If you’ve been fruitlessly looking all these years for a big, fat book crammed with a cross section of the very best work of a variety of American newspaper columnists spanning many years: look no more. The book you’ve been fruitlessly looking for is now here. I’ve always loved columns and columnists and one of the hardest things to find was a book of columnists. Not a bio or a book that has columns by...

Front and center at the New York Times today is a report on the extent to which corporations control state legislatures through the”non-profit” American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC, which has been weaving its web for years and gotten a lot of attention in the blogosphere for at least two years, is now the focus of mainstream media thanks to the depredations of Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker,...

Hey, you, too, can rewrite your personal history by omission: just delete your Tweets and no one will notice. Except in this hyper-partisan, hyper political new media age (oh, and it’s an election year, in case you didn’t know): they do and they will. It turns out that Mitt Romney’s new spokesman according to the Huffington Post has apparently scrubbed his Tweets of politically offensive ones....

Tomorrow is Earth day. Did you notice? The New York Times didn’t mention the fact in today’s edition of the paper. Neither did the Wall Street Journal. Nor did the Los Angeles Times, though it did have a short piece about German environmentalists and nuclear power in their coutry. Come Earth Day itself, of course, some notice of the natural environment will be on view. Doubtless the Obama Administration...

After morphing into a Tea Party zealot to win nomination, the GOP choice is in the kind of tricky transition described by JFK while running against Nixon in 1960: “It must be hard getting up every morning trying to decide who you’re going to be that day. Nixon lost then but won eight years later by virtually erasing himself to edge out disorganized Democrats. Covering his campaign, Gloria Steinem wrote:...

Joe Hagan of New York Magazine has written a megareport for Texas Monthly on what is coming out now about George W. Bush’s alleged flight training — well, about his record with the National Guard and all the investigations that ended in Dan Rather being fired by CBS. If you’re not a big defender of Bush, you’ll be glad to know the story turns out to be close to what we libruls believed...

Finally, in Nicaragua of all places, we have found a Latin American newspaper that agrees with the U.S. position of excluding Cuba from the Summit of the Americas. Can it be argued that Latin America governments, even right-of-center democracies like Colombia, are jealous of the absolute power wielded by totalitarian regimes like Cuba’s? This editorial from Nicaragua’s La Prensa sides with U.S....

A Florida judge has set bond at $150,000 for George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin shooting case in a dramatic hearing in which Zimmerman apologized to the unarmed, dead teen’s parents — and the intense bail hearing foreshadowed what is likely to be a highly emotional general trial that could further polarize America: A Florida judge set bond Friday at $150,000 for the release of George Zimmerman,...

WASHINGTON — Not all overheated political rhetoric is alike. Delusional right-wing crazy talk — the kind of ranting we’ve heard recently from washed-up rock star Ted Nugent and tea party-backed Rep. Allen West — is a special kind of poison that cannot be safely ignored. Let me be clear: I’m saying that the extreme language we hear from the far right is qualitatively different...

Atlantic.com has an interesting article about Newt Gingrich. According to Molly Ball, Newt Gingrich is a “man reduced.” He attracts more attention for having been bitten by a zoo penguin than for policy proposals. He barely rates mention at political functions and has not been taken seriously by the political world for some weeks now. Much of his empire of think tanks, book publishing, speaking engagements...

The Latin American reaction to the Sixth Summit of the Americas continues to roll in, and for those of us from the United States, it is not an encouraging one. How much diminished is U.S. influence in Latin America? Has Washington properly processed this dramatic geopolitical change? This analysis from Brazil’s Opera Mundi paints the picture of a Washington that has so far failed to absorb the changed...

By attacking the United States, were Latin American leaders at the Sixth Summit of the Americas seeking to divert attention from issues that they would have found personally embarrassing? For Spain’s El Pais, columnist Moises Naim describes not only the diversion being practiced by many of the region’s heads of state, but how much less influence they have compared to those who attended the Yalta...

Oh, Mommy, I know this campaign has not formally begun but can’t it be over already? Please, Mommy, make them stop! Political junkies are salivating, cable hosts are visitbly chomping at the bit (“We can have great TV! More than ever we can get both sides to line up and yell at each other. This is going to be an ugly campaign. Great stuff!!!”), but to many other Americans it’s clear...

Pulitzer Prize judges should reconsider their decision. By declining to name an award-winning novel this year, they have overlooked the greatest creation of all, a huge work of collective fiction titled “Obama.” In other categories, the Board expanded its vista beyond the printed page to Politico and the Huffington Post. Why not recognize an achievement that brings cave-dweller story-telling into the 21st...

With Egyptians headed to the polls on May 23 to choose the nation’s first democratically-elected head of state, columnist Dr. Hamdi Radwan of Egypt’s Amal al-Oumma (Voice of the Nation) offers his readers a look at the U.S. presidential race, using it to highlight what is lacking in Egypt’s nascent democratic system. His misconceptions are as interesting as his factual assertions. For Egypt’s...

“We must remember our history so we can find new reasons to justify the same mistakes.” I hope this is that election. The moment when it finally crumbles. . .the moment when all this righteous rhetoric is seen for what it is. . .political pandering and meaningless shell game shuffling. The tired narrative has been the claim of past Christian nation, past noble foundations, past glories rapidly...

I know some of our readers don’t like New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. But sometimes you have to — begrudging as it may feel to some — give credit where credit is due. Starting with the title of her Times column today, “Phony Mommy Wars,” even our conservative friends will have to agree that they are phony — no one would dare go to war against our own Moms. Then, Dowd’s very first...

Is Washington paying any attention at all to the demands and interests of its ‘Latin American partners’? According to this editorial from Mexico’s La Jornada, few people south of the U.S. border believe that the Summit of the Americas took into account the wishes of Latin Americans, starting with the issues of the inclusion of Cuba at all hemisphere-wide summits, a change in direction for...

On my Twitter feed I often praise MSNBC’s Luke Russert, who has evolved into a superb reporter and an excellent anchor. He isn’t just coasting on his name. He has gotten opportunities due to it and he was ready for it. His late, great father must be smiling. That isn’t always the case…

Once again Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart is on the dime when it comes to media criticism and political observation: The Daily Show with Jon StewartGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook