“What’s a little pain, when you can party?” After voting for Tom DeLay in the first round of Dancing with the Stars, I must admit I haven’t been keeping up. But fortunately, Christina Bellantoni brings us up to speed. It turns out he has been dancing with not one but TWO stress fractures. Will the [...]
Last week the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sent a letter to U.S. Senators about current health reform legislation. The USCCB has supported the goal of universal health coverage for decades, but the letter made clear that they do not yet support the Senate Finance Committee’s bill because of concerns about affordability, coverage for immigrants, [...]
A few weeks ago I was on the phone with Stu Rothenberg, editor of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, which tracks congressional races, who was remarking to me that of the five open seats Dems must defend next November – Massachusetts, New York, Illinois, Colorado and Delaware – few looked truly in danger. Indeed, Republicans [...]
At 1:30 p.m. today, in Room 226 of the Dirksen Building, Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., will hold a hearing on the “History and Legality of Executive Branch Czars.” Since Feingold is a liberal Democrat, this raises eyebrows. Why would Feingold embrace a topic–so often distorted and misunderstood–that has been the purview of Fox News and [...]
Okay, maybe it’s not enough to call a groundswell. But after former Majority Leader Bill Frist told me last Friday that he would end up voting for the bill were he still in Congress (with some caveats about the shortcomings of the legislative language as it now stands), we’ve heard from some other GOP voices [...]
It is always good to remember that our troops–and those of our allies–in Afghanistan are fighting a new sort of war, according to a strategy (Counterinsurgency) that emphasizes humanity over brutality, and that many of those who are killed are involved in the provision of basic services like clean water and sewage, transportation and new [...]
According to the Guardian, Ahmadinejad is not Jewish. Oh well, it would have been nice to think so. Why? Because those who demonize The Other deserve to be exposed as the imperfect, mongrel individuals they are. In the end, as DNA testing inevitably shows, we are all everyone, we are all The Other. Certainly, we’re [...]
Or, in Senator Ensign’s case, what happens in Washington and is sent back home to Nevada. Both Senators from the Silver State are increasingly deep political doo-doo, though for vastly different reasons. And one’s scandal may end up helping the other.
Marty Peretz, the editor-in-chief of the New Republic–which contains some excellent reporting by writers who must be embarrassed–has grown increasingly bitter about President Obama. Indeed, the bitterness tracks perfectly with the President’s insistence that Israel freeze its settlements. And now, Peretz has deigned to deliver a diagnosis of the President’s mental illness…
