Terror in the south…. A spate of tornadoes ripping through the south has left a trail of 248 dead and so far uncalculated property destruction. The death toll is likely to rise. Nowhere is the terrorific scene captured more graphically than in this YouTube video of part of a live TV broadcast from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The anchors show feed of a tornado cloud starting to form and warn viewers to get in...

You can’t have a viable Palestinian state with the two major Palestinian political factions at each other’s throats. So my initial reaction to this is that it’s good news:

This is probably the most difficult article I have ever written for The Moderate Voice. The issue of whether Obama was a natural born citizen of the US has been around since the primary elections of 2008. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, this issue started to gain traction after Rev. Wright affair when Obama’s oppositions (I must say, spearheaded by Hillary Clinton) started questioning Obama’s love for the...

And so a political grassy knoll — for a large chunk of voters not in the political Twilight Zone or seeking to fabricate a political battering ram, at least — has now bit the dust: the White House has released President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate after the issue was shoved from the fringe of American politics to the forefront by Donald Trump, a drumbeat by conservative pundits...

Donald Trump is clearly suggesting here that Barack Obama got into Harvard (and Columbia before that) because of his skin color:

Several sources are reporting that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend her husband’s Endeavour space shuttle launch at Cape Canaveral on Friday—a launch that President Obama and the first family are also expected to attend. This would be the first time that Giffords is allowed to travel since she was flown from Tucson to Houston more than three months ago to recover from her injuries sustained in Tucson. An...

Embattled and relatively corrupt (in Nevada corrupt can be a relative term) Senator John Ensign (R-Nevada) has announced that he will resign his seat effective May 3rd. Governor Brian Sandoval (R) is expected to name Congressman Dean Heller to the seat which will allow Heller to run as an incumbent in the 2012 election. Heller is already running for the seat against Congresswoman Shelly Berkley (D). This will...

I have consistently supported the enforcement of the UN-established no-fly zone in Libya and have defended it against those who would try to compare it to the disaster that was the invasion and occupation of Iraq—as I did here. At times, things have not gone too well, and even those who supported the enforcement have begun to waver. There has just been an important announcement regarding the coalition...

Several kindergarten students were injured by a handgun that accidentally discharged when it fell out of the pocket of the six-year-old who brought it to school.

The Standard & Poor (S&P) cautious downgrade of US debt may cascade into real peril if world trade challenges add to the troubles policymakers already face in cutting the devastating budget deficit and national debt. In principle, US policymakers have up to 2013 to find credible bipartisan ways to reduce the deficit. But to get there they will also have to break the budget deadlock and create a path...

They did it. House Republicans passed a budget plan that eliminates Medicare and Medicaid while giving the military a pass and handing huge tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans.

Brian Beutler reports on an amazing political coup that House Democrats came within a hair’s breadth of pulling off:

Arizona has become the first state in the Union to pass a birther bill requiring presidential candidates to prove natural born citizenship in order to appear on the state’s ballot. HB 2177 now goes to Governor Jan Brewer who has not indicated whether she will sign or veto the measure. She also has the option of letting it sit for five days and become law without her signature. According to the Arizona Republic,...

There is a new poll out from Public Policy Polling that is bad news for Republicans:

From Think Progress:

EDITOR’S NOTE: Due to a major system glitch the first versions of this appeared with the wrong byline. The system has not taken editing codes. We regret the error and are taking steps to resolve this. WASHINGTON — President Obama has finally decided to take his own side in the philosophical struggle that is the true engine of this nation’s budget debate. After months of mixed signals...

You can watch President Obama deliver his speech on fiscal policy here: Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Here are some initial reports and comment on his speech (writing on this is starting as he is delivering it). –The Washington Post: President Obama unveiled a framework Wednesday to reduce borrowing over the next 12 years by $4 trillion — a goal that falls...

Over 250 legal professionals have signed an open letter protesting the “degrading and inhumane” treatment to which Pfc. Bradley Manning has been subjected for the past year. Titled “Private Manning’s Humiliation,” the letter is published in the New York Review of Books. I think it’s important enough to quote here in full:

In a windup worthy of the WWF, Washington budget wrestlers bounce off the canvas to take bows and hug one another for the cheering crowds. In the Senate, Harry Reid is so carried away that, hours after calling the GOP “shameful,” he praises every Republican in sight including John Boehner’s chief of staff and, most of all, Mitch McConnell, who gushes back that Congress has made history, instead...

Pres. Obama is speaking as I type. And CBS’s Chip Reid is now saying that the rider eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood is OUT of the bill. Thank God! EDITOR’s NOTE: My earlier post was mistakenly deleted. I am adding it here since it will provide some context. This is copied off of Google since it still appears on search engines. JOE GANDELMAN National Journal: White House Is Reviewing...