WASHINGTON — Things are looking up for the Republicans, relatively speaking. President Obama’s poll numbers have dipped, GOP recruitment for the 2010 elections is going better than expected, and the heath care battle has been rough on the Democrats. On top of that, the surveys show Republicans now leading in this year’s two major governor’s races, in Virginia and New Jersey. ...

Part Six in a series by Guest Contributor Martin Rybicki who blogs at the Progressive Republican. “We were at absolute peace, and there was no nation in the world with whom a war cloud threatened, no nation in the world whom we had wronged, or from whom we had anything to fear.” -Teddy Roosevelt History can be a stubborn fact for those who seek to ignore it and what better way than to pretend that...

This week’s solar eclipse grabbed major headlines in Asia and the world (pics here). “Solar eclipses are indeed a marvel of Nature, and the media’s excitement was justified,” says Sri Lankan journalist Nalaka Gunawardene, our Guest Columnist. “For once, it was good to see them devoting a great deal of airtime and print/web space for something that was not violent, depressing or life-threatening. “How...

Blogger Note, the following is by Ian Tanner, a blogger at the Progressive Republican. Reagan Bowling I was sitting in my office listening to Pandora,when I heard a song that started me thinking. The song was called “1985″ by the band Bowling for Soup. The song got me thinking about the current shape of the GOP with regards to the newest generation of voters, the millennials. In case no one is familiar...

Hi there, Dr. E. here. Writing and photographing under the name Michael M’Guire, a colleague in New York has sent me this exclusive photo of just a small part of today’s NY courthouse-encampment– in which we see early-muster photogs and reporters bristling with their silver and black weaponry. The red and white sign in the upper left field says, No Standing Anytime. And below too is Mr. M’Guire’s...

Perhaps you saw how as the attendants moved Michael Jackson, his body lay nearly flat on the stretcher, as though there were an ironing board underneath the sheet, rather than the body of a full person. My guess from just a glance, is that he weighed around 100 pounds or less. Not slender, not thin, rather… entirely skeletal. Most people are familiar with anorexia nervosa, an emotional disorder characterized...

Iran’s Youth and Women’s Movement Analyzed by: Herndon L. Davis For nearly two weeks the ground shifting protests in Iran’s capital city of Tehran has seen an unprecedented number of young people and women who have risked their lives to speak back to the regime in opposition of the suspect re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Their faces, voices and deaths have become the symbol of...

Guest post by Hamid M. Khan While history is replete with revolutions, successful ones are able to match a collective will with an endemic philosophy for change. Days ago, Iranians gathered to elect a president, but in the ensuing firestorm from Iran’s electoral results found reason to challenge Iran’s current government. And while there are almost an infinite number of reasons to alter the Iranian...

Hi, Dr. E. here again tonight, introducing guest voice Mr. Ed Warner, geologist with twenty-six years in exploration geology, including subsurface geology combined with “bright spot”, AVO and 3-D seismic, Offshore Gulf Coast, Michigan Reef Trend, Sacramento Basin and western Kansas Morrow play, and Jonah Field. He is a Libertarian and deeply involved in better outcomes for Zimbabwe. As you will see at end...

Hi there, Dr. E. here. I’d like to introduce you to Senator Ken Gordon, who served as Senate Majority Leader in the Colorado State Legislature until 2009, when term limits kicked in. Over his long career, he has also been former Senate Judiciary Chair, and former Minority Leader in the House. The sentences I bolded below are ones that may catch your eye most. It is rarer than rain in the Mojave desert...

A Shout for Democracy By Martha Randolph Carr Sometimes other countries look at America and mistake how we practice capitalism with the ideal of democracy. They call for our demise based on the former, which is a business model, even while they’re lunging toward the latter, which is a much bigger dream. Take Iran, for example, which recently had presidential elections with a disputed outcome. Now, no one is...

Dr. E. here, bringing you a clear analysis of the Iranian means of protest by Guest Voice, Dr. Omed. His long-lived blog at Salon.com, Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival, has now moved here, and continues to be a brew of informed political stance, articulate outrage, and ever fierce heart. Dr. Omed, is an Okie writer who is multilingual as news analyst, poet and artist. You can see his works called ScissorDance,...

