Now we have the answer to yesterday’s question. What does Nancy Pelosi plan to do about Charlie Rangel and his curiously poor memory when it comes to matters of finance? Not a whole lot. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will let Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) keep his chairmanship despite his failing to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets on federal disclosure forms, according to Democratic aides. The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee’s latest misstep has received...

Did you ever have a beloved pet disappear as a child and your parents told you that it had been sent off to live on a farm where it could chase rabbits, roll in the grass and play with the rest of the pets? And what the heck does that have to do with NASA and our space program? The answer is found in a strange but yet intriguing editorial in the New York Times by Lawrence M. Krauss. I’ve written here in the past regarding my opinion that unmanned space flight, at least for the time being, is...

Congress is coming back to “work” this week after their peaceful August sojourns and Nancy Pelosi has a tough decision waiting for her. How will she justify (assuming she does) allowing Congressman Charlie Rangel (D. NY) to continue on as Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means committee? For those who missed it, Rangel has been facing one instance after another of large sums of money and property which he has mysteriously failed to report on required congressional forms or pay...

Bill Bradley has an interesting, if not entirely realistic op-ed in the New York Times this week which seeks to address the virtues of bipartisan spirit in Congress. He does so by drawing parallels between the current health care debate and the landmark tax reform passed in the 80’s by Reagan and a divided Congress. It’s an admirable, if somewhat pie in the sky, nostalgic view. In 1986, before President Ronald Reagan, a Republican Senate and a Democratic House succeeded in passing landmark...

In case you missed it this morning, be sure to catch the video replay of the round table discussion on today’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos.(We’ll update with the video here as soon as they post it.) ABC jumps on the same broken bandwagon as MSNBC and several other outlets and, for reasons which escape most viewers, allows loudmouthed “pundit” Liz Cheney on the show. The results, as they have been on virtually every one of her appearances, are predictable. Liz is given...

Siena Research recently concluded their sweeping August poll of New Yorkers’ political leanings and the results contain some shocks and some yawns, as usual. Two things are obvious, though. First, having given total control executive and legislative power to the party of the Donkey, Empire State denizens are absolutely sick of the Democrats they elected. Second, they are still in no mood to replace most of those Democrats with Republicans. I have a breakdown of some of the more surprising results...

You may think you’ve got it bad, but at least you’re not part of the next generation of punk rock. Think about the low points of your life, then watch this video and just be glad you are who and where you are. (Warning: Some inappropriate language, so avoid if that would offend.) I’m Fat and Nobody Likes Me

In some ways, I had to suppress a bit of a nostalgic smile when I saw my friend Ed Morrissey at Hot Air picking off the scab of an old wound from the 2004 presidential campaign today. You see, Ed and I have been agreeing on so much lately when it comes to health care reform and dire economic news that people tend to forget that we used to fight tooth and claw, hammer and tong over many issues prior to the age of Obama. This time, though, Ed takes the bait of Bernard Goldberg who is attempting to...

Speaking as one who was a moderate, Northeastern member of the Republican party (generally referred to in abusive terms as a “RINO” by the party faithful) for many years, I find that I can definitely relate to the Blue Dog Democrats these days. It’s not easy when you decide to eschew the most radical, fringe ideas of your party and attempt to reach across the aisle and work with “the enemy.” That was hammered home again today when I read about Rep. Pete Stark, (D-Calif)...

As has already been noted here by some of our fine writers, Ted Kennedy has at long last gone on to join his equally famous siblings in history. While he was the youngest of nine, most of the early attention was focused on Joe, who died in the war, John the iconic president, Bobby – who came close but was cut off before following his brother – and Ted himself. Ted, I think, represents the last of the real power generation of Kennedys. That family, at least for a time, was about as close...

CNN’s Jack Cafferty has an interesting question for viewers of his show today, and invites readers to contribute to the discussion. How is the American Dream changing? We’re in the midst of a recession not seen since the great depression. Millions of Americans are out of work, unemployment has soared to 9.4 percent. Millions of good paying jobs have been have been shipped overseas never to return. And the manufacturing base that was once the engine of our economy is on life support. We simply...

One of the perpetual bones of contention in the ongoing health care reform debate is the precise number of people in serious need of help in this area. All too frequently we encounter various, exaggerated estimates, including some fact challenged quotes right here at TMV, which put the number as high as 50 million. Well, that’s certainly a troubling statistic for anyone to contemplate. In fact, the New York Times had a heartfelt opinion piece this weekend which recognizes a number of serious problems...

