edited by: Douglas Welch,
Illinois Editor
Well, I guess the best thing you can say about it is the very thing that's upsetting the GOPers most, namely, giving a date certain when we can start to leave. That date, plus the date we'll start withdrawing troops from Iraq after the election there, are the metrics' [...]
Great opinion piece from the NYT:
The whole New Deal was in a sense just a series of public options, some more optional than others, that offered government as an alternative to the often-flawed private market. The Farm Credit Administration and the Home Owners’ Loan Act used government funds to [...]
While the fear of having cards shut down and anger over the moves banks have made can't be easily measured, there's anecdotal evidence that those emotions played into the improvement as well.
' [...]I do hope the undergrads at Berkeley get someone who's a better liberal than Brad Delong so that they get some perspective.
The guy is nothing but a mouthpiece for Rubin/Geithner -- has been since his days in the Clinton Admin.
His argument here is a wonderful example. Basically it's:' [...]
It looks like we're finally going to get this done in America. 'Bout time.
[...]Thomas Palley in a post well worth reading explains:
The world economy has paid dearly for complicity with and silence about the economic policies of the last 15 years, which have culminated in the deepest and most dangerous recession since the 1930’s. It will pay still more if policymakers remain [...]
So transferring these prisoners to Thomson is 'spose to mean we're recreating 'Gitmo'? What's next? Space aliens?
UPDATE: Meanwhile you've got to wonder about the judgment of people who insist on staking out their own ground zero for paranoia. It certainly doesn't inspire confidence. I mean, it's when you're' [...]
Was the Public Option really as dead as the mainstream media (and even most recently by Josh Marshall) have been making out?
Or was this yet another example of 'He-said-She-said' journamalism where the reality on the ground -- Dems got the votes, Dems got the votes -- was conveniently ignored [...]
I'm not quite sure why media people like Howard Kurtz are shocked, shocked that members of the Obama Administration are calling out Fox News.
Members of the Obama Administration are observing a wise rule of survival in the jungle of hard-ball politics, namely, 'Don't ignore your opponents -- Define them'.
In [...]
Encouraging words from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on the likelihood of Senate Blue Dogs killing the Senate bill because it contains a public option:
"No Democrat wants to be on the wrong side of history and vote on a procedural vote to kill the most important domestic vote of their" [...]
[Courtesy of HCAN and Citizen Action-IL.]
The Final Push for Health Care Reform! This Is The Week!
Beginning with today's Senate Finance Committee vote, this week marks the close of 100 years of fighting for quality, affordable health care for all. We need your help to create one final [...]
Eric Zorn has the right reaction to recall in Illinois:
I’m fearful of it, too. I worry that it will give too much power to interest groups with the money to mount petition drives and make elected officials even more skittish than they already are.
Zorn describes the Governor as non-plussed:
Quinn [...]
Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize but it's the American people who deserve the credit.
After the horrors of the Bush Administration in everything from Rule of Law to Rule of Science, it was the American people who put Obama into office. This was an illustration, as if we needed it,' [...]
Sen. Schumer on the 'Opt-Out' Public Option:
"Senator Carper and I met for quite a while last night and made progress and talked to a large number of members last night, yesterday. And I am optimistic that there will be some kind of public option in the bill the president" [...]
"Olympic Defeat for (Elitist) Obama, Too Busy with Washington Politics to Go the Last Mile for his own Home Town"
Yeah, I know, just stating the obvious.
[...]Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08) on Kos:
"My speech has been replayed on CNN, Redstate, Huffington Post, etc, and mainstream media pundits are saying that I'm the Democratic Joe Wilson. Of course, unlike Joe Wilson, I wasn't rude to the President. Unlike Joe Wilson, I didn't break a rule of the'" [...]
Citizen Action-Illinois had its Annual Dinner yesterday evening. The emphasis, not surprisingly, was on health care reform. The situation for hotel workers also got attention.
Award-winner this year was Gov. Pat Quinn who arrived late due to his attendance at a service in the suburbs honoring an Illinois veteran [...]
I love the need of David Brooks and others to portray the teabaggers as "populist" and anti-big-government when there was absolutely no invasion of our civil rights during the Bush Administration -- from imprisonment without trial to warrantless wiretaps -- that these people had problems with.
But if someone like [...]
Term limits are such a bad idea. They undermine and weaken government by enforcing a constant turnover of public officials, leaving as permanent fixtures only the lobbyists and special interests.
