Natalie Cole:

Join us again today, Saturday Oct. 24, at 1 pm Eastern time on Mid Stream Radio, where Cindy and I will field questions on the current “ridiculous” constitutionality flap, the special elections in New York and New Jersey, along with anything else that crosses our minds. Call in with your own thoughts at (646) 595-3963, or join in the online chat if you’re registered (for free!) ahead of time...

UPDATED: When I was in dire financial straits and being threatened with eviction last year, donations from my friends here, at Comments from Left Field, and elsewhere in the blogosphere helped me keep my apartment.

Reports from Bratislava, Slovakia, today indicate NATO defense ministers support Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations to increase counterinsurgency strategy, nation building and additional troops in Afghanistan. Easy for them to say. More than two-thirds of the 28-country NATO forces totalling 104,000 troops are American and far less than those one-third are involved in combat operations. The ministers...

Now it’s time to return to Silverstein Family’s Pledge Cental. Mike Silverstein, how are things going over there? A little slow, Sylvia. And frankly, I’m disappointed. We only ask for financial help from our freinds and neighbors five or six times a year. But the phones are pretty quiet now. Can I interrupt you for a second, Mike? Certainly, Sylvia. As Mike has been saying, we can’t get...

Statistics, the things economists use to justify their professional existences, haven’t always been highly regarded by people who aren’t economists. Mark Twain, for example, once noted that “there are lies, damn lies and statistics,” with the later being the worst lies of all. To test this view, let’s look at the batch of stats that came our way in just today. Leading indicators,...

During the whole dustup over the Olympics the only thing that really caused me to scratch my head was wondering why Obama would spend 9 hours out and 9 hours back flying time to get 2 hours on the ground at the Olympic committee. Today I heard another story that made me wonder. Last night the President was in New York City for a Democratic fundraiser. (Let me make it clear here I’m not debating the whole...

The silly fabricated spat between the Obama Administration and FOX News is just that. For many years, most Americans have understood that Fox was the Republican mouthpiece. The Democrats need to wrestle complete control over NBC, CBS or ABC news and move on with their own dedicated mouthpiece. Some may argue that either MSNBC or PBS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC, but with each having about 1 or...

The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday voted 20-9 to remove federal antitrust exemptions the health insurance industry has enjoyed since the 1940s. Majority leader Harry Reid said a companion bill will be voted on soon in the Senate. Finally the Democrats in Congress have showed some spunk. If the final bill is signed by President Barack Obama, the nation’s insurers would be liable for certain antitrust...

The White House must end its fight with Fox News now. Enough already. David Gergen, White House advisor to three former presidents, said it is “risky strategy.” I agree and add it’s stupid and unproductive. While Fox commentators may have succeeded in tweaking President Obama’s massive ego, retaliation from the Oval Office violates a very simple rule: You can’t win a fight when...

I vaguely remember a Canadian politician named Pierre Trudeau. He did some important things for his country, I believe, but I can’t be sure because I’m not much on Canadian history. But one thing I do remember quite well about the man was his campaign song. It was called “Pierre Trudeau: The Poor Man’s Friend.” That has always struck me as a great way to be remembered. By your own...

When “your man” didn’t become President, what did you say?

For critics claiming we cannot afford health care reform for our own people in which 45,000 uninsured die annually — a report I admit may be high — consider these apples. It costs about $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to our troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon reports it costs about $1 billion for ever 1,000 troops in that land-locked nation which has an infrastructure worse than the poorest barrio...

The sheriff of Larimer County Colorado has just held a press conference in which he has confirmed that this was a hoax and a publicity stunt. The father did stage this, it turns out he was an actor in California before he moved to Colorado and this is part of a plot to promote a new TV show. There have been two former 911 calls to this location. The first was determined to be an accident when a child called...

I’ve refrained from making a lot of comment on the story but it’s the weekend and so I thought I’d propose a thought that has been running through my mind. Obviously the big controversy is over whether this is fake or real. The evidence certainly suggests it could have been a publicity stunt but the father insists that it was for real. We’ve seen lots of discussion about how it would...

In case you find yourself stuck with the kind of weather we’re getting in Upstate New York this weekend and have nothing better to do, tune in to Mid Stream Radio at 1 pm eastern (10 am pacific) for your weekly dose of bombastic political rhetoric and absurd analysis. The only thing off the table today is Balloon Boy, but everything else is fair game. Follow the link above to listen, join in the chat or...

I am a native Southern Californian, love baseball, played it as a youth and because my hometown San Diego Padres suck, don’t follow it that much on television until the playoffs. Watching Friday night’s game in New York with the Yankees playing the Angels I may have caught a case of pneumonia in my own home 3,000 away from home plate. Believe me, it was a lot warmer at Yankee Stadium than Coors Field...

ATTENTION ALL TMV READERS AND COMMENTERS! There is a serious problem with our 3rd party commenting system (Disqus) in that random comments are being flagged as SPAM and are being removed. I have found those comments and I’m in the process of restoring them. Furthermore I have raised a support ticket with Disqus to get this fixed ASAP. I apologize for all of the confusion and emotion over this issue....

The mere mention of the Westboro Baptist Church in any form of the media is a victory for the gay-bashing anti-Semite demented hate mongers. I’m sorry but I will risk being struck by a bolt of lightning by saying the group will be protesting at a number of San Diego area churches Saturday night. Here’s a blurb from their website: Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious...

There’s the old joke about the heartless corporation that is so bad it will do anything to collect a debt. Well Macy’s in Sacramento, California seems to have taken this to a whole new level. It all began when Ken and Patty Blomberg got into a dispute with the store over the purchase of some rugs that they never got but Macy’s still wanted them to pay for. That dispute went along for a while...

Biting the hand that feeds me, I think it is a bad idea that President Barack Obama is urging Congress to kick in an extra one-lump $250 to each of the 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities because they will not receive cost-of-living increases in 2010 from Social Security benefits. It’s not that I prefer to go without. If Congress goes along with the president, and key leaders say...

I would like to invite all writers, editors, commentators and readers to make some major predictions for the future that they believe will transpire by or around certain future dates. I ran this idea by Joe Gandelman last week who told me to run with it. These “revelations” can concern science, technology, environment, wars and militaries, climate change, healthcare, religion, politics, economics, business,...

As I’m sure you all know the Dow closed on Wednesday above the 10,000 mark, the first time it has done so since October of 2008. The boost was largely the result of good earnings reports from Intel and JP Morgan/Chase. Certainly all of these things are good and I am not going to try and dismiss them as otherwise. I firmly believe that good news is good news no matter what. However at the same time I am...

It’s not official but early returns of talk radio conservative mega voice Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become part owner of the St. Louis Rams is all but dead before arrival. It seems the money earned by the mouth that roars is not good enough for one of the most exclusive clubs in America. “I’ve said many times before we’re all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments...

With all the celebrating going on over the Finance committee vote today you would think that health care reform was a done deal and we were all going to have free coverage tomorrow morning. The truth is that this is only one fairly minor step, though admittedly getting it past this committee is a step, it is only one step. As I previously wrote, I am relatively pleased with the proposal passed out of Finance...