The so-called "Tea Party" movement certainly has its fair share of demons. There are a smattering of genuine bigots, some unreconstructed militia fantasy adherents, and a disturbing proportion of the kind of people who wear Revolutionary War costumes on their monthly trips to the local town council meeting where they rant about vast and shadowy conspiracies controlling the … [Read more...] about More Privileged Populism
Obama Goes For The Gold In The Bankrupt Golden State
President Barack Obama today flies into California where the state budget is $20 billion in arrears and unemployment is a rising 12.6%. But the president is not asking what he can do for them, but what Democratic fat cats can do for him. Obama pulled off the same heist earlier in his term and collected $3 million. Today's event in Los Angeles is expected to far exceed that … [Read more...] about Obama Goes For The Gold In The Bankrupt Golden State
The Populism of the Privileged (Guest Voice)
WASHINGTON -- The tea party is nothing new, it represents a relatively small minority of Americans on the right end of politics, and it will not determine the outcome of the 2010 elections. In fact, both parties stand to lose if they accept the laughable notion that this media-created protest movement is the voice of true populism. Democrats will spend their time … [Read more...] about The Populism of the Privileged (Guest Voice)
Wall Street Financial Reform
Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved. … [Read more...] about Wall Street Financial Reform
Tech Industry Still A Boys’ Club
The NYTimes has a major piece asking why so few women in the Silicon Valley workforce: Tech communities in Silicon Valley and in other hubs — like New York, Austin, Tex., and Boston... — pride themselves on operating as raw meritocracies ready to embrace anyone with a good idea, regardless of education, age or station in life. For women, though, that narrative often unfolds … [Read more...] about Tech Industry Still A Boys’ Club
When Rule of Law Becomes Social Engineering in Winslow, Arizona
At the age of two, my parents moved me and our family from El Monte to the rolling, fertile hills back of San Juan Capistrano in Southern California where my father grew vegetables. While we lived there until I was 11, my best friends were from the white families in town, not because the Mexican kids were social outcasts, but because the whites formed the nucleus of the … [Read more...] about When Rule of Law Becomes Social Engineering in Winslow, Arizona
NBC’s David Gregory’s Mistake: Declining Post Meet the Press Interview Fact Check Call
There have been many big mistakes in the news biz that didn't seem as big when they first took place. Here's one: the seemingly dismissive and contemptous attitude early on by many newspaper bigwigs about the Internet -- Internet websites as somehow never being real competition to holding a paper in your hand (just like Hollywood bigwigs once felt "the talkies" sound movies … [Read more...] about NBC’s David Gregory’s Mistake: Declining Post Meet the Press Interview Fact Check Call
Living in One of Forbes Disaster Zones
The first time I visited Temecula, Calif., more than 40 years ago it was an oasis off Hwy. 395 to Riverside. I was there on assignment covering the murders of two Border Patrol officers shot down by drug runners on the old highway some 10 miles south of the town which then boasted only vineyards. I was shocked, I tell you, shocked when I returned in 2006 to live nearer my … [Read more...] about Living in One of Forbes Disaster Zones
End Of The Big Belch Theory
My favorite all-time author and columnist, multiple Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman, knows more about the Middle East and the global economy than all of the idiot pundits on television combined. In his New York Times column Sunday, Friedman waxes poetic about one of his pet projects, this one a start-up company in St. Louis which is developing sort of a pacemaker to … [Read more...] about End Of The Big Belch Theory
Obama’s targeted assassinations
Some foreign policy decisions are causing Barack Obama to be seen as an enigma wrapped in a riddle. The issue is not whether he is tough or a pushover prone to poetic speeches. It is whether he is law-abiding in international relations when under pressure or an illusionist throwing wool over foreign eyes? The current concern is over his decision to target an American citizen … [Read more...] about Obama’s targeted assassinations
Obama vs. McConnell
It's come to this: The President is publicly calling the Senate Republican Leader a liar--and worse. In his weekly address, Barack Obama says flatly that, after meeting with "two dozen top Wall Street executives to talk about how to block progress" on financial industry regulation, Mitch McConnell "came out against the common-sense reforms we’ve proposed. In doing so, he … [Read more...] about Obama vs. McConnell
Could Rottweilers Hold the Cure To Cancer?
There's an old joke: What looks good on a lawyer? The answer: a Rottweiler. But now the breed that has been used in a thousands of other comic punchlines may hold a key to understanding cancer via the study of long-living female Rottweilers: … [Read more...] about Could Rottweilers Hold the Cure To Cancer?
Stuck in the Spin Cycle (Guest Voice)
Stuck in the Spin Cycle by Peter Funt Rhetorical spinning used to be good sport. Think back on the scenes following Presidential debates, when high-powered advocates for each candidate pounced on reporters to spin every syllable so it seemed to favor their team's point of view. It was unabashedly biased, and usually entertaining. Nowadays, though, we're stuck in a … [Read more...] about Stuck in the Spin Cycle (Guest Voice)
Iceland Volcanic Ash Cloud
Yaakov Kirschen, The Jerusalem Post, Dry Bones This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved. … [Read more...] about Iceland Volcanic Ash Cloud
Pope Meets With Clerical Abuse Victims
Pope Benedict XVI today quietly met with 8 victims of clerical sex abuse in Malta. CNN reports: … [Read more...] about Pope Meets With Clerical Abuse Victims
Airlines Conduct Test Flights as Iceland Volcano Ash Cloud Grounds Flights and Smacks Economy
The volcanic ash cloud spewing forth from Iceland continues to cause havok in Europe: grounding airlines, shutting down airspace -- and potentially delivering a body blow to European countries' already reeling economies. How bad has it been? Bad enough that a high profile news story was the fact that the ash cloud caused some world leaders who planned to fly to Poland's … [Read more...] about Airlines Conduct Test Flights as Iceland Volcano Ash Cloud Grounds Flights and Smacks Economy
Kathleen Parker: Pot For A Fun Tea Party & Same-Sex Marriage A Conservative Position
Fun Protester. Not withstanding this report from the Southern Poverty Law Center finding that rage on the right is expressed as an increase in hate groups, panelists on The Chris Matthews show this weekend suggest that one big element driving the passions of the Tea Party movement is... fun! Joe Klein: It's fun. I can say as a veteran of the 1960s protests I can say that … [Read more...] about Kathleen Parker: Pot For A Fun Tea Party & Same-Sex Marriage A Conservative Position
Orwellian Evil
If you want to see a breathtaking example of Orwellian evil -- way beyond anything I have ever seen before on this subject (or any subject for that matter) -- go here. … [Read more...] about Orwellian Evil
“Climategate”? Expert Panel Concludes It’s Mostly Hot Air
I couldn't resist the pun, but this piece by Brad Plumer actually spotlights a serious finding. In the second of three independent UK investigations into the charges that East Anglia climate scientists used misleading and inaccurate research to hide evidence that global temperatures are not rising, the scientists have been completely cleared of wrongdoing: … [Read more...] about “Climategate”? Expert Panel Concludes It’s Mostly Hot Air
Lula Presses Obama to Speak to Ahmadinejad: O Globo, Brazil
Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wants to help the U.S. and Iran avoid a war - and prevent the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran. Containing some surprising quotes of the internationally ambitious Brazilian leader, this news item from Brazil's O Globo newspaper covers Lula's most recent foray into the complex world of the Middle East peace process. The O … [Read more...] about Lula Presses Obama to Speak to Ahmadinejad: O Globo, Brazil