May I be so bold as to suggest recommended reading on how our U.S. Senate “works.” In its custom dating back to the beginning of time, the New Yorker Magazine takes an extremely dull subject and brings it to life. Be forewarned. This article is not a sound bite. The author went to extremes to be fair to the arcane process and the polarized influence practiced by both Republicans and Democrats in today’s Senate. But the bottom line, as politicians are wont to say, is the Senate rules are designed...

If you have been following the engineering screw-ups as I have in BP’s efforts to seal the oil blowout permanently, the latest development this Friday the 13th is … is … one gigantic “HUH?” Incident commander retired Adm. Thad Allen announced the BP team will proceed to permanently kill the top capped blowout with the first relief well just feet away about 18,000 below the surface in the Gulf of Mexico waters. That was the plan almost from Day One, about a week after the April 20 blowout...

I hate Ezra Klein. Check that. I am jealous of Ezra Klein. This guy is too young — 26 — to be so damn smart. Yes, I know he is accused and convicted of being a flaming liberal. I don’t care for the simple reason he can explain better than most others the complexities of congressional legislation. So it was with extreme interest I read his piece Friday in Newsweek wailing against Republican deficit hawks attempting to gut the health reform act. Like it or not, Klein presents a powerful case...

I’m not gay. I did not serve in the military. Therefore, when the discussion focuses on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy I defer to others more knowledgeable than myself. Rachel Maddow, a proud lesbian who has her own show on MSNBC, may be the most visible proponent of gay rights in our political culture. On her Wednesday night show, she took President Obama to task for foot-dragging on his campaign pledge to end the DADT policy enacted by President Clinton. She concluded...

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, may or may not be innocent of House ethics violations but she certainly did not enrich herself or her husband. The minority-owned bank she ran interference for is still in financial trouble but at least now has a pulse. The primary ethics charge is Waters influenced Treasury to secure $12 million in TARP funds to One United Bank where her husband had been a director and holder of about $350,000 as a shareholder. This violated a house code, the ethics committee charged,...

The BP oil blowout disaster killed 11 crew on April 20 and now that it is out of the public mind the questions remain before the final solution of sealing off its base sometime this month is, is the well dead? Bob Cavnar on his blog The Daily Hurricane says these questions must be answered by BP and the federal government: * What is the pressure on the well? Now? * If the well is open to the surface, what is that pressure? * What was the pressure during the “static kill”? ...

For three days I fumbled how to write my disgust over House Democrats and Republicans killing needed help for 9/11 first responders. I’ll do it by letting the experts lay it on the line. First, this news release on the website of Rep. Carolyn Maloney, author of HR 847. Next this fact check Q&A. And, finally, this from Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. The guy nailed it. What’s important is that the first World Trade Center bill for 9/11 relief was passed by the Bush administration by borrowing...

Anthony Weiner, the bantam rooster Democratic House representative of Queens and Brooklyn on Wednesday explained his tirade that won him top billing on YouTube last week. Weiner’s portrayal of Jimmy Stewart playing “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” he thinks got lost in the translation to the American public by the right-leaning elements of our media. In an op-ed article published by the New York Times, Weiner explained the capped funding for 9/11 first responders should have been a slam dunk...

The mayor of Reading (RED-ing), Pennsylvania, (pop. 80,560 and falling) has issued a proclamation to slum landlords to clean up their property or be subject to a public flogging on his website Hall of Shame. At least 42 photographed properties, addresses and owners were listed Tuesday, most in the old sections of the town established in 1748. Mayor Tom McMahon’s efforts is part of a renovation campaign to cleanup or demolish properties deemed abandoned by the city’s Blighted Property Review Committee....

I’m not a chemist so forgive me for not swallowing hook, line and sinker the Environmental Protection Agency’s findings Monday that the dispersant used by BP in the Gulf of Mexico oil blowout is no more toxic when mixed with oil than the oil alone. The EPA tests were twofold. One was challenging BP’s assertion that the chemical Corexit was less toxic than other dispersants. It wasn’t. The second was conducted on a sampling of small fish and baby shrimp. No harmful evidence was ascertained. Paul...

Politico reporters John Bresnahan and Jonathon Allen raise the question of when the race card is drawn when it comes to investigation of House ethics violations. At one point this session of the 111th Congress, eight of the 42 members of the House Black Caucus were under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics which was created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2006 to clear the swamp of congressional malfeasance. All were filed by the conservative watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility...

You need not be a numbers cruncher to chew on this. Robert Rizzo was forced to resign as city manager of Bell, Calif., (pop. 36,900) when his salary was discovered the highest in the nation for that job position at $787,637. His pension is estimated $637,985 for the rest of his life. Rizzo is 55. The public employee worked for three cities for 30 years, the last for one year at Bell. He earns 2.7% of his final pay for every year worked. As one of 90% and 1.6 million public employees in California,...

