Bolstered by new polls and fresh off their vote to bar an increase in the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling, House Republicans swaggered into the White House for the latest negotiation to end their economic hostage taking. One, Rep. Jeff Landry of Louisiana, refused to attend and be "lectured to by a president whose failed […]

On Tuesday, grandstanding House Republicans will hold a vote on a so-called "clean bill" to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. Despite his party having voted seven times to double the debt limit while President Bush sat in the Oval Office, Majority Leader Eric Cantor has promised the $16.7 trillion cap will be "dead […]

On Memorial Day, Americans in big cities, small towns and rural communities commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. As President Obama spoke at a solemn ceremony of remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery, blogs left and right fittingly asked their readers to send care packages to support our troops in harm's way […]

After their debacle in the New York special election last week, Republicans promised to improve the marketing of Paul Ryan's plan to privatize and ration Medicare. We now know what that new and improved message will be. As one Republican aide regurgitated the new GOP sound bite, "We want to save Medicare, while Democrats would […]

On Thursday, John Boehner and the House Republican leadership team unveiled their "Plan for America's Job Creators." As he repeatedly made clear before the Economic Club of New York and again on CBS Face the Nation, Boehner's "job creators" are the top two percent of income earners whose Bush tax cuts President Obama has proposed […]

It's official: the perpetual Republican campaign to peel off Jewish voters from the Democratic Party has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime. After positive statements from AIPAC and the ADL which "commended President Barack Obama for his statement of U.S. priorities in the Middle East," Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh declared "President Obama is not […]

While all eyes remain fixed on the Republican debt ceiling hostage drama in Washington, the deficit that really matters has all but disappeared from the American political debate. Even as Vice President Biden confidently predicted his bipartisan group of budget negotiators would slash $1 trillion in spending, forecasters are once again downgrading their estimates for […]

Last week, President Obama endured a firestorm of criticism for stating, as President Bush did before him, the by now obvious contours of an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. But largely overlooked in his addresses at the State Department and to AIPAC was Obama's assertion that "the status quo is unsustainable." Sadly, Benjamin Netanyahu couldn't disagree more. […]

In figure skating, gymnastics, skateboarding and other sports, performing a720-degree, double-rotation is not for the faint of heart. When it comes to their plan to end the Medicare system of guaranteed insurance for 46 million Americans, Republicans attempting the rare 720 are learning that the hard way. After all, in just two short years, members […]

Among the stories which dominated the news this week were two seemingly unrelated ones. Christian fundamentalist Harold Camping and his followers predicted the end of the world on May 21st. Meanwhile, grandstanding Republican leaders raged at President Obama for supposedly "throwing Israel under the bus." As it turns out, the two tales are not so […]