A little more than a year ago, I wrote an article about a subject that I found fascinating: “The World War II Navajo Code Talkers.” It started with a reference to the great, 2002 movie “Windtalkers,” about the use of Native Americans, such as the Navajos, during World War II in the Pacific Theater by the U.S. intelligence services to transmit secret messages using “codes” built around their...

Eric Cantor is a rising Washington star, as JFK was when he published his 1955 best seller about political fortitude. But sadly Cantor doesn’t have a stylish collaborator like Ted Sorensen, and his turgid essay on American success was scheduled for more turbulent times, producing a chapter to qualify for “Profiles in Caution.” At the Wharton School of Business yesterday, the House Majority Leader was to...

WASHINGTON – Anyone in the public arena knows how this works. It’s unsurprising that the Washington Post decided to dig into the details, especially as the 2012 election season unfolds. Regardless of Sen. Rubio’s denial he wants to be vice president, the fact remains that he is seen by many, especially in the media, to be a rising star. For good reason, especially as we look upon the motley...

A headline in today’s New York Times reads: “Occupy Wall Street Not Like Us, Tea Party Says.” The subhead then goes on to read: “Where Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party differ is in where they place the blame.” Nonsense. The Tea Party blames government for the country’s present economic problems. The Occupiers blame the heavies in the financial community. But these aren’t...

I am told that in my “Cain’s ‘Simple’ 9-0-9 Plan Variation and ‘Opportunity Zones‘” I was a little tough on Mr. Cain. So to balance things out, let me review an article that comes — somewhat — to the defense of Mr. Cain and his x-x-x Plan. It is from an unlikely source, TIME’s Fareed Zakaria. Starting with the premise that “Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” plan...

As we all knew he would, and after weeks of stubbornly and condescendingly defending it, Mr. 9-9-9 is now changing that “simple,” magic combination. After finally admitting that his plan to impose a flat 9 percent income tax on low-income Americans would in fact result in a tax increase for those Americans, Cain has now modified his “simple” plan to a 9-0-9 plan for those below or at poverty level. ...

As I was getting ready to brag about our President’s national security and foreign policy accomplishments in the wake of Libya’s Moammar Qaddafi’s ouster and death, USA TODAY beat me to it. So let me take the easy way out and just summarize what they have to say today about how “Obama builds on national security record.” The article starts with what President Obama said in December 2009, when he...

The Washington Post reports that the Obama administration has decided to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of the year after failing to reach an agreement with the Iraqi government. The agreement would have left several thousand troops there for special operations and training. President Obama and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke Friday morning to cement that agreement in a scheduled...

I just witnessed the official premiere of Saving Aimee at Seattle’s 5th Avenue Theater. First breath requires I honor the spectacular radiance of Saving Aimee’s lead, Carolee Carmello. Her portrayal of Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson is best categorized as anointed. It would be inappropriate to avoid religious imagery in relaying her gloriously captivating performance. Carmello anchors Saving...

On The Media remembers a study last year finding that sometimes misinformed people become more convinced of their opinions even when given the facts: Mr. BRENDAN NYHAN (Robert Wood Johnson Scholar in Health Policy Research, University of Michigan):… it’s threatening to us to admit that things we believe are wrong. And all of us, liberals and conservatives, you know, have some beliefs that aren’t...

A year ago, Washington rumors had Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton switching jobs for 2012, and that was before the Tea Party wrecking crew came in, brought government to a standstill and created an anti-Obama climate that threatens a hostile takeover of the White House next year. (President Perry? Cain? A compliant Romney?) The idea was dismissed out of hand back then, even though Bob Woodward, after months researching...

Part of the U.S. military strategy during the Vietnam War was to remove the heavy foliage that provided cover for the enemy through the use of herbicides. “Agent Orange” is the name given to a blend of herbicides the U.S. military sprayed from 1962 to 1971 in Vietnam to remove such foliage. The name “Agent Orange” comes from the orange identifying stripe used on the 55-gallon drums in which...