Sarah Palin has enough trouble “refudiating” the English language. Now she has a gender gaffe with the Spanish language. On Fox News Sunday, Palin said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has cojones. Really? The literal translation of cojones is a male’s testicles. In American slang, a common usage is referring cojones to a male’s machoism meaning he has the guts to make a stand-up decision. Whether that definition applies to women, I rather doubt it, but to be generous to Mrs. Palin, the term does...

I was wrong. It wasn’t the Environmental Protection Agency remiss in allowing BP to dump more than a million gallons of chemical dispersants on the oil floating above and below the Gulf of Mexico waters. It was the Coast Guard. The details are outlined in this statement released and contained in a Los Angeles Times news story Saturday by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House energy and environment subcommittee. “After we discovered how toxic these chemicals really are, they...

For Afghan war watchers, the New York Times reports the U.S. is having more success in its counterterrorism strategy than nation building. By killing more Taliban insurgent leaders, the success may signal a quicker peace allowing the Taliban to take part in the Afghan government. For U.S. interests, this does not mean an Afghan government patterned after Jeffersonian democracy. The Karsai government already is based on Shi’a religious law. It means a temporary truce in the civil war and makes...

BP has conned the federal government and about 93% of the American people that the exploratory oil well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico is under control. In deed, the well was capped July 15 as a temporary stopgap. BP turned off its submersible cameras. Out of sight. Out of mind. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced the surface slick and underwater oil plumes were hundreds of miles from the Gulf’s loop currents and therefore not carry through the Florida Keys and up the Atlantic...

This is not a forum for feel good scenarios where hope springs eternal. But a glimpse at our toy department in life’s struggles is a valid escape to soothe the sores of the Andrew Bretibarts and the money we spend on a war we cannot win. The San Diego Padres on the next to last day in July are in first place in the Western Division 3 1/2 games above its closest rival and the best record in the National League. That’s the same as saying Paris Hilton was nominated best actress by the Academy of...

I was reading reactions to the Arizona immigration law being shorted with a temporary injunction and the snowballing impact it has on similar legal efforts by other states and municipalities. What struck me was the legal costs these states and cities must drain on their public treasuries. No dollar figures here. But the fight to take matters into their own hands with their own peculiar ways of addressing the problem as they see it is costing them as much money as the financial burden of providing...

The culture wars. Not the kind Bill O’Reilly talks about. But the kind baby-faced producers and editors think up. Like what President Obama should do. Not about the economy. Or the budget. Or the BP oil clean up. Or the Afghan mission. Or immigration reform. Naahhh. None of the above. I’m talking water cooler conversations. Important stuff. Really critical give and take among the three remaining families in America who don’t eat dinner in front of the TV set. Specifically, whether the Obamas...

At first blush, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton issued the best of all decisions Wednesday in the Arizona immigration lawsuit by putting on hold some contentious issues knowing full well she will not be the final word in this case. Killed by preliminary injunction were these provisions of SB1070: 1) Local police checking immigration status of a person detained or arrested; 2) Immigrants carrying “alien registration papers” at all times, and 3) Blocking officers from making warrantless arrests...

I am an old guy and for the life of me cannot understand the vox populi attraction for Lindsay Lohan. I’m not that old and I appreciate the talents of pretty women. Lindsay Lohan is one troubled person. She’s got a police rap sheet longer than all the politicians combined in Washington. Mostly its for drug and alcohol abuse. She also has talent. I saw her in one movie, Georgia Rule with Jane Fonda. Nice performance although I think the character she played was a spit and image of herself. I...

I suppose our lawmakers who write the tax codes do the right thing for favoring businesses with write-offs, but, really now, is it “right” for BP to deduct the entire cost of its oil blowout expenses that will cost taxpayers about $10 billion in lost revenue. News accounts from London say BP took a pretax provision of $32.2 billion for capping, clean up and damage claims payments leaving a $10 billion credit U.S. taxpayers to eat. By law, BP can also deduct all the billions of dollars in fines...

In the small suburban city of Bell, Calif., about 10 miles from downtown Los Angeles as the crow flies, residents are outraged at their civic leaders for the lavish salaries they draw. We’re not talking peanuts, folks. The city manager draws about $800,000 a year and some of the part time elected city council $100,000. The Los Angeles Times has raised such a fuss over the inflated salaries they suggest that the Bell officials earn more than any other city its size in America. Never one to miss...

After reading the lowly classified reports on the Afghanistan war leaked by WikiLeaks I am not surprised. It’s not that I am clairvoyant. It is exactly the way I imagined the administrations portraying a counterinsurgency war to justify why we are involved. I also think the New York Times reporting Gen. James Jones, the president’s national security adviser, was spot on when he said the report covered a period from 2003 to 2009 and things are now different. “On Dec. 1, 2009, President Obama...

Just asking.