Washington Liberals

Digby reports: “The 17 House Democrats who voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in criminal contempt last week have received more than $1.3 million in financial aid from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee since the start of 2009, a review of campaign finance records shows. That total constitutes roughly one out of every nine…

In her 2006 and 2008 campaigns for Congress, Darcy Burner did not stake out strongly progressive views — presumably because she needed to appeal to conservatives in the southern part of the old 8th CD. This year Darcy is sounding much more progressive, as well as being a much better speaker. But is Suzan DelBene…

The New Yorker article After America Will civil war hit Afghanistan when the U.S. leaves? quotes Abdul Nasir, a journalist: “The Americans have failed to build a single sustainable institution here. All they have done is make a small group of people very rich. And now they are getting ready to go. … The Americans…

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in the Media) is reporting: Small Business Baloney GOP tax claims should be factchecked Barack Obama’s July 9 announcement that he would extend the Bush tax cuts for income below $250,000 prompted the expected response from Republican politicians and presidential candidate Mitt Romney: This is a tax increase on “small businesses.”…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Student Debt Jubilee & Why Higher Education Ought to be Free, Part Two Tuesday, July 17th, 8:30pm EST/5:30 Pacific RSVP for instructions for participating in this webcast. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ RSVP now for instructions for how to participate in this webcast. Last December, the Backbone Campaign hosted our 84th Conversation with the Cabinet podcast entitled Student…

The ballot box just isn’t working for the 99%. 12 years of electoral politics have done nothing to stop the alarming erosion of the very foundations of our nation. Time and again our choices are narrowed by big money and back room deals. Time and again the least deserving claim victory. Scott Walker’s recent triumph…

from the beginning scene of the new HBO series The Newsroom.

Five hundred thousand dollars a minute. That’s not a figure about government spending or global banking transfers. That’s the latest outrageous payout to a corporate CEO. Bill Johnson was CEO of Duke Energy for all of twenty minutes before he picked up a paycheck for $10 million — part of a severance package totaling more…

Washington Post has a story on tax rates. I know that a lot of people will think that the low tax rates are a good thing, and they may be in a few ways, but these low tax rates translate into austerity political decisions, cuts in services, cuts to environmental protection, cuts to education, cuts…