America's Democrats

Surprising answers on who is really blocking entitlement reform … and on whether President Obama’s foreign policy  is really different than that of his predecessors.

Our guest Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress maintains that it is conservatives, not liberals, who are blocking entitlement reform

And a conservative retired colonel criticizes President Obama’s foreign policy – for being too militaristic and for continuing America’s reliance on a national security state

And Bill Press talks about climate change and energy policy  with the National Journal’s Coral Davenport.

Michael Linden directs the economic policy shop at the Center for American Progress and explains that sometimes deficits matter and sometimes they don’t. And right now they don’t.

www.americanprogress.org

Andrew Bacevich was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and is now a military historian. He says President Obama is a product of the national security state’s mainstream because he believes that war is the preferred instrument of American statecraft.

http://www.bu.edu/news/faculty-experts/andrew-bacevich/

Coming up … Bill Press and his guest, Coral Davenport of the National Journal.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/reporters/bio/18

A "People's Filibuster" in Texas awakens a movement.

On America’s 237th birthday, what is the state of our freedoms? Two law professors reflect on the controversies over privacy rights and voting rights.

As we celebrate another year of Independence, Americans are asking what happened to the Fourth Amendment protections of privacy and the Fifteenth Amendment guarantee of voting rights.

Law Professor Michael Greenberger, a homeland security experts, explains what the leak of national security secrets may mean. Law Professor Michael Higginbotham reflects on changes in affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act.

And Bill Press interviews the acting secretary of labor, Seth Harris.

Law Professor Michael Greenberger is an expert on homeland security issues. And he warns that the National Security Agency’s sweep of phone numbers and emails is, indeed, “a serious Fourth Amendment  question.”

http://www.michaelgreenberger.com

Civil rights law expert Michael Higginbotham says it was a a “sad and tragic week” at the Supreme Court. He warns that educational opportunity for minorities will be limited, and tremendous discrimination at the ballot box is going to go unchecked.

http://www.fmichaelhigginbotham.org

Bill Press and his guest, Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris.

http://www.dol.gov

Serve bankers or serve the poor? Congress reinterprets Jesus

The Fed is 100 years old. Does it still have a future? The Obama political coalition is going on six years old. Does it have a future?

This year is the 100th birthday of the Federal Reserve Board. What does it do? What has it done? Is it still necessary?  Former Fed official Stephen Axilrod explains it all.

Any large political coalition is always going to be hard to hold together, and that presents problems for Democratic congressional and presidential candidates in 2014 and 2016. Harvard political scientist Ryan Enos explores potential backlash to the Obama electoral coalition.

And Bill Press interviews Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott about the perils of privacy invasion.

Economist Stephen Axilrod is now an international monetary consultant, but before that he spent more than 30 years as a top official of the Federal Reserve Board. He says the Fed may have had some responsibility for the 2008 fiscal crisis … but also played a crucial role in preventing a full-scale meltdown.

http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-federal-reserve-9780199934485?cc=us&lang=en&tab=description

It’s going to be hard for the Obama electoral coalition to stay together in 2014 and 2016, says Harvard political scientist Ryan Enos. He has done studies on voting behavior of whites, blacks and Latinos in some of America’s biggest cities. And he says Democrats will have to figure out how to prevent cracks in the coalition.

http://www.gov.harvard.edu/people/ryan-d-enos

Bill Press interviews Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott about the perils of privacy invasion.

http://www.bobbyscott.house.gov/

A new home for poverty in America.

The perils of compromise, al a FDR  … Chris Christie finds out that government works … Congressman outraged at NSA.

At a time when many progressives are quarreling with President Obama’s penchant for compromise, a historian reminds us that Franklin D. Roosevelt made unpleasant compromises to achieve larger goals of economic and political freedom.

Progressive commentator Catherine Poe comments on political characters, and says Michele Bachmann isn’t really gone.

And Bill Press interviews Congressman Keith Ellison about government snooping.

Columbia University Professor Ira Katznelson has a new book out contending that Franklin D. Roosevelt compromised – collaborated if you will – with southern racists in Congress but he did so to help establish farther reaching economic and racial justice.

http://polisci.columbia.edu/people/profile/92

Michele Bachmann? Chris Christie? Hillary Clinton? Our regular commentator Catherine Poe has some sharp insights into all of them.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/staff/catherine-poe/

Bill Press and his guest, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison.

http://ellison.house.gov/

The biggest shock of NSA's secret domestic spying.

Bill de Blasio says it takes a progressive to run New York City. Professor Mark Katz looks to Russia to help stop the slaughter in Syria.

It’s time for a true progressive to run the nation’s largest city, and New York mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, endorsed by 21st Century Democrats, plans to be just the one to do it.

Foreign policy expert, Professor Mark Katz, says Russia can still play a key role in resolving the crisis in Syria

And Bill Press interviews Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth

Bill de Blasio is the elected Public Advocate of New York City, and he is running for Mayor. He says it’s time for more profoundly progressive policies in the Big Apple, and 21st Century Democrats agrees.

http://www.billdeblasio.com/

America’s hesitancy about taking action in Syria leaves plenty of room for the Russians to get involved. That’s the view of foreign policy professor Mark Katz, who says the best America might be able to do on its own is “contain” Syria.

http://www.marknkatz.com/

Bill Press and his guest, Congressman John Yarmuth of Kentucky.

http://yarmuth.house.gov/

Seeing things at the Jersey Shore.

Former diplomat warns against being over-reactive in Syria; nuclear expert says North Korea’s missiles don’t work. Nuns on the bus rolling again.

Foreign policy issues remain troubling this week. Former ambassador Mike Ussery, who served in Republican administrations, analyzes the U.S. options in Syria and the rest of the Arab world.

And anti-nuclear activist Joe Cirincione says don’t worry about North Korea – its missiles don’t even work.

And Bill Press interviews Sister Simone Campbell, the leader of Nuns on the Bus, who are mobilizing again – this time in support of immigration reform.

Mike Ussery, a former ambassador, says drawing lines in the sand in Syria, or elsewhere, is effective only as part of a larger, overarching strategy.

Joe Cirinicione is head of the Ploughshares Fund, an organization dedicated to ridding the world of nuclear weapons. He is optimistic in the long run, but in the short run he is disappointed in the President’s response to a possible threat from North Korea.

www.ploughshares.org

Bill Press and his guest, Sister Simone Campbell, the leader of Nuns on the Bus.

http://www.networklobby.org/

Political fronts posing as charities.

Military historian says salute troops by holding policymakers accountable. Economist says banks are not casinos. Hoyer says sequester is stupid.

As the nation observes Memorial Day, military historian Andrew Bacevich says those who make a public show of saluting the military would do better by demanding accountability from the country’s foreign policy makers.

Brown University economist Mark Blyth, a leading authority on the financial meltdown, reminds us that banks are supposed to manage risk, not manage casinos.

And Bill Press interviews House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer about the stupidity of the sequester.

Andrew Bacevich is a conservative, a retired Army Colonel and a military historian. He says we could best honor our veterans on Memorial Day by holding civilian foreign-policy makers more accountable.

http://www.bu.edu/news/faculty-experts/andrew-bacevich/

Professor Mark Blyth is a professor at Brown University and author of a book attacking economic austerity. He is not so sure that Dodd-Frank will help clean up Wall Street because it is a bill too big to read and because the banking industry is at work making the gun lobby look like amateurs.

http://www.watsoninstitute.org/contacts_detail.cfm?id=877

Bill Press and his guest, House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer, who says “Sequester starts with S, which stands for stupid.”

http://hoyer.house.gov/

The High-Tech Sledgehammering of Our Middle-Class Future.

Adam Posen compares the economy to RG-3. Remember Millard Fillmore? Professor Michael Gerhardt does. Congresswoman Speier says get sex cases out of the military chain of command.

One of the world’s leading international economists destroys Republican claims that America’s debt will cause us to become like Greece or Italy or some other economic basket case. He says it’s like saying RG-III’s injured knee means he will wind up in a nursing home.

There’s no chance Barack Obama will be forgotten to history, but what factors do make a president forgettable? Government professor Michael Gerhardt gives us a rundown on the most forgotten of our chief executives.

And Bill Press talks with Congresswoman Jackie Speier (Spear) about sexual abuses in the U.S. military.

Adam Posen is president of the world’s leading independent  economic think tank, and he says Repuiblicans are “fundamentally crazy” when they predict that the national debt will send the United States the way of Greece. Such a comparison “is beyond apples and oranges,” and he explains why.

http://www.piie.com/

While President Obama may be facing some issues he’d like to forget, there’s no chance he will be forgotten by history. Author Michael Gerhardt has studied and listed the most forgotten of American presidents … and explains how they got that way.

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/AmericanPolitics/LawCourts/?view=usa&ci=9780199967797

Bill Press and his guest, Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who demands that military rape cases be removed from the chain of command.

http://speier.house.gov/

Cantor's con would steal workers' overtime pay.

Professor Ryan Enos says watch out for voter backlash … David Bonior bemoans lagging social justice … DeLauro on dinner with the president

Harvard Professor Ryan Enos has studied what happens when racial or ethnic groups live and work in close proximity. The results are not at always positive, and that’s a potential problem for maintaining the Obama voting coalition.

Former House Democratic whip David Bonior laments the decline of social justice and the ravaging of labor unions.

And Bill Press talks with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro about dinner with President Obama – jobs, immigration and gun safety.

There is potential trouble for the Democratic coalition that re-elected President Obama, says Harvard professor Ryan Enos. He reports on evidence that as people from different races or ethnic groups get together, they don’t always stay together.

http://ryandenos.com/

David Bonior was the longest serving elected party whip in the history of the House of Representatives. Now long retired, he has some suggestions on how to improve the place – including a change of heart on term limits.

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org

Bill Press and his guest,

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro who talks about a meeting between President Obama and House Democrats.

http://delauro.house.gov/

Diverting shareholder funds into "dark money" politics.

Former ambassador Mike Ussery on the Boston bombing and Islam; Fred Rotondaro calls the NRA a paper tiger.

A former Republican ambassador warns that anti-Americanism and fundamentalism is growing in the Muslim world. He also says it is not certain that the Boston bombing will actually help our relations with Russia.

Regular commentator Fred Rotondaro says despite legislative setbacks on gun safety legislation the NRA will be revealed as a paper tiger.

And Bill Press talks with Emily’s List communications director Jess McIntosh about the drive to elect a woman president.

Mike Ussery was ambassador to Morocco in Republican administrations, and in the wake of the Boston bombing, he cautions about rising anti-Americanism in Muslim countries. And, he says things could go either way in dealing with Russia in the fight against terrorism.

Fighting the NRA may take a long time, but the gun lobby is going to be revealed as a paper tiger, says regular commentator Fred Rotondaro.

http://americanprogress.org

Bill Press and his guest, Jess McIntosh of Emily’s List and the drive to elect a woman president.

http://emilyslist.org/

The cold calculation of clothing corporations.