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Stephen Pizzo

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Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a Pulitzer.

OpEd News Member for 874 week(s) and 5 day(s)

250 Articles, 1 Quick Links, 110 Comments, 2 Diaries, 0 Polls

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(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 15, 2010
Secrets Kill Too I was listening to a discussion on NPR yesterday about Wikileaks.com, the web site that allows people who have secret information. Secrecy proponents claim this can get people killed.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Dying for Change Over the past few months my wife, Susan, and I have been right up to our chins in elder-care issues. My father is 90, my mother is 87 and Sue's mom is 99 heading straight for the century mark. And it's been a real eye opener!
Map Of Palestinian State as Proposed, From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 12, 2014
What's the Matter With Gaza? First everyone has to say it right out loud: Gaza, a piece of land disconnected from the future Palestinian state on the West Bank is, and will remain, a incitement to both sides. It is a demonstrably unsustainable fragment, an orphan, that belongs to neither Israel or Palestine. And it's a monumental slum, breeding what slums everywhere on the planet breed; discontent, anger, and endless trouble.
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 18, 2008
Who You Callin' Un-American? Did you know that many members of Congress are "anti-American?" Well that's what at least one Republican member of the House believes, and she wants the media to expose them for what they are. Hmmm...sound familiar?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 5, 2007
Worst Clinton Contributor Ever And you thought Norman Hsu was an embarrassment. Likely international gun runner Farhad Azima is positioning himself to be the Ahmad Chalabi of Hillary Clinton's presidency.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 6, 2009
I Was At the Birth... I was there when it began, the ugliness, the ever-so thinly-veiled racism, the attacks on the press. It was August 1992....
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Health Care Guide for Complete Dummies Frankly it really pisses me off that I even have to waste our time discussing these non-issues. But, if you have one of these right wingnuts in your family or on your email list, send them this cheat sheet.
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 15, 2011
How Crazy is Too Crazy to be President? How crazy must a candidate's personal/religious beliefs be before he/she is deemed too crazy to run the most powerful nation on the planet?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 20, 2011
The Coming Dim Ages The Dark Ages lasted almost 700 years. We may be approaching a new epoch.. our own. Future historians may well end up dubbing it, "The Dim Ages." How long will this one last? Your guess.
Rohingya groups in Myanmar and Bangladesh live in extremely difficult climate conditions., From Uploaded
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 28, 2019
We're All Just Whistling Past This Graveyard A bigger problem looms just over the horizon; mass migration of climate refugees. This surge of climate refugees will dwarf current immigration problems. While today the US and southern Europe face a flood of refugees, most from dysfunctional countries or regional wars, the climate refugee problem will be a tsunami in comparison.
(18 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, August 22, 2009
Liberals Have Guns Too, Ya Know... Right wingers are always fretting about how liberals are on the verge of taking their guns away. Which makes me wonder if they realized how many liberals out here are just as well armed as they are? Because we are.. We're just more polite about it.
Bushmaster Assault Rifle, From ImagesAttr
(55 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, January 27, 2013
Show The Pictures Those of us who served in the military, especially those of us who were grunts, have a pretty clear idea what kind of damage an assault rifle can do in the hands of determined shooter with plenty of ammo.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 13, 2009
It's Called, "Misprison of a Felony." And it's a felony too. Knowledge of a crime can really put a guy on the spot. Failure to report that crime or, if you're, say in charge of those who commit a crime, is a crime. Rumsfeld got a memo informing him of a crime. And he did noting about it. Guilty as charged.
Trump MAGA rally in Iowa, From FlickrPhotos
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, March 9, 2019
Why We are Losing to Trump's Base We are on the doorstep of a very different America. As non-white immigration surges, racism will become even more virulent and overt. And it's only a matter of time before other far-right tropes become common,.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 2, 2009
Follow The Numbers Let's talk about numbers. Big numbers. Huge numbers. Numbers that have gotten so humongous Carl Sagan could build a PBS show around them. But let's put those numbers in some perspective.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 2, 2007
Don't Ask. Don't Tell. SHOW. It's kinda hard to swallow when Muskasey said he wasn't familiar with waterboarding. It's been described in excruciating detail in the popular press since it first burst into the national consciousness a couple of years ago -- thanks to Vlad the Hoser at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 3, 2009
GOP to America: Be Afraid... Please. America is in a real pickle. No, actually in a jar of pickles -- deadly pickles. If the terrorists don't get you, your own government will track you down and have your doctor kill your ass.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 3, 2010
Single-Payer: Ten Years and Counting Why did I, and many other progressives, just suck it up and accept this skim-milk disguised as cream?
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 14, 2008
It's JOBs, Stupid ! Call me crazy, or call Treasury Secretary, Hank Paulson, crazy. You decide. This week Paulson announced that he'd changed his mind about how to best distribute the three-quarter trillion bucks Congress grave him to jolt our Frankenstein monster economy back to lurching around again.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 2, 2008
McCain's Palin Equation Why Sarah Palin? Why? It's a question bothering at least as many Republicans as Democrats this morning. Why did John McCain pick an untested, first-term governor of Alaska for the second highest office in the land?
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 21, 2009
They Are Too Big to WHAT? The concept of "too big to fail" is costing us trillions of dollars, and counting. How much will the politically charged decision that some in America are "too big to jail," cost us?
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 12, 2008
What Happened to Mr. Market? Holy creeping communism, Bat Man. What happened to that Mr. Market guy who arrived at the White House in 2000? Back then he was all about economic Darwinism;' swim or sink, hunt or die, Devil take the hindmost.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 30, 2007
Lying Under Oath for Dummies Truth can be a cruel mistress. Sometimes a Lorrena Bobbit kind of cruel mistress. As such truth must be treated with both care and suspicion.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 5, 2011
Wikileaks and the Red Coats I've been watching the fresh pissing match that has broken out over Wikileaks. This time it's not just embarrassed governments and public officials condemning Wikileaks, but the media as well.
