Political Ideas

With corporate thugs now assaulting Congress members to scare them out of providing anyone with healthcare, it’s worth recalling that in earlier days of this nation, assaults on Congress members would result in being held in contempt of Congress — literally held in prison. Nowadays, Congress won’t even lock up people like Rove and Cheney who defy subpoenas, so the idea of Congress doing anything to protect itself against thuggery is pretty outlandish. However, if Congress passes read more

With both Judiciary Committees (House and Senate) promising to do nothing about torture until Holder releases the OPR report, and Holder himself committed to doing nothing until he releases the OPR report, we’ve seen the OPR report predictably and endlessly delayed. While a Friday night in August has a certain attraction for releasing such a thing, why wouldn’t Holder just delay for 6 more months? Give me one good reason.

By David Swanson

In six months as president, Barack Obama has aggressively done the opposite of many specific things he explicitly and unequivocally promised as a candidate. A lot of these were things Obama’s fiercest opponents never wanted. And Obama’s fiercest supporters favor censoring this information. But if we expect public servants to be public servants, the public must know the facts, make of them what it will.

Here’s a read more

By David Swanson

The most useful tool progressive political activists have in the United States, at the local, state, and national levels, was created from scratch five years ago, and has been developed and sharpened while proving itself time and again in each and every week since. Progressive Democrats of America has stood strongly behind truly progressive, majority positions more consistently than any other activist group with national weight that I’m aware of. And at the same time, PDA read more

Attorney General Eric Holder is considering whether to prosecute torture. He shouldn’t consider it. He should appoint a special prosecutor and let him or her consider whether torturing people violates our laws against torture. You can ask Holder to do this at: 202-514-2001 or AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

More from Brad. And here Greenwald reacts to indications in WaPo that special read more

This is the most encouraging thing I’ve seen in years: Congress standing up as a branch of goverment, not a party or the other party or both parties, but a branch of government attempting to represent the people and enforce the rule of law. I’m dumbfounded.

House overwhelmingly rejects signing statement
By Walter Alarkon, The Hill

The House rebuked President Obama for trying to ignore restrictions to international aid payments, voting overwhelmingly for an amendment forcing the administration read more

Voices read more

By David Swanson

The day after ramming through nearly $100 billion more for wars and $100 billion in loans to European banks through the IMF, the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, Steny Hoyer, introduced a “PayGo” bill, requiring that any spending be paid for with cuts in other spending. But having this law on the books would not have stopped the previous day’s legislation. War “supplemental” bills are deemed “emergencies” and an exception read more

By David Swanson

What if you had to choose your top priority for an activist campaign to change a government policy? Would you tell everyone to call and Email and write and try to meet with and protest the president? Would all your marches be to the White House, all your petitions addressed to the president, all your talk be about what the president should do? Or would you focus on Congress instead? Or would you just generally make noise, march around on Saturdays, and hope that both the Congress read more