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"I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much." - Pedro Cerrano, Major League (1989)

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As you may know, in September 2008 Haiti suffered massive destruction wrought by Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna and Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/world/americas/11haiti.html Currently 800,000 Haitians are in need of humanitarian assistance. more »

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Barack Obama’s address to Congress last night was amazing. No President has been so good on television since John F. Kennedy. Yes, Bill Clinton was and is a great speaker, but his charisma works best in a live appearance. And yes, Ronald Reagan was a “great communicator,” but he was pretty obviously an actor performing his lines. Marshall McLuhan taught us that television is a “cool” medium, and Obama fits it perfectly. One can’t teach how to be Obama on television, but there are some lessons we can learn from watching him.

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A while back I attempted to define "Drop Dead Conservatism."

High on delusion, denial, and derision, it’s the face of a conservatism unequipped to recognize — let alone meet — the challenges America and the world now face, and blind to the possibility drowning itself in irrelevance. It’s the face of a conservatism that, facing the failure of its ideology, has more anger than answers.

In other words, it's a conservatism fresh out of ideas, unwilling or unable to "get it" when it comes to the challenges we're facing today.

Well, if "not getting it" were an olympic event, these guys would "medal." No question.

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Every three years, researchers from the Federal Reserve Board fan out all across the United States to figure out just how well America’s families are doing financially. The researchers knock on about 4,500 doors — and conduct incredibly detailed interviews that probe every facet of what families make and what families own. more »

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As much as conservatives hype the importance of competition in the health insurance market, competition is largely a myth today and will remain a myth so long as private insurers have exclusive control of the health care market for individuals and working families. Giving people a choice of public health insurance would bring much needed competition to a health care system dominated by insurance companies with oligopoly power and large provider conglomerates.

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Last night I debated Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review at Northwestern University on the proposition, "Resolved: The hour of conservatism has passed." I argued that conservatives these days seem more pathetic than dangerous. I cut them a break. It was a curious evening, right from the beginning.

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A new economic recovery strategy becomes law today, and the political ground moves under our feet.

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Congress takes big first step, as progressives gather to Think Big.

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Congress is about to send to President Barack Obama the biggest and boldest progressive legislation of the past 40 years. It’s a darn good bill. President Obama and congressional Democrats should be proud, and we should be proud of them.

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Yesterday, President Barack Obama made clear he is not accepting the Senate "Gang of Moderates" compromise as is, while the Senate moderates failed to mount a logical defense of their cuts. more »

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As the Senate continues to wrestle with the economic stimulus legislation, it’s been fascinating to note the counter-attack against the idea of “green jobs.”

Just yesterday, for example, CNN followed a green pitch by President Obama with an interview with one Thomas Pyle, described as being with the “Institute for Energy Research.” (See transcript, below.) Pyle attacked the idea of more »

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Coming from the Financial Times - the paper of record for Big Money - this story is really an incredible sign that the progressive fair trade movement is gaining real ground and winning the broader political debate: more »

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Please, please, please excuse my French. But ABC News today ran a story that felt to me like they were saying: "N****r gets to ride in a free limousine." more »

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So far, all the debate has centered on what is good or bad about the Obama/Democratic economic recovery plan. It’s time we nailed the Republicans for their pitiful "alternative."

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We are headed into the most ambitious era of progressive economic reform since the New Deal. The crisis leaves little alternative, as job losses mount across the country and the world. The Obama administration has hit the ground running, pushing to pass an $800 billion plus recovery plan, scrambling to put together a new plan for banks still on life support, and cobbling together an initiative to help millions of families on the verge of losing their homes.

But recovery, however daunting, is not enough. Even as the administration struggles to fend off a full-scale depression, it faces the task of constructing the foundations of the new economy out of the ashes of the old.

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Obama's inaugural speech was a pointed critique of the "failed dogmas" of the last 30 years of conservative misrule and a summons to a new and bold, progressive era of activist government; regulated markets and shared prosperity at home; and a foreign policy that reflects our values.

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Some lovely key words from the inauguration speech:

"...prudent..."

"...temperate..."

"...humility..."

"...new era of responsibility..."

Excellent and admirable conservative values. Would that conservatives might return to them.

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