No Silver Bullet
[ Posted Wednesday, January 16th, 2013 – 16:51 UTC ]
There is no silver bullet.
--Vice President Joe Biden
Archive of Articles in the "Politicians" Category
Obama's Line In The Sand
[ Posted Monday, January 14th, 2013 – 17:29 UTC ]
President Obama held the last press conference of his first term in office today. He used the opportunity to clearly stake out his position on the looming debt ceiling fight. Obama's position: he's not going to have this fight. Period. Congress can either pass a bill he can sign, or we're going to hit the debt ceiling. Either way, Obama will not treat the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in the ongoing partisan struggle over the federal budget. Obama will refuse to negotiate over the debt ceiling at all, and is not even entertaining ideas of any sort of "Plan B."
Friday Talking Points [240] -- Time To Dust Off The Fourteenth Option
[ Posted Friday, January 11th, 2013 – 17:24 UTC ]
According to the news media, America's biggest concern right now should be the silliness of Jack Lew's signature. That's the kind of week it's been, at least among the inside-the-Beltway cocktail party circuit.
Free Aaron Sandusky, Mister President
[ Posted Tuesday, January 8th, 2013 – 18:53 UTC ]
President Barack Obama has it within his power to chart a new course for his administration on the Justice Department's continuing refusal to take into account the will of the voters in over one-third of the United States on medical marijuana. He could do so quite easily, by issuing a presidential pardon for Aaron Sandusky, who just received a 10-year prison sentence for running medical marijuana dispensaries in the state of California -- where such activities were legalized by the state's voters.
Republicans Creating National Health Insurance Exchange?
[ Posted Monday, January 7th, 2013 – 16:13 UTC ]
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as "Obamacare") put Republican governors between an ideological rock and a very hard place for conservatives. After losing their court challenge on the constitutionality of Obamacare, each state's governor was faced with a clear choice: either set up a state-run health insurance marketplace (or "exchange"), or refuse to do so and pass the buck to the federal government, which will set up an exchange for states who opt not to create one on their own.
Friday Talking Points [239] -- Talking About The Deal
[ Posted Friday, January 4th, 2013 – 17:32 UTC ]
If we had a "best quote" awards category, we'd certainly have to nominate what outgoing House Republican Steven La Tourette had to say about the whole situation, after the Senate had voted 89-8 to approve the fiscal cliff avoidance deal: "We should not take a package put together by a bunch of sleep-deprived octogenarians on New Year's Eve." Now that's funny!
My 2012 "McLaughlin Awards" [Part 2]
[ Posted Friday, December 28th, 2012 – 18:02 UTC ]
Welcome back to our annual year-end awards column!
My 2012 "McLaughlin Awards" [Part 1]
[ Posted Friday, December 21st, 2012 – 18:13 UTC ]
Welcome to the seventh annual homage (which sounds so much nicer than "blatant ripoff," don't you think?) to the television show The McLaughlin Group, since they have the most extensive year-end award category list of anyone around. Since "extensive" is my middle name (well, not really, although I do tend to wander off into the parenthetical wilderness at times, do I not?), such a long list fits right in here.
Enjoying The Kabuki?
[ Posted Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 – 16:37 UTC ]
I realize that watching the fiscal cliff negotiations in Washington has been likened to stylized Kabuki theater more than once by pundits far and wide, but I'm going to push this metaphor for all it is worth today. You might even say I'm going to push it right over a cliff, but that would be a horrendous metaphor mixture indeed.
Friday Talking Points [238] -- Merry Cliffmas!
[ Posted Friday, December 14th, 2012 – 18:07 UTC ]
What's that? Mayans? Not Maya Rudolph? Man, I've got to start paying closer attention to these things. I'm still trying to figure out what sort of omen it is that Paul McCartney performed with Nirvana on 12/12/12, personally. Maybe not the end times, but certainly the strange times.