But don't believe me. Prof. Eric Lane who led a task force that restructured NYC government in 1990 had this to' [...]
What I can't understand is why these teabagging activities are news. I mean, just because Obama won the election didn't mean the loyal (cough, cough) opposition suddenly ceased to exist.
The fact that they're still around and that you can collect a bunch of them together thanks to their nationwide propaganda' [...]
From Harold Meyerson's review of two books on Wal-Mart:
For the past year, Americans have focused, and understandably so, on the ways in which Wall Street has misshaped the American economy, how finance has grown large over the past 20 years as manufacturing has shrunk. But the rise of finance [...]
Ted Kennedy's letter to Obama:
May 12, 2009
Dear Mr. President,
I wanted to write a few final words to you to express my gratitude for your repeated personal kindnesses to me – and one last time, to salute your leadership in giving our country back its future and its truth.
On a [...]
Progressive Change Committee Petition:
Petition text: "We worked so hard for real change. President Obama, please demand a strong public health insurance option in your speech to Congress. Letting the insurance companies win would not be change we can believe in."
MoveOn Petition:
Petition text: "President Obama, we're counting'" [...]
Frankly, since the GOP has run away from the negotiating table on health care reform, it really doesn't matter what they think. Not. One. Bit.
Health care reform is going to pass no matter how hysterical they become. They've relegated themselves to irrelevance.
[...]Picture taken right at the start while the sun was still up.
[...]So the head of the RNC is going around bad-mouthing government. You got supporters running around with 'tree of liberty' tee-shirts and others talking about the perils of government access to online medical records.
It's hard then to explain their earlier confidence when government was detaining people without trial and' [...]
From the Press Release:
Daniel Biss on Thursday announced his candidacy for the 17th Legislative District of Illinois. Biss, a Democrat, ran a historic campaign for the seat in 2008 against entrenched six-term incumbent Elizabeth Coulson, a transformative candidacy that stunned insiders. Coulson has relinquished her seat to run for [...]
Here's what I wrote in November:
I hope every adult in this country points their kids to Senator Kennedy as one of the most positive examples we have of one man's commitment to the public good.
Forget all the cheap cynicism you [...]
Media Matters has already pointed to the yeoman service Fox News Correspondent Juan Williams is performing for right-wingers everywhere by going on NPR and spouting GOP talking points.
Having heard the segment in question, what struck me was his comment on the possibilities of Democrats 'going it alone' on [...]
Dem Day itself, that is Wed., Aug 19, consists of two key events: the County Chair breakfast and then the rally later in the day on the Director's Lawn in the State Fair grounds proper.
The first photo is of Gov. Quinn addressing the attendees at the County Chair breakfast. The [...]
A couple of pictures of the festivities surrounding Dem Day at the State Fair. In this post, I have two photos from the night before, or in other words, Tuesday, Aug. 18.
The first shot is of Boone's Saloon (RIP). Alas! Despite the change in traditional venues -- and the fact [...]
Co-ops are the new HMO's. HMO's were going to save us the last time round. They were new -- nobody knew much about them -- but we were all assured they'd be cheaper and would manage health care better.
In reality they were nothing but a bogus distraction whose chief accomplishment [...]
This quote by Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) was played over and over again by WBBM radio yesterday:
SHELBY: Well, I think rationing is underlying all of this. There's a lot of denial out there, but you look at the other plans -- you look at the Canadian plan, the British' [...]
A commenter at Steve Benen's abode predicted the following as the next lie that right-wing nuts will come up with:
Obama's "Cash for Grandma" program where the government will give you up to $4500 towards the cost of childbirth if you euthanize your grandmother."
To which I replied:
"Cash for Grandma"? Is" [...]
So if the Medicare plan pays for vasectomies, does that mean everyone has to get one -- that some 'government bureaucrat' is going to be empowered to tell you and your husband, your daughters and your sons, 'go out and get a vasectomy or else'?
[...]It's 2009 and the Chicago Tribune has only now figured out what it takes to design a website. Still, you have to hand it to them, it's a vast improvement over the previous iteration. They even went back to the old letterhead.
[...]We haven't heard much about a 'Health Care Czar' since Senator Dashle got into trouble because of his tax returns. But listening to Howard Dean debate the issue on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, I think I'd like to nominate him for the job. I loved the comment about health [...]