An End to Buffoonish Fathers by Tom Purcell Ah, Father’s Day is upon us. I can’t think of a better time for dads and men to remember how to be dads and men. Flip on the tube any time during the day and you’ll see fathers portrayed as hapless buffoons – saved from themselves by their wives and all-knowing children. The real life of the modern dad isn’t much prettier. To be sure, the state of the American...

“These extremists feed on fear, hate and terror. They have no program for America – no program for the Republican party. They have no solution for our problems of chronic unemployment, of education, of agriculture, or racial injustice or strife… On the contrary – they spread distrust. They engender suspicion. They encourage disunity…There is no place in this Republican party for such hawkers...

Obama, GM’s new Chairman by Scott McKain If my very future depended upon selecting a single person to sink just one basketball shot, I’m picking Michael Jordan. If my life hung in the balance, and one individual from our history had to present an oration that would determine my survival, I would beg Martin Luther King to speak on my behalf. So, why in the moment of its greatest trial would General...

Guest post by Jessie Daniels As we watch with interest the events unfolding in Iran, one of the major stories dominating the headlines is the Twitter effect. Twitter, and other new media, have given a global voice to the angst over the elections and have made the intensity of those marching in Tehran palpable to those sitting on the couch watching halfway around the world. Most importantly, the social networking...

Orangette…Cannelle et Vanille…Chez Pim…Dorie Greenspan…Becks & Posh…Steamy Kitchen..Homesick Texan…The Bitten Word…Tartelette. Hey what are these funny names? If you ever get tired of reading the political blogs…you may turn your attention to the above mentioned “appetizing” blogs included in The Times “50 of the world’s best food...

My fascination for bus rides and backpacking/trekking has remained intact. I was delighted to learn that even among the car-loving Americans, bus travel is now becoming popular. Well, this may cause a social and economic revolution in the USA!!! People are more “loath to get into their cars.” The Federal Highway Administration says Americans drove 81 billion fewer miles in the year ended January...

How does one make the USA, or the world, more secure? History tells us that ultimately a nation has to fall back upon the tried and tested “civilian instruments” such as diplomacy and foreign aid. The world has seen the dangers inherent in “creeping militarisation” of US foreign policy. Lexington, in his column in The Economist, states: “Mrs (Hillary) Clinton’s success has partly been a matter...

The ex-Beatles pop music sensation Sir Paul McCartney and his two daughters are avidly campaigning for meatless Mondays to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s livestock, among the most serious contributors to global warming.” The Independent reports: “The McCartneys have attracted support from across the worlds of showbusiness, science, business and the environment. The...

While the US media and the blogs are going hysterical about the health care issues of “Americans”, Mary Clare Jalonick (Associated Press Writer) provides us with a moving insight into the continued poverty, deprivation and neglect of the “other” Americans — the indigenous people who live within the borders of the United States of America. The story revolves round the death of...

Efficient Nationalized Health Care? Not So Fast… by Michael Reagan President Barack Obama has undertaken the expansion of health care to the roughly 45 million Americans who do not currently have health insurance. Having about one American in seven with no health insurance is undeniably an undesirable situation which deserves our attention and concern. This is not just a matter of compassion either, but also...

Below is the final installment of a series of articles by Republican college student Martin Rybicki called, The Real Republicans: The Case for Moderates, Liberals, and Pragmatic Conservatives in Our Party. You can read parts 1-3 by going to the Progressive Republican. By Martin Rybicki The transpositioning of the parties in the 20th century is sometimes seen as occurring mid-century but the actual realignments...

The Privatization of “Obama’s War” Michael Winship The sudden reappearance of former Vice President Dick Cheney over the last few months – seeming to emerge from his famous undisclosed location more frequently now than he ever did when he was in office – does not mean six more weeks of winter. But it does bring to mind that classic country and western song, “How Can I Miss...

President Barack Obama’s speech from Cairo generated lots of comment all over the world and, in the United States, on the left and the right due to his comments about the Middle East on and Muslims. In this Guest Voice post, conservative writers Floyd and Mary Beth Brown argue that Obama team owes Floyd an apology due to the way they responded to his raising questions about Obama’s Muslim ties during...