WASHINGTON -- From all evidence, the issue of economic justice isn't going away. Break the news gently to Mitt Romney, who seems apoplectic that the whole "rich get richer, poor get poorer" thing is being discussed out loud. In front of the children, for goodness sake. "You know I think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms," he told the "Today" show's … [Read more...] about A Fair Share of Scrutiny
Balance The Budget
Another of the many 'balance the budget' programs, this time from the NYT I'll be curious to see how folks tackle this. I presume some will do nothing but spending cuts while others will focus mostly on tax hikes and cutting the military. But it's a fun exercise … [Read more...] about Balance The Budget
An Unhappy Result When Free Speech Meets The Roberts Court Meat Grinder
There was a time not long ago when free speech was guaranteed in America, and if someone had a problem with that the Supreme Court would weigh in with a reminder that the concept is a foundation on which our democracy is built. But a funny thing happened on the way to the second decade of the new millennium. According to a new study, the court led by Chief Justice John … [Read more...] about An Unhappy Result When Free Speech Meets The Roberts Court Meat Grinder
The Sad Irony of this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
First, an observation which I seldom see in print: King remembered going to a lecture on the principles of Gandhi, and how it changed his thinking. And Gandhi remembered reading Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" while in jail in South Africa. Now, of course, we know that another South African prisoner, Nelson Mandela, was, in turn, inspired by King in South Africa, … [Read more...] about The Sad Irony of this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Live Blogging and Roundup: the Fox News Wall Street Journal South Carolina Republican Presidential Hopefuls’ Debate (FINAL)
Due to travel, I got online late. The following are some live blogging entries on the debate in South Carolina between GOPers seeking the 2012 Republican nomination. These are the reactions of an independent voter who has been in both parties -- reactions not to political stands as much as to how they answered, came across and how what they say will help or hurt them with their … [Read more...] about Live Blogging and Roundup: the Fox News Wall Street Journal South Carolina Republican Presidential Hopefuls’ Debate (FINAL)
New Polls Bring Good News for Romney: Mixed News for Obama
Polls are coming out faster now than McDonald's hamburgers -- and new ones keep delivering good news for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and mixed news for President Barack Obama. How much in disarray is Romney's opposition? So much so that evangelicals are now enmeshed in an accusation war about whether the vote of 150 social conservative activists this weekend was … [Read more...] about New Polls Bring Good News for Romney: Mixed News for Obama
Mississippi Pardons
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. … [Read more...] about Mississippi Pardons
Hugo Chavez and the Anomaly of Latin American Islamization (La Vanguardia, Spain)
Is there any historical basis for the alliance between certain Latin American nations and Islamic fundamentalist Iran? For Spain's La Vanguardia, apparently exasperated columnist Pilar Rahola says that, "If Simon Bolívar were raise his head and see Ahmadinejad and Chávez in his noble land, he would die a second time of pure shame." For La Vanguardia, Pilar Rahola writes in … [Read more...] about Hugo Chavez and the Anomaly of Latin American Islamization (La Vanguardia, Spain)
My Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
"If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward." - Martin Luther King Jr. Doug Bursch blogs and tweets Fairlyspiritual. … [Read more...] about My Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
The MASC (The Marketing-Security Complex)
No. It's not your imagination. You're not a conspiracy hysteric. There is a force out there that is controlling our economic, political and social lives to an extraordinary extent, reducing one of the most sacred traditional rights of a free society, privacy, to increasing irrelevance. To give it a name, call it the MASC — the Marketing-Security Complex. In a 1961 speech, … [Read more...] about The MASC (The Marketing-Security Complex)
Incarceration & Unemployment, Europe & the U.S.
Steve Roth wonders, how do incarceration rates affect unemployment numbers? Europe has consistently higher unemployment than the U.S., but the U.S. has far and away the highest incarceration rate in the world — .75% of the population. (World Prison Population List [PDF], compiled since 1992 by Roy Walmsley of the International Centre for Prison Studies.)Only Russia comes … [Read more...] about Incarceration & Unemployment, Europe & the U.S.
