Kate Sheppard

After the House passed landmark legislation last night (with more votes than expected) that would raise auto fuel-economy standards to 35 miles per gallon by 2020 (the first increase in 30 years), establish a Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring that utilities draw 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020; add 36 billion gallons of […]

Yesterday the Pew Hispanic Center released their Yesterday the Pew Hispanic Center released their latest voter research, which found that despite a drift toward the Republican Party in the the previous two presidential elections, Hispanic voters are now returning to the Democrats. Fifty-seven percent of Hispanic registered voters identify as Democrats or say they lean […]

Via Marc Ambinder, a new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg survey finds that 60 percent of all voters (Democrats, Republicans and independents) are in favor of “a path to citizenship” that includes registration, paying some sort of fine, getting fingerprinted, and learning English. Ambinder points out that while the Republican spin on this is “amnesty,” it’s actually […]

The The latest polling figures show Obama nearly even with Clinton in South Carolina, where a month ago she had a 10-point advantage. The gains have been most significant among African American voters, who make up 49 percent of Democratic primary voters in the state. He’s now bringing in 51 percent of the black vote, […]

Katha Pollitt weighs in on left-leaning male pundits who swoon for Republican candidates. In 2000, she says, it was John McCain. But in 2008: This time round, the so-called-liberal-media men’s Republican sweetheart is Mike Huckabee. He plays the bass guitar! He cares! He’s not a total maniac like the other evangelical Christians even though he […]

Joe Biden has issued a response to Darth Cheney‘s prediction that “Iraq will be a self-governing democracy by the time he leaves office”: It’s no wonder the Vice President would say that. Between the hidden meetings with Halliburton on energy, the warrantless wiretapping of Americans, and the vague definitions of torture he uses, Vice President […]

In case you thought Tom Tancredo couldn’t possibly put out something more offensive than his last advertisement, now he’s got a new one up at his homepage. I’d post it below but it doesn’t appear to be available on YouTube yet. The crux is that immigrants (especially those brown ones) are “Pushing Drugs. Raping Kids. […]

At yesterday’s Democratic NPR debate, the candidates were asked several questions about immigration, highlighting what is shaking out to be a painful topic for them. They were asked whether American citizens should turn in someone they know to be an illegal immigrant, and whether they thought undocumented workers drove down wages. Both questions that leave […]

In case you missed it, Congressional Democrats has been making some solid progress in the past week on energy legislation, working to put a bill to vote that includes both a historic increase in fuel economy standards and a renewable electricity standard, hashing out the difference between the House and Senate bills passed over the […]