"Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects."
- Lester B. Pearson, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former prime minister of Canada

An adage has been validated, over the past ten days or so, that politics is a bloodsport, somewhere between boxing and dagger throwing. Vulnerabilities exposed are v… Read full post »

"As Tamerlan's devotion to Islam became more intense and radicalized, Dzhokhar showed signs of his brother's influence" - The Atlantic Wire, May 5, 2013

"A YouTube account apparently belonging to Tamerlan Tsarnaev gives tantalising hints of his radicalisation before the Boston bombings" - The (… Read full post »

"I think it comes as no surprise not [only] to the American people, but even [to] members of Congress themselves, that right now things are pretty dysfunctional up on Capitol Hill."

- President Barack Obama, Tuesday, April 30, 2013, during a White House press conference

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"The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

- attributed to 19th c. minister, Rev. Theodore Parker, popularized by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in a commencement address to Wesleyan University, 1964

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That could really be the mantra of the transition from Obama's very public, bully pulpit tactic of campaign style events, highlighting the issues he wants the American people to help him see through, to his new, private "charm offensive," a series of dinner and lunch meetings with Republican Senators… Read full post »

President Lyndon Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act,
with Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights
leaders in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, DC, 08/06/1965
(Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)

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"He seems to always be in campaign mode, where he treats people in the other party as enemies rather than partners."
- Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), on CBS This Morning, Wednesday, lamenting President Obama's post State of the Union swing through North Carolina and Georgia to raise support for the age… Read full post »

"'You are a slow learner, Winston,' said O'Brien gently.
"'How can I help it?' he blubbered. 'How can I help seeing what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four.'
"'Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You

… Read full post »

"The deal approved today is truly a missed opportunity to do something big to reduce our long-term fiscal problems..."
- from a statement released Tuesday, by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, co-chairs of a bipartisan deficit reduction committee

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"New Year’s Eve is fast approaching, and for decades and decades, the American people have watched the ball drop in Times Square. But this year, Mr. President, the American people are waiting for the ball to drop, but it’s not going to be a good drop."
- Senate

… Read full post »

"We can’t tolerate this anymore.  These tragedies must end.  And to end them, we must change."
- President Barack Obama, Sunday night, addressing participants at a prayer vigil for the 26 teachers and students, murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School, Friday

There is no snow o… Read full post »

Lest you thought you could stop and revel in the leaf turning another few degrees leftward through the political arc, with November victories muting many of the worst DC ogres and trolls in their teabag hats, December comes with its season of deception, and reminds us all that the fight for… Read full post »

It’s probably a holdover from war propaganda technique. Dehumanize your enemy; make them less sympathetic. For Republicans, that requires inventing an artificial social standard for which they can create consensus, something they ironically call the “real America,” a militaristi… Read full post »

U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss,
Republican, of Georgia
(Photo Credit: Wikipedia)

Remember when the "red scare" was the fear of Communism creeping across the globe, where right wing politicians warned us that a commie could be hiding behind any tree, on the street where you live? There's a new red sc… Read full post »

Workers' rights are human rights. That's what one hand painted sign said at a protest outside a Wal-Mart store in Decatur, Georgia, Friday. About two dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk across the street from the mega-retailer's store in this suburb, just east of Atlanta, pla… Read full post »

Here we go again. The Republicans are skipping down the path toward obstructionism, aiming to get away with doing the least by convincing us it is the most they can do. It isn't. They will give it another sham title like "Tax Reform." It won't be. They're saying… Read full post »

President Obama, Vice President Biden and their families celebrate their reelection, in Chicago, early Wednesday morning.
(From Voice of America video)

If there was ever a question about which commitment President Barack Obama has made in his life that will live beyond his presidency, it is h… Read full post »

“For alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we are all connected as one people…

“It is that fundamental belief – it is that fundamental belief – I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sisters’ keepe

… Read full post »

“You said that, first, we should not have a timeline in Afghanistan. Then you said we should. Now you say maybe or it depends, which means not only were you wrong, but you were also confusing in sending mixed messages both to our troops and our allies.”
- President Barack Obama,

… Read full post »

In a time when so much of U.S. foreign policy involves our global military footprint, ongoing engagements, waning engagements and threatening engagements, it’s easy to think that war is the sole function of that governing platform. Americans are conditioned that way; like a computer that insist… Read full post »

Fire burns in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi after the attack there on September 11, 2012. (Photo credit: Voice of America)

News reports appeared, Friday night, that it was not al-Qaeda that was involved in the terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last month, but a local… Read full post »

“The most dangerous untruths are truths slightly distorted.”
-G.C. Lichtenberg, 18th Century scientist and satirist

Word has come, from a piece in New York Magazine, that former President George W. Bush has begun to paint, “making portraits of dogs and arid Texas landscapes” t… Read full post »

Forget about a campaign “reset” from the Obama camp, Thursday evening, or anytime during the next twenty-odd days until the election results are final. Forget about the hand wringing and the forget about being nostalgic for September, when Romney was on the ropes.

Now is the time for all… Read full post »

Mitt Romney, as CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Given all the different positions that Mitt Romney has taken throughout his political career, it may be easy to label him a liar and a flip-flopper. But if voters are looking for the “real” Mitt, th… Read full post »

In politics, you can’t hang your hat on a poll, because the winds of global events will easily send it tumbling away. In the battle for leading a nation, there are only two things you can plant at the top of a poll: a flag or your ass, and if one… Read full post »