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August 18, 2010 9:13 pm | By Deborah Liu
Douthat’s Two Americas
Writing on the controversy over a planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero, conservative columnist Ross Douthat asserted that nativism and xenophobia have played a positive role in American history. Douthat argued that there are “two Americas,” one principled and…
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August 18, 2010 9:10 pm | By Brian
Corporate Spending Run Amok in Florida
One week before the Florida primary, Republican candidates Rick Scott and Bill McCollum have spent a combined $51.2 million in the fight for their party’s nomination for governor. Rick Scott, the former head of the HCA/Columbia hospital conglomerate, already spent…
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August 18, 2010 6:58 pm | By Miranda Blue
What Citizens United has to do with Rod Blagojevich
Last night, a federal jury in Chicago convicted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on just one of 24 counts of political corruption. On the rest of the counts, the jury was hopelessly deadlocked.Scott Turow, the bestselling novelist who started his career…
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August 17, 2010 8:48 pm | By Deborah Liu
Muslim Republicans to GOP: Stop Preaching Intolerance
It’s not just the Left that’s appalled by the GOP’s increasingly blatant exploitation of animosity toward Muslim Americans in the hopes of political gain in November. Today, in a letter to the Republican leadership, six prominent Muslim conservatives asked their…
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August 17, 2010 7:28 pm | By Deborah Liu
The Target Story and Disclosure
Target’s misguided donation to a pro-corporate, anti-gay Minnesota gubernatorial candidate has (with good reason) caused quite an uproar recently. But the dominant narrative – that Target will serve as a cautionary tale warning other big corporations against getting involved in…
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August 17, 2010 6:33 pm | By Brian
Fox Doubles Down on GOP Bias
Although there has always been an extremely thin line between news journalism and Republican Party activism at the Fox News Channel, network's parent company -- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. just became not just a propaganda arm of the GOP, but also…
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August 17, 2010 6:22 pm | By Deborah Liu
Monitoring Corporate Spending
Since Citizens United, as we’ve noted, corporations have been taking advantage of their permission slip to spend unlimited amounts on elections. Now Bill de Blasio, the public advocate for the City of New York, is making it easier to track…
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August 16, 2010 10:07 pm | By Miranda Blue
You Can Have Your Freedom of Religion, But You Can’t Exercise It
This afternoon, the “yes, the Constitution grants freedom of religion, but this time you’d better not use it” argument has gained its newest, and most disappointing, adherent. Under pressure from his ultra right-wing opponent in the Nevada senate race, Senate…
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August 16, 2010 8:58 pm | By Deborah Liu
A Cynical Election Strategy
The GOP has already set to work making the proposed Islamic community center in lower Manhattan – and President Obama’s support for the project – into a midterm campaign issue. Sharron Angle accused President Obama of siding “against the families…
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August 13, 2010 2:06 pm | By Deborah Liu
Wall Street Falls in Love with the GOP All Over Again
A new Center for Responsive Politics study shows that Wall Street executives are now making 70% of their political contributions to Republicans. (And this is the money we can track: Wall Street firms can now use unlimited amounts of their…
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August 12, 2010 8:08 pm | By Brian
Failure to Disclose
While banks and insurance companies are heavily betting on Republicans this election year, we may never know what companies are behind third-party ads pushing for corporate-friendly policies and politicians. Since forty-one Republican senators voted in lock-step to block the DISCLOSE…
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August 12, 2010 5:39 pm | By Deborah Liu
I <3 NY, But Does Sarah Palin?
In his recent short New Yorker piece, Hendrick Herzberg points out something that’s been troubling me: some of the most vocal opponents of the “Ground Zero Mosque” (Sarah Palin, John McCain, Newt Gingrich) openly despise New York City as the…
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August 12, 2010 2:58 pm | By Deborah Liu
Senators Set the Record Straight on Just Who the “Activist” Justices Are
A recent PFAW poll revealed that the vast majority of Americans are intensely concerned about the growing corporate influence in our country and disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United. Judging from numerous remarks made during last week’s…
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August 11, 2010 10:22 pm | By Miranda Blue
New Poll Shows Americans Want Less Corporate Influence in Politics
Last month, we commissioned a poll asking people across the country what they thought of corporate influence in elections and the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United to expand that influence. The results were staggering. A whopping 85% of voters…
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August 11, 2010 8:42 pm | By Deborah Liu
Citizens United and State Laws
The Citizens United decision didn’t merely overturn nearly a century of federal laws and precedents; it also threw state campaign finance laws into turmoil. Before Citizens United, 24 states restricted corporate spending in elections. After the Supreme Court invalidated the…
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August 11, 2010 3:58 pm | By Miranda Blue
Julian Bond: In the Kagan Hearings, Echoes of the Past
Last month, Republican senators turned to a surprising strategy in their questioning of Supreme Court nominee (and now Supreme Court Justice) Elena Kagan. They attempted to smear Kagan by connecting her with a figure who most of us don’t see…
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August 9, 2010 9:50 pm | By Miranda Blue
First Boehner Billboard Up, Second On the Way
Last month, PFAW Voters Alliance joined up with the AFL-CIO and Blue America PAC to host a contest to choose a billboard to grace a busy highway near House Minority Leader John Boehner’s home district. The winning concept is now a…
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August 9, 2010 2:51 pm | By Brian
Target apologizes, but will stay in politics
Why would two companies that received 100% ratings from the Human Rights Campaign's 2010 Corporate Equality Index give a combined $250,000 to a group backing a candidate with extreme anti-gay views? According to Target's CEO, the company was only trying…
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August 6, 2010 9:11 pm | By Drew Courtney
The Wrong Lesson To Learn From the Kagan Confirmation
Over at The Atlantic, Max Fisher draws some conclusions from the Kagan confirmation, and I think he’s pulled together a pretty good summation of what folks in Washington are thinking—but that doesn’t mean they’re right.Fisher argues that since 37 votes…
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August 6, 2010 8:34 pm | By Marge Baker
Celebrating Elena Kagan’s Confirmation
I'm just back from a reception at the White House celebrating the confirmation of Elena Kagan to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. The mood was truly upbeat, with everyone thrilled at the reality of three women sitting…