Is President Obama, like so many political shooting stars of hope from the past, destined to fade from the scene as quickly as he emerged? According to Financial Times Deutschland columnist Ines Zottl, “Obama is through – completely finished.” Citing some seldom-heard in English Germany prose, for the Financial Times Deutschland, Ines Zottl writes in part: “A star burns out, and the...

It is stressful out there…particularly at the office. Sometimes tempers are frayed — and sometimes they’re lost:

Facebook, Skype and Blackberry are just a few of the internet sources that could face new requirements, and expenses, if they are forced to assist federal authorities in carrying out wiretaps. A proposal to be presented to congress by the Obama administration early next year would require all internet providers doing business in the United States to add wiretap capability to their systems. James Dempsey of...

You’ve heard the old cliche about a businessman who took over a business and drove it off a cliff? From England comes a sad story about Jim Heselden, the businessman and philanthropist who bought Segway, accidentally drove himself off a cliff in a Segway: The multi-millionaire owner of the Segway company died in a freak accident yesterday when he rode one of the high-tech two-wheel machines off a cliff...

The U.S. is close to its 110th Constitutionally-mandated biennial Federal elections ritual. Unfortunately, this 18th Century process is completely unrelated to the needs of 21st Century American reality. We still believe that people will be level-headed every first Tuesday after the first Monday in every November during every even-numbered year to make sound decisions on a myriad of candidates and public...

Back in July of 2007 the always shrill Republican Paul Craig Roberts wrote the following: Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran. Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of “executive orders” that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements...

On the SNL premiere last night* and Sunday Morning this morning, she was booted from Sesame Street because she’s too hot for some parents. She’s got the cut scene — “Come on Elmo don’t you want to play?” — on her YouTube channel. Three million views and counting. Said Sesame Street: “Sesame Street has always been written on two levels, for the child and adult. We...

Mike Keefe, The Denver Post This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Senator John McCain’s flip-flopping on issues he has championed in the past, most notably immigration reform, has not been missed by U.S. Latinos or the nations of Latin America. In this article from El Tiempo of Colombia, columnist Sergio Munoz Bata lambasts John McCain for his ‘betrayal’ of Latinos for reasons of ‘blatant electioneering.’ For El Tiempo, Sergio Munoz Bata writes...

By Harry Kresky (September 23, 2010) Harry Kresky Going into the Congressional midterm elections, the focus is on contests between Democratic and Republican Party candidates who have come out of the partisan primary system. On the Republican side, this has produced a set of candidates in Alaska, Kentucky, Nevada, Florida and Delaware who, more or less, line up with the Tea Party wing of the GOP. The situation...

Here’s Susan Page on new survey results from Celinda Lake coming out today: The poll, taken Sept. 1-8, asked 800 likely voters to listen to descriptions of two hypothetical congressional candidates, Jane Smith and Dan Jones. Half then heard a back-and-forth about the candidates that used the words “ice queen” and “mean girl,” then the word “prostitute” to characterize...

Guest post by Peter Henne Peter Henne is a Security Fellow with the Truman National Security Project and a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University. (This post originally appeared at The Huffington Post.) Observers and participants in the recent Park51 debate likely noticed some parallels to the 2005 Danish Muhammad cartoon controversy. Potent religious issues mixed with a clash between freedom of speech...

Yesterday I published THIS POST from the press room of New York City’s Sheraton Hotel while attending the Clinton Global Initiative. It began by noting the presence of actor Jim Carrey, who was there in a serious capacity as founder of the Better U Foundation. The post contrasted the huge array of government officials from all over the world, academics, actors, writers, business types and corporate leaders...

avid Fitzsimmons, The Arizona Star This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

So far three young men are claiming anti-gay Bishop Eddie Long used cash, cars and expensive trips to pressure them into sexual relationships. On Inside Edition last night, Ted Haggard said he can empathize: “I think he’s heartbroken, I think he’s confused,” Haggard said on the program Wednesday. “I’ll tell you how I felt. I felt like I’d ruined my life.” Haggard’s...

Real Clear Politics does a “gotcha” on Barack Obama’s comment made in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus:

One consequence is that traditional news organizations are losing good reporters and the new media is gaining them.

The nation’s fourth-largest home lender halts evictions of homeowners in 23 states this week. Seems like someone forgot to actually read the paperwork! In a related story, no one on the face of the earth has ever read an entire software licensing agreement before initialing. Ethicists and theologians speculate if engaging in the forced practice of initialing is actually immoral. Particularly when people...

The disturbing turmoil in the United States over Muslims and immigrants is not at all an isolated case. Columnist Clovis Rossi of Brazil’s Folha newspaper writes that even nations considered the most tolerant in the world are experiencing right-wing upsurges that bode ill for the virtues of tolerance and coexistence. For Brazil’s Folha, Clovis Rossi writes in part: for the first time in that country’s...

The votes are still coming in, but with Collins and Snowe voting “no”, it appears that the filibuster blocking repeal of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that bars openly gay persons from serving in the military will be sustained on a party-line vote. The unanimity of Republican opposition to lifting the ban is increasingly confusing.  No less than former...

You’ve no doubt heard that the Montana GOP adopted a plank in their state platform outlawing homsexuality . Well, a GOP State Senator wants to get rid of a state law that bans homosexuality: Republican State Senator John Brueggeman of Polson is taking a stand on homosexuality, and is proposing a bill which would strike language from Montana law which prohibits homosexuality… Brueggeman, a Republican,...

In and issue that has pitted a younger generation Lady Gaga against the 2010 talk show political culture incarnation of former moderate/maverick Senator John McCain, Congress will today take up repealing today the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell gays in the military policy — and it’s likely to die in a filibuster. In his State of the Union address last January, President Obama repeated a campaign-trail...

At the conclusion of a substantial essay examining the question of whether the controlled extinction of carnivorous species would be a good thing, philosophy professor Jeff McMahan cautiously concludes: It would be good to prevent the vast suffering and countless violent deaths caused by predation. There is therefore one reason to think that it would be instrumentally good if predatory animal species were...

We’ve talked often about what I call the talk radio political culture which not just frames things in outrageous, push-the-envelope, demonizing sound bites but rewards, winks or enables it. Here (h/T Americablog) is former NY Republican Senator Al D’Amato drawing a very firm, assertive line on a comment Jack Burkman makes that he calls “racist.” It’s at the end of the segment....

They May Think It’s A Movement by David Goodloe “And the only reason I’m singing you this song now is ’cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you’re in a situation like that there’s only one thing you can do, and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in, say ‘Shrink, you can get anything...