The Republican party held the presidency for 20 out of 24 years, 1969-1993.  During that time, one Republican president resigned to avoid getting impeached, and another did impeachable offenses but didn't suffer an impeachment trial.  Nixon and Reagan had their troubles with governance, but… Read full post »

According to a New York Times editorial (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/opinion/a-big-storm-requires-big-government.html?ref=opinion), during primary season, Willard Mitt Romney said this:

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the… Read full post »

"Candidate Ecchs says he uses Crelm toothpaste.  But when he and his wife go to expensive hotels to visit bisexual dominatrix hookers, or take lavish junkets to the Carribean for hedonistic orgies with underage girls, or visit Amsterdam to smoke their weight in marijuana, he doesn't even br… Read full post »

It happens every election cycle. Undecided voters aren't sure who they'll vote for. Some already-decided voters, on both sides of the political divide, insult the undecided voters. Insults I've seen this season include "dumb" "stupid" "lazy" "attention-seekers" "morons" and several more that are cons… Read full post »

In a response to Paul Krugman's most recent column, I wrote:

What really bothers me about the Republican "growth" plan is that, champions of business that they claim to be, they would never look at a business and say that austerity is the way to grow a business. 

Which of these two meth… Read full post »

This is something I'm actually surprised the media hasn't been going over.

One portion of the Affordable Care Act was how to pay for it, which is novel compared to Medicare Part D during the Bush years.  Some of the revenue was money redirected from Medicare.  $716 billion is, let's face… Read full post »

Thank you.  Isn’t this a great crowd tonight??  

*applause* 

Wow.  Makes me glad to be here, with so many like-minded people.  And you know, it was like-minded people who laid the foundations for our great country.  When the Pilgrims first came over,… Read full post »

It was the late 1990s.  I was trying to eke out a living in western Massachusetts, the undereducated member of my family.  My cousin Jeff, by contrast, had his architecture degree but was enjoying life bartending in Miami. Standing at 6'4", with piercing blue eyes, able to tan and th build… Read full post »

One of my other go-to sites for news coverage is PolitiFact. They perform a very important job in modern journalism: they go look at what somebody says is true and then compare it with the facts. Sometimes those facts can be rather arcane, such as the actual impact of the stimulus… Read full post »

The current depression--let's call it what it is--is tough to deal with.  High unemployment and high underemployment keep many households worried, even those with well-paid and fully employed people.  How do we fix this?  The short answer is that we need more jobs in our economy.  … Read full post »

My wife, bless her, signed up for the Scott Brown for Senate email list.  Our junior senator likes to talk about what he would like to do for Massachusetts and for the US, most of which doesn't seem to follow from the policies he promotes, but my wife was particularly unhappy… Read full post »

Senator Scott Brown (R - MA) recently sent an email to constituents who are signed up for his announcements stating why he was in favor of a conscience exemption for health insurance provided by religious organizations to the organizations' employees. He said it is a matter of personal freedom to fol… Read full post »

I only found out today that a few days ago, Rick Santorum spoke to students at Dublin School in Dublin, NH.  He was, by accounts, politely poked by the students and faculty about his stated views.  While it was not stated one way or the other, it's doubtful he got a… Read full post »

In his video, Michael Goodwin talks about the freedom to fail, claiming there is a ‘mania’ for reducing the freedom to fail.  Unfortunately, his position seems to be at odds with how the world works.  

Freedom to fail doesn’t mean you must suffer horrendous conseque… Read full post »

When the Republicans come to the House of Representatives this January, they have pledged to do many things.  They will repeal health care reform.  They will balance the budget.  Most importantly, they want to cut taxes on the rich, raise taxes on everybody who isn’t, and cut sup… Read full post »

The US has a problem.  

Yes, we have an massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The handling of this disaster, though, has been pretty poor overall.  BP, which has a long record of negligence and accidents that point to the all-important bottom line, is not doing everything it… Read full post »

Lots of the chattering classes have talked about the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, calling it "Obama's Katrina".  President Obama called for the press to give him a fair shake and see how well he has stacked against the standard of Katrina.

So, shall we?

Hurricane Katrina's landfall  … Read full post »

Republican leaders talked about their hypocrisy toward the rank and file of the party and the party line in a tape leaked to the AP.

 According to journalists, a number of top GOP politicians, fundraisers and strategists are heard discussing their free time filled with illegal drugs, alcoho… Read full post »

Yesterday I was walking down the streets of Riverdale, a part of the Bronx, a borough of a borough if you will, just enjoying the cold crisp air and the feel of a neighborhood that isn't completely silent on the twenty fifth of December.  I passed by several people walking on… Read full post »

Massachusetts has an interesting battle shaping up for the late Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.  You should see the Democratic primary - its one of the meaner fights I've seen for Senate, though admittedly it lacks the every-six-year Chappaquiddick smears Mr. Kennedy always got.

There are Republicans… Read full post »

We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early in my house, the Saturday before, as my wife's parents were up from New York and my parents were near enough to drive over.  More importantly, my sister gave her criteria for eating a Kosher meal in my house.  Much cleaning was done and new… Read full post »

I have been busy elsewhere for a while.  It's not easy to write when you might be interrupted at a moment's notice by a horde of small, cute, loud redheads.  Even a single redhead of this description can be described as a horde, and I can say this from experience.

 … Read full post »