Suzanne White, my favourite Chinese astrologer, is an American with a no-nonsense approach that’s a hallmark of her style even when she writes on non-astrology subjects. Here I am referring to her two posts: “Why Do Americans Fear Socialism?” and “Don’t Speechify. Teachify.” White’s first post, and here it goes: “I don’t want to ‘become a socialist’...

WASHINGTON — Try a thought experiment: What would conservatives have said if a group of loud, scruffy leftists had brought guns to the public events of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush? How would our friends on the right have reacted to someone at a Reagan or a Bush speech carrying a sign that read: “It’s time to water the tree of liberty”? That would be a reference to Thomas...

It’s unfortunate that what I brought online yesterday was colored by some distracting background noise, and I very much regret that I allowed a defensive reaction to intrude on the larger point I was trying to make. Since that point got lost in the shouting and attacks (and with the acknowledgment that I may have some hitherto unrecognized masochistic pathology), I’m going to try again. Let’s...

Rep. Barney Frank batted down a heath care reform protester who not only asked him a question suggesting he supported a Nazi policy (Barack Obama’s healthcare reform) but also held a Hitler-like doctored photo of Obama. And Frank did what a politician needed to do: confront this toxicity of polemics head on: The Los Angeles Times’ Tim Rutten deals with the issue of the legends about Obama and...

Remembering Robert Novak — Interview by Bill Steigerwald Conservative columnist and CNN “crossfire” host Robert Novak died Tuesday at age 78 after a year-long battle with brain cancer. Known as the “Prince of Darkness” – by his friends – because of his pessimistic persona, Novak was a tough political reporter from the old school who caused more than his share of bipartisan trouble for the...

The last 48 hours have served as a clarifying moment in the health care debate. First, the White House sent out trial balloons this weekend on abandoning the public option. Progressives were not amused and organized intensely for the first time this summer. Finally the left is matching the intensity of the right – and it took a perceived betrayal by the White House to do it. Second, just as progressive...

In the morass of new and old media, a big media story has been breaking — or, rather, a story that would have once been a big media story. It’s not as big as it once would have been — and isn’t being played up the way it would have been even 5 years ago — because the subject of this story has gone from being a powerful media giant to more of a weakening relic from bygone big media...

A new NBC News poll reflects that Americans remain skeptical about the Democrats’ health care reform plans. For example, “a plurality” believes that the Democrats’ health plan would worsen the quality of health care; a result that, according to MSNBC.com, “is virtually unchanged from last month’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll.” Fair enough. The president and the Democrats...

I had a dream. It took place in the White House. At the dining table was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sipping a glass of California sherry and nibbling on one of those dainty sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid stared at his plate of fried zucchini and glass of iced tea. Vice President Joe Biden was telling stories of his youth in Scranton while talking with his mouth full of...

It has been widely stated that housing prices are at all-time lows and getting worse. The reality is that this is not true. Absolutely, compared to the artificially inflated prices of 2005 – 2007 created by the irrational interest rate behavior of the Federal Reserve, housing prices have dropped precipitously. This has of course hurt those who invested at the time, but those who buy high and then sell...

First, the math. Have you seen any article that puts in context how many consumers are the beneficiaries of the Cash For Clunkers program? I haven’t. And I know that most of us feel our eyes glaze over when we think about billions. You may be surprised to learn that all the ink (digital and otherwise) and air time (TV-delivered and otherwise) has masked an important fact: the initial $1 billion helped...

One Option Is To Go On Offense by Eugene Robinson Washington Post Columnist WASHINGTON — It’s true that politics is the art of the possible, but it’s also true that great leaders expand the scope of possibility. Barack Obama took office pledging to be a transformational president. The fate of a government-run public health insurance option will be an early test of his ability to end the...

When Barack Obama was elected President in November many commentators suggested that besides the Republicans he was going to likely wind up doing battle at some point with another chunk of American’s polity: his own party’s progressive wing. And that is precisely what seems to be happening now, as the debate over the ‘public option” in health care reaches a fever pitch. Will he or won’t...

On Memeorandum right now, there is an avalanche of commentary about the White House’s signaling that it’s ready to cave on the public option. Because there is so much progblog analysis, and because there are so many distinct issues involved with this legislation, I’ve decided to organize the progblog analysis by the talking points.

In the past, we literally had to sell our house to pay a huge hospital bill. The hospital sent the bloodhounds. My husband had just lost his job. I was near death. Afterward, anything related to that crisis was big red lettered ‘pre-existing condition,” by any and every insurer we’d ever had… and although undertaking scrupulous selfcare (dont drink dont smoke, dont do illegal drugs, dont...

President Obama may or may not be a lame-duck after the 2010 Midterm elections and be swept from office in 2012, but such prognostications are really a waste of time because greater forces will dictate what happens to the U.S. both politically and economically. The reasons behind his moving so fast on so many fronts may be that he senses the ephemeral nature of political power in a deeply divided country with...

I rarely shop at Whole Foods, which has two locations in the Twin Cities. If I am looking for organic foods, I tend to look for them at the regular grocery store I shop at or go to Trader Joe’s, which one person described as the “poor man’s Whole Foods.” But I might consider shopping at the grocery chain more in the near future because of the insane and asinine boycott going on by some...

This just in from one more group of pollsters. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll found 57% of adults say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Even more —60% — doubt that the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead, and only 18% say it has done anything to help improve their personal situation. That skepticism underscores the challenge Obama faces in trying to convince...

Our second political quote of the day comes from Republican David Frum: Contra Rush Limbaugh, history’s actual fascists were not primarily known for their anti-smoking policies or generous social welfare programs. Fascism celebrated violence, anti-rationalism and hysterical devotion to an authoritarian leader. To date, the Obama administration has fallen rather short in these departments. Perhaps uncomfortably...

This is a (very) lightly modified version of a letter composed at my house this weekend. The only changes are the removal of my personal information and the name of the company. FWIW — I thought very hard about going Galt with the whole credit card industry. Still thinking about it, in fact… ***** August 15, 2009 To: My (former) Credit Card Services Company Re: Your response to the Credit Cardholders’...

Guest Voice posts do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of TMV or its many writers. A Modest Proposal, 2009 Edition by Ed Morrissey I have discovered an unfair disparity in access to a vital resource based on the economic condition of the consumer. This disparity is not just egregious, but it threatens the very core of our American way of life. People routinely get denied adequate and competent service...

The title is actually a recent headline from the New York Times for an article discussing what some U.S. college graduates are doing faced with a dismal domestic jobs market. In fact, this might be a solution to America’s more-than-likely future jobless recovery and our growing inability to create worthwhile new jobs. The U.S. today has now fewer jobs than it did in 2001, and that doesn’t even include...

Our political quote of the day comes from Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham who looks at how the left and right over the years — and particularly this year — have hurled charges of being-like-the-Nazis or being-like Hitler. First, he gives examples of the overripe and polarizing polemics on both sides, and then he writes this: Now the subject of President Obama’s health-care plan has given us yet...

Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Some critics of current Democratic healthcare reforms falsely assert that a public option entity would kill competition within the U.S. private health insurance market. This claim begs several questions. Is the private health insurance market really competitive? Should it even be based on free-market principles? Several studies have shown that in most cases across the U.S. just one or two private insurance...