With President Bush's 2005 State of the Union approaching, my 2004 SOTU-eve critique of Bush's so-called Ownership Society still stands. State of Disunion Even with his shaky State of the Union address and dipping approval ratings, President Bush unfortunately remains in a strong position for the 2004 election. Saddam is captured, GDP is surging, and […]

Only days after the Armstrong Williams paid-for-pundit debacle, President Bush used his January 12 "town hall meeting" to once again reach out to African-Americans. this time on his Social Security privatization plan. With a hand-picked audience of supporters present on stage and in the Washington DC audience, Bush was on the top of his game: […]

As we previously discussed in "The Party of Choice", the Bush Social Security privatization is only loosely concerned about increasing market returns for retirement savings, providing greater freedom to American investors or even staving off a supposed funding crisis. Win or lose, the Bush plan seeks nothing less than to dramatically redefine the role of […]

For those of you who missed, CBS offered a fawning portrait of Google on last night's installment of 60 Minutes. Aside from a brief mention of the Microsoft threat, Leslie Stahl's lovefest had little negative to say about everyone's favorite Internet company. Well, not quite everyone. As we reported last year, Google the Internet darling […]

As President Bush ramps up his campaign for Social Security privatization, it looks like Democrats will once again win the battle of facts while losing the war of ideas. While his proposals are widely viewed as bad public policy and enjoy only lukewarm public support, regardless of its outcome Bush's crusade for Social Security reform […]

In addition to the three pastings inflicted on him by John Kerry, President Bush a day after the final debate faces a trifecta of bad economic news: 1. A record Federal budget deficit of $413 billion. 2. A large increase in the number of first time jobless claims to 352,000. 3. The second highest monthly […]

Speaking of Cleveland, moderator Gwen Ifill's question about the fate of cities like Cleveland was one of the most telling moments of the Cheney-Edwards encounter. Ifill highlighted the woes of Cleveland to ask the candidates address economic and quality of life issues facing the nation. And John Edwards proceeded to use the example of Cleveland […]

One of the sad stories of the Vice Presidential Debate in Cleveland is that of Cleveland itself. While the debate hype pushed my hometown into the spotlight, other recent developments have not been so kind: America's Poorest Big City The Census Bureau reported that Cleveland is the now the poorest major city in the United […]

Four years ago, George W. Bush accepted the Republican nomination for President, and famously set the moral tone - and expectations for his presidency: "So when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of […]

In his flat-earth attempt to ignore economic reality, President Bush mindlessly repeats the mantra, "we're turning the corner and we're not going back." Unfortunately for W, his economic denial is getting harder every day: The ranks of Americans without health insurance swelled to 45 million. Since 2002, 1.4 million more Americans joined those already in […]