President Obama has just finished his news conference, intended to explain his health care reform plan and to gather support for an early passage. While I am sure the O’Reillys and the Limbaughs will judge the conference to be a miserable failure, I believe that the president did a good job in generally outlining the need for, the objectives of, the intended results and the cost of the plan. However, he fell somewhat short in explaining in more detail the specific elements that are “essential...

As we approach what hopefully will be a reasonable and humane outcome to the ongoing health care reform debate, some have become very emotional (including this author), some fall back on cold hard facts, cold statistics. For those relying on cold, hard facts to either support their views or oppose others’ views on this issue, a brilliant article in this weekend’s New York Times Magazine is just loaded with them. In “Why We Must Ration Health Care,” (Long title: “A Utilitarian Philosopher’s...

We have all heard about the young, Dutch, Jewish girl, Anne Frank. (She was actually born in Germany, but moved with her family to the Netherlands when she was about five because of the escalating anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany) And, of course, the diary she kept for two years while hiding out in de “achterhuis“—hidden rooms in her father’s office building in Amsterdam—has become the subject of many books, movies, plays and documentaries. The diary itself...

Although it is very difficult to remain unemotional when the health and welfare of our most precious individuals—children—are involved, I’ll give it a try. The New York Times has a heart-rending article this morning. It’s about how some states have been reluctant to repair the safety net, improve health insurance, for their most vulnerable ones, and how other states, 13 of them, “despite budgets ravaged by the recession… have invested millions of dollars this...

I have, on several occasions, quoted or referred to Letters to the Editor. Letters written daily by thousands of regular Americans, containing unbelievably good common sense and wisdom—sometimes, sadness and frustration. Letters that, in my opinion, are an accurate barometer of how regular Americans feel about the problems and issues that face our nation. One such letter appeared in the Washington Post two weeks ago, on July 5. But first some background. On June 25, the same day that pop...

I watched in amazement this morning as Senator John Cornyn, from the great state of Texas—a state where Latinos make up about 36% of the population—once again was fixated on the “wise Latina” contention. Of course, Cornyn also brought up Sotomayor’s involvement with the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, an organization whose mission is to provide equal opportunity for Latinos—a large part of Cornyn’s constituency. At one time during the four...

It appears that today, the third day of Republican grilling of Judge Sotomayor, will once again focus on those horrible, unnatural, non-human life experiences, empathy and “what’s in your heart,” that no self-respecting judge should ever be caught with. This appears to be the case from listening to dealing-with-disabilities-is-a-game-of-golf Cornyn, who is presently grilling Sotomayor on speeches she made five, ten years ago. (By the way, Cornyn is so interested in Sotomayor’s...

Yesterday, I commented on the single-minded approach and the one-track mind of Republican Senators during their introductory statements at Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings. It was a cacophony of insinuations and implications, all of which included one, some or all of the following: The “Wise Latina” comment;” Sotomayor’s personal background, gender, prejudices and sympathies; her life experiences; her personal beliefs and preferences; her biases and prejudices;...

One of my co-bloggers, Patrick Edaburn, wrote a piece today titled, “Sotomayor Day One: No Surprises.” In it he says: “The first day of hearings are complete and we didn’t really have any surprises.” That’s almost an understatement—especially on the Republican side of the aisle. As expected, they talked about Sotomayor’s “Latino woman comment;” about empathy (Blame Obama for this one); about her personal background, gender, prejudices and sympathies;...

My U.S. Senator, John Cornyn, just had his go at trying to discredit Supreme Court Justice nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. In an attempt to paint certain Democratic judges—and, implicitly, Sotomayor—with the “judicial activism” brush, this is what he said as part of his opening remarks during the ongoing Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings: The Supreme Court has even taken on the job of defining the rules for the game of golf. (If you’re curious, the case is...

On the eve of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, there have been several reports in the major newspapers on her preparations for the hearings; on strategies by both parties; and on how the hearings are expected to proceed and conclude. For example, on the preparations: The Washington Post: Slated to become the country’s first Hispanic justice, Sotomayor has spent long hours in a cramped conference room on the third floor of the Old Executive Office Building, her...

In “Update: Did the C.I.A. Lie to Congress?” yesterday (Saturday) afternoon, I quoted the New York Times’ breaking news story, “Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project.” Typical of what happens after a “weekend dump,” the New York Times did not have much to add this morning. Neither did the Washington Post, which gave credit to The Times for breaking the story, but did have a couple of additional bits of information: In an interview last night with...

On July 9, we asked the question, “Did the C.I.A. Lie to Congress?” and discussed the possibility that the C.I.A. had indeed withheld information from the U.S. Congress. That is exactly what some Democrats were claiming. According to a New York Times column, “Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress,“ we quoted then: In a June 26 letter to Mr. Panetta discussing his testimony, Democrats said that the agency had “misled members” of Congress for eight years about the classified...