Abridged email from Barack Obama (Organizing for America):
This is the moment our movement was built for.
For one month, the fight for health insurance reform leaves the backrooms of Washington, D.C., and returns to communities across America. Throughout August, members of Congress are back home, where the hands they shake and [...]
If there's anything you can take away from yesterday's wildly successful rally, it's this: 'They've Got the Kooks, We've Got the People!'
[...]I'll have some pictures to add once I get home [added!] but I just wanted to say that the HCAN people put together a great rally with several hundred people in the Federal Plaza.
William McNary led off with his usual rousing style. First Gov. Pat Quinn then Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky' [...]
From Mitch Stewart, Organizing for America:
Congress is moving rapidly toward finalizing health care reform legislation, with crucial votes expected in both the House and the Senate within days. With so much at stake -- and the D.C. lobbyists going into overdrive -- we have to take our grassroots campaign to [...]
There's an important difference between Blue Dogs and the rest of us: Universal Health Care isn't necessarily part of their agenda; it's most definitely part of ours.
Blue Dogs can afford to wait around hoping for something less earthshaking to come up. They can even afford to risk not getting anything' [...]
From TPM:
Six key Senate Centrists--Ben Nelson (D-NE), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)--are asking Democratic and Republican leaders to slow down the pace of health care reform efforts.
From the same crowd, Wyden excepted, who gave us Sam Alito.
[...]From the AP:
Obama wants the House and Senate to act on health care this summer so lawmakers can reconcile differences in their respective bills after Labor Day and put final legislation on his desk this fall.
Obama's all-out effort since he returned from his overseas trip last week has "galvanized" [...]
The headline in the HuffingtonPost reads:
"House Health Care Bill Arrives: Would Cover 97 Percent Of Americans, Cost $1 Trillion"
[...]Why do I feel like we've been here before? Fox News correspondent Mara Liasson just had a segment on NPR's Morning Edition that essentially did nothing but complain that the Democratic Administration no longer uses right-wing catch phrases, many of them the product of paranoia and fanaticism, such as' [...]
Disaster averted: Burris bows out.
[...]A couple of people have commented on Ross Douthat's piece in the New York Times eulogizing the "democratic ideal" supposedly represented by Sarah Palin because she became a "success" (such as it was) even though she hadn't gone to "Columbia and Harvard".
Frankly, if you spend all your time in [...]
I found this discussion between Senators Grassley (R-IA) and Shumer (D-NY) on CBS's Face the Nation truly bizarre.
Most of the segment was spent discussing health care in the usual superficial, made-for-tv way with a handful of talking points and the obligatory promise of "bipartisanship". I felt dumber after watching' [...]
It was a bit rainy but that didn't dampen anyone's spirit at the Evanston 4th of July Parade. The first shot is just before the parade with Gov. Pat Quinn and DPOE President Daniel Biss getting their picture taken by Daniel's wife Karen. The second shot is a group shot' [...]
The Sun-Times gets school reform right in this editorial:
There are lots of ways to improve failing schools. Charters are one way, but so is investing in traditional schools by offering smaller class sizes, better teachers, financial incentives for teachers and a longer school year.
There is no [...]
I was happy to see all the ads in the buses and El's for the 'Young Chicago Republican' Event that took place on Monday. It's always nice to see them supporting public transportation in this way.
The write-up of the event from the Huffington Post had something that caught my [...]
Panelists discussed policy issues, like health care reform, and how progressives should balance values, priorities and political strategy at the Hideout.
[...]More info, [www.scottharperforcongress.com]
[...]Paul Krugman encourages us to resist the temptation to define down 'centrists' and 'moderates'.
The real risk is that health care reform will be undermined by "centrist" Democratic senators who either prevent the passage of a bill or insist on watering down key elements of reform. I use scare quotes [...]
I love it how on NPR, Mara Liasson keeps calling the Blue Dogs who are against the Public Option, 'Moderates'.
She did it again this morning. Someone should tell her that 'moderate' is halfway or in the middle of where the American people stand -- not where conservative Dems leave [...]
My thought upon reading this article on the fallout from the parking meter 'snafu' was, did anyone have a schedule of anticipated price hikes?
I'm not talking five or ten years out -- I'm talking five or ten weeks. Did anyone know if [...]
