So was born, lived a little space, and died the Progressive party. At its birth it caused the nomination, by the Democrats, and the election, by the people, of Woodrow Wilson. At its death it brought about the nomination of Charles E. Hughes by the Republicans. It forced the writing into the platforms of the more conservative parties of principles and programmes of popular rights and social regeneration. The Progressive party never attained to power, but it wielded a potent power.

- Harold Howland  Read more 

Nancy Pelosi is soliciting questions; ask her about HR 676.

Speaker of the House Rahm Emanuel?

A question for Krugman, Matthew Yglesias, d-day, Ezra Klein; what makes you a better judge of practical politics than John Conyers and the 90 cosponsors of HR 676?  Read more 

Our President seems to believe not in oversight but in “accountability moments” every four years when the population gives a strict up-or-down judgment on his performance. A thumbs up means a mandate for the entire platform. In some cases like Social Security and immigration the changes are shot down by a growing popular revolt, but essentially the whole package is considered affirmed. At that point Congress passes laws as directed by the President to properly implement the platform, and each policy is a black box to be blessed in the broadest possible terms with no debate or review involved.  Read more 

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post  Read more 

Lame duck periods have historically been very quiet. Eisenhower’s negotiations with the Soviet Union were derailed by the U2 incident, and while he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 he didn’t champion it. Johnson was too unpopular to get anything big done by the time he term-limited himself. Reagan limped to the finish in the wake of Iran-Contra and Clinton in the wake of impeachment. Probably all shared some feeling of simple courtesy toward their successors as well - don’t dump some big new program or policy on the President-elect.  Read more 

C-SPAN Discussion of HR 676 Tuesday Night

John Conyers and other Members of Congress will take to the floor of the House of Representatives Tuesday evening, June 10, to lead a discussion of HR 676, single payer healthcare legislation. HR 676 now has 90 co-sponsors in the House, more than any other health care bill.

C-SPAN

Except for Dennis Kucinich, none of the Presidential candidates proposed universal health care. All the rest offered various ways to extend health insurance.

Health insurance is not healthcare  Read more 

Scott McClellan’s book has started some extremely interesting conversations. His allegations are not especially important by themselves, mainly because it is easy to suspect ulterior motives. A number of critics have noted he has no natural allies in Washington and could not expect a soft landing at a lobbying firm or think tank; the only way for him to cash in is with blockbuster sales. Another reason could be self-justification, which may well be one of the few high growth areas created by the current administration. The broad contours of this Presidency are clearly visible now, and even the most blinkered partisans know the judgment of history will be extraordinarily harsh.  Read more 

I spent two years in Tanzania teaching secondary school math as a Peace Corps volunteer. The only Swahili left in my head is greetings and curses (one of the latter is substantially more offensive than anything we’ve come up with in English) along with a few memorable phrases. One phrase is “bahati mbaya” which literally translates as “bad luck.” The reason it’s memorable is because it was also used to describe completely predictable bad outcomes. If you started drawing a bath, for some reason left the house for a few hours and came back to a flooded living area…bahati mbaya. It is a wonderfully diplomatic way to avoid saying, wow was that stupid. It is in that spirit that I write: This is the bahati mbaya President.  Read more 

Last year Kung Fu Monkey produced one of the great political analyses of our time in his essay on shamelessness. Among other points he wrote “[y]ou reveal a man’s corrupt, or lying, or incompetent, and what does he do?  Read more 

These videos were taken at the hearing for HRH 676. See our friends in action.

HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 1 of 4

HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 2 of 4

HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 3 of 4

HR 676 - The Single Payer Solution, Part 4 of 4

This week Joe Klein wrote a post that did not attempt to hide his disdain for his critics. While he showed a willingness to outline his reporting process and address concerns raised in his comments, he did so in an extremely defensive, thin-skinned and condescending tone. He also made the following memorably clueless assertion: “Tell me where I’ve been misled by my sources.” His commenters quickly pointed out his factually challenged reporting on the FISA debate.  Read more 

Swing State Project has a MS-01: Results Thread. So far it looks very good. WillBardwell is live blogging the results. Oxford has had a very high turnout. Cotton Mouth is also following returns. It looks like a terrific night for Missippi Democrats.

