In the news business, the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is known as dead week. There is news, of course, but it generally centers around the weather, natural or man-made disasters. And, then, of course, are the year-end reviews to fill space. Among these noble efforts, all existing in the minds of the individual authors, is the Remmers Report annual awards ceremony where the trophies are named to fit the crimes. As is our custom, we begin the show on a serious side. The two stories...

In another venue in which I dabble, the subject of anonymous commenters — those who cloak themselves behind fictitious names — came up. One of my group called these people cowards. I wouldn’t go quite that far. I am old newspaper school. No Letter to the Editor was ever published without someone verifying the author’s name, address and telephone number. There were no citizen journalists, no interaction with the new Internet websites and other social networking because when...

America’s love/hate relationship with its elected leaders in all levels of government is not based so much on mistrust as the perception of what have you done for me lately. For the wide swath of Americans who simply want Congress to do its job, pass laws and solve problems, this lame duck session of the 110th Congress falls right into your wheelhouse. In a matter of a few weeks, need we be reminded that there is a tax compromise package that some say will cost us another trillion dollars,...

This is very difficult for me to write but as you can see, to hell with it. It’s not that I do not agree that Congress finally overturned the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy banning gays from the military. I do. Should have been done years ago and a pox on President Clinton who instigated the subterfuge in 1991. It is not that I am not gay and is none of my damn business. It is. I pay attention if the charges were true that thousands of military foreign language interpreters...

If the Senate passes the 9/11 first responders bill in this lame duck session of congress, it proves several things. One, Republicans can be shamed into doing the right thing, and two, Jon Stewart deserves Emmy, Peabody and Pulitzer awards. First, read this account of a successful Republican attempt to block the necessary legislation last week. Now read and view Stewart’s epic Thursday night. If the Republicans are going to draw the line at funding 9/11 first responders victims as too expensive,...

Don’t you just love the U.S. Senate. One could pull a Rip Van Winkle, wake up and not miss a thing. The Senate chamber is a giant time capsule. Rachael Maddow of MSNBC was poignant Tuesday night when she pointed out it takes the Christmas holiday break for Senators to get their act together. Not to pass pressing legislation for Americans. But to get their butts home by Christmas Day. The Senate voted 81-19 Wednesday a compromised tax bill. What took them so long? It could have been accomplished...

I may be the last man remotely engaged in journalism still standing who does not have any great opinion about the WikiLeaks release of diplomatic gossip and its curator Julian Assange. My assessment boils down to bumper sticker status: Shit Happens. Assange recently wrote an essay defending himself under the headline “Don’t Shoot Messenger for Revealing Uncomfortable Truths.” Paraphrasing William Shakespeare and Al Gore is one thing. But Assange seems to be hiding behind the vetting...

John Boehner, the Speaker of the House come January, is a crier. So what? He’s an emotional dude. We just haven’t seen House Speakers who cry at the drop of a chat with a bunch of school children. A few Americans unaware of his personal traits that helped him crawl from rags to riches saw for the first time his crying jag on election night Nov. 2. On Sunday night he bawled like a baby at the most innocent questions on “60 Minutes” posed by CBS correspondent Leslie Stahl before an audience...

A U.S. District Court judge in Virginia has ruled a provision of the health care reform law is unconstitutional. It is the provision that mandates all Americans have a minimum level of coverage, or pay a fine if they do not. The Los Angeles Times reports Judge Henry Hudson said the mandate exceeds federal authority. This challenge, among many in the federal court system, was brought by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli who argued against the government’s view that the mandate is enforceable...

I have maintained that Republican conservatives and their Tea Party base are sincere about limiting the size and scope of the federal budget. Their problem is they tend to cherry pick programs they don’t like for the cutting room floor. Take Michele Bachmann, founder of the Tea Party caucus in the House of Representatives. I quote from her bio on Wikipedia which may or may not be accurate: Bachmann … has an ownership stake in a family farm. Her holdings in the farm are worth up to $250,000,...

The Democrats are the best compassionate political party in America and the worst at governing, except for the Republicans who want no part of it but say they do. The Democratic mantra was expressed eloquently and redundantly Friday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent from Vermont. Sanders spoke for eight hours in an empty Senate chambers extolling the grief inflicted upon us by those dastardly devilish Republicans who he described as greedy bastards who can afford a penny ante 4% tax increase. In...

A school crossing guard is attacked by a motorist and his passenger while 20 children and adults watched in disbelief. Two suspects later were arrested. For the life of me, I cannot think of a penalty that would fit the crime short of the Draconian 30 lashes. Suggestions?

One would think after 50 years of public service Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-New York) might have gamed the system for more than what the House Ethics Committee convicted him. Rangel, the gravel-voiced nattily dressed Harlem congressman, was not a crook in the criminal sense. Rather, Blake Chisam, the committee prosecutor, suggested, the congressman was “overzealous” and “sloppy in his personal finances.” The committee convicted the 20-term Rangel on 11 counts of breaking House ethics rules. House...

