three Democrats and one Republican held an emergency press conference today to expose the provisions just before the House is scheduled to vote on the Oman pact on Thursday.

Sunday, July 2, 2006
Who's Lieberman Represent? Not You
More talk about Dumpin Joe, hopefully, the next former senator from CT

Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Populist Jon Tester Scores Huge Win Against D.C. Dems & For the Rest of Us
There are a lot of lessons to learn from this primary. First and foremost, when Democrats take strong positions and courageously stand up to the powers that be, they are rewarded.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006
After VA Loss of Records, Congress Tries to Hide Key Vote
(1 comments) Politicians in Washington today are tripping over themselves to trumpet their outrage at the Veterans Administration's admission that the agency potentially lost the personal data of 26 million of our nation's veterans. It is true - the news is awful.

Monday, May 15, 2006
Supreme Court Helps Corporate America Emasculate Taxpayers
In a unanimous decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a lower court ruling that would have invalidated massive taxpayer giveaways to Corporate America.

Friday, May 5, 2006
Rick Santorum's Hostile Takeover
(1 comments) As I head back to Philadelphia for the launch of my new book on the money culture of politics, I'm thinking of just how used to political corruption Pennsylvanians are, thanks to Santorum.

Wednesday, April 5, 2006
Wall Street Dems Unveil Plans to Undermine the Progressive Movement
(2 comments) Here's a big shocker - the Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party today announced it is beginning a new war on the grassroots elements of the party that are demanding serious public policy changes from the Establishment. As the Financial Times reports, Citigroup Chairman Bob Rubin held a press conference at the Brookings Institution to announce the formation of the so-called "Hamilton Project."

Sunday, April 2, 2006
The taboo subject at the heart of the immigration debate
(1 comments) Amid all the buzzword phrases being thrown around in the immigration debate, one phrase has barely been mentioned: "free trade." . How does "free trade" fit into immigration? It's pretty simple: had America actually had a trade policy that lifted up the economic conditions for ordinary workers both at home and in other countries, there would likely be far less demand by desperate workers for illegal entry into our country.

Thursday, March 30, 2006
Pundits still dumbfounded, even as workers' share of gains hits 40-year low
Commentators look at today's Wall Street Journal headline blaring that "Corporate Pretax Profits Jump 14.4% - Strongest Gain Since 1992" and wonder: why ordinary Americans aren't jumping with joy? The answer is simple if you actually look at the underlying data, you see that those profits aren't actually benefitting ordinary workers - they are increasingly benefitting only those at the very top of the economic ladder

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Fusion's Third-Party Path to the Center
(1 comments) Watching the national Democrats' often disappointing and flaccid behavior these days, a lot of folks often ask me - what's the alternative to the Democratic Party? The answer is that it doesn't have to be an either/or, zero-sum alternative with fusion voting. One third party is using this system to build up very real, very centrist and very progressive power in one of America's largest states.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Election '06: GOP's culture of corruption vs. Dems culture of weakness
(1 comments) The American Heritage Dictionary describes the term "weak" as "lacking firmness of character or strength of will, lacking aptitude or skill, lacking the ability to function normally or fully or lacking authority or the power to govern." Incredibly, even with President Bush at an all-time low, we're watching this week as the Democratic Party in Washington fulfills all these definitions and more.

Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Second Bush security official says corporate interests must supersede national security
A Wall Street Journal story confirms what I've written about the UAE port scandal: that it has everything to do with Big Money's efforts to prioritize the free trade agenda over national security concerns. And now, the second Bush administration security official is admitting as much.

Monday, February 27, 2006
The Corporatist Manifesto Tells Pundits of America: Unite!
The highest-profile corporate spokesmen in the punditocracy are quickly uniting to try to divert the debate over the UAE port security scandal from where its focus really should be: on America's dangerous "free" trade policy that lets these kinds of deals happen all the time, with almost no scrutiny.

Monday, January 30, 2006
The big flaw in Bush's health care plan
(2 comments) Now today, on the eve of the State of the Union, we see another euphemism being trotted out by the White House to hide its ulterior agenda: "consumer-driven" health care.