Considering how much attention mass media has spent on electoral politics it has missed the elephant in the room (pardon the pun): The extreme peril of the Republican Party. Almost all coverage is now on the Democratic primary, and the least likely (and most dramatic) scenarios are getting the most focus. But here is what seems most likely: The candidates fight it out, a winner emerges in the next month or so and emotions peak. Everyone takes the summer off, spends some time at the beach with a good book, and returns at the end of August tanned, rested and ready to crank up an energetic election campaign.  Read more 

The DCCC is running some ads for a Mississippi special election. The Republicans has been forced to drop some serious cash on this one.

Cotton Mouth thinks that it is good that they used local people in the ads. The Thorn Papers says the special election is all about GOTV.

Donna Edwards on Healthcare

Businesses, particularly small businesses, want their employees to have access to health care – but it must be affordable. Through a universal, Canadian-styled, health care system, all Americans would have access to quality, affordable health care. A new system would provide stability and predictability for employers and enable employees to obtain health care coverage no matter their employer or pre-existing conditions. Under this system all Americans would be able to choose their doctor without the uncertainty of rising deductibles and co-payments. There must be shared responsibility from employers and employees to keep our workforce healthy.  Read more 

Congress can be a frustratingly opaque body, and trying to figure out causes and effects can be largely futile. Analyzing a simple proposition like “Congress has failed to adequately check executive power expansion since 2001” quickly becomes incredibly complex (rest in peace Edward Lorenz). Also, much of its work is done behind closed doors, which is probably for the best. If politicians were constantly on display before the public we would reach toxic levels of grandstanding almost immediately and government would grind to a halt (though in light of our recent experience that might be a benefit).  Read more 

The war in Iraq refuses to be dismissed. Its ongoing cost in blood and treasure will be at or near the top of our concerns for as long as it lasts. It stays there no matter how much political elites want us to look elsewhere or media elites want to keep from highlighting the painful, ongoing slog. I believe the vast majority of us grieves a little each time we hear the day’s price. If it is nothing more than a dry recitation of the latest handful of dead in the latest attack, if the report is stuck at the end of a segment or broadcast, if it is treated with the same numerical curiosity as a minor fluctuation of the stock market - it still casts a long shadow with us.  Read more 

Last week a remarkable truth emerged - we need to have a torture debate. On Friday the President admitted that we are now a state sponsor of torture and an amazing thing happened: Nothing. TV news coverage was dominated by the Democratic primary, and if news outlets acknowledged it at all it was in a summary or somewhere in the back pages. I am on record with my deep revulsion for torture, but a critical mass of our upper political and media levels does not consider it worthy of sustained focus.  Read more 

According to its web site the recently-created National Applications Office (NAO) has its roots in the Civil Applications Committee, an agency created in 1974 that “facilitated requests by civil agencies to make use of space-based imaging and remote sensing capabilities for purposes such as monitoring volcanic activity, environmental and geological changes, hurricanes, and floods.” Presumably that is how it was used; if it had been directed against citizens or for political advantage we would have found out before too long. Either the results of the abuse would have led back to it or someone would have spilled the beans somehow.  Read more 

Every adult in America probably remembers 9/11 in the immediate sense - the first time hearing the news, seeing the images, the confusion, uncertainty and fear of that day - but it seems like our memory of the period immediately after is hazy. For a month or two we were traumatized as a nation and had trouble understanding what had happened, and what should come next. By the end of 2001 the drumbeat for war had begun and it is possible that fixing our attention on how best to attack Iraq served as a psychological crutch by giving us something to focus on. This is not a professional opinion, just an observation based on what I went through and saw others going through.  Read more 

The President has one thing in common with his predecessors: He claims to not care about his legacy. Most seem to say that at one point or another; in this case “[w]e are still arguing about the record of the first president…I’m sure they will take their time when it comes to judging my record.” It is one of the more benign lies he has told, maybe because it only reveals his comprehensive inability to understand history. There is no harm in that kind of ignorance, though it has grave implications when it comes from your leader. Of course, I would love to know what exactly he thinks we are still arguing about with Washington.  Read more 

Many have pointed out the acts of President George W. Bush and his cabal as being “criminal.” Take, for example, the words of Keith Olbermann:

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.

…

Now if that’s what this is all about, you tortured not because you’re so stupid you think torture produces confession but you tortured because you’re smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction - well, then, you’re going to need all the lawyers you can find … because that crime wouldn’t just mean impeachment, would it?

That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison.

I so admire the glibness of Mr. Olbermann, the sharpness of his language and most of all, his passion.

However, under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution, President George W. Bush, and all those he chooses to include in pardons, will never be prosecuted for crimes committed against the United States absent impeachment.  Read more