The California Commission on Judicial Performance has given the wackiest San Diego Superior Court judge in modern times five days to resign. The last caper for Judge DeAnn M. Salcido was filming a TV reality show in her El Cajon branch courtroom. In May she sued her boss, the presiding judge, for not enforcing domestic law the way she preferred. The suit was dismissed. The state disciplinary board in effect gave her five days to get out of Dodge, never accept a judiciary position again (in California,...

Every time I hear someone say our nation is going to hell in a hand basket, I think of my two grandchildren. There is a major disconnect in hearing a national discourse towards Armageddon and seeing children develop through the eyes of a grandparent. In my eyes, Lauryn, 10, and Adam, 8, will not be burdened by a national debt passed onto their shoulders by the hapless decisions of their elders and others before them. Rather, they will be responsible human beings carving out a life of their own and...

I will keep this short. Keith Olbermann returns Tuesday from a two-day suspension to resume hosting his “Countdown” show on MSNBC. It proves to me network executives sully the reputation of the world’s oldest profession. They caved at NBC’s half sister after four days of controversy where Olbermann received more media hits than he probably has nightly viewers. Olbermann was “indefinitely” suspended for violating company rules. He did not ask permission to contribute to political campaigns...

I understand now why MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann last Monday “temporarily” suspended his show’s “Worst Persons” segment. It was he who was the worst person of them all. By the end of the week, Olbermann was “indefinitely” suspended by his network for contributing $2,400 to three Democratic Congressional candidates in Tuesday’s midterms in violation of company policy. Olbermann’s stand-in on the Friday night Nov 5 show was veteran morning and day anchor/reporter Thomas...

If your brain is frazzled as much as mine after listening to election results and the cheerleaders from both sides spinning their predictable garble, consider this: As of Oct. 17, there were 420 House bills stalled in the Senate. Need I remind you that was achieved by a large Democratic majority in the House and 59 that caucused as Democrats in the Senate. Now, with at least 239 Republicans and 185 Democrats in the House, anyone who thinks John Boehner and his crew will do better than Nancy Pelosi...

Forget the others ones, the projected election of Kentucky Republican Tea Party candidate Rand Paul should drive major concerns into the heart of America. Rand in his victory speech offers speculation he could on his own kill the normally routine approval of raising the nation’s debt ceiling. Before the cheers echo in your ears from Rand’s followers, consider that such an action could crash not only America’s but the global economy. It would mean shutting down government as House Speaker Newt...

We interrupt this political program for a brief venture into sports by our resident TMV sports guy. The San Francisco Giants Monday night won the World Series in five games over the Texas Rangers. The victory captured the fancy of almost no one not a baseball fan who lives outside the Bay Area. The baseball gods who insist on calling baseball America’s National Pastime are like those clinging to their Bibles and guns. That just ain’t true no more. Baseball has gone the way of newspapers....

I voted this morning. Riding my power chair into the senior apartment complex recreation room is election central for my precinct. I glanced over the crowd of 16 precinct volunteers and observers. None of my compatriots were in the voting booth. So, I decided to announce my grand entrance. “Where’s the redneck desk?” A young precinct worker giggled. The others snarled. In this section of southern Riverside County, Calif., a registered Democrat is an endangered species and about as popular as...

Keith Olbermann on his MSNBC Countdown show Monday night announced he is temporary suspending his “Worst Persons” segment. At this writing, the video has not been posted on his website. What I discerned is that despite some waffling, Olbermann indicated placing the segment on hold is his way of lowering the cable news hysteria panned by Jon Stewart at Saturday’s rally for sanity in Washington D.C. He said “Worst Persons” was never intended to be a political hatchet machine...

David Stockman, President Reagan’s budget director, is my early winner for “Biggest Cojones” award for telling the American people the truth. That is, lowering taxes as a way to stimulate the economy is a big lie perpetuated by politicians from both parties. And, he is especially critical of the crying jag tears produced by the wealthiest who can afford to pay the freight. Stockman’s latest rant was aired on 60 Minutes Sunday night in a segment in connection with a tax increase for the super...

When you stop and think about it, what’s the fuss about political party leaders telling a struggling candidate to butt out of an election race. Happens more often than a political neophyte might think. Since I’m usually broke, I would bet my last dollar that almost every serious candidate forming an exploratory committee is told by some fat cat with ties to the party’s purse strings that he stands a snowball chance in hell of winning. The reasons run the political gamut — lack of identity,...

Oh, what fools we are predicting midterm election races. I honestly don’t know how much valid methodology goes into these polling results. I do know you can ask questions slanted for particular responses and prove what your preconceived notions are statistically. I am not a numbers guy nor a statistical freak. I am a political observer and take the polls for what they are — a broad trend of the public mood at a very precise point in time. As a resource tool, I randomly selected The Daily Beast...