When White House press secretary Robert Gibbs excoriated government critics (“the professional left”) for being ungrateful SOB’s considering all that this administration has done for them, he wasn’t acting as a lone wolf. It’s a refrain that has oft been uttered by this White House, from Rahm Emanuel’s “f*#@ing r&#tards”  to “top Obama advisors” who [...]

On MSNBC today, I talked about the “professional left” with fellow Robert Gibbs-irritants Glenn Greenwald and Dylan Ratigan. Gibbs, with his contempt for the “Canadian health care system,” is merely reflecting the attitude of a White House that marched into the health care debate committed to giving corporate “stakeholders” everything they wanted in exchange for [...]

I was on ABC’s “Top Line” today with Rick Klein and Yunji de Nies, discussing Robert Gibbs’ comment about the “professional left”: Twolf made up a card for me: Best post I’ve seen on why Gibbs went off is by Chris Bowers.  Also, read Dave Dayen’s post about the 20% turnout in the Connecticut Democratic [...]

President Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, decided to attack single payer health care, a system used very effectively in many first world countries, as some wacky, crazy idea.

Dan Froomkin and Ben Craw of the Huffington Post put together a video of Obama’s statements regarding war in the Middle East during the Bush administration, and what he’s saying now. As I wrote earlier, if the White House is wondering why Americans are disappointed with Obama, it’s isn’t because of the criticisms of the [...]

Spiro Agnew — sorry, Robert Gibbs — says “the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.” Well, the Obama in the White House is not representative of the Obama who organized, campaigned, raised money and ran for office, so I guess it’s a wash. [...]

Last week, Mexico’s President Calderone called on President Obama to join the debate on legalizing marijuana. The US drug policy has lined the pockets of the drug cartels with billions of dollars, and they are threatening to destabilize not only Mexico but countries across Latin America. In many regions, the drug gangs are seeking to replace the government, imposing their own taxes in towns they dominate.

Please show your support and sign the petition asking President Obama to end the war on marijuana.

Since the big victory for Prop C in Missouri, I’ve seen several “progressives” rush to defend the individual mandate that requires individuals to buy private insurance. I find such action indefensible for individuals who call themselves progressives. At most, progressives should think of the individual mandate to buy poorly regulated private health insurance as a highly suboptimal solution to expanding coverage. The mandate is neither good politics nor good policy. Defending it strikes me as nothing more than a reflective defense of the Democratic party masquerading as progressivism.

This morning Aaron Houston, the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and a leader of our Just Say Now campaign, appeared on Fox and Friends to discuss DC’s medical marijuana laws and the need to effectively regulate marijuana across the country.

It is intolerable to hear senators go on about the importance and traditions of their chamber when they seem to not understand or to willfully ignore both. The latest example is Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) defending the 60-vote threshold for cloture (put in place roughly 40 years ago) by essentially citing made-up history about Congress. [...]