Barring a Huge Event: the GOP Nominee Will Be Romney
A quick post. I am in Alamogordo, New Mexico right now about to leave my hotel here for another city on my national tour, but it needs to be said: Barring some huge political event, the GOP nominee WILL be former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Why? 1. A series of new polls show Romney is way ahead of the others nationally. 2. A new poll shows that if Romney runs against … [Read more...] about Barring a Huge Event: the GOP Nominee Will Be Romney
MLK: “I Have a Dream” is the Imron Chassis, but “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is the Far More Gritty Engine
When I read this letter for the many-eth time in my life, I see MLK's spiritual discipline, the knowledge of how to go forward in four steps, the leadership, the clear demands, the efforts at negotiation, the spiritual self-examination so one doesnt go off half-cocked caught up in the yelling... and the non violent protest for clear cut goals. When I read Reverend King's … [Read more...] about MLK: “I Have a Dream” is the Imron Chassis, but “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is the Far More Gritty Engine
Quote of the Day: How Obama’s Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
Our political Quote of the Day comes from Andrew Sullivan, who concludes what I have also concluded: Barack Obama seems to be operating on a different wavelength than many past Presidents so his foes may underestimate him at their peril. I've concluded that when history is written Barack Obama won't be categorized as "another JFK" or like FDR, Harry Truman, or even as his … [Read more...] about Quote of the Day: How Obama’s Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
A Memory of Martin Luther King
Five years ago, in another political world when Barack Obama was getting ready to run for president, I wrote this: West Side residents of Chicago now have a U.S. Senator who looks like them and it may be, in more ways than one, due to the man whose birthday we celebrate tomorrow. Martin Luther King Jr. preached nonviolence to the oppressed. “Our weapon is love,” he told … [Read more...] about A Memory of Martin Luther King
Did Kansas GOP Leader House Speaker Send Email Prayer Calling for Death of Barack Obama?
How hateful has our politics become? This hateful: An email recently sent by Kansas House Speaker Mike O'Neal (R-Hutchinson) to his Republican colleagues appears to endorse a controversial prayer that some say calls for the untimely death of President Obama. "Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8." That's the slogan an email from O'Neal refers to, a phrase that's become popular in … [Read more...] about Did Kansas GOP Leader House Speaker Send Email Prayer Calling for Death of Barack Obama?
Keys To The White House
With the primary season underway it is already time for people to speculate the winner in November. Of course this is hardly a new situation; pundits have been trying to predict the outcome of the elections for decades and usually with mixed results at best. In the early 1980's, a political scientist named Allan Lichtman decided to try and figure out a way to predict the … [Read more...] about Keys To The White House
Menendez Relents- Highlights Senate Holds and Blue Slipping
New Jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez has relented and is no longer blocking the appointment of Judge Patty Shwartz to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His obstruction was apparently due to Menendez’s antipathy to Shwartz’s long time boy friend, federal prosecutor James Nobile, who had investigated Menendez for possible corruption charges in … [Read more...] about Menendez Relents- Highlights Senate Holds and Blue Slipping
Remembering Dr. King & The Never Ending Struggle For Civil Rights
(PORTIONS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN JANUARY 2007) When I was first cutting my teeth in the newspaper business, my editors sent me out on "house ends," visits to homes where I would interview families of interest because something very bad of interest had happened to them. It was the late 1960s and many of these house ends were the result of the death of a young man, … [Read more...] about Remembering Dr. King & The Never Ending Struggle For Civil Rights
Huntsman To Endorse Romney
AP reports that Jon Huntsman will endorse Mitt Romney for the GOP Presidential nomination sometime Monday in South Carolina. Ironically, the state's largest newspaper, The State, endorsed Huntsman on Sunday. But the unhealthy demand for ideological purity obscures a hopeful fact about the GOP presidential field: There are actually two sensible, experienced grownups. And … [Read more...] about Huntsman To Endorse Romney