Blog Archive: August, 2012


Angela Canterbury's picture

The Politics of Pentagon Profiteers and the Truth about Jobs

The author is the Director of Public Policy for POGO (Project On Government Oversight) more »

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Bill Scher's picture

Progressive Breakfast

On the menu this morning
  • MORNING MESSAGE: A Maximum Wage
  • As Convention Begins, Some Republicans Fear Tone Of "Exclusion"
  • Romney Campaign Descends Into Racial Division
  • Romney Hugs RomneyCare

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Sam Pizzigati's picture

A Bold New Labor Call for a 'Maximum Wage'

The national leader of one of America's feistiest unions is aiming to expand the economic fairness debate. He's proposing a cap on incomes at the top that rises only if incomes at the bottom rise first.

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Dave Johnson's picture

What Did Mitt Learn At Bain?

Mitt Romney (or someone) writes (or writes for him) in Murdoch/Al-Waleed's Wall Street Journal, that lessons he learned at Bain Capital will help him turn the country around if he is elected President. Is he right? more »

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Terrance Heath's picture

Bill Koch Antoinette?

What do Marie Antoinette and one Bill Koch have in common? If you'd asked me that a few days ago, I'd have answered "Not much." That is, until yesterday, when I about Bill Koch's private Western town.

highway66037 - printThere's a new town in Colorado. It has about 50 buildings, including a saloon, a church, a jail, a firehouse, a livery and a train station. Soon, it will have a mansion on a hill so the town's founder can look down on his creation.

But don't expect to move here — or even to visit.

This town is billionaire Bill Koch's fascination with the Old West rendered in bricks and mortar. It sits on a 420-acre meadow on his Bear Ranch below the Raggeds Wilderness Area in Gunnison County. It's an unpopulated, faux Western town that might boggle the mind of anyone who ever had a playhouse. Its full-size buildings come with polished brass and carved-mahogany details and are fronted with board sidewalks and underpinned by a water-treatment system. A locked gate with guards screens who comes and goes.

Koch's project manager has told county officials that the enclave in the middle of the 6,400-acre Bear Ranch won't ever be open to the public. It is simply for Koch's amusement and for that of his family and friends — and historians. It is the ultimate repository for his huge collection of Western memorabilia.

Yeah. This is a guy who really needs another tax break. Koch's "own private Dodge City" reminded me of something I once read about Marie Antoinette. 

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Bill Scher's picture

Progressive Breakfast

On the menu this morning
  • MORNING MESSAGE: The Bogus Brief For Big Banks
  • Uncovered Bain Docs Show "Aggressive" Tax Avoidance
  • Romney Unveils Energy Plan Written By Oil CEOs
  • Ryan Has Crazy Ideas Not Backed By Numbers
  • Breakfast Sides

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Dave Johnson's picture

Report On Job Cost Of Trade Deficit With China

We as a country have been running enormous trade deficits that enormously benefit our 1% at the expense of the rest of us. As a country we get poorer while they get richer, so they want things to stay just the way they are. And that is where we are today -- an increasingly poorer country with an increasingly richer 1%.

Trade Deficit

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Richard Eskow's picture

Big Banker Bill Harrison's Bogus Brief For Broken Big Banks

Every day we rise and tell ourselves this will be a good day, free of that unique combination of predation, self-pity, mediocrity and disingenousness which characterizes the modern bank executive. And every day somebody proves us wrong. more »

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Bill Scher's picture

The Two Things Elizabeth Warren Needs To Do

This week's Public Policy Polling poll showing Republican Sen. Scott Brown opening up a 5-point lead over Consumer Financial Protection Bureau architect Elizabeth Warren will certainly be a wake-up call to her campaign and her supporters. But will she, and we, draw the right lessons? more »

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Bill Scher's picture

Progressive Breakfast

On the menu this morning
  • MORNING MESSAGE: A New Strategy For Prosperity
  • Romney Embraces Drill-Baby-Drill Energy Plan
  • Medicare, Welfare Still Bedevil Romney Campaign
  • Fed Close To Action
  • Breakfast Sides

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