For the past six to seven years, Americans have celebrated Independence Day with both joy and concern. Joy, because, for more than 230 years, Americans have had every reason to celebrate the undeniable fact that our nation and our people are still part of the greatest experiment in liberty, “the pursuit of happiness,” and democracy the world has ever seen. Concern, because of our continued involvement in...

On the surface, it is extremely suspicious the New York Times news pages are working in concert with the Obama Administration’s initial steps towards immigration reform: A kinder, gentler approach in stark contrast to those employee raids conducted by the junior George Bush. I’ll use the link to the story and you can decide for yourself. What I do know is that Obama’s approach to sanction and...

A rogue oil commodities broker was caught manipulating a spike in world oil prices forcing his company to eat $10 million in losses. The disclosure occurred Tuesday when the price of crude oil reached a year’s high $73.50 a barrel at a time when the U.S. posts its highest demand on gasoline for the summer vacation season. By Thursday oil prices fell to $66.50 a barrel, down almost 10 per cent from Tuesday’s...

With America mired in a recession, and the latest job numbers worse than expected, it’s a natural “hook” for a story about fireworks throughout the country. Is the recession causing fireworks displays to fizzle? There are some contradictory reports. For instance, NBC News reports that financial crisis has caused many communities to either eliminate fireworks, cut back or consider not lighting...

I don’t have much to add to the news that Fannie/Freddie are allowing homeowners to refinance for amounts up to 125% of their home value that Yves doesn’t cover. The intention of the program is very clear: it’s meant to allow people to stay in their homes/have more money for consumption (or other debt payments) in circumstances when they should most likely just throw in the towel and leave....

There’s bad economic news for the nation and, in political terms, for the Obama administration: new statistics indicate the job market has worsened and that the stimulus package isn’t doing anything yet on the labor front: Employers in the U.S. cut 467,000 jobs in June, the unemployment rate rose and hourly earnings stagnated, offering little evidence the Obama administration’s stimulus package...

United States taxpayers are not happy campers when the subject of bank bailouts are discussed and I’m certain that perception will be bolstered by a story in today’s Washington Post that indicates Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) played a role in a bailout for a bank in which most of his life’s savings are invested. The upshot of the story indicates Inouye and his staff did nothing illegal...

And that is why Olympia Snowe wants to keep it out of the Obama administration’s health care reform bill. Chris Bowers quotes from an AP article published in the Baltimore Sun:

This post is addressed only to those readers who earn less than $250,000 per year. George Stephanopoulos was doing his best yesterday morning to figure out if President Obama really meant it when he promised not to raise taxes on you. Steph put the question to David Axelrod: STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to show our viewers something the president said during the campaign back in September. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) OBAMA:...

When I was barely 23 in 1969, I drove the entire Pan-American Highway from the Rockies to the tip of Panama, then floated Jeep around the Darian Jungle to South America. One of those inspired dead-dangerous things young people do. I barely made it home alive. Especially while driving my battered Jeep through the jungles and mountains and lakelands of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador where the US Embassy said...

Barring a miracle — I’d say a billion-to-one shot — the California legislature will not pass a budget by its constitutional deadline at midnight tomorrow forcing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pay bills by issuing IOU notes as he has vowed. The state’s Democratic-dominated Assembly late Sunday passed a series of tax fees in an effort to balance the budget’s $24 billion shortfall...

The New York Times has just reported that a federal judge sentenced Bernard L. Madoff to 150 years in prison for operating a huge Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of people, calling his crimes “extraordinarily evil.” Apparently, Mr. Madoff finally expressed some regret before a courtroom packed with victims: I’m responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that…I...

Tomorrow (that is Tuesday, June 30) would be a shameful day for Boston…. It is disbanding United States of America’s first mounted police unit. The AP report states: “(The Boston Mounted Unit’s) 12 horses would be given new homes — at least until the city can come up with funds to restore the unit.” What a shame that the budget cuts would hurt this 136-year-old historic police...

I have no hesitation in admitting that I generally turn to The Economist when I am looking for details regarding any hot world issue, or if I fail to understand its different dimensions. This venerable British magazine has some interesting points to offer regarding the US health-care reforms. “Because health insurance is so expensive, nearly 50 million Americans, an obscene number in such a rich place,...

I’m not buying the Republican bromide that passage of a revolutionary energy bill is nothing but a tax increase. Of course it will cost money for the transformation just as my first Apple computer cost $3,300 in the early 1980s and about a third of that in today’s market The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the average American household would pay an additional $175 a year in energy costs...

Kimberley A. Strassel at the Wall Street Journal writes about the growing number of skeptics on “human caused global warming”: Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media),...

Except for the weather, I’m glad this morning I live in Missouri rather than California.

Like many of you, I also listened to President Obama recently fielding questions on proposed health care reforms currently under consideration. One of the less artful answers came on the subject of what kind of health care he would like for his own family. Ed Morrissey found it to be telling, labeling it a Dukakis moment. I’m not sure if it was quite that bad, but it certainly didn’t speak well for...

Just when you thought the vulgarization of culture that is now worldwide due to the unifying influence of cable, the Internet and You Tube can’t get any more vulgar, Burger King proves you wrong with news of its new advertising campaign for its “Super Seven Incher Sandwich” that’s fun for journalists to report on, will get lots of buzz but would hurt the company if it was unveiled even...

President Barack Obama said at his press conference today that the most important health care reform is reducing costs. Mr. President, do I have a plan for you. There’s actually one in the Senate that answers your criteria that includes kind of a public option, a hybrid, one could say. For more than a year, the U.S. Senate has had a universal health care reform plan before it that could be revenue neutral...