I can’t deal with the IRS news coverage right now. In case you haven’t turned on a television, booted up your computer, glanced at a newspaper or listened to a radio in the past few days, the news is all a twitter (and so is Twitter) about the IRS – it just came out that […]
Author Archives | Alex Palombo
The student loan interest rates are too damn high
Like many other twentysomethings, I was watching the Daily Show the other night to see what news Jon Stewart and his crew were mocking/making sense of, and the middle segment hit a little close to home. Obviously, this is meant to be a goof. Education is a wonderful thing, and encouraging people not to go […]
GOP works overtime to Block the Vote
A few months back I wrote about how Republicans were trying to keep college students from voting – they removed voting booths from campuses, they tried to knock kids off the voter rolls for using their dorm addresses, tried to institute photo ID laws, plus a dozen other nasty tricks to keep young Americans from […]
Boston Marathon bombing: tragedy, bigotry and hope
First and foremost, my thoughts are with Boston today. I hope your friends and family were as lucky as mine were to avoid any harm, and my prayers are with those who were not as lucky. Watching the news was horrific for anyone who turned on a television or browsed the Internet yesterday. But apart […]
Fall into the gap: Why are women still paid less than men for equal work?
In case anyone missed it today, I wanted to take the time to point people towards the Center for American Progress’s (CAP) terrific interactive feature “The Game of Wages.” It’s fun, it’s visually fantastic, and it drives home a problem that shouldn’t exist: that in 2013, women are still getting paid less than men for […]
Monsant-Oh No!
With every bill passed in Congress, there is good news and bad news. The good news of HR 933 passing the House: we avoided a government shutdown (for now). The bad news: Congress authorized a provision known as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” protecting the agricultural giant from litigation. From The Russian Times: The US House […]
LGBT marriage: Why is this even an argument?
Facebook is awash in red equal signs. The Supreme Court is surrounded by protestors and supporters. And polling numbers show a massive increase in support for marriage equality – a recent poll from Pew showed support from Catholics, Jews, and Protestants well over 50% in support of LGBT marriage. Which begs the question: why are […]
Generation Poor: Gen X and Millennials losing ground…
This month, the Urban Institute put out a study called “Lost Generations? Wealth Building Among Young Americans.” In the report, the Institute confirmed what most of Gen X and Gen Y already knew: we’re poor. “Today, those in Gen X and Gen Y have accumulated less wealth than their parents did at that age 25 […]
Republicans are the New Coke of politics
Yesterday, the Republican National Committee released its Growth & Opportunity Report, a compendium of all of the lessons the party learned from the 2012 elections, and what the Washington Post calls an “autopsy” of what went wrong. If you break it down, the report focuses most on demographics and branding. The RNC rightly recognizes how […]
The papal conclave IS a political event
As the cardinals and priests filed into the Vatican for the impending conclave and new Pope-picking, a few things caught my attention in MSNBC’s coverage of the event: The organ music that they use in their commercial bumpers sounds a lot like Percy Sledge’s “When A Man Loves a Woman.” Which, if you think about […]
The Voting Rights Act: why we still need it
I was scrolling through Talking Points Memo this morning on the metro when I came across a story titled “Overturning The Voting Rights Act Would Be Seminal Moment For Conservative Legal Movement,” detailing how conservative groups are hoping to overturn the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a law they consider to be outdated. The oral […]
Tea Party Community: a league of their own
There’s a teaching in communications psychology called “selective perception” and “selective retention,” which theorizes that two people with opposing viewpoints could watch the same news report or movie, and only hear and retain things that reinforce their own views. So for example, two people watching the same presidential debate could walk away remembering very different […]
We the petitioners
I’ve written in blog posts before how the Obama administration is probably the most Internet-friendly presidency to date. He was the first president to effectively use (and frankly have access to) social media to raise funds and win an election. He was the first president to do a Reddit AMA. So it seemed only natural […]
What about The 50.8%?
In the grand scheme of things, our country’s fiscal issues are getting the most news coverage . We’re a country coming out of a recession (yes, we are) and people are afraid of being plunged back into one because of political infighting and legislative hardheadedness from Congress. News media was obsessed – would they compromise? They […]
Who’s “winning” the fiscal battle? (Hint: not the people)
Well, it happened. Congress compromised and our national nightmare is…postponed for another month, when this all happens again. There are plenty of articles breaking down the gains and losses, like this great one from Mike Lux and this one from Bob Borosage. There’s plenty that has been accomplished, and plenty more that Congress still has […]
Mayans vs. Science
My friends have been joking on Facebook for weeks now about “apocalypse parties,” posting REM videos, and getting things done before the world ended today. And I have to say, a very small part of me was looking forward to this happening, if only so I wouldn’t have to pay my student loans. But all this “world […]
S&R Honors
Click here to learn more about past honorees...- “Useful Enemies”: U.S. admitted not just Nazis after WWII, but their sadistic collaborators
- The time a source has to respond to request for comment? Virtually none.
- Profiling the Tea Party: In defense of the IRS. Sorta. Or not.
- Saturday Video Roundup: “Imagine the Band,” by John Lennon and Wings
- The Rest is Noise (6)—Descent into the Maelstrom
- Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, married, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama
- An open letter to Burt Rutan, regarding his WSJ commentary on human-caused climate disruption
- Meet the men of Match.com: Really, guys, are you serious?
- Climate scientists still besieged
- Pelosi on Bush: “He’s not worth impeaching”
- Carnival of Cities for 15 May 2013 | Sheila's Guide To The Good Stuff: […] Turkey Scholars & Rogues present…
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Samuel Smith: I try not to draw too many conclusions about peopl…
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Frank Dilatush: Sam, allow me a moment of off point please. In a s…
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Cat White: "To him, obviously, the Tea Party is a viable poli…