Thursday, January 19, 2006
Pension battle becomes new front in the class war
(3 comments) Slowly but surely, pension issues have become the new front in the class war being waged on ordinary Americans. And what is particularly disturbing is politicians and media pundits who constantly portray those who have managed to secure decent pensions as greedy and evil.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006
The Rise of Rectal Journalism
(2 comments) Having gone to journalism school, I never had a class about the most important trend sweeping the national media like wildfire in the modern era. All across the media, we are seeing more and more of the highest profile pundits and "experts" peddle as fact things pulled straight out of their asses. We are living in through the rise of Rectal Journalism.

Friday, January 6, 2006
Bush announces radical shift in foreign policy; No U.S. media report it
(2 comments) Buried in the UK's Financial Times - and as far as I can tell, not reported anywhere else - are the details of a State Department briefing this week in which the Bush administration very publicly said it is essentially scrapping U.S. support for NATO and the United Nations. No joke.

Wednesday, January 4, 2006
Propaganda & The Moustache of Neoconservatism
(1 comments) NY Times' Tom Friedman is regularly lampooned for his arrogance and know-it-all posturing. Friedman in his column today shows once and for all that he is really the "Moustache of Neoconservatism" - despite being regularly labeled as some sort of pseudo-intellectual progressive. ...it's quite clear Tom Friedman is one of the most out of touch, politically disconnected people on the planet earth.

Thursday, December 29, 2005
SEC mounts attack on post-Enron corporate crackdown
Big Money interests have been desperately trying to water down or eliminate even the weak reporting requirements in the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley bill. But even the bought-off Congress has, so far, been too embarrassed to make such a move so soon after the corporate scandals. So the Bush acts.

Thursday, December 22, 2005
CAUSE & EFFECT: The real-life consequences of rigged energy markets
When Big Business is allowed to rig markets, the result is often a crushing blow to average consumers. There's a perfect example of that this week on energy issues. The oil companies, of course, call this "free market capitalism" - but it is anything but.

Monday, December 19, 2005
Serving the Establishment instead of questioning it
In writing a piece about the long-term future of the economy and lamenting about those who are supposedly clinging to the past, Matt Bai shows that he is the one caught in the past, as if totally brainwashed by the corporate propaganda he is undoubtedly flooded with as a journalist.

Sunday, December 18, 2005
The Most Important Question of All in Bush's Domestic Spying Scandal
(1 comments) The question reporters should be asking is "Why did the President order domestic surveillance operations without obtaining constitutionally-required warrants?"

Saturday, December 17, 2005
How the media "authorize" the abuse of government power
The story of President Bush deliberately breaking the law to create a domestic spy operation is a lot of different things: a tale of power abuse, arrogance, and contempt for the law by an out-of-control president. But it also about today's media missing-in-action.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005
When humor tells us troubling truths...about ourselves
(1 comments) Yesterday's behavior by President Bush (in Philly) - and the reaction to it by the audience and the media - is a disturbing commentary about both the current White House, and about ourselves.

Monday, December 12, 2005
DLC attacks Dems as "offering surrender," then calls for "inclusion"
(1 comments) The nation's capital has become a place where corporate-funded institutions like the DLC can one day viciously stab courageous progressives, and then the next day turn around and claim they are actually for "inclusion"

Saturday, December 10, 2005
Right-Wing Spin In the House Democratic Caucus
(1 comments) Never underestimate the willingness of some Democrats to regurgitate right-wing lies and undercut their own party's message. Even in the seemingly smallest settings, we see it all the time.

Wednesday, December 7, 2005
House Dems' Staggering Work of Incomprehensible Stupidity

Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Rush "Ass Cyst" Limbaugh Attacks Vietnam Vet, Calls For Radical Change in Military Policy
(3 comments) Sometimes the title says it all...

Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Connecticut Begins to Boil With Chatter of Lieberman Challenge
Well, it seems like it is finally starting to happen - Connecticut seems to now be moving into a boil over Sen. Joe Lieberman's (D) continued efforts to be a mouthpiece for the Bush administration's Iraq War policy.

Monday, December 5, 2005
Iraq Transforms American Democracy Into American Eliteocracy
If we were to start being honest, we would simply stop calling America "the greatest democracy in the world," because what it has become in recent years is anything but democracy.

Thursday, December 1, 2005
Moveon Considers Backing Primary Against Lieberman
(2 comments) Bush apologist, Republicrat Lieberman has stabbed his party in the bak one time too many...