From InText
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, August 11, 2019
Articles of Impeachment Against President Donald J. Trump In all of this, Donald J. Trump has undermined the integrity of his office, has brought disrepute on the Presidency, has betrayed his trust as President, and has acted in a manner subversive of the rule of law and justice, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 20, 2008
Chicken Little Was Right Funny how history has a way of turning back on itself. Remember when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Republicans claimed that Ronald Reagan's aggressive policies toward the Soviet Union had won the Cold War. In particularly they claim that Reagan's fabulously expensive "Star Wars" anti-missile system had forced the Soviets to spend so much on their own military projects that it bankrupted them. Now it's our turn
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 2, 2010
Darwin Awaits We have a "can't see the forest for the trees," problem on our hands when it comes to energy. The "we" of which I speak is the universal we. Time to step back and take in the Big Picture.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 14, 2009
Capitalism's Greatest Hits As Americans we've have had it drilled into our heads that there are only three kinds of economic models: capitalism,communism and socialism. Really?
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, November 28, 2010
WikiLeaks v. Cone of Silence So, here we are again, another WikiLeaks "event." Serious people can argue both sides of this matter; that such leaks put sources and lives at risk, or that it puts those who wield power on notice that their actions and decisions may not go un-accounted for -" that there may be accountability.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 28, 2008
"Now, This!" I've spent a lot of time of late mulling what I think are the most important questions of our time....At least some answers -- I believe the most important answers -- can be found in a book written during the Reagan presidency by media scholar, Neil Postman, in his book,"Amusing Ourselves to Death."This may well be, the most important thing you read this year.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, July 4, 2009
Iraq, Bush I, and BNL and Barack Obama's DOJ I wrote the story that appears below a decade and half ago. Why am I reposting it here, now? It has to with those pesky non-existent WMD and what the George H. Bush administration knew and what they did about it. And, since they knew a lot, if what they told sonny, W. Bush, when as he greased up the wheels of war.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 11, 2010
Hey, you. Yeah, I'm Talkin' to YOU Excuse me, but can I have a word with the 70% of Americans who continuing keeping their money in big banks, like Bank of America, CitiBank, Wells Fargo and such? Come closer. A little closer. I want to be able to give you a well-earned dope-slap while I ask;
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 13, 2007
Candidates, Candidates Everywhere . . . and not a one worthy of my vote!
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 3, 2008
John McCain's Bay of Pigs The McCain camp is asking us to choose him over Barack Obama because McCain has the kind of international/military experience we need in today's evermore complicated and dangerous world. But, even though McCain is still only a US Senator, he played a key role in a recent international crisis. And what happened, before, during and in the aftermath of that crisis should give reason for concern.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Jerry Springer Islam Islam is a one big dysfunctional family. Any cop will tell you the most dangerous call of all is family disturbance call. So why do we keep responding?
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 22, 2010
The New Rightwing-nut Anti-Obama Narrative Did you hear? Obama is a closet socialist and he's out to ruin big business. Is that why big business just keeps getting bigger?
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 23, 2012
Mitt Romney: Bush-Out King Is Mitt Romney just a misunderstood business guy? Or something a bit more sinister? I report, you decide.
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Why I AM a bitter man Barack Obama has gotten a lot of flack for saying some Americans are bitter. Well, count me among them, and I understand precisely why I'm bitter.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 24, 2009
One Wrong Move and Your Credit Score Gets It Ever see one of those shock-belts they use to make sure prisoners behave while in court? Just one wrong move and a deputy with a remote can bring the biggest, meanest hunk of crook whimpering to his knees. Well, you can't see it, and you can't feel it – exactly – but if you're American and over 18 you've got one of these things strapped around you too.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 27, 2010
HURRY: Get this speech over to the White House immediately! The State of the Union speech Obama should have given.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 22, 2015
An Open Letter to Hillary Clinton Dear Hillary: Do you REALLY want to help your party and your country? If so then stop sucking all the (financial/political) oxygen out of the system giving other (genuine) progressives a shot at the White House
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 16, 2009
Inflation: The Magic Cure-all? 'm not saying it's a good thing. I'm just saying it's the only thing left that can get us out of our current financial system death spiral. I'm am also saying that both Fed Chief Ben Bernanke and President Obama know it's the only way.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 25, 2008
The Palin/Karzai Summit, Exposed Since the McCain campaign wouldn't let reporters in on Palin's chat with Hamid Karzai, here's what I say they said. I would be delighted to correct this version if the McCain campaign sends me a tape of the actual meeting. Otherwise, I enter this into the public record as the only known public version of that meeting.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 8, 2008
Chicago 1968 - Denver 2008 The Democratic Party and the nation paid a horrible price for what transpired at the '68 Democratic convention -- a price we may be about to pay again.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 25, 2014
The Real New World Order Progressives, especially those of us who live on one of the two coasts, think we are fighting the same old battles against an annoying, but diminishing, reactionary Right. That's been largely so, until now. Now it's different. And it's different in a very big way.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 24, 2010
America's Kristallnacht What has the GOP, desperate to build a new constituency after a decade of failed governance, unleashed on us?
(14 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 20, 2012
Time to play 2nd Amendment Trump Card? The Second Amendment has more than one part. Is it time to threaten to enforce the entire amendment?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 20, 2014
Israel is Dead Wrong This Time Not since the Vietnam War era has a conflict so divided friend and family as the Israel/Palestinian conflict. The new war on Gaza has only made matters worse. This time there's no question about it... Israel is wrong... dead wrong.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, June 15, 2007
Immigration for Dummies No issue pulls hearts and minds -- of both the right and left -- in opposite directions more than immigration.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 5, 2010
The Root of All Evil Each passing day I wonder more and more, when will enough be enough? I wonder what it will take before we realize that we are no longer in control of events, even as a growing list of events spiral out of control all around us.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 7, 2018
Kim v Trump: Kim Wins We are about to witness a no-holds-barred match between two of the greatest bait-and-switch artists in history.
From ImagesAttr
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 31, 2007
Attack of the Wal-Mart-istas So when will day arrive when America's once vibrant and hyper-patriotic working class wakes up and realizes they're at the receiving end of one of the greatest screwings in human history?
Donald Trump, From YouTubeVideos
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, December 15, 2019
We've Got the Bastard Now! (No We Haven't.) As the impeachment process has rolled along, my email has been peppered by delirious notes from my liberal and progressive friends; "We've got the bastard now!" No we haven't. No...we haven't.
(31 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 23, 2013
The Real Enemy Within What if a few hundred Middle Eastern-look men flocked to a gun show and loaded their pickups with guns and ammo? Do you think that might get the attention of Homeland Security?
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Dancing With the Devil Did you feel a rush last week as members of Congress dumped all over Detroit automakers.And how about the shellacking those guys who run CitiBank are getting from the press. Huh? Watching the news this month has been kind of like watching a virtual version of the French Revolution; "Off with their heads! Off with their heads!" But what about our heads?
