California – the laid back state, the Left Coast — has a real American fight going on. There’s a firestorm over California Proposition 14 open primary initiative. We might expect the major parties to oppose a referendum that gives more power to the people and less to the party bosses. The main opponents of Prop [...]

Reuters Link…

More encouraging news about the TARP program… From Washington Post: Among the banks that rule Wall Street, Citigroup got a bailout that was bigger than the rest. Now the company is about to pay a king’s ransom for its federal rescue. The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New [...]

If you dig into the demographics of approval/disapproval on the health care question, some interesting trends emerge… As expected, those who have health care don’t like reform. Because it won’t mean much for them and Dems haven’t made a compelling case that it will drive down their premiums. Well, not yet anyway. However, those who [...]

It’s particularly disturbing that at a moment when millions of independents are knocking at the door of an electoral process from which they are excluded, Ralph Nader and the third party movement would want to slam it shut. (From “Should state adopt an open primary? Yes” by independent attorney Harry Kresky in Sunday’s Sac Bee) [...]

You’ll remember Victoria from Saturday Night Live fame and the fact that she thinks Obama is the anti-christ. Cue hilarity… Yes, Glenn Beck has taught Victoria Jackson well. And that’s all that really needs to be said…

Just an FYI for those of you who are looking for some late night political reading. Media Temple is scheduling some maintenance on their infrastructure and it’ll mean that the site will most likely be down at that time. But never fear…we’ll be back up soon! Best, Justin

The Affordable Health Care for America Act is a bad piece of legislation that will have negative consequences for our economy and country and should never have become law. On that one point many liberals, conservatives and libertarians agree. Perhaps President Obama has simply fulfilled the campaign promise of a post-partisan political environment in Washington D.C. Due to his efforts, many Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, Liberals and Conservatives are now united – in opposition to the BFD that is the Obama Health Care Reform hairball.

Just watch… Robert Gibbs…umm…did you not hear your boss talking? He’ll never live this one down.

So because they demonized the legislation from the very beginning and demanded that Dems base any new legislation on Republican political philosophy…now they’re saying that they won’t cooperate on anything? From The Hill: “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year,” McCain said during an interview Monday on an Arizona radio affiliate. [...]

Latest and greatest news and views about California’s open primary initiative, Proposition 14, on the ballot June 8. Partisans showed their true colors last week with back-room deals and litigation on the ballot wording. Prominent independent attorney Harry Kresky’s commentary on HuffPo “Words Matter” sheds lots of light on the nature of our democracy. And [...]

Looks like the Stupak promise was what put it over the top. From LA Times: Delivering a hard-fought victory in President Obama’s yearlong pursuit of a national healthcare overhaul, a divided House narrowly approved legislation Sunday night that could reshape the way Americans deal with wellness and illness. House Democratic leaders proved they could hold [...]

Rick Ungar pivots off of conservative talker Debbie Schlussel’s investigation and comes up with the following about Freedom Alliance’s “Freedom Concerts,” which were supposed to raise money to send the children of fallen soldiers to college and help wounded soldiers pay their bills. Apparently they’ve done little of either. The numbers… In 2008, the charity [...]

As the debate about health care has stretched on, I’ve argued that it wasn’t smart for Republicans to be so strident about the Dems’ proposals. Better to have a seat at the table and argue for more cost cutting measures, different ways to fund it than tax hikes, etc. Instead, they said “NO!” at nearly [...]

This one always seemed like a non-brainer to me, and thankfully Stupak’s anti-abortion bloc and the White House have reached an agreement. Now Dems will have no problem getting the health care bill passed. From Politico: A cadre of anti-abortion Democrats announced Sunday that they’ve reached an agreement with the White House to defuse the [...]

Just got the news from Politico: House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson says Democrats have clinched the 216 votes they need to pass President Barack Obama’s health-reform plan. “We have the votes now — as we speak,” Larson said Sunday morning. But do they? Looks like Bart Stupak and the White House are nearing a [...]

First, the promo… Then, the whole thing… Listen, you may not agree with Stewart’s politics and Beck is certainly an easy target…but given our current state of affairs, having somebody like Stewart lampoon Beck is what we need right now to balance things out. In short, if Beck is the voice of libertarianism/conservatism…you all need [...]

IndependentVoting.org attorney Harry Kresky’s piece today on HuffPo Words Matter: Voters to Get Fair Wording of California Open Primary Initiative is a gem. The assertion of such a right by the parties raises a fundamental question about the nature of our democracy. Does it rest on the rights of voters or on the rights of [...]