March 2005 Page

March 31, 2005
  • A Bad Argument Against Privatization - And the opportunity to create a real progressive vision for growth There are many reasons privatization is based on bad... MORE...
  • Taxing the Wrong Casino - The dependence of state governments on taxing the gambling addiction of their citizens is just sad. But what's sadder is... MORE...

    March 29, 2005
  • Open Source and What GDP Misses - The commitment of Brazil's government to spread open source software has been a delight to lefty tech geeks and a... MORE...

    March 27, 2005
  • Why Can't Reporters Work for Government? - I'm the last person to be in favor of government hiring non-government employees for government work, but I think blogger... MORE...

    March 26, 2005
  • Why no progressive housing policy? - Housing prices continue to go through the roof, yet in New York City, in the bluest of blue cities, there... MORE...

    March 25, 2005
  • Look at What They Do, Not What They Say - GOP Hypocrisy on "Progressive Indexing" of Social Security So the GOP wants to cut benefits for wealthier retirees, while preserving... MORE...
  • OH Gay Marriage Ban Limits Domestic Assault Law - Want to know why AARP opposed the Ohio gay marriage initiative? Because it not only banned gay marriage but declared... MORE...
  • Shortchanging Security - The Bush administration has spent hundreds of billions of dollars fighting non-existent WMDs in Iraq. But bioterrorism in the US?... MORE...

    March 24, 2005
  • How the WTO Kills - As a requirement of India joining the WTO, people must die. That is the likely result of India being forced... MORE...
  • So Will Chicago Teach Marx? - The intimidation of pro-Palestinian professors at Columnia continues. Critics are shocked, shocked, that students might feel that aping their professor's... MORE...
  • Social Security as welfare - Skip the discussion over privatization for a second. The other idea that White House is promoting is cutting benefits more... MORE...

    March 23, 2005
  • Stupid NY Times on Federalism - How can the New York Times say the following with a straight face? The Republican Party has long associated itself... MORE...
  • Housing Wins from Bidding over Jets - Instead of the $100 million that the transit authority would have received in the original deal to build a Jets... MORE...

    March 22, 2005
  • Only Anti-White Racism Matters, Apparently - A school prohibiting a white girl from wearing braided hair, where black girls are allowed to, is obviously an act... MORE...
  • Conservatives v. Conservatives on Religion & Rights - The rightwing court attack on federal protection of civil rights started with the overturning of what was known as the... MORE...

    March 20, 2005
  • Using Compassion, Not Guns to Stop Terrorism - After 911, the world loved Americans out of sympathy for our loss. And then we started invading countries, legalizing torture,... MORE...
  • Privatizing Freedom of Information Laws - Hey, if Wal-Mart can be given control of the wording of any press release involving DOL investigations, why not let... MORE...
  • GOP: No Plan to Improve Black Health Care - The Republican Party has announced its firm view that there will be no improvement in black and latino health care... MORE...

    March 18, 2005
  • Senate Does Right Thing on Medicaid - Thanks to a few decent moderate Republicans, led by Gordon Smith of Oregon, Bush's proposed Medicaid Cuts were dropped from... MORE...
  • Scandal, What Scandal? - What is Brad Plumer thinking, echoing a rightwing attack on progressive groups receiving foundation money for campaign finance reform? It... MORE...

    March 17, 2005
  • Reviving the Global Justice Movement - Not that it ever went away, but the appointment of Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank will hopefully refocus... MORE...

    March 16, 2005
  • NYC Should Buy the Jets - It's a real low for the NFL to help one of its franchiseees extract corporate welfare from a host city... MORE...

    March 15, 2005
  • Can I Mention How Much I Hate Gateway - I have to say that Gateway is the absolute worst company I have dealt with for customer service. Their customer... MORE...
  • How Roe Undermined the Pro-Choice Movement - In arguing against judicial activism, I've cited Justice Ginsburg for her criticism of Roe in the past, so I thought... MORE...

    March 14, 2005
  • Redesign of Site - As some may notice, I've done a redesign on the site. Visually, it mostly cleans up the look of the... MORE...

    March 13, 2005
  • MT Gov Fights for Homeland Security - What an odd guy. Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana actually thinks Montana residents are more National > Montana Governor Sets... MORE...