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 29, 2012
Eyes Wide Shut When things don't go their way conservatives circle their cognitive wagons and create the reality they desire. Never mind if that reality anything but real"
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 15, 2008
Swindler Nation As I read the story of the latest Wall Street fraudster, Bernard Madoff, I was struck by something interesting. Over the years as I covered mobsters and other white collar criminals, I was surprised to discover they all had the same weakness. They're all suckers.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 18, 2008
This is NOT your father's GOP We said we learned the dangers in the methods employed by the fascist state and fascist politicians - the lies, the smears, the strong-arm tactics, the rule of ignorance and prejudice over intelligence, reason and liberal social policies. And we said, "never again." But...
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, June 20, 2011
IÕd Like to Report a Crime Hello, 911, IÕd like to report a crime...
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Can We Dig It? Should We Dig It? The fight is on. No, not the primary election. I mean, yeah, that's on too, finally. But I'm referring to a different battle, the battle for the world's energy future. And it's going to get dirty.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Waiting For The Great Pumpkin History will record it as the greatest con in history. A con that has made a handful wealthy beyond belief, while impoverishing an entire nation. And they did it with our help.
pigs, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 2, 2014
The NSA’s Animal Farm Rules Funny how some felonies are never charged when the perps are at the top of the authoritarian food chain.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 17, 2010
Another Day, Another Lie Republicans hate regulations. And top of their list of regulations they hate involve guns.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 24, 2010
Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed Well, it appears unanimous. Whether you look right, straight down the middle or left, there's agreement: it's broke. The e whole damn thing is broken, busted, kaput.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 23, 2012
The Brave New World of Informed-Consent This may come as a surprise, coming from me, but I think Republicans are on to something with this "informed consent" business.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 4, 2010
Are we still "better than them?" During the Iran/Contra investigations, Reagan Secretary of State, George Schultz, said something that everyone who works in Washington should have tattooed on their forehead: "Anyone who thinks they can keep a secret in this town should have their head examined."
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 17, 2009
Co-Ops: The Three-Card Monte of Health Reform Feel the fool? Well, you should. Or at least you will if you let them get away with the latest health care reform bait and switch.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 19, 2012
Terms Of Surrender Every war has a first day, and I remember when the Culture War was declared. It was August 1992 in Houston. I know because I was there, at Ground Zero, when the Culture War was formally declared.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 30, 2009
Think Globally -- But Bank Locally I voted for Barack Obama, and I continue to wish him nothing but success. But I have to admit, his and Tim Geithner's solution to the banking crisis is exactly the wrong solution. The administration seems to believe the best thing to do is to throw the drunken "money center" bankers into detox, hose them off and put them back in the game.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 19, 2010
What Exactly DO They Want? They don't trust government. They don't trust politicians. They don't trust science or scientists. They don't even trust an official birth certificates when they the issuing state provides a photocopy. You know who I'm talking about.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 9, 2013
Dumb Is The New Black Okay, let's cut the BS and get to the uncomfortable truth: The governing mess the country now finds itself stuck with is the direct result of the over-romanticizing of the all-too common-man.
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 3, 2009
Call Me Crazy, But... This morning flipped on CNN, as I do every morning over my coffee and paper. A live broadcast was already in progress of a live town hall meeting of Obama in France. As it turned out, I never even glanced at my paper. From the get go I was riveted.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 3, 2008
Borrowers: Victims or Accomplices? The old-fashioned American dream morphed before our eyes into a frenzied binge of lend & spend, lend & spend, lend and spend. What our parents would have called a "spend-thrift" lifestyle, Republicans pointed to as proof "the American economy is on a roll."
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Corporate Embryo Solution I have cracked the biggest social/political problem facing the American Right and they are going about it all the wrong way. It's so simple it's stunning.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Orangutans Hate Changes in Their Cages If Barack Obama's economic team wants to make changes in how American businesses do business, there are two relatively simple changes that, if made, could change everything.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 19, 2013
Missing Teeth How does a sane citizen explain the likes of Sen. Ted Cruz, and his kind? Here's a hint.
Few have a lot of confidence in information from professional news outlets or friends and family, though majorities show at least some trust in both, but social media garners less trust than either, From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 8, 2018
The Mueller Probe: Just the Beginning Those who are hoping that Robert Meuller's probe will end this national nightmare, are kidding themselves. Here's why.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 22, 2008
John McCain: Then and Now The author's not-so-fond memories of the Keating Five Scandal -- with accompanying transcript of them talking to regulators.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 22, 2016
There's Absolutely Nothing Funny About It Liberals and progressives have been basking this week in a false sense of schadenfreude as they revel over the missteps and outright insanity of Trump's convention. This is a huge mistake
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 7, 2008
Jimmy Carter Nailed it, 31-Years Ago Have you forgotten what real leadership -- and real straight talk -- look and sound like? Well here's a refresher course. Back in 1977 much maligned, President Jimmy Carter, showed genuine leadership and political courage.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Our Reluctant Front Rows Seats to History in The Making; A modern-day Greek tragedy is playi A modern-day Greek tragedy is playing out before our very eyes. It's an epic event, the kind of thing historians centuries from now will study and wonder about, as we do today of tales of mad kings, tyrants and scheming Roman emperors of ancient time.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, May 8, 2010
Curse of the Flat Learning Curve The most depressing thing about getting older is loss of innocence. I can no longer find comfort in the belief that "those in-charge" must be smarter than the average bear. Not true. Not even close. Where's my proof?
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 7, 2012
What Happened and Why So, Walker won. And Republicans are all looking at each with the same "WTF???" expressions on their faces when O.J's defense team heard "Not guilty" from that brain-dead jury. What happened?
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Auto Industry to You: "Your Wallet or Your Life." Extortion, that's the subtext this week as the heads of Detroit's financially and morally bankrupt auto makers try to shake tax payers down for their own sins.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 4, 2010
It's About Character, Stupid! How will we ever get to a post-racial society if those who have suffered most use race to excuse bad behavior? Just asking.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Reasoning? What Reasoning? We gave them $1.6 trillion in tax cuts, and they were supposed to create jobs with it. Now they want to make those cuts permanent, "so they can create jobs with it." Really?
