WASHINGTON — If the uninsured can’t count on the do-gooders to help them, where else can they turn? The question arises because certain leaders of the sector of our society devoted to civic endeavors moved this week to block a perfectly reasonable way of raising some money to extend health coverage to those who don’t have it. At issue is a proposal by a number of senators, including...

Sticking Pittsburgh With the G-20 by Bill Steigerwald Dear President Obama. We Pittsburghers sincerely hope you enjoy your visit to our beautiful city later this week, when you’ll be chairing the exciting G-20 Summit that you so thoughtfully chose our city to host without finding out whether we could handle it or afford it. But please, Mr. President, don’t think that the chaotic and barricaded and over-policed...

After becoming an expert on U.S-Russia relations during her campaign for the vice-presidency by claiming that Russia could be seen from Alaska, Sarah Palin can now add a second major power to her foreign policy credentials: China. By reading a prepared, major foreign policy speech before a packed ballroom in Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt hotel, Sarah Palin has now clearly and firmly cemented her foreign policy...

I just received an e-mail in Spanish from a friend. It was titled ” La Culpa es de la Vaca,” (It’s the cow’s fault), and started as follows: COMUNISMO: Tienes 2 vacas. El estado te quita las dos y te regala un poco de la leche. (COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and gives you a little bit of milk) And so it went on with Socialism, Fascism, Capitalism,...

Alastair Sim had more charm, I think. Via Think Progress.

Headline writers for newspapers and the larger Internet websites have the power to sell, taint, cajole, tease and distort the writer’s works in order to lure the reader to take the bait. I took the bait, hook, line and sinker this morning from the following headline on MSNBC’s web page: WHY OBAMA WISHES HE WERE KING Or at the very least, he wishes he were Mel Brooks The article was written by Bill...

Those who long for less government, less government “interference,” and more privatization may want to take a look at The Netherlands. In an article in the Dutch NRC Handelsblad that starts with the assertion that “Nobody is in charge in the Netherlands – even democracy has been privatized,” Marc Chavannes, a Dutch journalist and political columnist, tells us: The Netherlands was late in professing...

This morning’s Op-Ed piece in the New York Times by Ross Douthat will certainly raise a lot of eyebrows, produce a lot of frowns, bring out a lot of smiles and everything in between—and beyond. For the article is a little bit about the good and a lot about the bad and the ugly of a person whom Americans either love, or love to hate. You guessed it; it is about George W. Bush. What makes the article...

Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

The techniques that economists use to understand their specialized studies, and to decree the nostrums the rest of us must now follow, are so exotic, so elaborate, so far beyond the ken of ordinary mortals, they must be greatly simplified when transmitted to lesser minds. Thus, describing the future before us is today often reduced to single letters — V, U, W or L. In a V economic future, after things slide...

Reuters reported on this study done by researchers at Harvard Medical School:

Frankly, my dear, I didn’t give a damn about ACORN’s community organizing for the impoverished until I saw the videos on You Tube obtained by a self-described nerd who is more of an icon-shattering crusader than staunch conservative as some would have us believe. That caught me attention. In case you missed it the edited snippets show low-level ACORN representatives telling the filmmakers how to...

Let’s Make a Deal: Beltway Edition by Michael Winship If you ever needed proof that Washington is governed by the Golden Rule – the one that says, he who has the gold, rules – you only have to look at the wagonloads of cash being dumped by big business into crushing President Obama’s domestic agenda. Good gosh, how the money rolls in. And I’m not only talking about the millions...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), responding to bipartisan dissatisfaction with the bill unveiled by Max Baucus (D-MT), blamed the Democrats. They could have come up with a better bill that everyone would have liked if they had just had more time, he complained. All they needed was two more weeks and they could have produced a truly bipartisan bill. They weren’t given enough time; the Democrats were rushing...

Congratulations to Americans Against Food Taxes for producing a political issues ad that is accurate. The group opposes a one-cent per-ounce tax on sugary soft drinks that Congress is eyeballing to generate more revenue. The ads claim the regressive tax would hit those who least can afford it the most. On the flip side, sugar tax advocates say the products they are targeting pose a significant contributor to...

Here is a roundup of analysis and commentary about the health care reform bill prepared by Max Baucus and the Gang of Six on the Senate Finance Committee. Pretty much nobody likes the bill. Baucus scraps a “simple employer mandate that forces every employer over a certain size to provide health-care insurance or pay a small fee,” and replaces it with a “free rider” provision, which...

Can you imagine the cries of outrage and gales of mocking laughter from the right if they had heard complaints like this after the huge anti-war demonstrations in the former administration?

After bitterly contesting the case, a British oil trading giant has agreed to a multimillion-pound payout to settle a huge damages claim from thousands of Africans who fell ill from tonnes of toxic waste dumped illegally in one of the worst pollution incidents in decades, reports The Independent. The Western world has shown remarkable tolerance towards economic/business/environmental/political criminals, while...

Ever since the collapse of the mighty Soviet Union, the doomsayers are having field day predicting the break-up of India and Pakistan. Last year, a leading Russian political analyst stated that the economic turmoil in the USA had confirmed his long-held view that the country would divide into separate parts. Cashing on this phobia, Slate offered last month a “week-long thought experiment” on “the...

As I wrote yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates planned to address the Air Force Association (AFA) today. U.S. News & World Report compared Gates’ appearance at the AFA, an association “made up in part of retired pilots and Air Force brass who were shocked when Gates last year fired the Air Force secretary and chief of staff over reports of a nuclear mishap,” and who were further shocked...

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s plan has been released — and has set off a flurry of news articles, analysis and blog posts on the left, center and right, many of which take positions on the proposed plan. In response to a reader’s email about offering a compact roundup on the plan, here are some must reads/must views. The Christian Science Monitor offers this summary: Among...

As my brother would say, What a tool. He really thought he could get Republican support if he only gave up enough, ceded enough ground, mollified and appeased just a little more. Good going, Max. You jettisoned the public option to get the support of so-called “moderate” Republicans, and now you’re left with nothing.

There comes a time in history when an adult enters the fray of uncivil discourse, shakes America by her broad shoulders, and admonishes everyone that enough is enough. I’m uncertain whether former President Jimmy Carter is that heroic adult. Carter in an interview Tuesday and later in an address to his own forum said Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst to President Barack Obama during...

In April of this year, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recommended several military budgetary cuts, including for the production of the F-22 Raptor fighter jet to stop at 187 aircraft, which means that only four more F-22s will be produced. It was a move that drew a firestorm of criticism from Congress, the military, the military aerospace industry and the military aerospace community. The move, however, wasn’t...

An attempt At a Real “Reset Button” on Health Care” by Jon Wells With the convening of Congress, the debate over health care reform has once again reared its ugly head. Despite promises of pushing a “reset button” on the back-and-forth rhetoric, the President’s speech served more as a further partisan rebuke to critics rather than a genuine moment of leadership and bipartisanship....