George Soros announced the other day that he and a group of big donors will invest $100 million in a get-out-the-vote effort before the November election. The decision has angered and inconvenienced Democratic leaders who need money for TV ads in a (possibly useless) attempt to battle the Republican Super Pacs’ advertising campaign. The resulting acrimony and what the Times report labels “infighting”...

Talk about a flat tire. Presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s latest attempt to re-write his own political history has gone about as smoothly as a cross country trip on a flat tire. Romney’s latest breathtaking shift was his attempt to take credit for the auto bailout that he had opposed in a big, high-media profile way (see the blow up of his New York Times op-ed above) —...

RJ Matson, Roll Call This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In 2008 the United States elected a black President – the result was a very negative reaction by about 25% of the population. It’s not the first time there was a reaction to shifts in racial equality. In his concession speech in 2008 John McCain mentioned T.R, Roosevelt’s dinner with Booker T. Washington in 1901. Like most of us this was the first time author Deborah Davis had heard of this...

Update: AP and other networks are projecting that Amendment One has passed. With about 30% of the vote in the people of North Carolina seem to be voting in favor of prejudice. About 57% of voters are currently supporting legislation that would ban all legal recognition of any relationship other than male-female marriage.

Mr. B. You’re looking radiant. Today’s visit to Stall #8 seems to have touched you in a very positive way. It has, Selig, It has. What was that wonderful music I was listening to with my headphones in there? It was so…so… Strangely recognizable, sir? Uplifting? A perfect something to go with your reading of this month’s cover story in Bloomberg Markets Magazine? Yes, Selig. And...

WASHINGTON – Mark Halperin provides what he calls the “informal slogan” of Obama reelect: “be confident, but take nothing for granted.” One reason team Obama is confident is that the Electoral College helps him tremendously. Halperin’s insider-itis and penchant for dishing out insipid Beltway baloney cannot be shaken, but even he gets one thing right when he analyzes the...

It looks like they may be having elections in Greece again if they cannot manage to form a government. So far efforts to do so have failed and prospects are not good.

In America, politics trumps principles every time in this day and age, to the detriment of the democratic system. Even if a measure is consistent with a party’s principles, it will be rejected if it’s important to the opposition party and particularly if it’s part of their legislative agenda. The health insurance mandate and insurance exchanges are prime examples of this practice. The individual health...

DUST JACKET AND FRONT BINDING OF TURING’S CATHEDRAL I inhale books like moviegoers inhale popcorn, and am fortunate enough to have the time to devour about one book a week. The following 10 reads are particularly noteworthy, in my view, most are available in used paperback editions for a song through Amazon for or can be ordered from your local library through Inter Library Loan. ANNALS OF...

Patrick Chappatte, Le Temps, Switzerland In France the Socialist candidate Francois Hollande has defeated incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy to become the first Socialist President of France since 1995. This will give him the power to name the new Prime Minister of France, though no clear front runner has yet emerged. But the victory for the left may not be as much as they had hoped. For one thing there is a debate as...

For those who get it, CNN International is covering the elections in Europe and it is interesting to see many of the same issues we are dealing with here being discussed there. In Greece for example the economy is in a shambles and the basics of math dictate that there have to be spending cuts, in many cases very severe ones. We don’t quite face that problem here yet but if we do not get our financial...

There are national elections today in France, Greece and Serbia, and local ones in Germany and Italy. These being very different countries, there are of course many local issues that will decide some of these races. But the overriding issue that unites all of them is a referendum on the present high-finance-friendly policies of governments throughout the continent. This isn’t a good guy-bad guy choice....

China watchers and non-watchers have differing opinions on China’s decision to let activist Chen Guangcheng apply to leave China for the United States, on the trustworthiness of the Chinese government and on the pros and cons of Chen’s acceptance of such an opportunity. Here’s a roundup. Andrew Jacobs at the New York Times says China’s decision wasn’t a major concession at all: Based on past experience,...

Destroying the California Dream by Michael Reagan Cuba is a one-party state. North Korea is a one-party state. California is a one-party state. I’m not trying to draw any false parallels. But I’ve noticed bad things happen when one political party has complete control of a government for too long, whether it’s the Communist Party that’s wrecked Cuba for 50 years or the Democrat Party...

When I was young I used to read a series of books called “The People’s Alamanac” and “The Book Of Lists”. Each book offered hundreds, if not thousands of interesting factoids. These books came to mind when I grabbed another from my shelves this week. Have you ever had a moment where you wondered about the things that are part of our everyday lives ? Why do forks have 4 prongs, why not 5 or 3 ? Why...

(Photo by Sgt. Michael S. Cifuentes) A large color photo on the front page of the May 2 Stars and Stripes caught my attention and stirred my emotions. The photo was of members of the Marines and Air Force sitting volleyball teams in action during the 2012 Warrior Games at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Except for the fact that the players sit while...

Before I became a senior editor with Bloomberg Financial News where my work revolved around business and economic issues, I spent years writing about the environment. This background has given me a rather interesting focus — an ability to see some important similarities in the ways the natural world and the world of economics operate. From this perspective, it’s clear to me why Mitt Romney should not...

It’s not surprising that we are all burned out on political ads and as a prior post notes, the rhetoric in the 1800′s was even worse. But still I can’t believe some of the commercials out there “Democrat Elmer Fudd wants to give Viagra to child molesters and then put them in charge of day care centers” “Republican Bugs Bunny wants to take your grandma’s social security...

screencapture via Business Insider WASHINGTON – Back in 2007 into very early 2008, when the national press was agog about Barack Obama, I wrote about him in a manner that was honest and highly doubting that the myth matched what I’d been told by Chicagoans, as well as what I’d dug up and read about the man who was just another ruthless politician. But politics is a dirty game and there isn’t...