It's not that I disagree with anything in this editorial from the Chicago Tribune. It's just that I get the impression they knew they had to come up with something but couldn't quite find anything particularly original to say:
President Barack Obama came to the heart of the Arab world' [...]
Since when did 'Buy American' become a dirty word?
This editorial by the New York Times has to be the dumbest ever.
Saloon Democrats of Chicago [...]Robert Reich has a problem with manufacturing. At least he does when it's practiced in the U.S. For some reason, he thinks that actually making things has gone the way of the horse buggy and 45rpm record player.
It's not a new argument. We heard it all the time during [...]
In an attempt to bring California-style government to Illinois, the 'Gray Davis' Recall Bill passed through Committee 15-0.
Apparently the legislators think that the remedy to bad government is worse government. They undermine the institution by putting it at the mercy of large media campaigns with outcomes decided by low-turnout [...]
Working that 'Bill Ayers' angle seems to be an obsession for whoever's putting headlines together for the Chicago Sun-Times. In this one, what we have is an article from the AP about the routine activities of Obama as POTUS during Memorial Day. Ayers' only appearance is completely minor and' [...]
Alderman Tom Tunney welcoming guests at the Young Chicago Lakefront Annual Mtg. & Elections Party held at Trader Todd's on May 19.
[...]Conservative historian Niall Ferguson looks at the growing cry to (re-)regulate financial markets and for some reason only thinks of the Seventies:
My concern is that we're going to get the 1970s for fear of the 1930s.
Naturally he's cherry-picking here. In fact, the same regulations also operated in the Fifties' [...]
I'm getting a bit tired of this 'liberal media' garbage. It's more a reflection of the person saying it and how far they are from the center than any particular orientation of the media outlet in question. I mean, it always seems a bit chilly once you step out [...]
Josh Silver of Free Press discusses the potential catastrophe of allowing the communication monopolies to cap internet use. He mentions Congressman Eric Massa's reaction:
Yesterday, Rep. Massa told the Philadelphia Inquirer he is looking for a Republican co-sponsor for the bill: 'This is bigger than a college kid surfing the' [...]
So today, Obama's weekly address was about ending abuses by the credit card companies while the Republican Response, given by Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), was about Gitmo and scaremongering (more here).
It's hard to imagine a clearer contrast between the two parties and why one is in the majority and [...]
All day long, WBBM Radio played Sen. Orin Hatch's comment that 'empathy', which is one of Obama's criteria for selecting a Supreme Court justice, was just "a code word for an activist judge." All day long, they played this.
Hatch has said it on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos'. What [...]
The worst possible outcome of our current financial mess is to end up with the exact same financial institutions that we started out with.
Obama's response to a question about Glass-Steagall in an interview he gave to the NYT last week didn't make me feel too confident:
"You know, I've looked'" [...]
'Report from Washington' by Walter Trohan, Chicago Tribune (4/30/1969):
The first hundred days of Richard Milhous Nixon find him standing taller in the eyes of his countrymen and looming larger on the world horizon than most observers, and even many of his admirers, had expected....
...The business-like Nixon approach and the evident [...]
The dark ages are over...
Transcript:
THE PRESIDENT: Dan from CNN.
DAN LOTHIAN (CNN): During the campaign you were criticized by some within your own party for perhaps not being able to be tough on foreign policy matters. Now you’ve had this friendly interaction with Mr. Chavez. Are you concerned [...]
The Editorial Board of the Chicago Tribune never ceases to disappoint. Here's their latest attempt at delaying universal healthcare -- complete with warmed-over talking points circa 1993. Nothing learned, nothing remembered.
The column goes everywhere from denying that this is an urgent problem to warning that they're going to take' [...]
Mike Quigley thanks his supporters at John Barleycorn in Wrigleyville for their help in achieving this progressive victory.
[...]On Addison near Cubs' Park. The Election is on Tuesday.
' [...]Sounds like it's retirement-time for Mark Shields. Here's his latest whopper:
I don't think bipartisanship is dead. I think you'll see it on health care. I think the possibility of an overwhelming majority in the Senate passing and backing health care. I think you'll see it elsewhere, as well.
If you' [...]
Talk about sweeping things under the carpet:
Mayor Richard Daley today said Illinois already has “moved on” from the corruption scandal involving former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was indicted Thursday along with five others, including his brother.
“It’s very sad and it’s very unfortunate for him and all those that are [...]
