For Melanie Shouse

    By Ripper on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:42am |
    Minutes ago, I received an email from Jennifer Haro of Organizing for America in St. Louis concerning a woman I knew as a tireless supporter of President Obama--a Progressive who could put any Progressives among the TPM community to shame...

    I Guess I'm Supposed to Die

    By Ripper on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 7:40pm |
    I called my tax preparer to inquire about the possibility of receiving a tax credit and after he told me "No," he went on to tell me that elitists in Washington--"Obama, Pelosi and Reid" among them, but most Republicans included,...
    oleeb's picture

    Clarence Thomas: Political Hack

    By oleeb on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 5:16pm |
      Look what 30 years of Republican dominance and Democratic "bipartisanship" has yielded the nation on the Supreme Court: a set of hacks posing as judges carrying out not the law but the political program of their extreme, right...
    Richard Day's picture

    ARIZONA HEAT

    By Richard Day on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:17pm |
    Arizona is our 48th State. We finally decided to render unto it statehood in 1912, fifty years after it had become a territory and a hundred years before it would become a permanent penal colony.  It is part of...

    Let's See Your Amended Financial Disclosure Statement, Rep. Sessions!

    By azpaull on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:06pm |
    I just witnessed a disgusting display on C-Span.  Republican Rep. Pete Sessions sarcastically blasted how Pres. Obama and the Democrats are leading our nation to its doom.  He said it is so dire that he has gotten himself out of...
    Joe Wood's picture

    The Unclanged Cymbal

    By Joe Wood on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:56pm |
    The fault lies not in our stars, but in ourselves.If Obama has fallen short, it is only due to what hopes and unreal aspirations of "CHANGE" and "HOPE" we assigned to this noble prince. Though I see him as a...
    Joe Wood's picture

    The Failures of Technological Advances on My Sense of Belonging

    By Joe Wood on Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:08am |
                                                                   Recording devices should have been made not only for mass producing and capitalizing on another's musical ability for profit. They were, most likely, an invention to get bored people with money to buy another sure cure-all for their...
    Joe Wood's picture

    Who Cares About Las Vegas

    By Joe Wood on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:02pm |
    In the midst of 10+ percent unemployment, who gives a crap about what Obama says about wasting money in Las Vegas? I care about finding a job.  Not even a good paying one anymore.  Just a job. I have been unemployed...

    Keeping the good ones.

    By kgb999 on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:30pm |
    There has been much talk, to the point of obsession, about getting rid of democrats who simply don't represent progressive goals. Some prefer primaries. Others prefer third parties. Still others prefer supporting a primary challenger and then voting third party...
    Contrarian's picture

    What Social Security Isn't

    By Contrarian on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 5:42pm |

    I agree with Deadman that "the idea of social security is to provide the elderly with a baseline level of resources so they don't become impoverished".  I think that a major reason that Social Security reform is the "3rd rail" of politics is that so many people disagree with us.  If you listen to the AARP crowd, they are adamant that this is not the case. 

    On Moving the Center Leftward (or, in the direction of the "old" center, if you prefer...)

    By AmericanDreamer on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 4:01pm |
    What becomes the "center" changes over time.  We all know that because we've seen it move rightward for decades now.  While many denizens consider "centrist" as inherently an epithet, successful social movements help redefine what the "center" is.  So long...
    oleeb's picture

    The Obscenity Of US Military Spending

    By oleeb on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 1:56pm |
      This chart is all the more appalling because it is two years out of date!  Obama just proposed a military budget for the coming year of $744 Billion!  Just look at how extremely disproportionate US military spending is...
    we are stardust's picture

    A Salute to Admiral Mike Mullen on DADT

    By we are stardust on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:47am |
    At the Groundhog Day Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on the current Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Mike Mullen gave a full-throated endorsement to the President's appeal to Congress to reverse that policy.  He...
    Richard Day's picture

    GROUNDHOG'S DAY

    By Richard Day on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 10:12pm |
    Size of this preview: 800 × 599 pixels To tax (from the Latin taxo; "I estimate", which in turn is from tangō; "I touch") is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal...
    Ramona's picture

    We are the Ordinary People of our Time

    By Ramona on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 10:01pm |
    t takes some bodacious, mendacious audacity to write in the Wall Street Journal about hubris or ". . .a bureaucratic elite [that] disposes of public policy with scant regard for the popular will" after those not-so-long-ago (but really, really long) Bush years, but if anybody can pull it off, it's the WSJ. Their audience has the most to lose if Obama wins his battles.
    oleeb's picture

    $744 Billion Budgeted For War: Militarism Is Destroying America

    By oleeb on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 3:00pm |
    60 years of growing militarism in the United States has taken an extraordinary but rarely mentioned toll on what used to be the greatest democracy on earth.  The Cold War presented the Military Industrial Complex with the opportunity to...
    Richard Day's picture

    AS GOOD AS IT GETS

    By Richard Day on Sun, 01/31/2010 - 5:10pm |
                                                         THE JOKER I have basic cable. If I had money, I would still have basic cable. It is on as background 'music' most of the time. A lot of people at Café just say to hell with TV...
    Barth's picture

    The Week it Happened

    By Barth on Sat, 01/30/2010 - 8:02pm |
    If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is when did it change? Didn't the Republican Party just tear the President apart for a year, saying no to everything but yet making...
    Richard Day's picture

    SWEET HOME ALABAMA

    By Richard Day on Sat, 01/30/2010 - 4:58pm |
    Now we turn to another state located in the deep, deep South; Sweet Home Alabama. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHsDa9_HSlA   Prior to the civilized Europeans who eventually brought cotton and football and the testaments of the lord to this god forsaken place,...

    Defeat Harry Reid Ad Here at the Cafe?

    By AmericanDreamer on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 7:40pm |
    Does anyone else besides me find it...um...interesting...that a Republican seeking to unseat Harry Reid, Danny Tarkanian, is advertising here at the cafe?  His tag line is "Help Finish Reagan's Last Campaign". I'm not sure what to conclude from that.  Does this...
    we are stardust's picture

    Haitians Need Shelter

    By we are stardust on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 11:14am |
    The Hatian government is asking for a minimum of 200,000 more tents for temporary housing, which might mean from now until half-of-forever.  I found an NGO based in the UK called Shelterbox, which has branches in a number of countries,...
    Richard Day's picture

    IOWA; THE SQUARISH STATE

    By Richard Day on Fri, 01/29/2010 - 1:20am |
    Samuel J. Kirkwood, founder of the Iowa Republican Party, abolitionist, and Iowa's Civil War governor. Iowa is one of those squarish states. Its eastern boundary is, of course, the grand ole Mississippi. Its western boundary is determined by the Missouri...

    Three Epiphanies About Political $$$$$$$

    By Ripper on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 6:02pm |
    I just had a few epiphanies. Bing! Bang!! Boom!!!Man, my brain hurts. Help me sort this out. ...Another fund-raising letter from Organizing for America just arrived in my email inbox. Most emails I get from OFA are sent in the...

    Obama's Good Deal

    By Ripper on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 3:19am |
    The day before the State of the Union, I tried to anticipate what it might contain that the average American could cheer. And in this respect, I believe President Obama delivered. His focus on the economy and jobs seemed to...
    Ramona's picture

    Labor's Cries are Getting Weaker. Who is Going to Dig Them Out?

    By Ramona on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 3:30pm |
    We have a history of putting blinders on when things get tough, and we have a history of not learning from our own history. We're in the midst of another severe economic crisis, for all intents a repeat of our Great Depression, and still we hear the voices telling us it's not so bad--and we want to believe them.

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