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 29, 2008
Through a Glass, Darkly The end isn't near -- the end is here. No, not the end of the world, though for Americans and Europeans it may begin to feel that way. I'm talking about the end of the age of superabundance. Those of us of a certain age – we Baby Boomers and our spawn – have known nothing else. It has been our singular reality from birth.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 6, 2009
Panetta: "Just Following Orders, Okay." The problem is that at least two of the West's most fabled democracies, the US and Great Britain, have utterly lost their ability to be true to themselves, about themselves and about the crimes they committed together in recent years.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 11, 2010
Mainstream Media's Systemic Failure As a retired investigative journalist I remember that "back in the day," reporters ferreted out hot stories like pigs find truffles. You gotta move some dirt, but we learned it was worth the mucking around. No longer.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 23, 2009
Open Memo to Eric Holder The good news is we have a new US Attorney General. The bad news is he isn't prosecuting criminals.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Mr. Rick Goes to the Doctor So Rick Santorum goes to his family doctor with a complaint. It seems that, after decades of successful procreation, he's developed a hydraulic leak somewhere in the system . His once valiant member can no longer stand a t full attention when called to service.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 11, 2008
Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Billion? So far the first batch of free money being handed out by Uncle Sam comes to around $750 billion, leaving up to $2 trillion to go. And, oh yes, they will hand it out. Because the only the elected officials want is to, as Mel Brooks put it in Blazing Saddles, "keep our phony baloney jobs." So, how would you spend $2 trillion?
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Serious Lapse in Judgment Indeed Here's a bit of change we didn't bargain for: DOJ: Torture Memos Just "Serious Lapses of Judgment" New York Times - An internal Justice Department inquiry has concluded that Bush administration lawyers committed serious lapses of judgment in writing secret memorandums authorizing brutal interrogations but that they should not be prosecuted, according to government officials briefed on its findings. (Full Story)
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 8, 2010
The Stockholm Syndrome and American Voters Only the Stockholm Syndrome explains voters giving their abusers another chance.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Numbers Racket The GOP's politics by the numbers.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 5, 2009
No Longer Your Father's GOP The GOP, once the party of rational, intelligent beings such as Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ike, has been taken over by America's lowest common denominator-types.
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 15, 2007
Ich Bin Ein Berliner (That goes for you too) How will we explain the things we've allowed this administration to get away with -- the torture, the "renditions," the secret prisons, the warrant-less wiretapping, the lies we and our media allowed to stand? What are we going to tell our grand children when they ask us what the hell we were thinking, feeling and doing while all that was afoot?
From ImagesAttr
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 11, 2009
Our Own Harvest of Ignorance While much of the Middle East struggles with its harvest of ignoramuses, America is just beginning to notice we have our own crop of under-educated morons. They are weeds and they are spreading at an alarming rate. Should we leave them untended much longer, they will strangle all that is good, useful and progressive.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Profile in Courage Time for Big O On July 2, 1964 a southerner, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act into law. I only mention this because right now, this month and next month are President Barack Obama's Lyndon B. Johnson moment. He will either do the right thing, and go down in history alongside Johnson and Lincoln and FDR, or he won't.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 10, 2010
From Alice's Restaurant to Dante's Cafe These days, when I pick up my morning paper, I feel like I'm reading a surreal menu of woe penned by Dante Alighieri himself.
(13 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The Dilemma of Our Lifetime Islamic upheaval. They are so far behind the West in social development, so crippled by their fanatic attachment to unreconstructed Islam, so convinced that Sharia law is better for the world than the rule of civil laws the West evolved. How do we, CAN we, deal with, or even co-exist with, such a force?
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 13, 2010
If Not Now, When? I know -- we're not supposed to "look back but ahead." That's become a virtual bi-partisan mantra. Republicans don't want to look back because, "back there" is all the stuff that got their party run out of power. Democrats don't want to look back because they fear it would only make already unpleasant Republicans angry.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, February 17, 2017
Why You Should Care (a lot) About Trump's Attack on The Judiciary Tyrants always go for two institutions first: The press and the judiciary. We've been here before.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 20, 2013
Quack, Indeed! The GOP and A&E are learning some painful lessons.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, November 16, 2013
Counting the Days ... Again From 2000 to 2008 we had an administration that had a lot of really bad ideas, but were unusually good at getting put those ideas into action. Now we have an administration with some pretty good ideas, but who are unusually inept at execution.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 9, 2009
How to Stop Foreclosures: A simple plan for complicated times. Sometimes there's a fairly simple answer to what appears an unsolvable problem, and it's right in front us. The foreclosure crisis is Exhibit A.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 6, 2014
Ah, Yes Nancy...It Is TOO corrupt So I'm watching Jon Stewart the other night grilling House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi , about money in politics. Her responses were an extreme exercise in schizophrenia. In one breath she produced two diametrically opposite positions. By the time she finished the two statements self-canceled, producing nothing but talking-point smoke.
From ImagesAttr
(16 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, August 16, 2007
How Wal-Mart Killed America's Golden Goose The once vibrant American working class –- the goose that laid generations of golden eggs for America and Americans -- is now under hospice care.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Who You Callin' a Minority? The conservative-leaning Court has slowly chipped away at the Voting Rights Act, under constant prodding from white conservative groups and organizations. Which leads me to issue this warning: Memo to White Conservatives: Better be careful what you wish for, you may just get it.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Hillary W. Clinton v. John W. McCain Five reasons why the Democratic Party's herd of voters may not be leading us to the White House, but over a cliff -- yet again.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 10, 2008
Party Building Democrats are now faced with the need for some serious party-building – isolating the radicals in the party by embracing the more levelheaded moderates in the party. Oh wait... sorry. I bet you thought I was talking about Democrats rebuilding the Democratic Party. No.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 3, 2009
What's the Damn Hold Up? How long should it take to train fresh Afghan troops? Too damn long, apparently. Longer even than it takes to train our own. Why's that?