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
A PLAN to Fight Against the Stealth War on Workers' Wages
The right-wing's stealth assault on workers' wages rages on in America at the state and local level. But every so often, we get a big victory. Today is one of those days...

Wednesday, November 30, 2005
The Growing Problem of Defense Industry Profiteering
If you thought it impossible to top the image of Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA) driving around a Rolls Royce and living on a yacht thanks to defense industry cash, just stop and take a look Lloyd Grove's story today in the New York Daily News

Friday, November 18, 2005
Rahm, Please Tell Us: How Many More Must Die for It to Be "The Right Time?"
(1 comments) in response to Murtha's announcement, some Democrats seemed to leap at the chance to embarrass themselves, and publicly flaunt just how nauseatingly spineless they are. And there is no better example of this than Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) in today's Washington Post.

Wednesday, November 9, 2005
The High Cost of Free Trade's Supposedly Low Prices
A big myth that "free" trade policy proponents use to support their positions is the idea that a) our "free" trade policies always creates lower prices and b) those low prices most often offset other effects of "free" trade. This myth, expressed as fact, is anything but fact

Monday, November 7, 2005
Swift Boat Vets Are Back, This Time Targeting Sanders
(1 comments) In a breathless, frightening, foaming-at-the-mouth diatribe on the right-wing fringe site Newsmax, John O'Neill - the leader of the slanderous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - said his group is targeting Vermont Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders for defeat in Vermont's upcoming U.S. Senate race.

Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Give 'Em Hell, Harry - And Get Answers to These Specific Questions
Give-'Em-Hell Harry Reid today did a great service to America today by standing up, shutting down the Senate and demanding answers about how and why the Bush administration lied to America about the Iraq "threat" in the lead up to the war. The question now is, what's next?

Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Why Give Ground to Archconservatives & the Radical Right?
(1 comments) There's a lot of talk these days about progressives needing to stand up and have the guts to take it to conservatives. One of the keys to doing this is to never give ground - something that appears to be happening in Ohio's 2006 U.S. Senate race

Tuesday, October 25, 2005
What Should Progressives Demand From Candidates - Sizzle or Substance?
(1 comments) Paul Hackett or Sherrod Brown>

Monday, October 24, 2005
Vermont GOP Senate Candidate Caught Lying Through His Teeth

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
What's the Difference Between a Liberal and a Progressive?

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
David Sirota: Partisan War Syndrome-- The left falls victim to a debilitating disease.

Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Dems' New Agenda: The Good, the OK, and the Ugly

Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Making the "Strong," "Tough," & "Macho" Case for Withdrawal

Monday, October 3, 2005
Miers Headed Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding Investors
In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm.

Friday, September 30, 2005
Republicans Tell America What They Think Is "Necessary" and "Unnecessary"
over the last few weeks, the Republican Party has made clear what its priorities really are in these very terms. Just take a look at what we now know the GOP thinks is "necessary" and "unnecessary" in the wake of the worst natural disaster in American history:

Thursday, September 22, 2005
Protecting Tax Cuts, GOP Proposes Cuts to Military Health Care & Schools

Wednesday, September 21, 2005
On Roberts, Who Is More Pathetic: The Media, or the Democrats?
(1 comments)

Friday, September 16, 2005
The deafening - and dangerous - silence on taxes
(1 comments) As silence sets in over a Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina, it is also setting in among both political parties in Washington.

Thursday, September 15, 2005
New Poll Shows Americans Want Troops Brought Home;
Top Dems Ignore the Public

Monday, September 12, 2005
GOP Using Katrina to Justify Unrelated Right-Wing Agenda
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it now appears the Republican Party has made a strategic decision to use the disaster to push its far-right ideological agenda - no matter how off-topic it is.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005
David Sirota: Only One Thing Left to Conclude: The Media Want the War
(1 comments) The "objective" mainstream media are now openly attacking people who oppose the Iraq War. Not editorialists or pundits, these are the people who are supposed to be telling the objective truth - and instead they are literally attacking war critics.

Sunday, August 21, 2005
Beltway Dems Regurgitate Right-Wing B.S. on Iraq; Grassroots Fights Back

Thursday, August 18, 2005
The pro-business case for Minimum Health Care Laws
(1 comments)

Thursday, August 11, 2005
Big Surprise -- Corporate America Salivates Over Roberts

Sunday, August 7, 2005
Local Forces Demand Pelosi Hold CAFTA Sellouts Accountable