Blog Profile / Open Left
| URL : | http://www.openleft.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | US Politics / Liberal | |
| Posts on Regator: | 10003 | |
| Posts / Week: | 36.8 | |
| Archived Since: | March 4, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Why Has the U.S. Political Establishment Been So Hesitant to Press Mubarak to Leave?
The question of why the American government has been so hesitant to push dictator Hosni Mubarak from power is typically answered in our media through the construct of "pragmatism." If Mubarak leaves, the talking point goes, there could be a new government in Egypt that could threaten "regional stability" with an Iranian-style revolution. Show More Summary
Ed Shultz: Wall Street speculators' role in triggering regime change in Tunisia, Egypt
Until he invited Dylan Ratigan on to muddy the waters, this segment on the Ed Show last night was a rare and extremely edifying look at the role that commodity speculation played in driving up food prices, and helping to spark the unrest that eventually toppled the regime in Tunisia, and appears to be on the verge of doing the same in Egypt. Show More Summary
HR #3 AN ANTI ABORTION BILL AND LOTS LOTS MORE
I am going to do a series of posts on this subject as there is a lot of ground to cover. I am going to quote Jessica Arons of The Center for American Progress first to just give you a taste of how far reaching and dangerous this bill is. Show More Summary
Neo-liberal denial & the impact of poverty on educational acheivement
Writing about Egypt & the worldwide neoliberal failure, I couldn't help but think about the devastating impact of neoliberal policies here at home, in particular regarding education. Jeff has written before about the Program for International...Show More Summary
The neoliberal failure: A world of Egypts, ready to explode
On Sunday, Juan Cole wrote a very concise backgrounder to peaceful revolution going on in Egypt, "Egypt's Class Conflict". It's not only about class conflict, of course, but also about the shifts in political ideology and foundations of legitimacy from Nasser's time to today. Show More Summary
Mubarak shows his dark underbelly
Listening to Mubarak's speech, followed by Obama's yesterday, you might almost think we are coming close to a peaceful resolution in Egypt--and I sincerely hope that we are. But at the same time, there are ominous signs that something...Show More Summary
Judge Robert Vinson was picked for FISC by Roberts
I knew the name of Judge who overturned the Affordable Care Act was familiar, it turns out he's on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and was picked for the job by Chief Justice John Roberts in 2006. As I wrote back then: It comes down to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court being, in essence, a movement conservative Star Chamber. Show More Summary
How Democrats missed their FDR Moment this time around
In my previous diary, "Still being overlooked: The GOP housing con", I quoted at length from a July 2007 post by historian Rick Perlstein, "The Foreclosing of America (Part 1)", in which he described some of the motivations and plans the Republicans had to boost home ownership in order to build a political majority. Show More Summary
Grassroots organizational branding | grassroots communications tips pt.4
This is the fourth post in a series at BeyondtheChoir.org. Branding, in the advertising world, is imbuing a company or product with positive associations inside the consumer's mind. Marlboro, for example, has so successfully associated...Show More Summary
Still being overlooked: The GOP housing con
I've written before about the GOP's politicization of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, most recently just yesterday in "As above, so below" where I touched on Darryl Issa's threatened investigation of the committee. I've talked...Show More Summary
Businessweek: Investors Tout Immelt As Vehicle for Corporations to Sculpt Obama's Economic Policy
As I've long maintained, the business press is often the best place to get the real story about what's going on in American politics. That's because it's focused almost exclusively on telling its investor-readers how to make money, rather...Show More Summary
Judicial lawlessness vs. healthcare reform
A Florida federal district court judge went far beyond judicial activism on Monday, all the way into the realm of lawlessness characterized by infamous decisions such as Dred Scott, Bush v. Gore and Citizens United, when he struck down last year's healthcare reform law as unconstitional. Show More Summary
Egypt: No march today, but TWO million people estimated in & around Tahrir Square
Al Jazeera is reporting estimates that more than two million are in and around Tahrir Square. The square itself can hold about two million people, and there many more on side steets unable to enter. On Democracy Now! this morning, producer...Show More Summary
Reagan's mean-spirited legacy of economic disaster
As we approach the centenial of Reagan's birth, conservatives are whipping up the country into a frenzy of addled adulation. It's time for a bit of a reality check. Yesterday, in my diary, "History repeating itself ", I briefly touched...Show More Summary
NYC investigation shows Illegal gun sales still commonplace because of "gun show loophole"
Purchases made 15 days after Tucson massacre, just over 100 miles away at "Crossroads of the West" gun show In its frontline rhetoric, the NRA claims that "guns don't kill people, people do," and that the solution to gun violence is not new laws or gun control for "law abiding citizens", but control of criminals and enforcement of existing laws. Show More Summary
Narrative insurgency | grassroots communications tips pt.3
This is the third post in a series at BeyondtheChoir.org. Progressive change agents often engage in something that I call narrative attack; they make a direct attack on one narrative or worldview from the vantage point-and in the language-of their own opposing narrative or worldview. Show More Summary
Egypt: Mubarak Departure Virtually Inevitable, But Then What?
Perhaps the most important news from Egypt today, via the BBC: 1854: The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo says: "The announcement by the Egyptian army that it will not use force against their own people, and that it considers the demands of the protesters "legitimate", could be a devastating blow to President Mubarak. Show More Summary
As above, so below
Maybe it's a toss-up as to which is which--the State of the Union or the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission Final Report. Both, however, got not one, but two Republican responses, one more profoundly disconnected from reality than the other. Show More Summary
Three Hugely Positive Early Reviews for BACK TO OUR FUTURE
I'm about 7 weeks away from the launch of my third book, which is entitled BACK TO OUR FUTURE: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now.How the 1980s Explain. This is usually the time I start freaking out and fearing for the worst. Show More Summary
History repeating itself
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it Warsaw Pact and eventually the Soviet Union. It caught almost everyone in the West by surprise. The CIA didn't have a clue--in part because of Robert Gates, who had dutifully politicized the intelligence throughout the 1980s. Show More Summary