This week the ACLU released a disturbing report documenting the permanent enshrinement of the Bush/Cheney definition of the Unitary Executive by the Obama administration. With the tacit acceptance of the Democratic Congress, the balance of power between executive and other branches continues to shift heavily to the executive. While distressing, the report is unsurprising as it was clear in the first few weeks of the new administration that Obama’s campaign rhetoric of rolling back the Bush/Cheney power grab was just that – empty campaign rhetoric.

The future of all mainstream media news is Taiwanese animation. This piece from NMA News in Taiwan explains our 2012 Presidential election prelims to a Chinese audience.

As this issue becomes less politicized, more folks seem to warm to the legislation. Wait…what??? To me this is encouraging. Of course, we all know there are problems with the legislation that passed, but I think we can also collectively agree that the current system is completely unsustainable. So some type of fix had to [...]

If you’re lucky enough to earn a lot of income, you knew this was coming. After all, you only get taxed for Social Security on the first $106,800 of your income. Anything after that draws no SS tax. So, basically, while the rest of us get taxed on our entire income, you all pay into [...]

I’m not going to prognosticate too much today, but I will say that I think the talk of an electoral armageddon are severely overblown. Personally, I don’t see how the Repubs can take back either the House or the Senate. Still, Obama is underwater when it comes to his approval numbers, so he can’t help [...]

We’re very sad here in the Jacob household (New Jersey). We took the dog out for a walk and she burst into flame. I have no idea what to tell the kids. What’s on your mind?

The title says it all, but here’s a bit more detail… From NY Times: Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm, to settle charges of securities fraud linked to mortgage investments. The S.E.C. filed a lawsuit [...]

Listen, if a public or private company makes money and wants to keep it close to their chest, that’s their right. But those same businesses can’t then go and collectively fault the White House’s policies for preventing them from hiring more people. And that’s exactly what they’re doing through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and [...]

The bogeyman of “gridlock” will not dissuade voters. While often messy, political gridlock in Washington D.C. can yield very positive results. The poster child of dysfunctional gridlock is the Clinton/Gingrich budget impasse that shut down the government in 1995. Ugly – to be sure. Yet out of that same dynamic during the six years of divided and “gridlocked” government, we got a lot of good, smart governance.

First, take a look at this… And yet the Wash Post leads with this headline: “Confidence in Obama reaches new low, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds” Well, I guess if it’s presidential and it bleeds…it leads. Here are some more internal numbers about confidence and it shows how each has slipped over time… First observation…take [...]

Republican lawmakers Scott Brown and Olympia Snowe jumped on board to give Dems the votes they needed to pass a sweeping financial reform law. Susan Collins had previously committed to supporting the bill. And one has to wonder, after reading what’s in the legislation…why are Republicans opposing this? From The Hill: The legislation aims to [...]

USA Today highlights an interesting trend that may be good news for the centrists, indies, moderate repubs and moderate dems out there. A taste… WARWICK, R.I. — Lincoln Chafee comes from a long line of Rhode Island governors, three in the previous four generations, all of them Republicans. Now the former Republican senator and mayor [...]

Most investors believe that the stock market will benefit from Republicans taking control of either the House or Senate in the fall. With that expectation, a rising market could very well be a self-fulfilling prophecy. If the GOP begins to look like it has a realistic chance of taking control of one house, the opportunities may come along sooner rather than later.

With the discouraging employment numbers coming out earlier this week (even though the unemployment rate dropped) and the seeming unpopularity of many of the administration’s positions, this isn’t necessarily surprising news. Here’s the graph… 18 points in one year is a hell of a drop since it represents more than double the drop among Republicans. [...]