How Politics Damaged Obama’s Recovery (CHART)

          By Brian Beutler Last week we brought you this chart, demonstrating that the unemployment rate under President Obama is coming down fairly quickly — though not as quickly as it did under President Reagan in the months before he won a landslide re-election in 1984. Here’s a major reason why. Data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis illustrates a key difference between Reagan’s first term and Obama’s: the pliancy of the Congresses they had to work ... Full Story

Oath of Office?

Keystone = higher gas prices

        Keystone Pipeline Means Dearer Gas, Few Jobs  By Jonathan Alter “I’ll get us that oil from Canada,” Mitt Romney said in his victory speech after the Michigan primary. He was referring to Keystone XL, the crude-oil pipeline that has become a top-tier campaign issue for Republicans. Problem is, the tar-sands oil in that pipeline wouldn’t be coming to “us.” It would go directly from Canada to refineries in the Gulf region en route to ... Full Story

Blunt amendment killed

          Birth control exemption bill, the ‘Blunt amendment,’ killed in Senate By N.C. Aizenman By a largely party-line vote, the Senate on Thursday blocked a move to exempt virtually any employer with moral objections from the Obama administration’s controversial birth control health coverage rule. The measure, an amendment proposed by Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) to a highway funding bill, was tabled—and therefore effectively killed—by a vote of 51 to ... Full Story

Ann Teinaes: Politics Animated

                    Ann Teinaes'  animations in the Washington Post present a biting satire  of the news. No subject is off limits no politician is spared. View her work here, cartoons are serious business. Be prepared to stay awhile, there are many pages.   Ann Teinaes            

Springtime for Toxics

          Springtime for Toxics By Paul Krugman Here’s what I wanted for Christmas: something that would make us both healthier and richer. And since I was just making a wish, why not ask that Americans get smarter, too? Surprise: I got my wish, in the form of new Environmental Protection Agency standards on mercury and air toxics for power plants. These rules are long overdue: we were supposed to start regulating mercury more than 20 years ago. But the rules are ... Full Story

Hurt Obama, don’t hire

          Tea Party Group Urges Small Businesses ‘Not To Hire A Single Person’ To Hurt Obama By Marie Diamond Congressional Republicans have acted shocked and offended at Democrats’ suggestions that they are intentionally sabotaging the economy to try to win back the White House in 2012. Republicans have refused to pass President Obama’s jobs plan — which experts estimate will create at least 1.9 million jobs — and proposed an alternative plan that ... Full Story

ACLU challenges voter suppression law

ACLU's Federal Challenge to WI GOP's Photo ID Restrictions Could Reverse Similar Laws Nationwide   By Ernest A. Canning on 12/15/2011 6:29am Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning Election laws in Wisconsin are not covered by Section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act, which would otherwise require the Dept. of Justice or a federal panel of judges to "preclear" such laws to assure they are not discriminatory. Thus, it falls to non-governmental organizations, such as the American Civil ... Full Story

Colorado Dems and GOP respond to redistricting

Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio Responds to Supreme Court’s Approval of New State Legislative Districts Denver – Following the approval of new legislative districts by the Colorado Supreme Court, Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio released the following statement: “Today’s ruling guarantees Colorado voters competitive districts that pressure legislators to look beyond their political bases. These new districts will favor representatives who are ... Full Story

Grover Norquist: a misleading accounting of recent

            Grover Norquist: a misleading accounting of recent history By Glenn Kessler “Raising taxes slows the economy. Raising taxes kills jobs. Government spending does not create jobs. The idea that if you take a dollar out of the economy from somebody who earned it, either through debt or through taxes, and give it to somebody who is politically connected, that there are more dollars around? That if you stand on one side of the lake and put a bucket into the lake and walk ... Full Story