    March 12, 2005
  • Conservatives Email Me - I received this nice email today: Why am I shocked, shocked to find a Communist Jew being pro-union? I myself... MORE...
  • Politics of Chile's "Private" Pensions - CBS News tries to put a happy face on Chile's privatized pension sytem, although even they have to admit, burying... MORE...

    March 10, 2005
  • GOP v. Religious Voters on Global Warming - Okay, this gets interesting, as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the umbrella organization of denominations representing 30 million evangelicals,... MORE...

    March 09, 2005
  • Even Rightwing Thinks Bankruptcy Bill Stinks - Bipartisan prostration before credit card dollars even gains the ire of Glen Reynolds who true to conservative rhetoric on holding... MORE...
  • Lebanon: Another Ally for Iran? - The US invades Afghanistan and evicts Iran's long-time enemies, the Taliban, giving Iran great influence in the country, especially in... MORE...

    March 08, 2005
  • UCC BlogAd - The Ad the Networks Didn't Want You to See I don't usually comment on the blogads on my site; they... MORE...

    March 07, 2005
  • Irony is Dead Department - No comment: "When the special interests push me around, I'll push back," Schwarzenegger said to cheers and applause from more... MORE...
  • Cut House Prices in Half- End "Lifestyle" Planning - So why are housing prices so high? This study by a number of Harvard and U-Penn professors argue it's land... MORE...

    March 06, 2005
  • Great Blogging on Bankruptcy BIll - Kevin has been lacerating the bankruptcy bill and the credit card companies backing it. Go read. Also see this Daily... MORE...

    March 05, 2005
  • Communist Virtue - I have no sympathy for the violence and tyranny of the Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and China. But... MORE...
  • Is Housing Inflation Inflating Growth? - The economy seems to be roaring forwards, with GDP growth reported to be stronger than expected in the fourth quarter.... MORE...
  • Ignorance is Safety - If everything is secret and we make ourselves as collectively stupid as possible, we can spread that ignorance to any... MORE...

    March 04, 2005
  • House GOP Cuts Aid to Afghanistan - Unbelievable. We bomb the hell out of a country and the GOP still doesn't feel any responsibility for helping them... MORE...

    March 03, 2005
  • Take the Pledge to Defy FEC - The FEC is making noises to limit the speech of blogs in the name of campaign finance reform. Josh worries... MORE...
  • Fear of Good Policy from Bush - Okay, so even if private accounts are completely scuttled, Hesiod at the American Street is horrified at the thought that... MORE...
  • Scalia on Theocracy - As the Court debates whether governments can display the Ten Commandments on public property, Justice Scalia is getting more aggressive... MORE...

    March 02, 2005
  • Why 401(k)s Can Suck - Matt rightly suggests that before we talk too much about new "private accounts", maybe we should pay more attention to... MORE...
  • Raise the Cap: Forget the "influential upper middle class" - Mark Schmidtt at the Decembrist is one of the strongest progressive voices against lifting the cap on wages subject to... MORE...
  • Bush Senior and Syrian Control of Lebanon - The rightwing is going off on a bit of triumphalism over Lebanon, even attacking progressive bloggers for being insufficiently triumphalist.... MORE...
  • What's Right With Kansas - Lesbian wins election in Topeka, as voters support city ordinance banning discrimination against gays.... MORE...
  • Medical Costs v. the Ownership Society - Take two stories in the last two days-- first the fact that most families going bankrupt are losing their assets... MORE...

    March 01, 2005
  • Why No Primary Challenges for Bankruptcy "Dealers" - Much of the liberal blogosphere has been patting itself on the back for blunting Bush's assault on social security. Which... MORE...
  • "New Leftist Consensus in South America" - A new Uruguay President has inaugurated what the NY Times labels the "new leftist consensus in South America": From Brazil... MORE...
  • Current Weblog
    Recent Entries

    February 21, 2007
  • Amnesia on the Death of Reconstruction - I am going to pick on Brad Delong precisely because he is a brilliant and well-educated academic-- and his list... MORE...

    February 18, 2007
  • So What if Mitt Wants A Person of Faith as President? - There's a bit of a furor that Mitt Romney declared:We need to have a person of fiath lead the country.So... MORE...

