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Obama Realigns, the GOP Declines: The New Political Paradigm by Robert Shrum, thedailybeast.com | February 1, 2013
It’s a word seldom heard since Karl Rove brandished it after the 2004 election. On the basis of an Electoral College win secured by the precarious margin of one state, an Ohio rife with voter suppression, “Bush’s brain”—is that a compliment to Rove?—proclaimed an era of Republican realignment. Rove’s fantasy was demolished in 2012, when the GOP waged a backward-looking campaign directed to the American electorate of a decade and more ago—two white, too old, too rural, too Southern. Instead, the crabbed, plutocratic, intolerant Republican appeal did succeed—in mobilizing the new America, which convincingly voted for a second Obama term. But something more has happened here than the reelection of one president, as consequential as that is. We are witnessing a Rove in reverse—but this time, an authentic and accelerating realignment in the demography, ideology, and political identity of the American mainstream. read more »The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy: Out of Gas? by David Brock, Huffington Post | February 1, 2013
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is departing from the State Department on her own terms and with a formidable legacy intact. Given that Clinton, no matter what she decides about 2016, will undoubtedly remain an influential figure in American public life for years to come, one might have expected her long-time detractors, who have been trying for more than 20 years to trip her up, to land some solid blows to her widely admired reputation for leadership on the global stage. Instead, we've been treated to salvos that were silly, at best; and on the one potentially serious issue raised, the Fox News-initiated and Mitt Romney-fortified Benghazi craze, all the attacks fell flat. read more »Where the Wingers Won by Abby Rapoport, prospect.org | January 31, 2013
Liberals had every reason to burst with optimism as the November election results began to set in. Not only did Democrats hold on to the White House, but they also won major Senate battles. In battleground states like Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin, a majority of voters chose more progressive visions for the future in both the presidential and Senate races. You might assume that this would have repercussions at the state level too—that these moderate-to-progressive states would work with the federal government in forging a more liberal set of policies. But you’d be wrong. read more »Why Immigration Reform Won't Cure the GOP's Struggles with Hispanics by Michael Catalini, nationaljournal.com | January 31, 2013
Leading Republicans are jumping on the immigration reform bandwagon, hoping that taking the issue off the table will give them a second chance to make inroads with Hispanic voters. But even with a bipartisan deal looking within reach, the Republican party may not benefit as much as strategists expect. Indeed, there’s evidence that Hispanic resistance to the Republican party is as rooted in the GOP’s skeptical view of government, as it is their disagreement with GOP hardliners on immigration. The Republican Party calls for smaller government, but many Latinos look to government assistance as a necessity. Forty-two percent of Hispanic voters say that a government job offers the best chance of gaining career success, compared to only one-third of white voters. read more »Republicans In Disarray Over Immigration by Joan McCarter, dailykos.com | January 31, 2013
The immigration debate is exposing the fissures in the Republican Party more than any other debate has yet, between the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove faction and the crazy teabagger Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck/Michelle Malkin crowd. For them, electoral politics takes second place to hating on brown people, apparently. It parallels, basically, the split between the Senate Republicans, who can't rely on extreme gerrymandering to keep their seats, and House Republicans, who can be crazy as they want to be. The results are, at the very least, fun to watch. read more »Lost In Their Own Wilderness by Eugene Robinson, The Washington Post | January 29, 2013
Republicans shouldn’t worry that President Obama is trying to destroy the GOP. Why would he bother? The party’s leaders are doing a pretty good job of it themselves. As they try to understand why the party lost an election it was confident of winning — and why it keeps losing budget showdowns in Congress — Republican grandees are asking the wrong questions. Predictably, they are also coming up with the wrong answers. They prefer to focus on flawed tactics and ineffectual “messaging” rather than confront the essential problem, which is that voters don’t much care for the policies the GOP espouses. read more »The Folly Of DC's Desperate Deficit Fearmongers by Dean Baker, The Guardian | January 29, 2013
The news that the UK, with negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2012, faces the prospect of a triple-dip recession, should be the final blow to the intellectual credibility of deficit hawks. You just can't get more wrong than this flat-earth bunch of economic policy-makers. They're pretty much batting zero. They failed to foresee the collapse of housing bubbles in the US and Europe and its consequent downturn. They grossly underestimated its severity after it hit. And their policy prescription of austerity has been shown to be wrong everywhere that applied it: in the US, the eurozone and, especially, the UK. By all rights, these folks should be laughed out of town. They should be retrained for a job more suited to their skill set – preferably, something that doesn't involve numbers, or people. read more »Palin, Fox and the End of An Era by Eric Boehlert, Huffington Post | January 29, 2013
