Progressive Review

• Morning Line: If you have to ask, there's a problem
  Sam Smith - There has been a lot of talk - here and elsewhere - about various Obama violations of the Constitution and, of course, the lawyers are having a field day about it all. But here's something that gets missed. People who support and practice constitutional principles don't need lawyers to argue their case. You just know it. Virtue has  a c […]
• Death notice
  Legacy -  HOLCOMB, Robert (Bob) Died a couple of days ago which wasn't exactly unexpected as he had been in poopy health for years. While he never complained much, those that knew him were aware that he suffered several heart attacks and had quadruple bypass open heart surgery before age 40, and it kinda went downhill from there. ... In addition to his […]
• How not to tame the IRS controversy
  For an IRS official to put herself in the same category as Oliver North - prominent government officials who took the Fifth - places this whole story in a new political environment. Especially, as some one noted, the average citizen doesn't get to take the Fifth when dealing with an IRS agent. This is not good for the Obamadmin.  Buzzfeed - The IRS offi […]
• Bloomberg and taxi fleet chief come to blows
  NY Post - Mayor Bloomberg went on a spitting-mad rant against a city cab-fleet boss who won a court victory over Hizzoner’s planned “Taxi of Tomorrow” — vowing to “destroy your f--king industry” when he leaves office, The Post has learned.A fuming Bloomberg made the threat against Taxi Club Management CEO Gene Freidman at Madison Square Garden’s private 1879 […]
• UN head says world will run out of water
  Guardian, UK - Ban Ki-moon has warned the world is on course to run out of freshwater unless greater efforts are made to improve water security.Speaking on the UN's International Day of Biological Diversity, [the UN Secretary General] said there was a "mutually reinforcing" relationship between biodiversity and water that should be harnessed. […]
• White House correspondents fail to stand up for fellow journalists
  Buzzfeed- As news outlets and press advocates pile on the Obama administration for the Justice Department’s long-term spying operations against the Associated Press and Fox News, one group has remained conspicuously absent from the debate: the White House Correspondents Association.The WHCA, considered the primary organization representing reporters and news […]
• On the other hand. . .
  Only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major GOP senators from Oklahoma have repeatedly voted against federal disaster aid A tornado chaser explains what he does and why he does it Quotes Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody. -- Jane Jacobs Pocket par […]
• Rebuilding America: Do it from the bottom up
  Another in our series on Rebuilding AmericaSam Smith - From the American revolution to the underground railroad, to the organizing of labor, to the drive for universal suffrage, to the civil rights, women's, peace and environmental movements, every significant political and social change in this country has been propelled by large numbers of highly auto […]
• Hillary Clinton on torture
  BEN SMITH, NY DAILY NEWS, 2006 - Despite her apparent opposition to torture, Hillary Clinton said in a Daily News editorial board meeting yesterday that the practice is acceptable in some circumstances. . At yesterday's Daily News editorial board meeting, it emerged that she's not actually against torture in all instances, and that her dispute with […]
• Children losing contact with outdoors
  From the National Wildlife Federation Children are spending half as much time outdoors as they did 20 years ago. Today, kids 8-18 years old devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes using entertainment media in a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). In a typical week, only 6% of children ages 9-13 play outside on their own. Children who play outside ar […]
• What was Homeland Security doing when it could have been checking on the Boston bombers?
  Progressive Magazine - Thousands of documents obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy show how Homeland Security and local law enforcement were obsessed with the Occupy movement and other activists.They treated Occupy activists as potential terrorists.They infiltrated Occupy meetings.They tracked Occupy activists online.They kept an eye […]
• Entropy update: Elite New York parents using nannies for school functions
  New York Post -  Wealthy New Yorkers are shunning their parental duties — choosing instead to send nannies to their children’s private schools to take part in everything from “safety patrol” to accompanying the kids on their entrance interviews.“They’re sending nannies for bake sales, book clubs, for the ice-skating group,” Amanda Uhry of Manhattan Private S […]
• Obama's criminal war against journalists
  Glenn Greenwald, Guardian, UK - Under US law, it is not illegal to publish classified information. That fact, along with the First Amendment's guarantee of press freedoms, is what has prevented the US government from ever prosecuting journalists for reporting on what the US government does in secret. This new found theory of the Obama DOJ - that a journ […]
• Obamacare encouraging employers to cut health services
  Wall Street Journal - Employers are increasingly recognizing they may be able to avoid certain penalties under the federal health law by offering very limited plans that can lack key benefits such as hospital coverage.Benefits advisers and insurance brokers—bucking a commonly held expectation that the law would broadly enrich benefits—are pitching these low- […]
• GOP hypocrite of the day
  Alternet - Stephen Fincher, a Republican congressman from Tennessee, is very angry that the federal government is committed to preventing poor people from starving to death:Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who supports cuts to the program, had his own Bible verse from the Book of Thessalonians: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not […]