On Friday, 67 House Republicans voted against $9 billion in funding to replenish FEMA's flood insurance program in the wake of super storm Sandy. Among those naysayers were five Gulf State Congressmen including Mississippi Rep. Steven Palazzo, whose 4th District was one of the most extensively damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Of course, back […]

For each of the last 38 years, Lake Superior State University has published its "List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness." But missing from the dozen terms and phrases including "double down" and "spoiler alert" sentenced to the school's rhetorical death row for 2013 is one […]

With the fiscal cliff averted, Congressional Republicans are turning to their next--and more important--hostage. Without draconian spending cuts, they promise, the GOP will block any increase in the debt ceiling of the United States. In response, President Obama said, "I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay […]

If nothing else, the right-wing temper tantrum over Tuesday's "fiscal cliff" agreement is rich with irony. After all, the "crisis" was never really about deficit reduction (which the expiration of the Bush tax cuts would have handled quite nicely) but the very real danger of slashing the national debt too fast and thus triggering an […]

As President Obama and Congressional leaders negotiate in Washington, the American people need to keep a couple of things in mind about the looming "fiscal cliff." For starters, the issue is not that the national debt will go up (which roughly half of those in one poll believe to be the case), but that it […]

France has been a bogeyman of the American right for years. Mitt Romney, after all, made enmity towards Paris' "big government, big taxation, welfare state" a talking point of his campaign. For his part, John McCain joked that the French "remind me of an aging movie actress in the 1940s who is still trying to […]

Following his meeting with Congressional leaders Friday, President Obama declared he was "modestly optimistic" a deal could be reached to avoid the January 1st "fiscal cliff." But if Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell can't come to an agreement, the President announced he would demand an up-or-down vote on […]

Having succeeded in his smear campaign against UN Ambassador Susan Rice, John McCain has launched a second pre-emptive strike against another would-be Obama cabinet member, former Nebraska Republican Senator Chuck Hagel. But this time McCain's petty payback against a GOP colleague who supported Barack Obama for President in 2008 may run into tougher sledding. After […]

As Washington's stalemated debate over avoiding the so-called "fiscal cliff" continues to fester, Social Security is once again in the cross-hairs of would-be deficit hawks across the political spectrum. This week, the New York Times profiled Maya MacGuineas, who "has spent years warning about threats to the solvency of Social Security and to the rating […]

Every Christmas brings the same frustrating question: what do you get the man who has everything? So it is with Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association. After all, for two decades, the NRA has gotten almost everything it wanted, including an end to the national assault weapons ban, a Justice […]