I missed writing my annual paean to the change of seasons this year. In the past, my blog sang the praises of the return of the robin, the blooming of the dogwood, the eternal hope engendered by opening day at Wrigley Field, and the quiet joy that feeling the warmth of the sun on my face after months of bitter cold brings to my fatalistic Irish soul. I just didn't have it in … [Read more...] about Springtime has Become the Winter of My Discontent
Mission Creep on a Creepy Mission
Is anyone surprised that the C.I.A. is on the ground in Libya, along with who-knows-what Special Forces, presumably to find out who the rebels are and how to help them? How could it be otherwise? The President's disingenuous speech evoked "images of slaughter and mass graves," then insisted that "broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a … [Read more...] about Mission Creep on a Creepy Mission
Republican Double Standard: Target AARP, While NRA Gets a Pass
WASHINGTON -- Waaaaaaah---waaaaaaaaah--wah. The big bad AARP is beating us senseless with their huge numbers, so the Republican We'll Show Them Report is out. And Republican allies have come up with a scary title for AARP to rev up the Right: "AARP is the Death Star of American entitlements." Through AARP the Right hopes to do a tricky bank shot over to Social Security and … [Read more...] about Republican Double Standard: Target AARP, While NRA Gets a Pass
Obama and Libya
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved. … [Read more...] about Obama and Libya
Poll: Obama’s Popularity Increasing Among Young People
Coming at a time when some polls show President Barack Obama's poll numbers taking a big dip, he has some good news: his numbers are up among young people, The Hill reports: President Obama's job-approval rating among young people has gone up, even as his overall approval rating has hit an all-time low in certain surveys. A new poll of 18- to 29-year-olds by Harvard … [Read more...] about Poll: Obama’s Popularity Increasing Among Young People
Losing Democracy
These are raw thoughts, not fully formed, subject to change. Just reflections bouncing about through otherwise unoccupied brain cells. The question is easy; the answer and the why and the solution, not so much. Are we losing our democracy? I think, in these raw thoughts, the answer is yes. Walking through some of today’s news bits - the ones on the margins - you’ll see … [Read more...] about Losing Democracy
Canada’s Grudge Match
Stephen Harper's suggestion that he and Michael Ignatieff go one on one in a leaders debate is intriguing. I doubt that it will happen. As Elizabeth May is proving once again, you simply can't exclude the leaders of the other parties. Nonetheless, Harper's suggestion is interesting because of what it reveals about him. For Harper, this election isn't about the budget. It's not … [Read more...] about Canada’s Grudge Match
The South Is A Bad Place To Be Poor
So says Ezra Klein: A few weeks ago, Andy Kroll caught Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour saying he’d “dug out of a $720 million budget hole in two years without raising anybody’s taxes.” The problem? Barbour had raised a couple of taxes. But give him his credit: He hadn’t raised income taxes. Rather, he’d raised cigarette taxes and taxes on … [Read more...] about The South Is A Bad Place To Be Poor
Mother’s Milk (The K Street Poem)
Money, money is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks; Nothing tops the mighty power Of this endless dollar shower. Need a special taxing break? Legislators soothe the ache. Having trouble with a reg? Heavy hitters need not beg. Money, money, is what talks, No one in the Beltway walks. Year by year the anger grows ‘Bout these tawdry money flows. Pols beat … [Read more...] about Mother’s Milk (The K Street Poem)
Obama Meet Obama
WASHINGTON -- Someone should introduce the Barack Obama who addressed the nation Monday on Libya to the Barack Obama who has been dancing around the edge of the budget fight. In his Libya speech, Obama was clear, forceful and principled. Yes, there were some ambiguities but these were dictated by a genuinely uncertain situation on the ground, not by muddled thinking. … [Read more...] about Obama Meet Obama
Does This Spell Google?
That's the question the students greeted me with when I came into work this morning. They were gathered around a computer looking at today's Google Doodle... The doodle celebrates the inventor of the Bunsen burner, Robert Bunsen, on what would have been his 200th birthday. The link goes to Bunsen's Wikipedia page, where it says his birthday was yesterday. The Mail online … [Read more...] about Does This Spell Google?
GOP Target
This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved. … [Read more...] about GOP Target
A So-So Presidential Speech (Guest Voice)
A So-So Presidential Speech by Michael Reagan If President Obama’s address to the nation the other night was meant to keep the American people up-to-date on the situation in the Middle East, it missed its mark, leaving us in a state of confusion. For starters, the president implicitly limited America's proven exceptionalism. We may be exceptional, he admits, but not in … [Read more...] about A So-So Presidential Speech (Guest Voice)
How Did We Get Here?
I watched the movie, Inside Job, yesterday on my new Blue Ray player. Blue Ray, by the way, is everything it is cracked up to be. It makes me wonder how I watched fuzzy DVD’s. Inside Job on the other hand, was not. The movie, I felt, was a little unfair to Angelo Mozilo the co-founder and former CEO of Countrywide Financial. The movie made it seem Mozilo had somehow invented … [Read more...] about How Did We Get Here?
Supreme Court Ruling Is Unjust
John Thompson spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana because New Orleans prosecutors hid evidence that exonerated him. It sounds like the plot of this week's episode of ABC's Castle, except in the Hollywood story, the D.A. gets his comeuppance. In real life, the "conservative" block of the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the jury decision against the prosecutor's … [Read more...] about Supreme Court Ruling Is Unjust
Report: Obama Authorized Secret Help for Libya Rebels (Blog & News Roundup)
On a day when a poll found President Barack Obama getting his lowest polling numbers ever, and as the big political story playing out is whether or not there will be a government shutdown, a new story has surfaced via an exclusive report that promises to spark a new extensive debate. And it already has -- a debate sweeping like lightning through the Internet and on cable news … [Read more...] about Report: Obama Authorized Secret Help for Libya Rebels (Blog & News Roundup)
GOP’s Shameless Olympics of 2011
A candidate will emerge from the 2012 Republican primaries only after running a gauntlet of embarrassment this year. As polls show low public faith in Obama leadership, his potential successor will have to survive a field of self-promoting clowns unprecedented in presidential history. Take Newt Gingrich (please), claiming his adultery (in two marriages) more excusable … [Read more...] about GOP’s Shameless Olympics of 2011
Quote of the Day: Trump, His Birtherism and P. T. Barnum
Out political Quote of the Day comes from The Daily Beast columnist and CNN analyist John Avlon who notes that Donald Trump had a real change to run as a kind of CEO politician but has blown it in favor of assuming a birther identity -- and now resembles someone famous for being a showman and a hype: There is a place for a CEO presidential candidate in 2012. So far, Donald … [Read more...] about Quote of the Day: Trump, His Birtherism and P. T. Barnum
The Video Wisconsin Republicans Don’t Want People to See
What if a Wisconsin Republican was caught on video talking about tough it was for his family to get along on his $174,000 a year salary at a time when the state's Governor is not only cutting but eliminating collective bargaining for public unions? What if it wound up on the Internet? On the Republican Party's own site. What if a big liberal website then put it on You Tube? … [Read more...] about The Video Wisconsin Republicans Don’t Want People to See
P.J. Crowley Stands By the Comments That Got Him Fired
In a Guardian op-ed published yesterday, P.J. Crowley re-asserts his belief that the forced nakedness policy to which Pfc. Bradley Manning is being subjected is "'counterproductive' and, yes, stupid." I don't agree with everything Crowley says, but his reasons for opposing Manning's treatment are, in my view, very much on point (emphasis is mine): … [Read more...] about P.J. Crowley Stands By the Comments That Got Him Fired