Latest From Our Bloggers

Instead of a silly argument over a "gas tax holiday," we desperately need a serious discussion about the nation's infrastructure. And there is a good legislative proposal that could be the basis for that discussion. more »

Thanks to taxation with representation, we can choose to reject the conservative tax policies that have squandered our resources and weakened our foundation. more »

When Gen. David Petraeus testifies today about the status of the Iraq occupation, I'll be thinking about my neighborhood elementary school, which may have to close while we continue to waste billions on a failed foreign policy. more »

How exactly does Citizens Against Government Waste decide what "pork" goes in the "Pig Book?" more »

“You know, Jesus reminded us in a magnificent parable one day that a man went to hell because he didn't see the poor. … And I come by here to say that America, too, is going to hell, if we don't use her wealth. more »

In the final debate of the 2000 presidential campaign, Vice-President Al Gore argued he would spend more on defense than his opponent. Then-Gov. George Bush retorted, "If this were a spending contest, I would come in second." more »

I made a resolution this past January 1, in the wee small hours of the morning: put the E. coli back in E. coli conservatism. I launched this blog last April with a post that began, "First they came for the spinach...." That was our manifesto: the sine qua non of our mission, demonstrating the stomach-churning failures (literally and figuratively) of conservative "government" to deliver up the basic requirements for a civilized national existence.

Then I dropped the ball, moving on to other universes of conservative negligence—so many to choose from!—perhaps because this food stuff was so horrifying to contemplate.

I shall no longer shrink from my duty. I shall no longer shrink from my duty. I shall no longer shrink from my duty. more »

The stimulus deal just announced is being praised more for its existence than its content. Much lamented partisan bickering was overcome; bipartisan cooperation that got it done. With Wall Street bankers in panic, better something than nothing. It's worth taking a look under the hood. more »

Washington is working on a quick fix to the looming recession. However, it is a fix designed to infuse the finance industry with cash, not jump start a stalled economy, or provide real economic relief to the middle class. more »

A $3.7 billion program that channels federal money to local communities for projects designed to improve blighted areas and help produce jobs has been in the Bush administration crosshairs almost from the day the administration took office. The Bushies never liked the Community Development Block Grant program, and has justified trying to kill it by rating it "ineffective." But killing it outright has been a step too far for even some Republicans on Capitol Hill, who have seen it as at least a convenient channel for pork-barrel spending in their districts and have thus helped Democrats keep it on life support.

So, unable to kill it—it is expected to get about $3 billion in fiscal 2008, down from $4 billion two years ago—the Office of Management and Budget keeps railing about how funds ought to be better targeted at its ostensible mission, which is to give a boost to poor communities where the free market isn't spreading the wealth on its own.

It's in that context that a news story in the Friday edition of The New York Times should make people furious: more »