Who Says It’s Not About Destroying Unions?

Stanley Kutler / Truthdig Apr 1, 2011 The centennial commemoration of the Triangle Shirtwaist Co fire in New York City, with the loss of 146 young women trapped in a factory that had blatantly ignored the meager safety legislation of the time, paradoxically raises the question of whether we are doomed to forget the past fire in New York City paradoxically raises the question of whether we are doomed to forget the past. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Home Sweet Wall Street

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Feb 16, 2011 A most dastardly deed occurred last Friday when the Obama administration issued a 29-page policy statement totally abandoning the federal government’s time-honored role in helping Americans achieve the goal of homeownership.It wasn’t meant to end this way, and key Democrats, quite a few of them Clinton alums now in the Obama administration, bear the responsibility for the sad fate of Roosevelt’s dream. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

The Bipartisan Politics of Fear

Stanley Kutler / Truthdig Oct 14, 2010 Mercifully, the midterm election cycle is nearing its end. Both parties, we learn, are planning their “postmortem assessments.” The Daily Beast’s recent headline is a sign of the times: “Why Obama Can’t Lose in 2012.” Plan ahead. We have heard ad nauseam that Democratic losses are inevitable -- the governing party always suffers a setback in the midterm elections -- or so we are told. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

Time for Our Second Bill of Rights

Bill Boyarsky / Truthdig Dec 2, 2009 In his powerful new book, “The Healing of America,” T.R. Reid asks, “Which inequalities will society tolerate? Is it acceptable that some people are left to die because they can’t see a doctor when they get sick? That question encompasses a more basic question: Is health care a human right?” It will be a historic moment when the federal government begins to accept responsibility for all Americans’ health. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )

Getting Warmer

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Feb 25, 2009 We are lucky to have Barack Obama as president. I write that even though I believe the content of his Tuesday evening speech deserved no more than a B+ / A-, for its failure to seriously address the origins of the banking crisis and for only hinting at the severe military budget cuts required to get close to his goal of reducing the federal deficit by the end of his first term. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

No Tough Love for Wall Street

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Feb 11, 2009 What an insipid anticlimax! Rising to “a challenge more complex than our financial system has ever faced,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised on Tuesday to give trillions more to the very folks who profited from that malignant complexity. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

Economic Policy Could Scuttle Obama’s Good Start

Robert Scheer / Truthdig Jan 28, 2009 He is making trillion-dollar decisions that will cast the die for the rest of his promising agenda. Unfortunately, while he has already proved to be a brilliant agent of change in so many ways, in economic policy he has relied on the financial "experts" who helped get America into this mess. Dig deeper ( 3 Min. Read )

YouTube Goes to the White House

Staff / Truthdig Nov 15, 2008 President-elect Barack Obama is bringing the fireside chat to the Web, using the technology at his disposal to address Americans online in a new twist on the check-in pioneered by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

John McCain in the Echo Chamber

Gore Vidal / Truthdig Oct 28, 2008 October proved to be the cruelest month, for that was the time that Sen. McCain, he of the round, blank, Little Orphan Annie eyes, chose to try out a number of weird lies about Barack Obama ostensibly in the interest of a Republican Party long overdue for burial. Dig deeper ( 4 Min. Read )