It is hard to imagine that Sarah Palin has been in the national spotlight for less than one year. It seems that she has dominated the news cycle far more than any Governor of a small state or even a former vice presidential candidate could or should. To most of us on the left,... »

I have heard many in the news media refer to the Supreme Court hearings on Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination as boring and having very little real news value. Chris Mathews and Peggy Noonen even complained that she was “over coached” and stiff. A boring and uneventful nomination hearing was exactly what the President wanted for... »

As I watched the Supreme Court hearings the last couple of days, I was surprised but not shocked that the Republican Senators were being so tough on Sonia Sotmayor. It seemed, at first, to be completely counterproductive for the Republicans to continually repeat the same attacks over and over again with no expectation of... »

The dictionary defines a politician as: “a person experienced in the art or science of government”(the most generous definition) and a statesman as: “a person who exhibits great wisdom and ability in directing the affairs of a government or in dealing with important public issues.” Sarah Palin by no stretch of the imagination can be thought of as... »

There has been much talk about Dick Cheney’s motives for continually speaking out about President Obama’s policies making us less safe. Yesterday and today, for example, Leon Panetta was quoted as saying “It is almost like he wants this country to be attacked”. Ed Shultz has taken it even farther and truly believes that... »

Pat Buchanan has resurfaced as a reliably conservative sound bite machine for MSNBC this week over Obama’s Supreme Court Nominee. Pat seems to be singularly focused on the one issue of the white firefighters who filed a discrimination suit against New Haven Ct. The case, and Sotomayor’s ethnicity has combined for him into a... »

The day just wouldn’t be complete without a quick note about Rush Limbaugh. Rush predictably chimed in with his unique vision of Sonia Sotomayor. Rush just couldn’t help himself and had to make it all about race. The very fact that Sotomayor is Hispanic became the sole reason Obama nominated her and in turn,... »

While the right wing pundits spent time beating their chests and spitting into the gale force winds that constitute the Sotomayor nomination, the left were so confident in ultimate victory in this battle that they could spend their time analyzing the right’s strategy and tactics. Chris Mathews Hardball made it quite clear that the... »

For years, the right wing has been successful in labeling the left as socialist. From their ideological pure perspective, this seems perfectly natural. If you believe that capitalism and free markets will solve all problems and that “Government is the problem”, then anything that limits capitalism or expands government must be socialism and that,... »

Setting aside the political and social conventions of the day, one could argue that having a Latino woman or an African American man as a representative at the constitutional convention would have produced a “better” result that included all Americans in the democratic system instead of institutionalizing the exclusion of some. One could argue... »

About 10 years ago there was a low budget film entitled The Bible and Gun Club. It describes a group of door to door salesmen who sell both guns and bibles to needy citizens on their way to a national sales convention in Las Vegas.  The salesmen find no contradiction in this seemingly diverse... »

Getting lost in all the noise in the media over the Bush torture program is a clear analysis of the actual arguments put forth by the Bush administration for these techniques. »