Fox News maven Roger Aisles recently said that Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart had told him in a bar that he was a Socialist. Jon Stewart returned from vacation with this answer for Aisles: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Why is it that people in the United States, the land where ‘all men are created equal,’ the land where ‘constitutional patriotism’ was born, have been pulling their hair out over an issue that appears nowhere in the Constitution or the Federalist Papers? For Spain’s Diario Exterior, columnist Carlos Alberto Montaner examines one of the most vexing issues in the U.S. today, and...

Mitt Romney has a 14-point Gallup lead among veterans in an otherwise close contest for the presidency, a demographic aberration more understandable to one of them after Monday’s experience in a Memorial Day parade. I was in one of those custom-made 1970s Pontiac convertibles, outfitted for Elvis and other rock stars with bull’s horns on the front bumper, rifles and handguns pasted everywhere inside and...

Contrary to the narrative in the West, in Beijing’s alternate reality, Russia and China are the real heroes of the Syria story. According to this editorial from China’s state-controlled Global Times, only Russia and China stand in the way of an even more horrific conflict brought on by selfish Western determination to remake the Middle East in its own image. The Global Times editorial says in part: China...

In his speech to the 1988 Democratic convention, Rev. Jesse Jackson declared “keep hope alive.” On CNN today, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s best political bud Donald Trump in essence argued keep birtherism alive. In what will likely be shown for years as a classic interview on CNN, Trump refused to acknowledge facts as facts, inaccurately stated some things as...

Recently I came across a study conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University about which media informs its audience best (and worst) when it comes to domestic news. Fox News did not fare well in this study — to put it mildly. Here’s a snippet to ponder: “The study concludes that media sources have a significant impact on the number of questions that people were able to answer correctly. The largest...

One more reminder of the meaning of Memorial Day and, I promise, I’ll say no more today. In honor of our fallen troops, CNN.com has created an amazing interactive “Home & Away map” which includes information about all of the men and women who have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars since 2001. It is a stunning, interactive map where you can learn where our heroes lived and how and where...

President Obama Commemorates Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery In an unusual “op-ed” published today in Military.com, Military Times and Stars and Stripes, President Barack Obama paid tribute to all “our men and women in uniform who gave their lives so that we could live free” in all our wars, but singled out the Vietnam War (This Memorial Day marks the beginning of the 50th anniversary of...

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...

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...

His video was supposed to be just for his friends, shot shortly after receiving devastating news. But, instead, it went viral. By the time he died yesterday, his final days would also serve as a role models for how to appreciate the the present and how to leave it for eternity. And due to You Tube which carried his words, emotions and wise perspective to millions, Australia teenager Shaun Wilson-Miller passed...

Campaign watchers get a double-header of metaphors with reports that Barack Obama is eschewing a Rose Garden strategy and going head to head with Mitt Romney by name, along with a reminder of the President’s fondness for a three-year-old photo showing an African-American boy touching his hair in the Oval Office to compare it to his own. As they were no doubt intended to be by White House aides, symbolism lovers...

While America is a young country not as prone as some others to preserving ‘relics’ of the dead, we do appear to have a thing for blood, which, if modern science progresses as some think it might, could result in some interesting historical clones. This article on the subject by El Pais columnist Marcos Balfagon reflects on this odd historical preoccupation, and on the wisdom of someday restoring...

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...

Blogger Patrick Frey has recently revealed details of how he was nearly murdered for being Conservative While Blogging. As I read this story, I had a creeping sense of horror. And my oft-stated sentiment that maybe I made a mistake ten years ago by blogging under my own real name became a genuinely fearful reaction. Really, this should be called terrorism. I’ve been known to call some people who comment...

Presidential campaigns need a pithy phrase to nail the opposition, and the President is edging toward a killer label for Mitt Romney. In 1940, FDR won reelection against a likable corporate lawyer, Wendell Willkie, who was dubbed the Barefoot Boy from Wall Street and easily defeated. Four years later, Thomas E. Dewey, a buttoned-down former prosecutor with a campaign strategy of not being “prematurely...

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...

The New York Times has an interesting and, I am sure, controversial opinion piece, which from the beginning (Title: “G.O.P. Nightmare Charts”) to its conclusion (see below) suggests that present trends “do not bode well for Republicans.” All sarcasm aside and keeping in mind that the Times is called a “liberal newspaper” and worse, that it is written in “a place for opinionated...

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...

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...