Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

The Republican Congressional Delegation’s Oddly Faulty Memory of 2004 — UPDATED

House Republicans argue that voters handed their members a mandate as well, granting the party control of the House for another two years and with it the right to stick to their own views, even when they clash strongly with the president’s. And many Republicans remember well when the tables were turned. After Mr. Bush’s […]

A Major New Report On Child Welfare In the United States

Since last Friday, our minds have been focused on children.  Those who lost their lives in the Newtown, Conn. tragedy on Friday.  Those at that school who survived.  Those at schools around the country, who now seem much more vulnerable to, of all things, an assault-rifle hit, even though they don’t live in a war […]

Okay, What Exactly Did Chris Cillizza MEAN By “Mental Health Sentencing”?

I rarely watch TV news shows anymore, much less cable political talk shows.  (Okay, I rarely watch TV at all anymore.)  But I happened to watch Chris Matthews’ Hardball tonight on MSNBC.  The topic was, of course, gun control. (Actually, the lack thereof, and whether is any real chance that that might change now.)  And […]

FOLLOW-UP to, “Do ‘Right to work’ Laws Violate the Constitution’s Contracts Clause?”

Last night, in a comment to my post from Tuesday, “Do‘Right to Work’ Laws Violate the Constitution Contracts Clause?”, reader PJR wrote: To a non-lawyer, it kinda looks like SCOTUS rejected the contracts argument in 1949, so unions would have to find someway to get the court(s) to reconsider–or is this wrong? If wrong, why […]

Do ‘Right to Work’ Laws Violate the Constitution’s Article I Contracts Clause? [Updated]*

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any […]

A Victory for the Reality-Based Community! Oh, Know! Er, Oh, No!

Every four years, the race for the White House ends in accusations of deceit. Each side says the other spent millions of dollars to lie and skew the outcome. This year’s post-election accounts of backstage calculations and fateful turning points continue that tradition. But if you read these accounts carefully, you’ll find a happy surprise […]

The Best Revenge: Pointing Out that Romney Keeps Pretending to Be Stupid. Or That He Really IS Stupid.

Yesterday in Springfield, Ohio, the crowd listening to Barack Obama booed when the President brought up Mitt Romney and the Republican Congress. That prompted Obama to say: “No, no, no — don’t boo, vote. Vote! Voting is the best revenge.” Romney promptly pretended to be very outraged by this. He told his supporters: “Yesterday, the President said […]

The Public Learns Disaster Relief Was Etched Out of the Sketch. Uh-Oh.

MITT ROMNEY: “Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better. Instead of thinking, in the federal budget, what we should cut, […]

Off-topic again: All dogs go to heaven

On Wednesday I posted here about Bella, my friend’s daughter’s three-year-old German shepherd/collie mix who suddenly started experiencing severe pain near the back of her spine last weekend and a day later became paraplegic.  A wonderful lady who’s active in animal shelter work took Bella this morning to see a highly-regarded vet who works closely […]

So this IS how Romney’s miracle Caymans IRA metastasized! And we also know now how he plans to help the 47% take responsibility for their lives: Nu Skin samples!

Okay, all.  Remember all the speculation last summer about how Romney managed to parlay an IRA in a Cayman Islands bank into an account worth between $20 million and $101 million?  Much of the speculation concerned whether Romney stacked the account with Bain shares and significantly undervalued them as worth less than the maximum yearly […]