The Obama administration is once again cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California despite the fact the the benefits of medical marijuana are indisputable, they are well within California law and support for medical marijuana legalization — as well as legalization of marijuana for person use is growing exponentially across the U.S. Federal prosecutors have sent letters to landlords...

As reported here at TMV and several other sources, including the BBC, commanders for Libya’s transitional authorities say they have captured a wounded Col Qaddafi after claiming control of Sirte, Qaddafi’s birthplace. If true, this would come exactly two months after Libyan rebels captured the Libyan capital and overran Qaddafi’s fortified compound in Tripoli. In a post reporting on the Libyan rebels...

Syndicated radio show host Tom Joyner calls on blacks to support President Obama’s re-election based on “our blackness, pride & loyalty, and we should vote for him “because he’s a black man.” I won’t join other black influencers to call for black Americans to vote for President Obama because he is black. Casting one’s vote is a personal and private matter that should...

Rupert Murdoch seems sufficiently recovered from his Fleet Street troubles to be tapping into the Wall Street protesters with the full weight of his attack journalism. Yesterday he takes down the Journal paywall to tell us all: “In interviews, protesters show that they are leftists out of step with most American voters. Yet Democrats are embracing them anyway.” A former Bill Clinton pollster, based on results...

THE HAYMARKET MASSACRE There is an historic precedent for the Occupy Wall Street movement — the labor strikes of 1877 and 1886. While thuggish police and troops made those late 19th century strikes as violent as Occupy Wall Street protests have been peaceful, the two sets of events are inextricably bound by the same dynamic: In 1877 and 1886, the hundreds of thousands of striking workers were revolting...

One wonders what would have happened for Cain if he made jokes about lynching black people who make no effort to work…but then later, much later, he said ‘awwwwww, that was a joke, and America needs to get a sense of humor.’ Unfortunately, Cain himself is becoming not a leader, but is seen as a reason to laugh as he blunders along trying to find his way into a presidential nomination. He had...

To be blunt,that number has never been, uh, higher: PRINCETON, NJ — A record-high 50% of Americans now say the use of marijuana should be made legal, up from 46% last year. Forty-six percent say marijuana use should remain illegal. When Gallup first asked about legalizing marijuana, in 1969, 12% of Americans favored it, while 84% were opposed. Support remained in the mid-20s in Gallup measures from the...

Force-feeding was an unexpected subject this weekend as Herman Cain aces a “Meet the Press” grilling while gourmands stuff themselves with soon-to-be-illegal foie gras at a Los Angeles eat-in protest. David Gregory does little to ruffle the candidate’s smooth-as-pate patter, even as Associated Press reveals that Cain’s “economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers...

Police arrested 175 Occupy Chicago protesters in Grant Park yesterday, recalling not only the night Barack Obama was elected but one when I was tear-gassed there 43 years ago. [corrected: see comments] “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible,” the President-elect told 250,000 celebrants three years ago, “who still wonders if the dream...

WASHINGTON — Lost in the hubbub over Herman Cain’s love affair with the number nine during last week’s Republican debate were some compelling observations by Rick Santorum about “the breakdown of the American family” and its relationship to poverty. His comments deserved more attention than a wacky tax plan or Newt Gingrich’s proposal to jail two Democratic foes. “You...

What is at the root of what’s wrong with our economy and our civil society? Weaving the issue of the U.S. death penalty into the global financial crisis, columnist Guido Rossi of Italy’s Il Sole 24 Ore is unequivocal: our system of ‘financial capitalism’ has slowly but surely eaten away at the fabric of society, which demands protecting the rights of not only the powerful and well-connected,...

My hero: when i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself – i felt deeply troubled. but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life – i felt indescribable despair. i also made an it gets better video last year – in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time. but in...

Call it propaganda or call it delusion, but Tehran is crowing about not only predicting Occupy Wall Street and allied groups, but says it considers itself primarily responsible for all the unrest – Eastern and Western – since the Arab Spring began. So could it be that the protests which began in New York on September 17 and have now spread across the developed world reflect a yearning to reject...