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Bailout-Bush: "No Bail-Out for Speculators" So here we go again -- more proof that America has become a land with two sets of rules. One set for "them" and one for the rest of us.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, October 5, 2009
Tale of Two Plane Trips Funny how objects can play repeat roles in history. When President Truman flew to Wake Island in 1951 for a showdown Korean War policies with General MacArthur, the general had his pilot fly in circles until Truman's plane landed. His intent was to keep the President of the United States cooling his heels on the tarmac until MacArthur was ready to grace him with his presence.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 16, 2011
To Vote or Not to Vote... You might have noticed that there's an election coming up in less than a year. Counting both parties, including the least likely winners, there's maybe twenty people to choose from. One Democrat and a gaggle of Republicans.... But do any of them even matter any longer?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Geithner's Federal Bank of Chernobyl I have sympathy for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. As I listened to him unveil the latest iteration of the bank rescue plan this morning an image flashed into my head. It was the image of Soviet troops, dropped by helicopter onto the smoking roof of the Chernobyl reactor, furiously dumping ton after ton of sand onto the molten reactor below
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 20, 2011
Fixing The Middle East I listened to the President's address on the Middle East and all the guff he got for it afterwards.I had no particular problems with what Obama said yesterday, I just would have gone farther.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Best Defense Is Offense The best defense is a good offense. It's always been so (except for Democrats, apparently.) I only mention this because I've been watching Republicans since Obama was sworn in and, by golly, they're good. They're REALLY good at it.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 30, 2009
Whose "Day of Reckoning?" Here's a question to ponder this morning. It's one I've been pondering for some weeks now: Is it worth your time and effort trying to engage in rational discussions with the increasingly nutty and frantic mouth-breathers on the political right? Or are were they all genetically wired at birth to become hybrids of Grandpa Simpson and Mr. Burns?
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 10, 2008
Stupid Day Yesterday must have been declared "Democratic Party Stupid Day," and someone forgot to tell me. I mean, after nearly eight years of being soaked in GOP Stupid, I would have at least appreciated a warning so I could have prepared for a 180 degree change in stupid. A citizen could get whiplash.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, March 10, 2009
A Real Stem-Cell Twister So, Obama reverses Bush's ban on funding fetal stem cell research and the religious right (along with the sycophantic pols whose only vote-getting trick is to pander to them) came out of the woodwork.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 5, 2013
What's in Your Mail? Inquiring Minds Want to Know President Eisenhower warned as he left office not to allow a "military/industrial complex" to capture the national agenda and treasury. It did anyway. Now we face a new threat; the "security/industrial complex." And we're losing that battle as well.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 9, 2009
Knee-Capped by Capitalism I look forward to the day when I can sit down at this keyboard in the morning and, looking ahead, write a column while humming “Zippity Do Dah, Zippity Day.” Instead I find myself spending a lot of time worrying. I only mention this because lately the focus of my worries has been the economy. Not the US economy, but the global one
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 31, 2010
So, Now What? Now Who? When Bush was in his final months every day was "November dreamin'". Now it's November dreadin'
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 25, 2009
What's In a Name? Just Everything Hey, did ya hear the latest idea from Republicans to revive their moribund party. Here it is: Demand that the Democratic National Committee – AKA, the Democratic Party – change its name to – are you ready for this? The Democrat-Socialist Party, the DSP.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 1, 2013
On the Road to Hell Trick Question: What's the difference between Iraq today and Syria today? Answer: They are only killing one another. And, frankly, that's the way it should be.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 11, 2008
Secure the Evidence --- NOW ! The Bush administration's days are numbered. That's both a good and bad news story. The good news is we are now less than six months away from the end of America's longest nightmare. The bad news is we have less than six months for congress and the courts to insure that, when these guys leave Washington on Jan 21, 2009, they leave behind an accurate and complete historical record.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 20, 2009
America High, 90210 Ever wonder what the world would be like if it were run by those who were popular in high school? Well, I have...
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 21, 2008
It's Over Only only the most lobotomized Clinton Moony can deny what's as obvious as the nose on his or her face.
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 10, 2009
No Public Option, No Re-election, NO KIDDING Suddenly when it comes to health care reform, "how are we going to pay for this" has become a consuming question on Capitol Hill. Why now?
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 29, 2008
The Excuses Administration Amazing, isn't it? We've now lived through seven and half years of goose-stepping arrogance married with utterly breathtaking incompetence, and have six more months of it yet to play out.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 13, 2010
Been Here -- Done This Question: What's the difference between the American Party of 1850 and the Tea Party of 2010? Answer: Polyester.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 7, 2010
Slouching Towards Austerity It's a term sweeping the developed world -" "austerity." It's not the way the 21st Century was supposed begin, at least not for Western countries who, since the end of World War II have enjoyed one hell of run. That's about to change.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, June 26, 2010
Memo To Barack Obama Barack, Barack, Barack. Don't just change generals, change course.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, February 18, 2008
Harry Reid: Shame or Disgrace? Harry Reid violated the oath he took to "preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America from enemies foreign or domestic." Ask the two Democratic candidates if they would push to replace Reid immediately upon taking their oath of office.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 6, 2009
Speaking Ill of the Dead This August I turn 64. In 1965 I lost my student deferment and ended up in the US Marine Corps. That makes me a Robert McNammar survivor.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 14, 2012
Fluxing Around Sun Tzu (of The Art of War fame) coined the term "shi," (pronounced "shee") which roughly translates into English as, "the art of understanding matters in flux." There's two interesting aspects to this term:
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 21, 2008
Put A Sock In It -- For a While. Jumping all over Obama before he even takes the oath of office is stupid and self-defeating. It's like the abused dog that now bites every hand that reaches out to him, even in kindness
Drama queen III, From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, April 20, 2013
Drama Queen Nation? We've not only become attracted to catastrophe and chaos, but we've created 24/7/365 communication empires ready, posed, even eager to deliver the goods when the worst happens.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 27, 2014
Taxpayers Paying For Ignorance Recently Christian groups demanding Christian monuments on public grounds learned a painful lesson when Satanist groups demanded equal time with their own monument praising their deity, Satan. Now we need to teach that lesson again.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 24, 2007
Hello, 911? I'd Like to Report a Crime What's it take to get a guy impeached these days? Seems like the bar has been raised since Clinton.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Wrong-Way Barry So, how you doin'? I only ask because I am checking to see how the whole "trickle-down" thing is working for you. Because, if the news in today's Wall St. Journal is true, those of us down here must be just about due for a real soaker. Because the folks at the top are really raking it in -- again.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Oh So" now THEY want choice... So, have you been watching the slow boil that's just now beginning to rattle the lid on the health insurance/birth control ruling issued by the HHS? It requires any organization or company that provides health insurance to its members/employees to cover birth control as well.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 11, 2008
Whiners and Diners What else would one expect from a campaign run by a couple who's average monthly credit card balance is $50,000. Or from a wanna-be First Lady who buys $3000 designer pantsuits, three or four at a crack.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, October 30, 2009
Sauce for the Goose AND the Gander As health care reform gets closer to passage with some form of public option, anti-reform forces are retreating behind their final line of defense – abortion.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Let's Talk Turkey With Thanksgiving so near I figured this would be a good time to talk turkey about Turkey. This time it's the country that's on the table.
