To help define what role Firedoglake should play in the 2012 election and beyond, on Wednesday, May 11, at 7:00 pm EDT, I plan, as part of the FDL members webinar series, to examine four basic electoral strategies that have been used by groups or organizations to influence the political process. They include: Primaries Balance [...]

Imagine that, for absolutely no logical reason, the government was about to mail you a check for $4 billion, but some people want to stop you from getting that check. How much would you be willing to pay to make sure you got your hands on that $4 billion? The selfish rational answer is, you [...]

Thanks to many loopholes in our tax code–the carried interest loophole being the most important–the richest people in American are likely paying a lower tax rate than you are. From Businessweek: For the 400 U.S. taxpayers with the highest adjusted gross income, the effective federal income tax rate—what they actually pay—fell from almost 30 percent [...]

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s (R) immediate and lengthy private conversation with Ian Murphy of Buffalo Beast pretending to be a Koch brother is a great reminder of the incredibly easy two-step process for how to get a powerful politician to listen to your thoughts and concerns. Step 1: Donate millions of dollars directly and indirectly [...]

Yesterday, Ezra Klein pointed out that while soon-to-be-Speaker of the House John Boehner intends to to fight tooth and nail to extend the Bush tax cuts for those making over $250,000, they account for only about one percent of the constituents in his district. There are 238,781 households in John Boehner’s district. There are 2,824 of [...]

During the 2009 push for health care reform, in scenes that conspiracy theorists usually have to imagine, the hospital industry sat down with White House officials and agreed to support the administration’s effort in exchange for Obama promising to protect their profits, which included a commitment to kill the public option. Yet, like any good [...]

To the surprise of — well, absolutely nobody I guess — Harry Reid is rolling in drug money. Tim Carney reports that “no incumbent is receiving as much air support from the drug industry as is Reid, who championed a health care bill that pads drug company profits”: Right after [PhRMA head Billy] Tauzin’s July [...]