When thousand of Egyptian protesters were taking to the streets in peaceful demonstrations the Obama administration’s message was clear: people have a “right to protest.” Vice President Joe Biden on PBS: And the two things we have been saying here, Jim[Lehrer], is that violence isn’t appropriate and people have a right to protest. And so [...]

Regardless the exact ratio, the likely result is in the middle of a severe unemployment crisis, for no logic reason, our government is going to adopt a package of massive spending cuts. The President has either allowed or actively enabled the conservatives to totally win this fight by moving the debate radically to the right. Now regular Americans are about to lose badly

In the beginning, the idea that any political party would actively hold the debt ceiling hostage to reduce the deficit was considered absurd. Mainly because all the top politicians have admitted they don’t want the country to default and that actually forcing a default would have the exact opposite affect of sending Treasury bond rates [...]

Sometimes the irony of two news events that happen on the same day is almost surreal. Today, we have news that the Obama administration is pushing the Mubarak government to immediately end the Egypt’s “Emergency Law,” which gives the President sweeping powers to violate the rights of the country’s citizens. From Jack Tapper’s “White House [...]

President Obama, like all presidents, often says he “wants” or is even “fighting” for something, but in fact puts no real effort into actually making it happen. It could be he doesn’t want to spend political capital because he thinks it is a lost cause, thinks it is fairly unimportant, or even doesn’t really want [...]

Sometimes the often irresponsible behavior of the United States Senate rises to a new, more disgusting level that still manages to physically make me ill. Today, a bill that would provide help finding health care for the 9/11 rescue workers sickened as a result of their selfless actions failed in the Senate because it managed [...]

This headline from “The New York Times,” Byrd’s Death Weakens Democrats’ Frail Majority, perfectly sums up what a broken, insane Bizzaro World the United States Senate has made of Washington, DC. (Note: Before this post was published, the “Times” changed the headline to Byrd’s Death Weakens Democrats’ Shifting Majority.) The headline appears ridiculous either way. [...]

In what is likely to be one of the last acts of health care reform kabuki theater, the role of the football will be played by President Obama’s proposed National Insurance Rate Authority. As always, the role of the Lucy shall be played by the Senate. The role of the football has previously been played [...]

One thing that has really bugged me is why vulnerable House Democrats are willing to walk the plank on health care reform to protect weird, stupid Senate rules they all hate anyway. Instead of passing the Senate bill as is and then hoping the Senate approves the changes they want through reconciliation, the House Democrats [...]

After Dick Durbin (D-IL) got attacked for saying that he would whip against the public option, he sent out his spokesman to lie about reconciliation in a pathetic attempt to justify Durbin’s role in trying to kill the public option. (Which is curious because we were told we could not have a public option because [...]