Recently in Politics Category

All of us taught this story to our children at some point. Of course, many of you probably remember it as the tortoise and the hare. The general idea is that slow and steady wins the race more often that speeding out of the gate. Here we are in August of 2011 talking about an election that will take place in November of 2012. Obviously, we are early in the game. There is only one...

I'm already so sick the constant Perry Watch, and it's only August 2011. We may have to get through MONTHS of this.  If you do even a modicum of research, you'll find an interesting article about "Brain Biases & News" and see that people who are deemed attractive by our shallow US standards generally are considered Teflon-coated and given a "pass" on many things. (http://www.brainbiases.com/2008/11/beautiful-people-bias.html) That's one reason Sarah Palin won't go away, and why we're going...

The headline in the New York Times wrongly says now that the debt deal is signed, the battle is over:"The Senate voted Tuesday to raise the government's debt ceiling and cut trillions of dollars from its spending, concluding a long and fractious partisan battle just hours before the government's borrowing authority was set to run out." Dream on. Nothing has been concluded, the next phase is just around the corner:"On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the...

I love TED Talks and from time to time I wander all around that site watching some of the brief videos on a variety of thought- and conversation-provoking topics.I went looking for one of my personal faves today, neuroscientist VS Ramachandran, and landed upon his discussion of "The neurons that shaped civilization." Ramachandran is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology which, despite their apparent simplicity, have generated many new ideas about the workings of the...

Reactions to "the deal"Paul Krugman says "The President Surrenders." "...[T]he deal itself, given the available information, is a disaster, and not just for President Obama and his party. It will damage an already depressed economy; it will probably make America's long-run deficit problem worse, not better; and most important, by demonstrating that raw extortion works and carries no political cost, it will take America a long way down the road to banana-republic status.We currently have...

If Speaker Boehner's attempt to get his debt ceiling plan passed by the House last night was a referendum on his leadership, the results are in and they are clear--Boehner is not in charge, the inmates are truly running the asylum, and fully intent on running the economy over the cliff. As Ron Beasley at The Moderate Voice put it, Boehner's " not trying to herd cats, but lemmings."Despite all the arm-twisting, coercing, and cajoling...

In the battle of the dueling plans, after being chastised by Eric Cantor ("stop whining") and John Boehner ("get your ass in line") yesterday the House is expected to vote today on the Boehner plan. The Hill is calling it a "referendum" on Boehner's ability to lead. Meanwhile in the Senate:"Mr. Reid sent Mr. Boehner a letter signed by all 51 Senate Democrats and two independents assuring that his legislation, which would raise the debt...

Congressman Joe Walsh, (R-IL) released a video earlier this month in which he called on President Obama to "quit lying" and asked the president "Have you no shame, sir?" He also spoke of the need for a balanced budget amendment, and re-iterated his refusal to raise the debt ceiling because he "won't place one more dollar of debt on my kids."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Here's the Honorable Congressman Walsh's stance on lying, how he balances his own...

A must-read article by Elizabeth Drew in The New York Review of Books asks and answers a question posed here by yours truly on July 7, "What Were They Thinking?" The answer is just as I suspected:"In early July, when Obama suddenly injected Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid into the deficit and debt negotiations, many, perhaps most, Democrats were dismayed. They believed that the President was offering up the poor and the needy as a...

SAT time. Here are three different budget messages by three different presidents. Which one is unlike the other two? Herbert Hoover, 1932:"In framing this Budget, I have proceeded on the basis that the estimates for 1933 should ask for only the minimum amounts which are absolutely essential for the operation of the Government under existing law, after making due allowance for continuing appropriations. The appropriation estimates for 1933 reflect a drastic curtailment of the expenses...