One Right wing blogger raised a bit of a stir earlier this week with his “interesting” explanation of why so many Jews are “liberal” when, if they had the brains God gave a goat, they should be hard core, conservative Republicans. Here’s one Jewish lady who was shocked to find out how unintelligent she must be and how Republicans are the real philo-semitic party. (Don’t feel bad. I had to go look it up too.) Exit question: How many religious, ethnic and social...

This morning, Mid Stream Radio will be back on the air picking through the aftermath of Obama’s health care speech. Cindy and I will be joined by Rick Moran, of Right Wing Nuthouse, to replay a few of the highlights and lowlights and see what it all means. You can listen live at the show’s web site, join in our comments section (if you have done your free registration at the BTR home page) or call in with your own questions and comments at (646) 595-3963. See you on the radio!

There is a new consortium of media entities who propose to replace the venerable Nielsen ratings with a new, high tech viewership tracking service. There’s no question that Nielsen’s numbers are fraught with problems. College students living away from home between the ages of 18 to 24 remain virtually uncounted. Minorities in urban areas are consistently over-represented, and the sweeps period ratings still rely on the truthfulness of viewers filling out paper diaries. But should we let...

Tonight, the President of the United States takes to the air again at 8 PM eastern to explain to us why, if we like our doctors, we’ll get to keep our doctors under a public plan, even if our insurance providers who provide coverage through our employers go out of business. Never shirking from my duty here at TMV, I will be joining Rick Moran and Ed Morrissey for live coverage of the event. You will be able to join in a live chat, submit your own questions and comments, or just follow along...

As part of my summer reading feast, I recently finished the biogrophy of ubiquitous television host, Tom Bergeron, called “I’m Hosting as Fast as I Can!” If you watch any television at all, there’s a fair chance that you’re already familiar with Tom. He is the host of the very highly rated “Dancing With the Stars” as well as the long running ABC hit, America’s Funniest Videos. He’s also done stints as the host of Hollywood Squares and Good Morning...

… not to go back to the moon. Moon Cat has already rendered the effort meaningless.

Consider this my first (and last) column on the entire Van Jones kerfuffle. Given how the story ended, somebody messed up on this one big time, and the only available suspect is the President himself. There are two possible ways that this was bungled, and we’ll look at them both in a moment. But first, let’s look at the list of “charges” against Jones by Obama administration critics. He’s a communist He was part of S.T.O.R.M. He’s a Mumia Supporter He’s...

Actually, the title for this column should have been, “In Defense of Obama,” but I finally rejected that for two primary flaws. First, regular readers here might have had some sort of disastrous coronary event seeing such a title with my byline attached. Second, the defense I offer will seem something less than enthusiastic enough for the Obama faithful. But, if nothing else, I assure you that it is earnest. I spent part of my summer re-reading Orson Scott Card’s series on Ender’s...

There may well be no stranger figure to arise from the election of 2008 than Levi Johnston. One minute he was just another high school jock, bragging to his buddies about how he was “getting some” from the Governor’s daughter. The next he was a soon to be father with a soon to be Mother-in-law who was running for vice president and quickly becoming one of the most divisive figures in the nation. It’s bad enough having put your main squeeze in a family way, but on top of that...

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,...