Recently in Progressives Category

My good friend, Susan Bankston, fellow founding member of the OFPBAOT (Old Farts Progressive Bloggers Association of Texas) has returned to her roots!  Those of you who are fans of Kiss My Big Blue Butt remember that Susan ran the World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon for some time previous, the only sane voice in Tom DeLay Triple ZZZ Crazzzy Country.  She changed it to KMBBB after the '06 election, but we at the Hurricane are...

From a press release yesterday by Marcy Winograd, candidate for Congress in the 36th district of California:"If the President wants to appease the neo-conservatives, the deficit hawks, I would encourage him to cut our bloated military budget, which is now paying for multiple perpetual wars that create new enemies."...

Pundits all over the political spectrum continue to turn the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's senate seat into this weird notion that Democrats should somehow start working with Republicans in a bipartisan manner. This rationale is irritating at best, because it implies that a) the Democrats weren't trying to be bipartisan in the first place and b) the Republicans would acquiesce to bipartisan efforts if the Democrats tried harder. Both are untrue....

Over the holidays right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh suffered sharp chest pains and was admitted to Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.  Rush despite his record for clean living (sarcasm intended) did not suffer any real medical emergency and was released a couple of days later.  Upon his release from the hospital, Rush never one to waste an opportunity to look ignorant stated to the press:  "Based on what happened to me here, I don't think...

Newt Gingrich and Mitch McConnell may not realize what they've done, but they've tipped their hand. Yes, everyone knows what they are doing anyway, but they have all but opened up the books to let people see the tiny man behind the curtain. So far, the health care debate has been a lot of posturing and complaining about "waste." Well, as someone smarter than me once said, "one man's garbage is another man's treasure."You see,...

I suppose everybody has a particular portion of this alleged health care "reform" bill passed by the Senate which they find the most objectionable. For some it's the individual mandate, for some it's the lack of a public option. For me it's the 40% excise tax on the so-called "Cadillac" plans. Better known as the 'screw organized labor and the middle-class' tax, in my opinion. It's not in the House version, they propose an income...

First I want to thank everybody for your comments on yesterday's post. Sorry I couldn't jump in but sometimes work gets in the way. The debate between "kill the bill" and "pass it and fix it later" is a good one with valid points to be made on both sides. That's why I like the forum we have here at the Hurricane so much. We can disagree with each other and have a substantive discussion...

As I look around the political landscape today, illustrated perfectly by the complete chaos that the health care reform debate has evolved into, I have to ask myself, what the hell happened? How did the Obama presidency, which had so much promise and potential for becoming the "change" that so many of us voted for and hoped for, turn into such a mess? How did this happen to a president who was elected in what...

So what's left? No public option, no Medicare buy-in, thanks to President Lieberman. The 90% medical loss ratio? That's dead, too. The Dorgan amendment on drug importation comes up for a vote today. Look for that to disappear as well. The ban on denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions and recission is still there so far, but then again President Lieberman isn't through making demands yet. Stay tuned. But have no fear, the individual mandate...

"The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law."Those were the words of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in the Boumediene v. Bush decision in June of 2008, in which the Court ruled that detainees at Guantanamo had habeas corpus rights, and words which were confirmed again yesterday when Attorney...