What could President Obama and Fed Chairman Bernanke undertake with respect to national economic and financial policy that would not require any Congressional approval? Congress will likely undertake nothing of any notable legislative substance before the November elections out of complete institutional gridlock, fear, ignorance and paralysis. If the next Congress is controlled by Republicans, even less than...

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s address to the nation on Iraq this week underscores the agony of his presidency, and its core political problem. Seen from the inside, the administration is an astonishing success. Obama has kept his principal promises and can take credit for achievements that eluded his Democratic predecessors. He pledged to have all combat troops out of Iraq by the end...

I hope have read Joe’s excellent post below on Glenn Beck’s magical mystery tour this weekend.  So what is it all about?  It’s all about snake oil.  Here is a post I did over at Newshoggers a few months ago. ————————————- Modern Day Snake Oil While P.T. Barnum may be dead the fact remains that a sucker is born every...

The Koch brothers are all the news, David and Charles… along with what some call their ‘libertarian’ based outpouring of money so much of which is ‘heavily weighted giving’ to protect their own business interests: oil, lumber, formaldehyde. Well, they earned it. They can give it to whom they wish. Within the law. But some choices seem puzzling. And I dont mean the amounts of sugar...

This is now the subject of a Federal investigation:

Angel Boligan, Cagle Cartoons, El Universal, Mexico City This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Here is the ultimate disrespect and insensitivity: standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the same day that Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his “I Have a Dream” speech 47 years ago, pretending that a political movement that hates and mistrusts government, that thinks of civil rights as “special rights,” that attacks the first black President of the United States in explicitly...

To those predisposed because of ideological animus to dismiss the notion of the tea party movement being the true inheritors of Martin Luther King’s dream, you might as well click away now. But if you want to engage on this issue in a reasonable manner, discussing the pros and cons rationally, you are invited to read on and ponder both the irony and the efficacy of these claims as they relate to history...

Our Quote of the Day comes from Daily Beast and CNN centrist analyst John Avlon, from a column that ran yesterday. It sets the scene for conservative talk show host Glenn Beck’s big rally today in Washington D.C. It’s worth quoting and considering in detail here since it touches on some of the broader issues and places the rally in context. Some excerpts: But the ambition [of Beck] to turn from...

The last time I interrupted your week (or weekend) to share with you the sad statistics on the mounting number of U.S. military casualties in Afghanistan was exactly two months ago. In “The Faces behind the Drip-Drip of U.S. Casualties in Afghanistan,” I tried to point out how: [I]n the national news media, the names and the numbers of our fallen heroes are often buried deep inside the bowels of the printed...

Nicole John was the 17-year-old daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Thailand. She died this morning after falling from the 25th floor of a Manhattan high-rise, apparently because she climbed up on the ledge of a balcony at a very late-night party to take a photograph (a camera was found next to her body), and was too drunk to remember that when you do that you are liable to lose your balance and fall, and when...

John Cole, The Scranton Times-Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Does the divisive controversy over the Muslim community center near Ground Zero demonstrate how radical Christians and Muslims have taken over the public debate to such an extent, that they threaten the freedoms millions have fought and died for? Columnist Patrick Etschmayer writes for The News of Switzerland, that those opposing the Cordoba House are helping the terrorists obtain one of their most cherished...

Even to me, a Democrat, Rolling Stone, the publication that “outed” General McChrystal, sometimes goes overboard in how it portrays the opposition and in the “colorful” language it uses to do so—“expletives deleted” certainly called for here. In his “Tea Party Rocks Primaries,” Matt Taibbi doesn’t break the mold in his analysis of Tea Party successes in the recent primaries. First, Taibbi...

As you may have heard, Conservative radio and TV personality Glenn Beck is organizing a rally, “Restoring Honor,” on Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. The rally will take place on the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Beck claims it is “a coincidence.” Beck does not call the rally political, but rather as a moment that he thinks will...

On the occasion of Ken Mehlman’s decision to come out as a gay man, I re-post in full my reaction to seeing Brokeback Mountain from December 2005: Homosexual and gay are not synonymous; all homosexuals are not gay. Homosexual acts may be circumstantial – a man in prison, a drunken evening – or experimental and do not mean an individual is homosexual by nature. But experimentation can lead to...

Obama Making Everybody Angry by Michael Reagan It’s almost as if President Obama’s agenda includes provoking anger at himself. And it’s not just Republicans he’s provoking. It’s just about anybody who crosses his path, even his party’s deranged left wing. Long-time liberal Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel is a case in point. The veteran Harlem congressman reacted to criticism from the president, who...

Is anyone surprised? Marc Ambinder got the get: Mehlman is the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay. Because his tenure as RNC chairman and his time at the center of the Bush political machine coincided with the Republican Party’s attempts to exploit anti-gay prejudices and cement the allegiance of social conservatives, his declaration to the world is at once a personal act and an act...

WASHINGTON — Republicans are in the midst of an insurrection. Democrats are not. This vast gulf between the situations of the two parties — not some grand revolt against “the establishment” or “incumbents” — explains the year’s primary results, including Tuesday’s jarring outcomes in Florida and Alaska. The agitation among Republicans is not surprising,...

In a Survey USA poll conducted between August 3 and August 5, 77% of respondents agree with the statement “corporate election spending is an attempt to bribe politicians,” while only 19% believe that “corporate election spending is a form of free speech, so there should be no limit on how much corporations can spend to influence elections.” That number includes 70% of Republicans and 73% of Independents...

Hello there, Dr. E. here. We no longer call people ‘crip’ unless a person nicknamed themselves that… we no longer call people ‘that poor crippled person’ … and until we find a better phrase, we say people who need accommodations to have full access to life, ‘people with special needs.’ I’m one of the Commissioners for the first Special Needs District of...

In 1981 Raymond R. Sawyer strangled his second wife, Francis Sawyer, to death in cold blood in the couple’s home. It took police 26 years to solve the case. In 2007, Sawyer, while being interviewed at his home in Arvada, Colorado, gave information only the killer could have known. He was arrested and charged with first degree murder. In 2008 as part of a plea deal, the first degree murder charges were...

As our recent coverage of the Iraqi media has amply demonstrated, Iraqis are losing patience with political leaders who, five months after nationwide elections, have yet to form a new government. So what’s the solution? According to columnist Talib Al Saffar of the newspaper Sotal Iraq, the only answer is a presidential system similar to that in the United States. Unfortunately, Talib Al Saffar writes,...

Well, yes, the Star Spangled Banner is a hard song to sing. But we wanted to start off your day with our national anthem with a bang. SO: OK…maybe that wasn’t quite it…so let’s try someone famous like Michael Bolton (who was a friend of my brother’s when we grew up in Connecticut): Let’s try it one more time. Perhaps a non-professional will get it right: But some have put...

Let Our Fear Be More Accurate by Tina Dupuy Right after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a dry cleaner’s storefront was vandalized and set ablaze in Modesto, California. The reason? The business was named “French Cleaners.” The French government took a strong anti-war stance regarding our preemptive invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. They said they would not join the “Coalition of the Willing.”...