(8 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Who's For Getting Real? I always knew that, sooner or later, we'd end up here, but it doesn't make it any easier. The 'here ' of which I speak is the physical and functional limits of the post-WW II social contract.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 2, 2011
In Search Of A New Center "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity" -- William Butler Yeats The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction,
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, September 11, 2011
Don't Tell Us...SHOW Us. I am convinced that the best way -- maybe the only way -- to bring this march of madness on the right to a dead stop is to insist they be specific about just what is they want done, or undone.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 26, 2007
A Darwinian Rapture Even as hormonally poisoned teenage boy with his first set of wheels, I had enough sense to know that cars, trucks, trains and planes running on finite million-year old fossilized trash from the earths' previous incarnations was not a sustainable model.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, August 31, 2012
My Mother Night, Night As I watched the last night of the GOP convention I couldn't get the vision of missing gear-teeth out of my head. It was my Mother Night, night".
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, June 8, 2014
The New No-Man's Land Can "the Center hold" once the Center becomes a no-man's zone?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, December 10, 2007
Mitt and Me Romney's speech raised more questions than it answered.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 31, 2008
Keeping it Simple - Stupid I'm a simple man. And as such I have a lot of simple solutions to problems others seem intent on making so complicated they can't possibly work... and then don't work. Right now there's three things Congress is fiddling over, each of which I figure could be solved on a single sheet of one of those legal yellow notepads:
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 23, 2009
Take off those inauguration beer goggles Whoa! What a bash, huh? We liberal/progressives have been dry for so long that all that Obama bubbly went straight to our heads. By the time the oath of office was administered I was already a blubbering goner. Three days later it's all blur. I've completely sobered up and I'm back to normal. I said, I'm back to "normal." My inauguration day beer goggles are off and – jeezusholychit! – what's that ugly thing my bed?!
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 22, 2012
NRA America NRA Elementary School: America's new normal?
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, From FlickrPhotos
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Big Bro Wants to Know OMG! We've become the neighborhood's busybody. Worse yet, the "neighborhood" is the entire planet. Inquiring minds want to know... everything.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 9, 2009
Two Changes the World Could Live With Among the things that need change when Obama takes office are the current US positions on both Cuba and the Israeli/Palestinian never-ending piss-fight.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 19, 2009
Retention Attention I watched the entire Senate/AIG hearings yesterday on C-Span, where I learned that retention bonuses are a good thing, not a bad thing. I learned that, even if someone creates a gargantuan mess, he/she needs to be encouraged to stick around because, how can a failed company get back on its feet without the help of the people who mugged it in the first place. Duh.
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, March 11, 2016
Once Again, I Solve Everything Three intractable problems. Three common sense solutions.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 20, 2009
America High, 90210 Ever wonder what the world would be like if it were run by those who were popular in high school? Well, I have...
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Risky Business Today I kicked off a new website that will try to shed some light on Mitt Romney and his LDS faith. The site is: "What Mitt Believes' I do not engage this subject lightly".
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 19, 2012
Three Simple Fixes To Nearly Everything Things are not always quite as complicated as some folks might like us to believe. Here's three "simple" solutions to three of the most vexing problems facing the nation right now.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 11, 2008
When Doing the Right Thing, May be The Wrong Thing To impeach, or not to impeach -- that's the question.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 9, 2007
Oops Whoops goes the economy.
(5 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 4, 2014
Just Offer to Hold Their Coats Look anywhere on the globe where Western colonial powers moved into far-off foreign lands, decided to do some interior redecorating while exploiting their resources, then left. What you see, with only the rarest exceptions, is trouble... usually big, bloody trouble.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 31, 2009
Intervention Repeatedly we, and almost every other country on earth, have asked, even pleaded, with Israel to stop building settlements on Palestinian land and to stop expanding those already built. And just as repeatedly one Israeli government after another have thumbed their nose at those pleadings.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Hoping for Three "Good" Bubbles Can there be such a thing as a "good" bubble? I think so. In fact, I'm lobbying for the creation of three investment bubbles: health care, infrastructure and green technologies.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, September 3, 2013
History On a Deadly Roll These days I find myself drawn to history books. Which probably explains the almost constant sense of deja vu that pervades my waking hours.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 15, 2012
U.S. Harboring Known Terrorist Group U.S. Harbors Known Terrorist Group
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 25, 2008
We "Deserve" What? Hey, did you hear? We Americans "deserve" something. Apparently we "deserve relief from high gas and oil prices. At least that's what a person would figure if they read, listen or watch the news. The papers and airwaves are filled with politicians, in both parties, huffing and puffing and promising Americans they are going to find out who's behind high gas prices and make them stop doing whatever it is they are doing.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, September 18, 2010
Disengagement As I watched the whole Tea Party victory bandwagon rolling across my TV screen this week, I thought to myself, "Hey, what the left needs is its own Tea Party movement.. you know, a progressive tea party.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Sharper than a Serpent's Tooth The Clintons and their institutional Democratic Party old guard shocked, insulted, even hurt that black Americans might prefer upstart Barack Obama over the next in line, Hillary Clinton.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Failed Banks Wants MORE Porridge?! So there I was yesterday, sitting in front of my computer innocently opening freshly arrived email. That's when this 48-point bold headline smacked me right between the eyes: "Bank bailout could cost $4 trillion"
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, February 19, 2009
Dems Hanging by a weak Reid Quiz Question: Who's the bigger waste of skin --former Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich or the guy he appointed to fill Barack Obama's senate seat, Roland Burris? Actually it's a trick question, because the right answer is: Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 10, 2008
Memo to Federal Employees: When Is It Ethical to Break the Law? When is it ethical to fight illegality with illegality? Tough question. Dangerous question.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, November 7, 2012
A Billion Bucks For Your Thoughts" Candidates, will have spent upwards of $2 billion dollars on this campaign. And who got most of that dough? The people rely on to tell us what's going on -- the media -- that's who.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, February 20, 2010
Governance Per Mac The Knife Obama's real failure has been his belief that the fundamentals of human nature have changed. Mac would disagree.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Pearls for Swine? Talk about your historic takeovers. David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private-equity firm Carlyle Group, just bought a 710-year-old copy of the Magna Carta for $21.3 million.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Freedom: Nothing Left to Lose? Ironically historians will record that it was another supply-side Republican who greased the skids under capitalism as we've known it.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 25, 2014
The Ghostbuster Effect Remember the movie "Ghostbusters?" Of course you do. Well the other day, while musing about the latest "kinetic action" - as Pentagon brass like to call it - in Iraq and now Syria, I remembered a scene in that movie.
