Recently in Politics Category

In a January 20 article at the Center for American Progress, Michael Linden differentiated between those who are serious about addressing our fiscal problems-the deficit hawks-from those who posture and preen about it--the deficit peacocks. Here's how he defines a peacock:"Deficit peacocks like to preen and call attention to themselves, but are not sincerely interested in taking the difficult but necessary steps toward a balanced budget. Peacocks prefer scoring political points to solving problems."This is...

Fiction:"Congress at midnight Thursday approved an $801 billion package of tax cuts and $57 billion for extended unemployment insurance. The vote sealed the first major deal between President Obama and Congressional Republicans as Democrats put aside their objections and bowed to the realignment of power brought about by their crushing election losses. The bipartisan support for the tax deal also underscored the urgency felt by the administration and by lawmakers in both parties to prop...

Above you see a Christmas ornament on my Christmas Tree.The ornament is of the U.S. Capitol with a copy of the Constitution scrolled around the building.You light up the ornament by placing a Christmas tree light into the back of the ornament.I placed a green bulb in the Capitol/Constitution because our nation's political system is run by big money.It's always been this way---But since the terrible Citizens United ruling earlier this year by the Supreme Court, the...

I thought all the dinosaurs were extinct. Apparently not. There's still one wandering around the Pentagon:"The nation's top Marine Corps officer said he could not endorse a change in the "don't ask, don't tell" law that could cause distractions or endanger the lives of Marines in combat.Ultimately, the voices of forward-fighting combat Marines who worried about unit cohesion in the Pentagon's survey swayed Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos, leading him to recommend that Congress...

The Senate voted 83-15 yesterday to invoke cloture on President Obama's sell-out compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top 2%. Nine Democrats and Bernie Sanders voted "no." The nine were: Jeff Bingaman (NM), Sherrod Brown (OH), Russ Feingold (WI), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Kay Hagan (NC), Frank Lautenberg (NJ), Pat Leahy (VT), Carl Levin (MI), and Mark Udall (CO). One of the poster children for duplicity and hypocrisy, Mary Landrieu of...

*Sigh*"President Obama will host a roundtable with about 20 corporate chiefs on Wednesday, according to the White House, part of an attempt to ease strained relations with business. Expected for the session at the Blair House, across the street from the White House, are executives from a range of industries, including American Express, Cisco Systems, Dow Chemical, Google, Motorola, Intel, UPS and PepsiCo, according to people involved in the planning. But the White House said...

One of the things that struck me about Barack Obama during the campaign was how so many people questioned his every move. Then, a day or so later it would all suddenly make sense. He was always three or four moves ahead. So, a seemingly stupid move ended up being brilliant. They say a good chess player plays several moves ahead of his or her current move. Something tells me that Obama would be good...

There's something in the tax cut extension debate that doesn't add up to me. The argument for extension is that if the cuts are allowed to expire the middle-class will be hit hard by tax increases on January 1st. But the overwhelming majority of the benefit from the Bush tax cuts went to the top 5%. So how will middle-class taxpayers be hit the hardest if the cuts are allowed to expire? Seems to me...

And it's a bi-partisan effort:"Both Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, signaled that they're preparing budgets that would seek cuts to government spending in order to address the deficit.Conrad said he'd look to the recommendations by President Obama's fiscal commission as a "starting point," and then look to craft a budget that improves on those proposals."I have...

Just one small segment of Sen. Bernie Sanders' marathon speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, dealing with the class war and the winners and losers in that war:<br />"...in the year 2007, the top 1 percent of all income earners in the United States made 23.5 percent of all income. The top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income-more than the entire bottom 50 percent.""From 1980-2005, 80% of all income went to...