Wasn't it fitting that Sarah Palin's exit from Fox News was made official the same week President Obama celebrated his second inauguration? Didn't it just seem apt that the once-future star of Fox News and the Tea Party movement lost her national media platform just days after the president she tried to demonize for four years basked in the glow of his easy reelection victory? Palin's breakup with Fox was expected, but it's still significant. A "milestone," is how former Bush speechwriter David Frum put it. The move represents the end of a brief, ill-conceived era within the conservative media movement, and specifically at Fox, where in the wake of Obama's first White House win Palin, along with preposterous cohort Glenn Beck, was irresponsibly tapped to become a high-priced pundit who trafficked in hate. read more »If It Is Not Stopped, The Republican War On Democracy Will Tear This Nation Apart by Laurence Lewis, dailykos.com | January 28, 2013
Republicans can't win national elections anymore, having lost the popular vote in five of the last six, and with demographics shifts moving solidly against them, rather than try to better represent the will of the American electorate, they're instead going to try to break the system so that the will of the American electorate no longer matters. And it would be perfectly legal, because we choose our presidents through the Electoral College, and there are very few rules about how the electors are allocated. Make no mistake: This is a war on the very concept of democracy and republic. This is a war on the very nature of our system of governance. If it succeeds, it will tear this country apart. read more »Makers, Takers, Fakers by Paul Krugman, The New York Times | January 28, 2013
Republicans have a problem. For years they could shout down any attempt to point out the extent to which their policies favored the elite over the poor and the middle class; all they had to do was yell “Class warfare!” and Democrats scurried away. In the 2012 election, however, that didn’t work: the picture of the G.O.P. as the party of sneering plutocrats stuck, even as Democrats became more openly populist than they have been in decades. As a result, prominent Republicans have begun acknowledging that their party needs to improve its image. But here’s the thing: Their proposals for a makeover all involve changing the sales pitch rather than the product. When it comes to substance, the G.O.P. is more committed than ever to policies that take from most Americans and give to a wealthy handful. Consider, as a case in point, how a widely reported recent speech by Bobby Jindal the governor of Louisiana, compares with his actual policies. read more »
The Latest
Recession Fueling Right-Wing Extremism, Reuters | April 14, 2009
Right-wing extremists in the United States are gaining new recruits by exploiting fears about the economy and the election of the first black U.S. president, the Department of Homeland Security warned in a report to law enforcement officials. read more »
Chinese Drywall Poses Risks, MSNBC News | April 12, 2009
At the height of the U.S. housing boom, when building materials were in short supply, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. read more »
Citizens Held As Immigrants, MSNBC News | April 12, 2009
In a drive to crack down on illegal immigrants, the United States has locked up or thrown out dozens, probably many more, of its own citizens over the past eight years. An investigation has documented 55 such cases. These citizens are detained for anything from a day to five years. It is illegal to deport U.S. citizens or detain them for immigration violations. read more »
U.S. Food Safety No Longer Improving, The New York Times | April 10, 2009
After decades of steady progress, the safety of the nation’s food supply has not improved over the past three years, the government reported. And, it said, in the case of salmonella, the dangerous bacteria recently found in peanuts and pistachios, infections may be creeping upward. read more »
Pistachios Tested Positive For Salmonella For Months, USA Today | April 3, 2009
The company that recalled 2 million pounds of pistachios had been receiving positive salmonella tests for as long as five months, federal officials say. Salmonella in nuts from Setton Pistachio was detected by one of the company's food-manufacturing customers. read more »
FDA Issues Another Nut Warning, The Washington Post | March 31, 2009
Federal food safety officials warned that consumers should stop eating all foods containing pistachios while they figure out the source of a possible salmonella contamination. read more »
G20 Leaders Target Tax Havens, Christian Science Monitor | March 31, 2009
For more than a decade, governments have applied moral pressure on Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Singapore, Monaco, and a host of countries that allow the well-heeled to park their money out of the sight of tax authorities at home. Now, they are threatening to replace the tough talk with strict sanctions on those countries that continue to shelter tax evaders with bank secrecy rules. read more »
Poor Records Slow Food Probes, Reuters | March 27, 2009
Many U.S. food handlers do not maintain proper records to track products such as milk and oatmeal, making it hard to identify the source of a food-borne outbreak, a government investigator said. The U.S. food supply system has come under scrutiny in the wake of high-profile recalls. read more »
Regulators Ramp up Fraud Training After Madoff, Reuters | March 24, 2009
Burned by their failure to uncover the biggest Ponzi scheme in history, U.S. securities regulators are ramping up training of staff on how to spot the warning signs of market swindles. The Securities and Exchange Commission's inspection unit is offering 90-minute classes for employees. read more »
China Fires Eight Regulators Over Milk Scandal, The New York Times | March 22, 2009
China said that eight senior regulators were fired last week for “slack supervision” in a tainted milk scandal that killed at least six children and sickened over 300,000 last year. The government said high-ranking regulators in the country’s major food supervisory agencies were stripped of their positions and their membership in the Communist Party. read more »
