Bhaskar Sunkara’s recent essay in The Nation, Letter to ‘The Nation’ From a Young Radical, argues persuasively that American liberalism is “practically ineffective and analytically inadequate” to the twin political tasks of mobilizing supporters and generating policy.

Does President Obama have some unresolved animosity towards FDR? Obama’s budget not only cuts Social Security but is seeking to privatize the Tennessee Valley Authority.

We can’t look at Social Security and our other entitlements in isolation. We have to fight and win the battle for FDR’s economic bill of rights, and for an expansion of all the entitlements in the American social safety net; now the stingiest, most inadequate safety net among modern industrial nations!

Over the Fourth of July holiday week, millions of people visited one of the hundreds of state and national parks that dot our land. A number of parks have a certain statue honoring the millions of Civilian Conservation Corps workers who made these parks the gems that they are. The CCC gave its workers employment and dignity in a time of economic depression, and it gave the nation a legacy of trails, roads, campgrounds, buildings, and more, so that future generations might be able to enjoy the richness of this land.

We invested in people and parks two generations ago, and we’ve been reaping the benefits ever since. In this current economic depression — worse than any other downturn since the Great Depression — when our parks are in serious need of maintenance and improvements, maybe it’s time to invest in the future once again and bring the CCC back once more.

More fun for Late Night is the casting. Who would you suggest for the Court? What wacky personnel ideas do you imagine the Corporatist/Religious Right would come up with? Would the list of twenty presented to the next president range very widely — and how far would your imagined spectrum stretch? From former Congressman Alan Grayson to current Congressman Patrick McHenry? From Orly Taitz to Gloria Allred? From Michele Bachmann to Glenn Greenwald?

The Republican Presidential primary has unmasked one astonishingly ugly facet after another in the GOP’s character, leaving the party’s soul stripped bare of any moral pretense and revealing, at its core, an appalling indifference to — even a smug pleasure in — human suffering. Now it’s Santorum’s turn to tell us the unemployed don’t matter much.

You can’t miss the whiff as you drive along the 10 freeway heading to or from Arizona, a strange and horrifying stench, the Salton Sea. Chris Metzler–who visited us last year with “Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone”–co-directed “Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea, an occasionally whimsical and deeply sad look at a man-made lake; the hopes, dreams and disasters that sprung from it; and the people who try to stay afloat on its shores.

There’s a decreasing chance Newt’s going to be the GOP nominee, but I read the New York Times piece on how the thrice-married middle-aged Republican Newt Gingrich suddenly converted to become a Roman Catholic. And like Masaccio in his post here yesterday I was drawn to this particular passage: “As he got involved with the [...]

A president elected in reaction to the economic and political environment. A president hated on the left for lack of bold action and accused by the right of being a socialist. A president who appears to struggle with any sort of confrontation within his own Administration and who appears to have continuing issues with quality of staffers. A president accused of promoting class warfare and ‘uncertainty’. A president with a justice on the Supreme Court who opposes him named Roberts. A president with a wife who is, to many, as controversial as he is. A president and an Administration during a time when bold decisive action is required, but who seem to suffer from chronic timidity.

Obama or Roosevelt? Both?

We can’t sit by and wait for 2012 to roll around and hope that voters remember what happened during the budget negotiations in 2011. We need to act right now and get as many voters as possible onboard with our pledge to never vote for anyone who cuts social safety net benefits.

Can you please chip in $10 to our online ad campaign to tell voters not to support any politician who cuts social safety net benefits – including President Obama?