From ImagesAttr
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, October 25, 2007
It's Time to Revive the Great American Tradition of Skunkworks Skunkworks? What's that? Hint: It breaks great minds free from hide-bound organizations crippled by special interests and group-think.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, December 18, 2008
America's Acid Test We're just getting out of a decade of out of power, and it's been tough. But now I'm wondering. Now that Dems are back in power, they forgotten, or simply decided to chuck, all that gushy, flowery stuff our founders put in the Constitution. Have Democrats become like religious folk who pay lip serv
SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, May 3, 2009
News Blues Cable news is nothing like the news business I was in before hanging it up. First of all, we didn't try to keep a story alive beyond its natural life. We just reported the damn thing with as little la-de-da as possible.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 28, 2010
Pied Piper Pipes: But is he leading? I want to see his feet moving more than his mouth.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, January 24, 2014
Karma: It’s Real The older I get the more I believe in Karma. There’s nothing metaphysical about it, just hard evidence that it's real. The latest proof came this week when former Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell and his wife, were indicted for being on the take, big time.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 3, 2009
Different? Or "Here We Go Again." There are some claims that have become so knee-jerk they are dismissed out of hand as political cliches or demagoguery. Calling someone a Nazi , for example, is one. Another is claiming that every foriegn military action by the US is "another Vietnam." So I'm not going to say that about our current entanglement in Afghanistan.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Preview of Bush's Thursday Night Speech The author prepares you for our fearless leader's speech by dredging up a little history.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 27, 2008
Food For Thought How many problems can mankind manage at once before the whole thing become unmanageable? Your life may depend on the answer.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, July 20, 2007
How's Your Bull**it Detector? When asked if there were one quality needed, above all others, to be a good writer, Ernest Hemingway replied, "Yes, a built-in, shock-proof, crap detector."
(19 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 23, 2008
Imagine; Vice President Hillary Clinton... just imagine... Vice President Hillary R. Clinton. Go ahead, imagine it. No, seriously, imagine it. Now's the time to consider what it would be like, how it would work, or not work.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 12, 2009
In Search of "Moderate Talibaners" Now, don't get me wrong. I think Obama has been right about Afghanistan all along. We should have finished the job there and not let bin Laden and gang escape while we were occupied occupying Iraq. But now I'm scratching my head. Word out of the administration is that Obama wants to open a dialog with "moderate elements of the Taliban."
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 20, 2013
Watch At the Sausage Factory One of the first, and most important, things I learned when I started covering Washington many years ago was that there was not one, but two Washington's. There was the elected Washington, and unelected Washington. One was temporary, the other permanent.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, February 28, 2012
To Bomb, Not to Bomb, That IS the Question The biggest guessing game on the planet right now is not who the GOP will pick for their Presidential candidate. I n historic terms that's pretty small-ball stuff. The most burning question (pun intended) right now is; will Israel bomb Iran or not?
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 21, 2008
The Pope's Visit: Shame or Disgrace? The media fell all over itself covering the Pope's visit last week. What did they leave unreported?
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 17, 2008
Hillary Clinton's Campaign IEDs (Insinuations, Exaggerations and Distortions) On winning ugly.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, April 11, 2008
Of Not Looking Down How are Americans responding to the credit crunch? By crunching more of course.
SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, October 11, 2008
It Takes a Village -- The Whole Village.. How do we pull this economy out of the mud? As the US stock market dives to new lows, one nation's stock market is booming -- Iraq's. Why? Franklin Roosevelt would understand.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Women (Scorned) Gone Wild I never thought I could dislike anyone as much as I've come to detest George W. Bush. But a small group is vying for that same "honor." I am speaking of Hillary Clinton's deep-pocketed contributors, the "Hillraisers."
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 20, 2009
America High, 90210 Ever wonder what the world would be like if it were run by those who were popular in high school? Well, I have...
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 20, 2007
The Day the Economy Went Cold Turkey The US economy, and much of the world economy entangled with it, was forced to go cold turkey last week. But how'd it get hooked on junk in the first place?
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Of Battered Wives and the US Congress Democrats worry that impeaching Bush and Cheney would blow back on them in the 2008 elections, by making them appear politically motivated. If they hadn't spent the last six years acting like such a pack of conniving little weasels maybe we'd be less likely to jump such a conclusion.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 5, 2007
Waiting for Fitz Where's the Paris Hilton judge who hit the roof over the LA sheriff's premature release when you really need him? He should be reviewing the Libby commutation.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, August 27, 2007
Waiting for Greatness We live in extraordinary times. That's the bad news. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary leaders, and we have none. That's the really bad news.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Inauguration Day 2009 The old structures can no longer stand - their very foundations are shifted - And men run forth in terror from the old before they can yet find firm ground for the new.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, November 3, 2008
Waiting ..... I have no idea what to do today. I've already voted, so all I can do is sit and wait – and worry. Yet it seems America may once again be on the brink of another seismic social, cultural journey. And so many of us are packed and ready for what could well be the trip of our lives.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 14, 2007
Yikes! I've Been Assimilated Our intrepid author finally succumbs to the Borg, in this case, a health care company.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, November 29, 2007
Why Won't the Media Ask Romney and Huckaby the Tough Questions About Their Religions? Does Mitt Romney wear "temple garments"? What are they? Think of a discreet form of chastity belts.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 13, 2009
One Wrong Move and the Bank Gets It ! This is a form of combat, and should not be entered into by borrowers unless they are ready, willing and able to endure the rigors of a fight. But if they fight -- if lots of them start fighting back – Washington will have to act, and this time in interest of average Americans.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, July 2, 2007
Reading the Tea Leaves Hi, Chicken Little here again. But relax. The sky isn't falling -- but it appears to be fixin' to. What makes me think so? Well that commie rag, The Wall Street Journal told me so.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Think About It (Before It's Too Late) The author want to speak directly to supporters of Hillary Clinton. No, not speak. . . plead.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, May 19, 2008
Deconstructing Bush Speech to Arab Nations Last week President Bush told Arab nations they had to get with the program.. the democracy, free enterprise, free trade program. Here's the subtext of those remarks.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 28, 2008
America's Maoist-like Cultural Revolution Middle Americans what to know: Are you now, or have you ever been, an elitist?
