WASHINGTON — There are those who tell the truth. There are those who distort the truth. And then there’s Mitt Romney. Every political campaign exaggerates and dissembles. This practice may not be admirable — it’s surely one reason so many Americans are disenchanted with politics — but it’s something we’ve all come to expect. Candidates claim the right to make any...

If polls are correct, the recall election that opponents hoped would rid the State Of Wisconsin from its present governor, Scott Walker, will end leaving Walker in office. Many analysts attribute Walker’s apparent success in overcoming this recall effort to the Big M — money. Millions of dollars have poured into Wisconsin from right-wing billionaires, money Walker has used to gain an advantage. He outspent...

It’s that time of year again: The U.S. State Department has issued its annual report on human rights around the world. And, as has become the custom, states like North Korea and China, which disapprove of America’s rendering, issue denunciations of the report. We have posted three articles, two from China and one from North Korea, that encompass the latest counter-criticisms of the United States by the...

WASHINGTON — Progressives have yearned for President Obama to follow Harry Truman’s strategy from the 1948 campaign by giving his Republican opponents hell. Now that Obama is doing just that, his critics say he’s not looking presidential. As a longtime advocate of the Truman approach (and a fan of Give ‘Em Hell Harry and his way of doing politics), I think Obama is doing the...

UPDATE: The Huffington Post has published a piece on the Associated Press report that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are filing for disability benefits at a historic rate. As of this writing, there are already 618 comments (with 34 more pending). I realize that many of our readers would not “be caught dead” visiting the HuffPost. However, I would recommend that you take a chance this Memorial Day and venture...

Lowest Content Denominator by Peter Funt Recent Time and Newsweek covers constitute last gasps in the dying newsweekly business. Of greater concern, however, is that while these magazines are already in media’s rearview mirror, their turn toward tabloid-style sensationalism reflects what is happening all along the information highway. You saw or heard about the covers that caused the fuss: Time with a...

How to Apply a Modern Monetary Theory Solution to an Economic Downturn by Robert Coutinho A while back I wrote about Modern Monetary Theory. I have been digesting just how such information could be used to help our society. Although the originators of the theory probably have more complete suggestions, I wanted to share with you what could be done with our economic system. Please keep in mind that the following...

How confused and ‘dangerous’ has German foreign policy become? For the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, German Vice Admiral Ulrich Weisser [ret.] pulls no punches, as he lays out in detail how Germany has disappointed the United States and its NATO partners in Europe with its U.N. Security Council abstention on action in Libya, its refusal to allow its forces to face the same dangers as its coalition partners...

This is yet another bit of bad news for the tornado of bad news swirling American newspapers. New Orleans will soon be the largest American city without a daily newspaper since the company will cut part of its staff and go to three days a week. Three days a week is better than none. But three days a week doesn’t a daily newspaper make: Times-Picayune publisher Ashton Phelps Jr. has confirmed that the...

[Editor's Note: Due to a technical glitch part of this post was missing today. So we're reposting it and putting in on top.] How can a sitting Democratic President in 2012, who came to office with a huge electoral mandate four years earlier in the wake of a Republican-generated economic disaster, actually look like he might lose this coming November to a Republican who politically, economically and even personally...

Are Democrats swiftboating themselves? Why are Obama supporters so defensive about challenging Mitt Romney’s main claim to the presidency? It started four days ago with a “Meet the Press” gaffe(?), quickly recanted, by Obama supporter Newark Mayor Corey Booker labeling the attacks(?) as “nauseating.” The question marks are for skepticism about Booker’s motives. Those who remember Bill Clinton’s...

Christopher Weyant, The Hill This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Is the European “Union” too disunited to keep NATO afloat? For Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a European Parliamentarian from Poland and an envoy to NATO, warns that unless Europeans pool their defense capabilities and start thinking and acting in a more unified fashion, the E.U. and NATO will become increasingly irrelevant – and America will no longer defend European...

Good, lord, Mr. B. You’re white as a sheet. What’s the matter, sir? They did it again, Selig. They spray painted those nine horrible words on our front entrance. You must have seen them when you came to work this morning. No, sir. Don’t you remember? Only top earners can use the front entrance these days. You made that a rule a few years back to give the rest of us something to aspire to. Right....

The Speaker is back, trying to reprise his Greatest Hit—-last year’s manufactured debt-ceiling crisis that lowered the nation’s credit rating after nearly sending government over a cliff. Like Newt Gingrich in the 1990s, Boehner is ready, willing but fortunately unable to bring America to a standstill again this year to prevent reelection of a Democratic president, but he is eager to make the threat an...

With their resources drying up like a pond in the hot sun, can NATO do what is necessary to ensure the Alliance’s continued relevance in a world that appears increasingly unstable? For Die Zeit, columnist Claudia Major writes that to survive as an institution, NATO members must achieve a far higher degree of integration and trust, and the sacrifice of a greater measure of national sovereignty, which...

Rather than imposing conditions on delivering promised funds to Pakistan – such as reopening NATO’s supply route through the country, should Washington give Pakistan the money it has promised with gratitude? With the shadow of the friendly-fire incident at Salala hanging over the NATO Summit in Chicago, this angry editorial from The Frontier Post argues that Pakistan has paid a far heavier price...

WASHINGTON — In this election, we’re not having an argument that pits capitalism against socialism. We are trying to decide what kind of capitalism we want. It is a debate as American as Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay — which is to say that we have always done this. In light of the rise of inequality and the financial mess we just went through, it’s a discussion we...

Are you frightened about what’s going on in markets these days? Perhaps you should be. The EU’s euro is shrinking, like a summer ice cream scoop; Our own overspending has left us, awash in that old debt soup; The struggling Dow and Nasdaq, can’t seem to find a floor. And investor fears are rising, rising, rising, Investor fears are rising, Are rising more and more. The days are past when investors...

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.