[ Posted Monday, March 2nd, 2015 – 16:41 UTC ]
This will be a rather busy week in the political world. We've got the Prime Minister of Israel giving a controversial speech before Congress tomorrow, and then at the end of the week we'll have another round of government shutdown follies, courtesy of the House Republicans. Between these two events, the Supreme Court is going to be busy with a few questions in the political arena. The most prominent of these cases is King v. Burwell, which puts Obamacare back on the docket.
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[ Posted Thursday, February 26th, 2015 – 18:27 UTC ]
Recently Republicans seem to have discovered the struggles of America's middle class. Out of nowhere, they're suddenly talking about this problem. Well that's great, but talk is cheap and when it comes to action, these Republicans seem to have amnesia about what they've actually done to hard-working Americans. Republican trickle-down policies created tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthy while leaving working families to pick up the pieces. I'll believe Republicans care about what's happening to America's middle class when they stop blocking legislation that would require billionaires to pay taxes at least at the same rate that teachers and firefighters do. Republican trickle-down economics blocked increases in the minimum wage that would have lifted 14 million people out of poverty.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 24th, 2015 – 16:57 UTC ]
Mitch McConnell has just defused the ticking Department of Homeland Security shutdown bomb, and signaled that the department will not have to shut down this weekend. No word yet on how John Boehner and the House Republicans are going to react (to say nothing of the right-wing media). But by acting this early, [...]
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[ Posted Friday, February 20th, 2015 – 17:56 UTC ]
Hello and welcome back to our Friday political news roundup. I must apologize for not writing one of these columns last week, but I was under the weather and far too sick to type (or think coherently). So the events covered today really encompass the previous two weeks, just to warn everyone in advance. Also, this intro is going to move along at an accelerated clip, because there is a lot to cover. Our awards this week are backwards, and then we've got a rant on the Republicans in Congress who are getting ready to have another government shutdown (because the last one worked so well, right?). But enough overview, let's get on with things.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 17th, 2015 – 18:03 UTC ]
There's a scheduling flaw in the implementation of Obamacare that is just now becoming a reality. I noticed this flaw quite some time ago, but haven't mentioned it in a while. [Editorial note: I just know I wrote about this subject previously, but a quick check of the archives didn't provide me with a linkable example, sorry.] This flaw is about to become apparent to millions of procrastinatory Americans. Some in the media and political worlds are now noticing this, but it likely won't be until April that this surprise dawns on most.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 – 16:52 UTC ]
While the fight for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is already fiercely heating up, over on the Democratic side there is really only one question even being asked right now -- when will Hillary Clinton formally declare her candidacy? Will she wait until summer, or throw her hat in the ring during the spring? Whenever she does launch her campaign, she will inevitably face the same problem she grappled with the last time she ran. Call it her inevitability problem (or maybe her "inevitable inevitability problem," if you're trying to come up with a clever headline).
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[ Posted Friday, February 6th, 2015 – 18:04 UTC ]
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams (or, as we affectionately refer to him, "BriWi") was ruthlessly mocked online this week, after a war story he told turned out to be a complete fabrication. Our headline today refers to the funniest mockery we've yet seen on the subject, titled "That one live shot I did from the moon," for no other reason than it makes a funny headline. We really have no news to report from the moon, although (as usual) there are quite a few bits of lunacy to report from the political world. As for BriWi, well, we'll see what happens next. Perhaps it's time to give Lester Holt a shot at the big chair? It's a little hard to feel too sorry for BriWi, since he reportedly rakes in $10 million a year to read the news to America every night. Nice work if you can get it, eh? Or hold onto it, for that matter.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 3rd, 2015 – 18:22 UTC ]
My interest was piqued because of the wide-ranging possible repercussions of a decision by the Justice Department last year that got little attention in the media. A few Native American tribes -- including one in Washington state, where recreational adult use had just been legalized -- asked the Justice Department for legal guidance on the issue of marijuana sales on tribal lands. The Justice Department, surprisingly, not only endorsed the idea but also seemed to throw the gates wide open for any other Native American tribe to grow and sell marijuana as well -- even in states that hadn't already legalized it. They essentially said tribes would have to adhere to the same set of federal legal guidelines that were created after Colorado and Washington legalized recreational marijuana sales.
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[ Posted Monday, February 2nd, 2015 – 18:16 UTC ]
President Obama just finished a very good month in public opinion polling. Obama showed such notable improvement in January that it's tough to choose which metric he did best in. In improvement over the previous month, Obama just had the best month of his second term (so far). His January improvement was the fourth-best of his entire presidency. He hit numbers he hasn't seen since the summer of 2013 -- gaining back all the ground lost (and more) since the disastrous rollout of the Obamacare website. NBC's Chuck Todd, during coverage of Obama's State Of The Union speech, came up with the best metaphor for what has been happening since the midterm elections last year: Obama stole the GOP's "honeymoon." After a big Republican political victory, Obama has been increasingly bold. As a result, Obama got the bump in polling, instead of the Republicans. January was indeed a very good month for President Obama.
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[ Posted Wednesday, January 28th, 2015 – 18:00 UTC ]
The 2016 presidential election cycle is already underway. Whether you are delighted or horrified at the prospect, the race is indeed now on. While it might seem impossibly far in the future, consider that the Iowa caucuses are only a year away. So we're going to take a very early look at the Republican field, which seems to be getting larger every week.
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