Yesterday, 49 states joined the federal government in announcing a $26 billion settlement with five of the nation’s biggest banks over the banks’ foreclosure fraud abuses. The money from the settlement is meant to aid homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure or who find themselves underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than…
GOP Construction of a Fictional “Obama” Has Taken a Turn to the Absurd
Contrary to the fictional stories told by Republicans, the president has cut taxes (taxes are lower under Obama than they were under Ronald Reagan, and the tax burden on Americans is the lowest it’s been since 1950), raised the military budget, been more aggressive in fighting Islamist militants than his predecessor (bin Laden and numerous…
Second White Nationalist Appearing At CPAC
Though gay conservatives arent welcome at the Conservative Political Action Confrence this year, at least two white nationalists are appearing at the yearly conservative confab. One is Peter Brimelow, founded of the nativist site VDARE which publishes the works of white nationalists like Jared Taylor, and the other is Robert Vandervoort, who runs a group called…
New Polls Showing Catholic Support For Contraception Coverage Further Undermine “War On Religion” Claim
New polls released this week indicate that a majority of Catholics believe that employers should provide health care plans that cover contraception. This further undermines right-wing media claims that President Obama has declared “war on Catholics” or a “war on religion” because of his administration’s recent decision requiring religiously affiliated organizations to offer health care…
California’s Green Economy Doubled Performance of Total Economy
A new report from the non-partisan environmental think tank Next 10 shows that between 2009 and 2010, the “core green economy” in California — comprised of companies that provide products or services to cut natural resource use, re-purpose waste, and reduce global warming pollution — experienced half the number of job losses seen in the…
Why Is Paul Ryan So Angry About Reduced Unemployment?
In other words, after more than a year of obstruction by a Republican-controlled US House that has refused to act to address unemployment and underemployment, and that has rejected sound proposals for addressing the mortgage crisis, Ryan and his allies are attacking the Obama administration, Bernanke and the Fed for trying to do something. That’s…
Washington State Poised to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
Barring any last minute reversals, Washington will soon become the seventh state to legalize same-sex marriage. When it does, State Senator Ed Murray of Seattle will finally see his fifteen-year campaign come to a satisfying end. An openly gay man and passionate gay rights advocate, Murray has introduced a same-sex marriage or domestic partnership bill…
BP Made $3 Million An Hour In 2011, While Spill Victims Continued To Suffer
BP’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill is still a recent memory for many Americans, particularly the tens of thousands that have not settled lawsuits with the company. Yet the company has bounced back from the billions it lost in the wake of the spill. BP announced today that its 2011 profit totaled $26 billion, a…
All measures of unemployment are falling
Mitt Romney is in a tough political spot: He can’t seem unhappy about a falling unemployment rate. But he can’t be too laudatory about an economic recovery that appears to be strengthening on President Obama’s watch. And so he’s embraced a third option: arguing that “if you take into account all the people who are…
White House To GOP: Only One Way Around Defense Cuts — And You’re Not Gonna Like It
In light of Congressional Republicans’ abandonment of a key part of the debt limit agreement, two senior administration officials briefing reporters at the White House Monday said automatic, across the board cuts to defense programs will happen as scheduled unless Republicans relent on their refusal to raise revenues. The officials conducted the briefing under the…
NASA: Human Activity, Not Solar Activity, Drives Global Warming and Returning to 350 ppm Is Needed to Stop It
A new NASA study underscores the fact that greenhouse gases generated by human activity — not changes in solar activity — are the primary force driving global warming. The study offers an updated calculation of the Earth’s energy imbalance, the difference between the amount of solar energy absorbed by Earth’s surface and the amount returned…
The GOP’s Economic Sabotage – Disinformation and Deliberate Destruction.
It was somewhere between hilarious and pathetic to watch Republicans respond to the positive jobs report last Friday. Some friends and I were counting the minutes until some Republican started casting aspersions on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which compiles and releases the data. Sure enough, by early Friday afternoon, Tea Party Congressman Allen…
Obama holds edge over Romney in general election matchup, poll finds
Boosted by improved public confidence in his economic stewardship, President Obama for the first time holds a clear edge over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general-election matchup, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Romney, who notched his second consecutive victory Saturday by easily winning the Nevada caucuses, continues to solidify…
Right-Wing Media Rely On Discredited Evidence To Dismiss Positive Jobs Report
Right-wing media are rushing to put a negative spin on newly released jobs numbers showing a drop in the unemployment rate and a net increase in jobs by parroting the discredited claim that government data show that “1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force” last month. In fact, as economic experts have explained,…
Nevada Republican Voters Asked: What Would It Take For You To Support Barack Obama?
In order to understand how deeply ingrained Republican hatred for President Barack Obama truly is, you need only ask one question: What would the president have to do to win your support? It’s rhetorical. There is nothing the president could do, save become a Republican himself, to placate many angry Republican voters. But when asked…
Did Obama make the economy worse? Not according to most statistics
For example, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office found that the economic stimulus Obama signed into law added — in the 4th quarter of 2009 — between 1 million and 2 million employed workers and boosted the GDP between 1.5% to 3.5% higher than it would have been without the stimulus. In addition, a more recent…
Unemployment rate hits 8.3%
The unemployment rate fell for the fifth straight month after a surge of January hiring, a promising shift in the nation’s outlook for job growth. The Labor Department says employers added 243,000 jobs in January, the most in nine months. The unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent from 8.5 percent in December. That’s the lowest…
States Under Pressure As Health Law Deadlines Approach
The health law’s biggest changes don’t take effect until 2014, when states and insurers must be ready to begin signing up an estimated 32 million people in Medicaid and private insurance. But a successful rollout in two years hinges on critical decisions that states must make – and take quick action on – this year….
Affordable Care Act: Most Health Insurance Plans Will Cover Women’s Preventive Services, Including Contraception
Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, most health insurance plans will cover women’s preventive services, including contraception, without charging a co-pay or deductible beginning in August, 2012. This new law will save money for millions of Americans. But more importantly, it will ensure Americans nationwide get the high-quality care they need to stay healthy. Under…
The Hannity Challenge: How To Make The Case That The Economy Is Improving
Sean Hannity pushed the myth that President Obama has made the economy worse, arguing that you could not “make the case” that it has improved during Obama’s watch. In fact, when Obama took office, he inherited an economy that was shrinking faster than it had in 50 years and that had lost 2 million jobs…