Author: Isaiah J. Poole

There is more ammunition progressive leaders can use to push for a bold policy agenda in a new report by the Campaign for America\’s Future and Media Matters for America. That report says what we know instinctively but too many in Congress and in the political establishment seem unable or unwilling to accept: that the…

Jacob S. Hacker, the Yale University professor who has crafted a health-care-for-all plan that he has discussed with several Democratic presidential candidates, has taken a close look at the health care proposal released last week by Sen. Barack Obama and concludes that it\’s better than the early reviews concluded. Read Hacker\’s analysis on TomPaine.com. He\’s…

To members of Congress who intend to offer health care proposals: Do not be afraid to be bold. That\’s the lesson that elected officials should take away from the mixed reaction to some of the proposals that have been offered for discussion in the past few weeks. Any elected official who wants to be viewed…

Columnist Paul Krugman on Monday wrote that he did something highly risky: He ate a salad. We are well familiar with the e. coli contamination of lettuce and spinach, and the more recent cases of pet food contamination. But Krugman, following on the heels of work Rick Perlstein has published on TomPaine.com and on his blog, The…

Do you know how you could eat on just $21 a week? This week, you may have heard about the four members of Congress who have decided to try living on the amount of food they could buy with $21, the average weekly Food Stamp program allotment. One of the members, Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and…

Veteran journalist Bill Moyers is using his PBS show, Bill Moyers\’ Journal, to raise the public profile of a postal rate change that has been stirring anger in the progressive press for weeks. Earlier this month, the price of a first-class stamp went up two cents, to 41 cents. What most people do not know is that…

Our blog posts show how too many in power either ignore, misunderstand or underestimate what we the people told Washington in November. That\’s why we\’re looking to have more than 3,000 progressives rock the nation\’s capital June 18-20 at Take Back America 2007. Register now and get involved through our special conference website.

The perversity of conservative failure is that by rendering government incapable or unwilling of doing anything that serves the common good, conservatives have left fewer people willing to trust that government can serve the common good, even when they want it to. That is the sobering message behind polling data presented at the Failure of…

There was a genteel smackdown between Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard. But beneath the generally gentlemanly exchange between the two intellectual titans, there were some genuine jaw-droppers from Kristol, who showed that however thoughtful conservatives can be, their blind spots can be huge. Kuttner opened the debate…

Robert L. Borosage launched the Failure of Conservatism conference at the National Press Conference on Thursday with a broad indictment of the conservative movement and with a cautionary note for progressives: “Ideas have consequences.” Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, borrowed that phrase from leading conservative thinker William Kristol to point out…