So-called ‘Libertarian Moment’ is engineered by Christian right There’s been quite the buzz in the chattering classes this week over Robert Draper’s suggestion in the New York Times Magazine that the Republican Party, and perhaps even the nation, may finally prepared for a “libertarian moment,” likely through the agency of the shrewd and flexible politician Rand…
Child zombies at the border? It’s the right-wing nightmare I’ve been noting my skepticism that the GOP was going to behave like decent people on the subject of immigration for a very long time. I’m afraid that this is in the DNA of the right wing—and goes to the heart of every one of their…
Obama, on a pro-labor roll, just signed the most important workers’ rights reform of the past 20 years. If you’ve been following President Obama’s burst of enthusiasm for executive orders, you may have heard that he’s been flexing his muscle on behalf of labor. Last month, Obama banned federal contractors from discriminating against gay workers. For that…
Unions that used to strike: ILWU faces tough choices, none good In early July, 120 mostly poor and immigrant port truckers set up picket lines at three trucking companies in LA-Long Beach Harbor, extending their longstanding campaign to unionize. The next day, workers from the powerful and historically militant International Longshore and Warehouse Union honored the truckers’ picket by…
As gays prevail in Supreme Court, women see setbacks When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflects on the Supreme Court’s recent rulings, she sees an inconsistency. In its gay rights rulings, she told a law school audience last week, the court uses the soaring language of “equal dignity” and has endorsed the fundamental values of “liberty and…
Work and worth: Should a hedge-fund manager really be making $2.3 billion a year? What someone is paid has little or no relationship to what their work is worth to society. Does anyone seriously believe hedge-fund mogul Steven A. Cohen is worth the $2.3 billion he raked in last year, despite being slapped with a $1.8 billion fine…
The one number that will decide this year’s election What will be the deciding factor in this year’s elections? Will it be Obamacare? The chaos erupting across the globe? The president’s approval rating? Will it be single women voters, Hispanics, young people? Mike Podhorzer crunched the numbers and found there’s one factor that, with eerie consistency, explains…
BOOM: The historic proof that Obamacare foes are dead wrong on subsidies The story of whether Congress ever intended to limit Obamacare subsidies to state-based exchanges begins and ends with the Congressional Budget Office. And what it reveals about the latest legal threat to Obamacare dramatically undercuts the arguments against the law. No one person or…
The most effective member of Congress One of the more idiotic beltway tropes is the old “both sides do it” nonsense, used most often by timorous journalists who are afraid of crazed conservatives calling them liberal if they describe what conservatives are actually doing. Last Wednesday provided a perfect example, with this charmingly naive little piece by…
House lawsuit doesn’t stop Obama executive orders The House’s vote to sue President Barack Obama for allegedly abusing his executive authority won’t dissuade him from keeping up his executive action drive, administration officials said Thursday as they discussed the latest step in the president’s “pen and phone” campaign to evade congressional gridlock. Obama’s latest move is…