We’ve all seen videos of these young people on their mountain bikes, hopping around, jumping over ramps, going up stair cases on one wheel. Perhaps some of you readers engage in these activities yourself. So… you think you can bike? I got news for ya, kid. You can’t bike. In fact, you’d be lucky if somebody told you that you bike like a girl. (From the good folks at Break.com) Check out this video. NOTE: I’ve watched sections of this several times trying to figure out...

How many times have we heard President Obama deliver one version or another of this standard stump speech item? “If you like your health insurance plan, you keep your health insurance plan. If you like your doctor, you keep your doctor.” And whether you’re reading the actual wording of H.R. 3200 or the various takes of analysts in the field, that seems to be true… at least for a little while. But there are some significant monkey wrenches tossed into the machinery by this...

Here in the Empire State, Governor David Paterson is in trouble and there’s no two ways about it. Though his approval numbers have actually rebounded a bit lately, the upward trend still leaves him hovering in the neighborhood of 30 after hitting a low of 18 earlier this year. (Maybe he should run for Congress instead? Those sorts of approval numbers are par for the course there.) And in a way, you almost have to feel sorry for the Governor. Much of the tide he’s fighting was not of his...

Just this morning I received a jarring reminder of just how fast time flies and the years slip away from us. It was 33 years ago this month that The Ramones’ self titled debut album scratched and clawed its way up near the top of the charts and shook the fledgling era of evolving rock and roll to its roots. I spent the majority of my time listening to what’s now considered classic rock – Pink Floyd, Zepplin, The Who, Rolling Stones… but when I first caught wind of the tall,...

Last month, in a column at Pajamas Media, we talked about the Franking Sign Monster. At that time we discovered that the Franking Commission – usually little more than a glorified group of hall monitors charged with making sure none of the members are stealing stamps – had been censoring the mailings of certain Republican Congressmen because they didn’t care for the characterizations and language used to describe Democratic proposals. Well, nearly a month has gone by and it seems...

Back when I was young, Kris Kristofferson warned us all of the dangers of the silver tongued devil… the person who would come off as a charming fellow and say things you want to hear, then turn around and do you wrong. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the running series of comments from both President Obama and Congressional Democrats on matters of spending, the deficit and the national debt, you should be getting an old, familiar feeling. It was only six months ago to the...

While in many cases it has fallen on deaf ears, we’ve made efforts in the past to clear up some of the misinformation being handed out by proponents of Democratic health insurance reform proposals around the web, including here at TMV. I was mentally adding a few check points to that list today while reading Rick Moran’s latest column at Pajamas Media, “Take Health Insurance, Please!” One of the non-technical but completely valid points is this continual complaint I hear...

In a summer season fraught with bad news and political unrest, there is at least one glimmer of sunshine ready to light up our miserable and tawdry lives. From her twitter account, Meghan McCain has announced that she will be sitting in for Elisabeth Hasselbeck while she is out on maternity leave. And obviously I couldn’t be happier for her. Of course, this may not have much of a direct impact on my life, but that’s hardly my fault. I’ve never actually seen an episode of The View....

The popularity of our war in Afghanistan is heading in the same direction as that enjoyed by the invasion and occupation of Iraq, according to a new poll at the wapo. A majority of Americans now see the war in Afghanistan as not worth fighting, and just a quarter say more U.S. troops should be sent to the country, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Among all adults, 51 percent now say the war is not worth fighting, up six percentage points since last month and 10 since March. Less...

On this morning’s edition of Morning Joe on MSNBC, Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) showed up to talk about his version of health care reform which he will be pushing for a vote on in September. He also expressed regret about President Obama’s lack of enthusiasm for insisting on a public plan and his general unwillingness to go “far enough” in restructuring health care in this country. But he even managed to shock me when Joe Scarborough got him to rip away the mask entirely...

One of the books I read this summer was Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. I don’ line up for every philosophical treatise that comes down the pike, but this one really peaked my interest. It deals with our evolving relationship with “things” and how we view them, as well as the denigrating view taken of youths who choose to go into “the trades” rather than heading off to college to join the “knowledge economy.” This is the subject of my column...

This just in from one more group of pollsters. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more —60% — doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation. That skepticism underscores the challenge Obama faces in trying to convince the public that the stimulus has helped turn the economy around. It also could complicate...

One member of our talented stable of writers here at TMV, Marc Pascal, published a long, detailed column on the health care debate yesterday which raises many questions currently being debated around the nation. Having taken such time and care to do so, I feel it only appropriate that a few of these points receive a full response. Unfortunately, Marc falls into the all too common usage of phrases which I see popping up all across the web in these and other debates, wherein the author begins an assertion...