Andrew Sullivan points to Ron Brownstein on the Census Bureau report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in 2008 to find that on every major measurement… …the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance...

Five years after that horrific day in September 2001, the following letter appeared in TIME: Five years after 9/11, our nation ought to be as united as it was on that tragic day. We should have held on to the outpouring of global goodwill and support we received then. We should have remained laser-focused on rooting out and bringing to justice those responsible for the attacks. We should have remained committed...

Riber Hansson, Sweden This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to appear on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

In an attempt to regain control of the health care debate if not his presidency, President Barack Obama crafted a speech a fifth grader could grasp and Congress could follow allowing all Americans to receive affordable medical services. What struck me was all the goals and specifics outlined by the president seem reasonable enough for Congress to adopt with all sides of the equation giving up some of their hallowed...

India’s favourite spiritual book, The Bhagavad Gita, has made a dramatic impact at Harvard, Wharton and other business schools with its universal message of “concentration, consistency, and cooperation”. In a nutshell: “You can’t succeed in business (or war) unless you develop the intellect, which controls the mind and body.” The Gita remains relevant in the conduct of any...

WASHINGTON — After a listless summer during which his opponents dominated the health care debate, President Obama used a dramatic appearance before Congress on Wednesday to seize control of the autumn, the season of decision for the initiative he has turned into the central test of his presidency. Having avoided specifics in order to give the House and Senate room to legislate, he piled on the...

Newsweek’s “The Gaggle” offers this analysis.

Eleven years ago, Greg Missman served in the U.S. military as an Army specialist. When he finished his tour of duty, he returned to civilian life. Last year, he lost his job as a computer consultant, and with it, his health insurance. So, he decided to re-enlist in the Army for the health insurance benefits. He was sent to Afghanistan, and one month later was killed in action.

To balance the furor over bureaucratic boards to decide whether the aged are worth saving with medical care, the financial wizards who brought on the mortgage meltdown have figured out a way to play roulette with their chances. Bankers, the New York Times reports, “plan to buy ‘life settlements,’ life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash–$400,000 for a $1 million...

The Long-Term Balanced Budget by Hunter Hatfield With regard to budgets, we in the U.S. are typically offered two choices: 1) no balanced budget rules or 2) an annual balanced budget. Currently, 32 states have a balanced budget amendment in their constitution while 11 more have statutory rules. That’s 43 of 50 states. Meanwhile, the federal government has none. As is obvious to anyone watching, there are...

Previous generations marked the holiday with parades, speeches and editorials honoring the dignity of work. Today’s theme is despair over failure to find jobs. “Labor Day 2009 is a terrible time to be an American worker,” writes Washington Post columnist Harold Meyerson. “Official unemployment hovers just under 10 percent, its highest level since the early 1980s. Add in the partly employed...

That is essentially the question Josh Marshall asks about health care reform. And the answer is, when it comes to health care reform, half a loaf may well be worse than none:

The White House has just released the text of a controversial back-to-school speech that President Barack Obama will be making to our children tomorrow. The speech will be broadcast directly into the schools, mainlining into the minds of our vulnerable children in a brazen attempt to, in the guise of civics education, indoctrinate our young ones and to fill their little heads with communist propaganda. No...

Jeff Parker, Florida Today This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

by Walter Brasch It’s Labor Day, and that means millions of Americans are celebrating. Most Americans have no idea what Labor Day is, other than self-serving political speeches, hot dogs, burgers, a pool party, and the last day of a three-day holiday. Few even know that Labor Day exists to allow people to remember and honor the struggles for respect, dignity, and acceptable wages and working conditions...

Posted at WatchingAmerica.com, this article from the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph made me smile. The piece quotes a very senior Chinese official telling more good sense about their and our (America’s) economic problems than we can hear from 100 experts on American cable TV. It describes the (almost perfect) asymmetry between the U.S.’s and Chinese economic challenges as The US spends tomorrow’s...

If you’re looking for holes in our national security, try San Antonio, Texas. Or Asheville, North Carolina:

This sort of thinking is exactly what we need to turn things around. After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one. The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life...

It may be due to my Dutch heritage; it may be because it is just good beer, but I just love Heineken beer. Back in February of this year, when our economy and the Dutch economy were going to hell in a hand basket, I wrote an article taking some comfort in the fact that Heineken sales in 2008 had risen 27 percent, boosted mainly by the company’s acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle. Six months later,...

Embattled as he now is, Barack Obama has not lost his rhetorical touch. In today’s weekly address, he uses the fourth anniversary of the Gulf hurricane as an image for American efforts to repair the economy, reform health care and overcome political division. “Government,” he says, “must be a partner–not an opponent-–in getting things done.” His description of hands-on efforts...

Yes, no, maybe, depending on the beholder’s politics, economic theories and selective reading of the meager statistics and evidence available. Vice-President Biden speechified yesterday that, after 200 days, the $787 billion stimulus, although not a “single silver bullet” but “silver buckshot,” was helping the economy. “Without it we’d be in much deeper trouble,” he said, claiming that “Instead...

Everyone knows about the troubles at Fannie and Freddie, but the Federal Housing Administration has gotten a lot less attention even though it has had by far the most dramatic change in behavior since the implosion of the lending market. The Wall Street Journal has the goods on [one of] the next bailout[s]. The FHA insures private lenders against defaults on certain home mortgages, an inducement to make such...

Patrick Chappatte, The International Herald Tribune This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

No wonder Americans are increasingly opposed to Obama’s socialist, radical vision of a nationalized health care system. Just look at what Obama will do to you, to me and to our loved ones if we allow him to succeed with his downright evil plan. In the first place, Obama’s diabolical health care plan would kill many of our children even before they are born, because Obama will force pro-life doctors,...