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, March 18, 2010
New Rules Won't Be Enough Nearly a quarter century after I and my co-authors detailed the causes of the S&L debacle, here we were again....
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, January 24, 2008
Memo to: William Jefferson Clinton From: Those of us with a memory.
(9 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 6, 2007
Hillary: A Clear and Present Danger "I've said it before and I'll say it again –- Hillary Clinton will do to the Democratic Party what George W. Bush has done to the GOP."
(11 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 30, 2008
But Can You Handle the Truth? Are all the problems popping up around the world, financial, social, environmental, to energy costs, really just your usual run-of-the-mill messes. And that all that's needed are some new faces in high places and all will be well again. Really? I wish it were that simple.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, December 21, 2007
What an Annoying Year! The author's list of "sick-ofs" includes everything from casino ads to Christian fundamentalists to "all things bimbo."
(10 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 24, 2007
Betray Us, Indeed! But Who Really Betrayed Us? On the right we have the GOP propaganda machine making hay off the MoveOn ad while it can. On the left -- well, that's a little harder to explain, because now there's two of them: Establishment Democrats -- and the rest of us.
From ImagesAttr
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Sunday, July 8, 2007
War of the Roses and Its Victims If American politics were a marriage between the Democratic and Republican parties, it's devolved into what shrinks might describe as a dysfunctional, codependency.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, July 19, 2007
Reality Check (List) Terrorists hurt and kill real people somewhere on earth everyday. And killing Americans here is right at the top of their wish list. But before we decide how to respond to that threat, we need to objectively assess just how severe it is.
(21 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, March 3, 2008
It Really IS the Economy, Stupid While his heart tells him this election should be about the war in Iraq, the author's head tells him that the subject better quickly become the US economy. If it doesn't the war will end anyway.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 14, 2007
Our Desert Dunkirk? World War III begins.
(7 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Pursue Them! Pursue Them to the Grave! Accountability counts. But the only accountability war criminals like Kissinger have faced has been rhetorical scoldings. They were allowed to go on with their lives as if the blood of thousands wasn't virtually dripping from their hands.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 30, 2007
I Read the News Today Oh boy! Rove, Lott, and endangered species (hopefully them).
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Letting Go the Tiger's Tail The Bush administration knows all hell will break loose when US troops finally withdraw. All they are doing now is making sure that happens after they leave office.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Gunga Din Takes a Vacation It's 117 degrees in Baghdad and there's no water. It's 117 degrees in Baghdad and there's no water. It's 117 degrees in Baghdad and there's no water.
From ImagesAttr
SHARE More Sharing        Friday, November 16, 2007
Life Imitates Art "The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter." Justice Department reopens probe into warrantless domestic spying.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, May 15, 2008
Global Warming or Eviction Notices? Melting ice caps might be the most dramatic evidence that we are already dangerously close to just such a tipping point, but it's not the only evidence. Just ask the folks in Tornado Ally, and Burma. They have tales to tell. They've already gotten their first eviction notices.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Monday, January 7, 2008
Greased Pigs The administration has allowed oil companies to pillage and plunder, not only the American people, but other, less well-connected industries and small businesses now saddled with astronomically high energy bills.
From ImagesAttr
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Feeling the Heat, Yet? Bush & Co. thought they could slip that executive order calling for the freezing of assets of "those who threaten stabilization efforts in Iraq" right by us. Nothing gets by Stephen Pizzo, though.
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The Democrats' Death Wish Part IV. Yes, the author is on that jag again. And he will stay on it until Democrats either put that gun to their heads and pull the trigger in November 2008, or wise up.
From ImagesAttr
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, December 4, 2007
People of The Book(s) A gratuitously offensive look at religion and religion in politics.
SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, June 11, 2013
It's Our Own Damn Fault What do we know? What can we know? What price are we willing to pay to know? We need to have that conversation this time around. If we had had it the first time we wouldn't be here now.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Slip-Sliding Away Do we let members of the Bush-Cheney mob slip off, one at time, like thieves in the night, to live on as if they'd served their country with honor?
SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Vietnam by Dummies (Prof. G.W. Bush Lecturing) Oh, the irony of being lectured on "the lessons of Vietnam" by a guy who spent that war hiding out in the Texas Air National Guard, drinking beer and skipping out on monthly drills.
(4 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, June 28, 2007
iPhonies What do Paris Hilton and the new Apple iPhone have in common?
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Hillary's "No Signal Available" Speech As I watched Hillary Clinton begin her speech last night I wondered why she had chosen such an unlikely place, a university basement, three floors underground. It was the kind of public venue I'd expect Dick Cheney to select.
(1 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Friday, May 9, 2008
You want MORE B.S? Can it be that this presidential campaign will be B.S.-Free? Can it be that Americans have finally wised up and will reject the politics of distraction and utter nonsense? We'll see.
(6 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Wednesday, July 11, 2007
One Move and Iraq Gets It! Let's not be held hostage to baseless concerns about the fate of Iraq if we leave.
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, April 7, 2008
URGENT MEMO Question for Hillary Supporters: Are you giving Hillary the same kind of pass on her obvious personal and professional flaws that Republicans gave George W. Bush eight years ago?
SHARE More Sharing        Monday, September 17, 2007
De-Baathifiy America: Bring on the Wimps The similarities between ruling members of the Republican party and the now purged Iraqi Baathist leaders are really quite stunning.
SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, April 3, 2008
They WERE Warned! As you watch members of Congress, the administration and the Fed try to look like innocent bystanders as the capital markets collapse, email them this post. It's a 17-year old scan of my testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 1991.
(2 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Thursday, September 28, 2006
(Heart)Breaking News: What a difference a Democrat Senate/House would have made today! Now your America, the once fabled land of liberty, will not only hold military tribunals, but will be allowed to hold prisoners without the right of Habeas Corpus. In other words, if the government lacks evidence to convict an accused terrorist, they can just keep them locked up -- forever. How sad. No terrorist attack could harm America more than this will.
(3 comments) SHARE More Sharing        Saturday, December 29, 2007
Bhutto: What Now? Bhutto is dead. Is it time for the US to completely re-think our Middle East policies?

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