The growing “[tag]living wage[/tag]” movement, championed by unions and groups representing the working poor, scored a pretty significant victory yesterday in [tag]Chicago[/tag]. After months of fevered lobbying and bitter debate, the Chicago City Council passed a groundbreaking ordinance yesterday requiring “big box” stores, like [tag]Wal-Mart[/tag] and Home Depot, to pay a [tag]minimum wage[/tag] of $10 […]
The Washington Post’s Joshua Partlow got the chance to spend four days with the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 1st Armored Division in Baghdad recently and came away with a key observation: there’s a serious morale problem among U.S. troops. Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos considered the simple question about morale for more than an […]
I was kind of curious about how Maryland Republican Senate candidate Michael Steele would explain his comments that bashed the Bush White House and condemned this political party. In fact, I was just about convinced that the whole thing was a set-up. Steele made controversial comments he knew would generate lots of attention, with the […]
I know there are still a few Dems out there who like [tag]John McCain[/tag]. They see him on [tag]The Daily Show[/tag], they find him charming, and they hear the far-right complain bitterly about him, and these Dems are left thinking, “McCain isn’t like his [tag]GOP[/tag] colleagues.” In case it wasn’t abundantly clear before, it’s well […]
I got a couple of emails yesterday asking why I hadn’t mentioned Sen. Arlen [tag]Specter[/tag]’s latest vow to introduce legislation letting Congress [tag]sue[/tag] [tag]Bush[/tag] over “[tag]signing statements[/tag].” I didn’t because I was confident one of two things would happen — either Specter would back down (or accept some absurd “compromise”) or Specter’s [tag]Republican[/tag] colleagues would […]
Two weeks ago, a [tag]Treasury[/tag] Department report made clear what was already pretty obvious: “tax cuts do not come remotely close to paying for themselves.” Yesterday, Treasury undermined the administration’s message on [tag]tax cuts[/tag] again, this time reporting that — surprise, surprise — the cuts have costly consequences. The federal government will need to either […]
A committee of National Research Council experts, which included prominent computer scientists and two former governors, began last year researching “the right questions” about [tag]electronic voting[/tag]. This week, the panel is presenting its results to the public. “Some jurisdictions — and possibly many — may not be well prepared for the arrival of the November […]
Last week I noted that FEMA said it has a “policy” that prevents hurricane victims living in FEMA trailer parks from doing interviews with [tag]reporters[/tag]. Journalists had already been removed from public property for speaking with residents and FEMA insisted that people living in the [tag]trailers[/tag] need government “escorts” to sit in on all media […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * The good news for Rep. [tag]Katherine Harris[/tag]’ Senate campaign in Florida is that it’s almost at the point in which it has no where to go but up. A new Mason-Dixon poll […]
A couple of weeks ago, Cursor noted a “[tag]Rapture[/tag] Ready” online message board featuring some cautiously-optimistic evangelicals who believe events in the Middle East may be part of a [tag]Biblical[/tag] [tag]end-times[/tag] [tag]prophecy[/tag]. As one person asked, “Is it times to get excited?” Of course, it was just random speculation on a largely-unknown message board. We […]