I took Monday off to join a friend help celebrate her 63rd birthday at the local Indian gambling casino here in southwest Riverside County, Calif. Now what I’m about to report is in no way considered on my part a racist comment. So, relax and take it for what it’s worth. The vast preponderance of people at the slots and gaming tables were Filipinos and other Asian decent. I don’t know why...

Is it possible to have too much democracy? The founding fathers certainly thought so, as Kurt Andersen reminds us … The tea-party movement takes its name from the mob of angry people in Boston who, in 1773, committed a zany criminal stunt as a protest against taxes and the distant, out-of-touch government that imposed them. Two years later, the revolution was under way and—voilà!—democracy was born...

While it remains depressingly futile to bang the drum of warning against the dangers posed to the American economy by the new “global economy” there is a piece up at HuffPo this week by Thom Harmann which everyone should read. Globalization Is Killing The Globe: Return to Local Economies The reason I find the subject depressing (which, not coincidentally, is also the reason I get beaten up by my...

From a very recent Rasmussen poll: Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes. Considering the public pillorying that occurs every time a politician dares to suggest cuts, I find that percentage to be absolutely astonishing. Are we really...

According to this sobering editorial from the NRC Handelsblad of The Netherlands, recent tension between China and the United States is the opening tremor of a tectonic shift in the relative influence of the world’s two top two powers – and that shift strongly favors Beijing. The NRC Handelsblad editorial says in part: According to conservative estimates, it will be less than fifteen years before...

WASHINGTON — If President Obama gets to sign a health reform bill, as I believe he will, one reason may be Rep. Jay Inslee’s difficult experience renovating his kitchen. He told his kitchen story at a House Democratic caucus held after Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts sent Inslee’s colleagues into paroxysms of dismay, chaos and fear. Brown’s triumph reduced...

And House Democrats push back.

Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

On my way to tennis this morning, I was listening to NPR and caught the end of an interesting conversation on an alleged correlation between the Super Bowl winner and the stock market. However, I didn’t catch the name of the professor who had done such a study. Curious as to how my stocks will be doing after tonight’s Super Bowl, I “Googled” the subject and hit the jackpot. The professor is...

Simon Johnson, who has made a career of studying and intervening in countries that have sovereign debt crises, has a very blunt post today, “Europe Risks Another Global Depression.” Notice the full stop; there is no passive aggressive question mark at the end to give him any wiggle room should it all blow over. Considering his expertise about identifying when countries have gone past the event horizon,...

I’m mad as hell and can’t stand it any longer. I’ve heard conservative and moderate Democrats, Republicans and Independents complain too much taxes, too many regulations and a trend of socialism taking over our lives. President Barack Obama said he’s been accused of being a Bolshevik. I’m mad as hell because these complainers have failed to offer workable alternatives. And yes,...

One of the most dramatic moments of campaign 2008 was when Republican candidate Senator John McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign and immediately flying to Washington due to the seemingly collapsing economy, in a take charge imagery moment. But in Henry Paulson’s new book, On the Brink, now excerpted in the Wall Street Journal, the ex-Treasury Secretary gives an insider’s account...

There are those in Spain today, laughing at Prime Minister Zapetero’s appearance at America’s annual National Prayer Breakfast. The implication is that as an ‘avowed enemy of Christianism,’ he’s a hypocrite. And by the looks of it, according to right-wing columnist Federico Quevedo of Spain’s El Confidencial the once-coveted visit to Obama’s side isn’t likely...

John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Should China treat America’s proposed weapons sale to Taiwan as a blessing in disguise? According to this article by a writer with the pen name Young Mao in the state-controlled Global Times, Beijing must use this experience to rally the nation and overcome the long-term policy of the United States to “contain China.” For the Global Times, Young Mao writes in part: Keeping in mind the details...

Taylor Jones, El Nuevo Dia, Puerto Rico This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to appear on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

The Blame Thing by David Goodloe Back around the time of the Watergate scandal, a comedian named David Frye — who was pretty good at impressions of many famous people — was fairly successful with albums that focused on the presidency of Richard Nixon. I particularly remember a recording called “Richard Nixon: A Fantasy,” which turned out to be a dream that Nixon had about the Watergate break–in,...

The Winds of Political Change by Michael Reagan This week, the State of Illinois concluded its primaries for its soon-to-be-open United States Senate Seat. This seat, President Obama’s until he won the presidency, has gained infamy with former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s efforts to “sell” the seat to the highest bidder. The race will feature five-term Republican Congressman Mark Kirk...

Sir Winston Churchill, statesman and British Prime Minister during the 1940′s and 1950′s was at his best when insulting others with his famous wit. He was an originator of the political “sound-bite.” He may also have been blind to or in denial of the obvious steep decline of the British Empire from World War One through the Independence of India. At best he tried to ameliorate its collapse...

Whiplash Alert: A few weeks after suggesting I might start voting all-Democrat (then changing my mind) — and a mere two days after cringing (despite the source) at certain surveyed beliefs of the GOP base — I discover that I’m again listening to (and agreeing with) certain proposals made by both GOP leadership and Republican friends of mine. My right-leaning readers are probably wondering...

The backlash against decades of American lecturing of Europe about the evils of state intervention into the free market shows no sign of abating. This article by columnist Thomas Fricke of Germany’s Financial Times Deutschland provides fresh ammunition for Germans who want their friends in the U.S and Britain to shut up once and for all. For the Financial Times Deutschland, Thomas Fricke writes in part: What...

Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden is tired of seeing the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan demeaned, derided and dismissed, and he wanted to talk about it. But a funny thing happened in the course of an interview at Biden’s White House office on Tuesday afternoon. The vice president’s passions poured forth not when he was offering his point-by-point defense of...

The U.S. economy has shed an unprecedented number of jobs during the past 2 years and it will probably continue losing a steady stream of jobs over the next decade in all industries. Most of these jobs will never return because of changing technology, increased robotics and massive outsourcing overseas. The U.S. private sector will inevitably create some new jobs so the overall unemployment rate will remain...