    February 16, 2007
  • States Taking Action Against Iraq Escalation - So the New York Times is covering the story that resolutions denouncing Bush's Iraq Escalation have been introduced in over... MORE...

    January 01, 2007
  • Wal-Mart Doing Good for Environment - Seriously. This initiative by Wal-Mart to promote energy-saving light bulbs is a major environmental initiative. "Compact fluorescent" bulbs fit in... MORE...

    December 22, 2006
  • Dems' Stupid Positioning on Minimum Wage - As a followup to discussing why politicians need to appeal to a broad consensus, it's worth emphasizing that it's easier... MORE...

    December 21, 2006
  • Obama and the Need for Large Progressive Majorities - I've been as disappointed as many other progressive bloggers with Obama's bad votes on tort reform and seeming trimming of... MORE...

    December 13, 2006
  • test - tst... MORE...

    November 27, 2006
  • Ecuador Goes Left - Another country moves left-- whatever you want to say, Bush has been very good for reviving the global left, especially... MORE...
  • Building a Progressive Majority in the Statehouses - The Progressive States Network today rolled out its legislative agenda for the 2007 session and is looking to promote it... MORE...

    November 13, 2006
  • The Future Belongs to US - While the actual results seem razer-thin in this election, I'll be bold and argue that they are part of a... MORE...

    November 11, 2006
  • Pro-Labor "Conservative Democrats" - One more nail in the narrative that the victory of a few moderate Democrats means this election is really a... MORE...

    November 10, 2006
  • The Collapse of Tax Cut Politics - You can check out Progressive States rundown of progressive successes in the states on Tuesday, but I want to focus... MORE...

    November 08, 2006
  • A Good Night for Progressives - Let's be clear-- this wasn't just a good night for Democrats. It was a good night for progressives, and no... MORE...

    November 01, 2006
  • Labor Cold War Ends - New International Labor Federation - At the dawn of the Cold War, the international union movement divided up between the ICFTU, dominated by US and Western European unions, and the World Confederation of Labor, largely allied with the Soviet Union. It's taken a decade and a half, but the irrelevancy of that division will end today as the two federations merge-- bringing together 241 labor organizations from 156 countries representing 190 million workers. The new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) is a good step for a labor movement looking to globalize itself in the taking on global capital power.... MORE...

    October 19, 2006
  • Immigrant Poor Send More Foreign Aid than US Govt - The United States government spends less money on foreign aid as a percentage of its budget than almost any other... MORE...

    October 17, 2006
  • - Valuing Families:  State Legislative Models Brought to you by Progressive States and MomsRising What would a policy that really values families look... MORE...

    October 09, 2006
  • Emaciated Models, Labor Regulation - There's a bit of debate in the blogosphere around Spain's new law banning underweight models from the runways in that country. See Jordan, Amanda at Pandagon and Lindsay Beyerstein at Majikthise on whether this is an intrusive regulating violating free expression or something like that and whether OSHA safety regulations are appropriate. Just to throw my two cents in-- any broader OSHA approach would seem cumbersome and bureaucratically intrusive in a deep way. But the original Spanish proposal is brilliant in its high-impact, low-intrusion approach. Regulate only the fashion week type runways, where in a single spotcheck, models can be... MORE...

    October 03, 2006
  • Big loss for Labor-- - The National Labor Relations Board ruled today that a range of professionals are now deemed "supervisors" and thus lose all protections under labor law. That means if they say a positive thing about unions, their bosses are free to fire them at will. The AFL-CIO has more here. To put this denial of labor rights in perspective, 32 million workers or 25% of the workforce already have no right to form a union under federal, state or local law (see this GAO report and this ARAW summary). This includes: Supervisors 16.6 million workers, 8 million new supervisors plus traditional 8.6... MORE...

    September 27, 2006
  • Civil War on the Right- Dick Armey trashes Dobson - The economic business- right and the religious right are moving towards total civil war. This piece by former GOP Majority... MORE...

    September 24, 2006
  • Allen the Racist - Three college teammates confirm that George Allen regularly used the N- word: Allen said he came to Virginia because he... MORE...