I have to agree with some of our readers. We are spending entirely too much time on frivolous issues such as the Palin “Higher Calling” resignation and Sanford’s sultry Argentinean love affair. And I won’t even touch the Michael Jackson “issue.” There are too many other real issues to be discussed and analyzed. One of them is, of course, the “What Happened in Vegas” issue—one that apparently didn’t stay in Vegas. And who better to bring...

Several of our readers have been complaining—and probably rightly so—about the number of posts dedicated to Sarah Palin, Michael Jackson and Mark Sanford, because more important issues were being ignored. Well, I can hardly think of a more important issue than our Central Intelligence Agency lying to our legislators. That is exactly what some Democrats are claiming. According to the New York Times this morning, in : “Democrats Say C.I.A. Deceived Congress“: In a June 26 letter...

The guessing as to what Sarah Palin will do, now that she is quitting her governor job, continues. Ofttimes, in the reporting on Sarah Palin’s magnanimous decision to quit her day job, the lines get blurred between why Sarah Palin quit, and what she’ll be doing next. Joe Gandelman posted a piece today, summarizing—and shooting down—a couple of the alleged reasons for Sarah’s quitting. One is that she did not want the state of Alaska to continue to pay exorbitant amounts...

First, full disclosure: Although I have had a change of heart in recent years, as a young military officer during the 1960s, I was a gung-ho supporter of the Vietnam War and I respected the then Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, in spite of the horrendous human toll we and the Vietnamese were paying for that war—in the end, more than 58,000 American and some 2 to 3 million Vietnamese deaths. As a senior veteran today, I have consistently opposed the under-false-pretenses invasion and...

A reader commented on a recent post discussing Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts’ column on Governor Sanford’s “I made a mistake, so all is cool now” excuse as follows: Pitts is a lightweight, predictable Dem columnist, simply less tiresome than worse hack Paul Krugman and more substantial than worse-than-worthless Maureen Dowd. Feeling real bad about my poor columnist selection and trying to level the playing field, I will now highlight a column from a heavyweight, conservative...

The limelight and media attention during the long Fourth of July weekend has been hogged by a certain lady from Alaska with her “higher calling.” While we are waiting for the next shoe to drop in Wasilla, it’s time to revisit the many shoes that have already dropped in South Carolina. And who better to take us there than Pulitzer Prize winner Leonard Pitts Jr. While many have tried to capture the essence of the Sanford drama from the perspective of how horrible it is for this man...

After I updated my previous post on Honduras exiled president Manuel Zelaya’s attempted return to Honduras with the news that he has landed in El Salvador, Fausta’s Blog has reported that shots have been fired at the Tegucigalpa airport and that Noticias 24 confirms “at least two dead, according to a police source talking to AFP, in a clash between demonstrators and the armed forces at the airport.” The blog also has a lengthy video of the clashes at the airport between the...

As Honduras’ exiled president Manuel Zelaya is reportedly flying from Washington’s Dulles Airport to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, reports and rumors are flying wildly as to what Zelaya may expect when and if his aircraft attempts to land there. Headlines such as “Honduran military told to turn back Zelaya’s jet,” and “Zelaya nears Honduras, asks soldiers for loyalty.” And reports that the interim Honduran president, Roberto Micheletti, has ordered the military...

About three weeks ago, I had the pleasure of reading a book that was just hitting the bookstores. As a matter of fact, I had to wait a couple of days before my bookstore got its order in. I was so impressed by the book that I did a “book review” for The Moderate Voice and a couple of other web sites and publications—I am not a professional “book reviewer,” this was only my second or third review. In the book, “Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death...

In my “Gail Collins Interprets Palin’s Resignation Speech,” we discussed how “disjointed and garbled” Palin’s prepared text remarks are, and, referring to her resignation speech, how incoherent even her prepared remarks are. Well, Politico.com has just published the text of a message Palin posted on Facebook just a few hours ago that is just as incoherent. According to Politico, the message describes reactions to her indecipherable resignation speech as “predictable,...

There have been hundreds, probably thousands, of instant analyses—including some great psychoanalyses—of Sarah Palin’s Independence-Day-Weekend Drama. As I don’t understand half the time what Palin is talking about (I know, it’s my fault), I won’t even attempt to analyze her introductory remarks of : “Hi Alaska, I appreciate speaking directly TO you, the people I serve, as your Governor.” But I am sure there is some hidden message in those words—especially...

For the past six to seven years, Americans have celebrated Independence Day with both joy and concern. Joy, because, for more than 230 years, Americans have had every reason to celebrate the undeniable fact that our nation and our people are still part of the greatest experiment in liberty, “the pursuit of happiness,” and democracy the world has ever seen. Concern, because of our continued involvement in two wars and because of the terrible toll they have taken on our nation and on our people....