Media

President Obama's speech last week was a disappointment for anyone hoping to hear a bold progressive agenda bristling with big ideas. In fact, it's hard to think of even a single big new idea that Obama proposed. 

In a letter Friday in the New York Times co-signed by 18 progressive leaders, Mark Green and Gary Hart lamented the absence of Democratic imagination:

A non-partisan policy analysis group, California Common Sense (CACS), released a report last Thursday called “Winners and Losers: Corrections and Higher Education in California” that shows how the state has reduced higher education funding while simultaneously increasing it for the state prison system consistently over the past three decades.

Chicago teachers themselves will say it: nobody wanted to go on strike.  But today, after ten months of fruitless efforts to negotiate a fair contract, the city’s classrooms are empty and educators are walking picket lines for the first time in 25 years.  At first glance, the strike looks like a negative outcome for every

Ross Anderson has a great interview at The Atlantic with Michael Grunwald, author of The New New Deal. In his book, Grunwald details the history of ARRA, including extensive research on its impact on clean energy research and development.

Something that you hear about quite a lot these days is the “all of the above” energy plan. The phrase is in both party platforms with the general idea being that our energy needs should be met by using all forms of energy available -- coal, oil, gas, nuclear, renewables, biofuels, etc. Diversifying our energy sources and moving away from strictly relying on fossil fuels is a good idea.

Self-appointed partisan activists are reportedly working to recruit 1 million volunteers to challenge and block certain voters’ right to vote on and before Election Day, creating an atmosphere of intimidation at the polls.  

A new fact sheet from Demos, College on a Credit Card, investigates the relationship between educational expenses and credit card debt, and shows that putting college on credit can be a very bad deal. 

Anyone who has hung around progressive circles for the past two decades has invariably logged a small chunk of their lives in frustrating "vision" conversations. The problem, always, was coming up with the elevator pitch for a Balkanized liberalism that was more a grab bag of specific causes than a movement guided by a few simple values. Progressives spent many long years envying the parsimony of a conservative ideology built around the mantra of small government, traditional values, and a strong defense.

As summer comes to an end, much of the country is still suffering from drought conditions. While rain brought relief to areas in the East, the Plains and Western parts of the country are still experiencing above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation levels.