Blog Profile / The Blue Voice
| URL : | http://thebluevoice.blogspot.com/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | US Politics / Liberal | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1140 | |
| Posts / Week: | 8.7 | |
| Archived Since: | November 19, 2010 | |
Blog Post Archive
Looking forward to holiday political chit-chat (Arrgg-ggh!)
For those oh-some-pleasant holiday discussions about the latest political controversies, here's a little reference aid for one of them, The Gun Glossary: What’s a semi-automatic? What counts as an assault weapon? by Mark Joseph Stern...Show More Summary
The NRA's solution to gun violence: more guns, more fear
Somehow I listened to the presentation on Friday by the NRA's Wayne LaPierre without gaq reflexes kicking in. If you want to try it yourself, here's the whole thing, courtesy of PBS Newshour, NRA's Wayne LaPierre Calls for Armed Security...Show More Summary
If only ...
"And frankly, I’m convinced that the president is unwilling to stand up to his own party on the big issues that face our country." - House Speaker John Boehner (Sabrina Siddiqui, John Boehner To Obama On Fiscal Cliff: Act On Plan B Or Get 'Serious' Huffington Post 12/20/2012Tags: barack obama
Financial recovery and recovery in the "real" economuy
Yanis Varoufakis describes the experience of the eurozone with austerity policies, in the context of describing why the non-financial sector may not recover as fast as the financial sector (Will the real economy rebound, following Wall...Show More Summary
The theology of distraction and the Newtown mass gun murders
I've resisted trying to speculate about some of the more subjective aspects of gun violence in the US political culture because of the very reason Charlie Pierce mentions in his The Night Before The President Came To Newtown EsquireShow More Summary
Obama to seniors: Merry Christmas! I'm cutting your Social Security benefits!
So President and Social Security opponent Obama has gone there. After he let people hope for a weekend that the Grand Bargaining to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid might at least be on hold until January, on Monday comes the news that he's agreed with House Speaker John Boehner on a "fiscal cliff" plan. Show More Summary
Video of Obama's Sunday speech on the mass gun massacre in Newtown CT
From PBS Newshour, President Obama: 'Newtown, You Are Not Alone' 12/16/2012: Ken Dixon and Neil Vigdor in The president comes to comfort Newtown SFGate 12/17/2012 managed to hear in this speech that the President "put Congress on notice...Show More Summary
Today's mass gun massacre in Connecticut
President Obama On School Shooting 12/14/2012: President Obama, apparently thinking he was re-elected National Pastor in November, says in this short public statement on the Connecticut mass murder, "We've endured too many of these tragedies in the past few years. Show More Summary
The week in fiscal cliffing and Grand Bargaining
Obama's Grand Bargain to cut benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid had a bad week, it seems. Which means it was a good week for the vast majority of Americans.After the White House floated a trial balloon to cut benefits on Medicare by raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67, by Thursday his spokesperson on austerity policy, Sen. Show More Summary
Italy and the fight against austerity economics in Europe
Like the Great Depression, the current one has brought some surprising developments in politics in Europe and the United States, hopefully none of which will turn out to have the sort of adverse military consequences that some of them...Show More Summary
Shifting fortunes on the fight to prevent cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits
David Dayen, who will be missed when he takes a blogging break from his FDL News gig after December 21, writes about a hopeful development on the "fiscal cliff"/Grand Bargain front in 450,000 Seniors Would Lose Coverage Under Medicare Eligibility Age Increase FDL News 12/12/2012. Show More Summary
Supporters of Medicare are calling Obama on his trial balloon to cut proposal benefits in the program
Lately I've gotten into one of those phases where I'm wondering if I should just post two or three times a day, "read Digby" or "read Charlie Pierce." Both are following the "fiscal cliff" drama, which is a farce that could have literally...Show More Summary
Neoliberalism and the left: Democrats, the "social" version and the American version
I've written here a lot lately about the role of the left-center parties in advanced countries in the neoliberal scheme of things. Yanis Varoufakis takes a look at what happened to Europe's social-democratic parties in that scheme.This Klaus Stuttmann cartoon of 12/06/2012 illustrates the situation of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Show More Summary
Some real-world features of current federal budget needs
Bloomberg Businessweek's Peter Coy steps outside the "fiscal cliff" conventional wisdom and actually explains several practical real-world issues around them well in The Fiscal Cliff Isn't the Problem 12/06/2012. Though not without some flotsam and jetsam of the CW. Show More Summary
Fiscal cliffing ourselves into austerity economics in the middle of a depression
Digby has a good roundup on austerity-economics news in Europe and Australia in Let's do it anyway, shall we? Hullabaloo 12/07/2012. Guess what? It's making their economies shrink!The most important immediate issue in the Fiscal Cliff farce is maintaining the benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Show More Summary
The fight to save benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from Obama's "Grand Bargain"
I'm to the point on the Grand Bargain/Fiscal Cliff show that I'm reluctant to take seriously anything anyone says on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid unless I know that same person is saying that the benefits on those programsShow More Summary
Obama at the Business Roundtable talks about "entitlement reform," does not defend benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid
The speech has the two basic flaws most of his speech on the "fiscal cliff" nonsense have: he doesn't defend benefits on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid ("entitlements" in the jargon of the opponents of those programs) and heShow More Summary
Tony Blair annoys me even more than Bernard-Henri Lévy
Listening to Tony Blair about anything is kind of like watching FOX News to get informed about current events, or consulting Mitt and Ann Romney on how to show the common touch.But here is Lord Blair, holding forth about Britain and the European Union, The UK should Shape the Future of Europe, not Withdraw from it 12/04/2012 (speech of 11/28/2012). Show More Summary
Deadlock on the "fiscal cliff" negotiations? That would be good news for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits
Paul Krugman is impressed at the determination of the Republican opposition to block action on budget issues proposed by President Obama. In Operation Rolling Tantrum 12/02/2012,he writes:Oh, boy. This isn’t going to end, even when or...Show More Summary
Obama's "fiscal cliff" road show, Dec. 1
President Obama used his regular Saturday message to hype the phony "fiscal cliff" and to promote Republican Party framing of the deficit as an urgent priority and of tax cuts as the most important priority in the current "fiscal cliff" drama, Weekly Address: Urging Congress to Extend the Middle Class Tax Cuts 12/01/2012. Show More Summary