"You know, folks mock Mitt Romney for what he said, but he's right. Forty-seven percent of American citizens pay zero in income taxes. It's just true,"
-- Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA)

So, you know that Republican Party "Growth & Opportunity" study that told themselves to be kinder and gentler because… Read full post »

This is an article that I wrote for Open Salon almost two years ago, on May 5, 2011.  Given that today is International Women's Day, I thought it was appropriate to post here again in honor of the occasion.  (It was that, or buy a cake for everyone.)  It's also worth… Read full post »

 

"Obama’s the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn’t public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time. He’s lazy, but the media won’t… Read full post »

"I'm just an angry old man, hurting for my son."
-- former President George H.W. Bush, from his upcoming autobiography

Honestly, it's easy to understand the pain of a father, now 88 years old, coming to the defense of his son, blasted by critics for being uncaring and incompetent.  And as a… Read full post »

During last year's Republican primaries, much was made of Ann Coulter fatuously begging Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) to run for president.  And so too did many other Republicans, seeing him as a hope of the party with no real, substantive other candidates who could compete on the national stage.&n… Read full post »

Last week, a friend wrote me with the "good news" that should make me "smile," that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) would be giving the Republican Party's response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address tomrrow.  It's a platform of high visibility, but risky results.  In recent year… Read full post »

A couple months back, well-before hidden videotapes and falling polls, I was discussing the unfolding Romney campaign with a friend.  Though it was already stumbling badly in early gaffes and mismanagement, I nonetheless said that its failures were largely meaningless because campaigns ebb-and-f… Read full post »

With Mitt Romney's campaign getting hit by the perfect storm of low likeability, non-stop foreign policy gaffes, and video of him insulting half of America, Republican leaders and pundits know exactly what it is their candidate needs to turn all of his problems around and lead the party to victory.

He… Read full post »

In some corners of the world, the word "soon" is instead a tour through hell.

This is a tale of perseverance and taking control of one's life.  It's a look behind those so-glamorous curtains of Hollywood and New York book publishing, where the way the real world works is totally different from… Read full post »

May God love and protect the tone-deaf and clueless.

The Republican world was all a-twitter Tuesday with a story on the far-right website, Daily Caller.  It quoted President Barack Obama's autobiography about his stepfather having served him dog meat when he was nine in Indonesia.  The artic… Read full post »

On Saturday, Herman Cain (R-Godfather's Pizza) explained how he was called by God to run for president.

"I prayed and prayed and prayed," he told the flock. "I'm a man of faith, I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I'd ever done before in… Read full post »

In 1981, filmmaker David Cronenberg made the movie, Scanners, about an underground movement of people who are able psychically to make your head explode.  It turns out that this is the same, sneaky plan of the Republican Party.

Democrats have been trying to expose the shameless hypocrisy of the G… Read full post »

There are several ways to know that Republicans do not actually care about the national debt, most particularly not reducing it.

One is to understand that Republicans didn't complain when the previous president, George W. Bush, doubled the national debt to $11 trillion.  You'd think that a party… Read full post »

It’s never the event, it’s always the cover-up.

Mind you, it isn’t that Sarah Palin’s history lesson on Paul Revere wasn’t disastrous.  It was.  But the pretzel-twisting attempts to explain this away are so desperately convoluted that they speak far louder.

I h… Read full post »

The other day, I was talking with a knowledgeable Hollywood expert, discussing recent successes and failures at the box office.  Eventually, we got to Sucker Punch, an action film with five actresses that cost between $85-100 million, yet which had only taken in $36 million at the box office.&n… Read full post »

That sucking sound you've been hearing is Republican presidential hopefuls going down the drain.  Professional strength Liquid Plumber couldn't help now.

Forget October, we just had the May Surprise.  And what a surprise, a full 20 months before the 2012 election.  No cynical, political… Read full post »

There's something I don't get about the Rush Limbaugh radio show.  It may not be what you think, however.  More on that in a moment.

Last Tuesday, a caller wanted to ridicule the devastation in Japan.  "If these are the people that invented the Prius, have mastered public transportation… Read full post »

For reasons difficult to understand (at least, rationally), Republicans have long seemed to dislike public employees.  Generally, it’s centered on workers making too much money, a concept Republicans don’t mind in the private community.  But if a public employee dares make above… Read full post »

On this Friday, January 21, it is the one-year anniversary of the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court, pretty much declaring corporations to be equal to individuals and giving them the same rights.  Actually, more rights, since corporations don't have to do the dishes after dinner, vis… Read full post »

 
After a while, you sometimes get tired of using the word "hypocritical" when writing about the Republican Party.  

But when John McCain (R-AZ) rails against an immigration bill that he himself proposed - when Mitch McConnell (R-KY) votes against creating a deficit reduction committee he ea… Read full post »

“Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it,” American philosopher George Santayana wrote in his Life of Reason.

A simpler way of putting it is that life is cyclical.  

We see it in the seasons.  Day to night and back again.  In the unrelenting, returning tides.&nbs
…

Read full post »

Who would have thought?  It's another October Surprise!  But this time, no fake-raising of the Terror Alert chart to scare voters.  Former president George W. Bush has returned!  Twelve days before the election.  On a silver platter for Democrats.  Telling voters that hi… Read full post »

The first hint that someone doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about is when they contradict themselves.  Saying everything, anything, in hopes that something will stick.  It’s like a punch-drunk boxer flailing his arms like a windmill, desperate to hit whatever he c… Read full post »

Ever since she has hit the national spotlight, Sarah Palin has delighted in attacking the parts of America that aren't "small town America," "middle America," what she refers to as "The Real America."  (As opposed to the rest of the country that is the Fake America.)

Never mind that this "small t… Read full post »

Orrin Hatch has shocked the political world by offering legislation in favor of government health care.  After voting against the recent bill in Congress, the senator now believes that the government should be involved with the public’s health.  Indeed, going even further, he says tha… Read full post »