In a recent feature story on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft detailed how many in Congress use their privileged access to information on pending legislation, investigations and regulations to line their own pockets. Much of the piece was based on research of Hoover Institute fellow Peter Schweizer from his book “Throw Them All Out”. Among the surprising revelations in the book – Congress is exempt from prosecution for the same kind of insider trading that would send the rest of us to jail.

With each passing day, Gabrielle Giffords’ chances for making a recovery get better and better. National Journal shares the details… Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been “holding her own” as she fights to recover from being shot through the head on Saturday, said Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, Ariz. Lemole [...]

The motives of the coward who shot a bunch of people (including Dem Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords) down in Arizona earlier today are not known, but I think we can all agree that campaign literature like this certainly doesn’t help… Yes, I’m talking about Sarah Palin. This was the tweet announcing the ridiculous image above… This [...]

I do not believe there is any case to be made for a statistical correlation between market direction and political parties in power that will stand up to rigorous mathematical scrutiny over the long term. However, in the short term, if investors believe that divided government is good for markets, then that expectation can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. That may be what we are seeing in the market now in anticipation of the November results. Apparently the investor class really believes that divided government is good for the market, and we are going to get it in the election.

We know why NMA selected her for this treatment. It is because watching our media, NMA determined she must be a big story. The real question – Why is she such a big story here? Why is she getting so much new and old media attention that she pops up on the NMA meme radarscope?

What better day and time to update our “10 in 10? election prognostications? Last we checked in – Nate Silver (our polling analyst of choice) showed that 9 of the 10 seats most likely to change parties were all held by Democrats and he was forecasting a net 6-7 seat Republican gain in the Senate. One month later, with less than a month to go – 10 of the top 10 seats most likely to change parties are all held by Democrats and Nate is forecasting an 8-9 seat gain by the GOP. So – despite the nomination of a GOP clown candidate in Delaware (virtually guaranteeing a Democratic victory in that state) the odds of a GOP Senate takeover continue to improve.

Regardless of what you think about the current health care legislation being debated on Capitol Hill, being able to read it before it goes to the floor for a vote is the right thing to do and I’m glad to see a Senator from Missouri calling for it. But will the Dems listen? From Politico: [...]

It’s pretty easy…the only people that voters like less than Congressional Democrats and Congressional Republicans. Add in the facts that Republicans have no coherent plan, no definitive leadership and are allowing right wing pundits to organize and promote this Tea Party movement and you have a reality where Dems might actually pick up seats next [...]

Justin Gardner (Donk Quixote) and Mike Wallach (Phanto), endeavor to tilt at windmills (With apologies to Miguel de Cervantes). Justin is a registered Democrat, considers himself an independent but views the world from the left side of the political spectrum. Mike most recently registered as a Republican, but considers himself primarily a fiscal conservative, deficit hawk, and a libertarian leaning independent. They find common ground in the Health Care Reform debate.

If I was a betting man, I’d put the over/under at a net 12 seat gain for the GOP in the House of Representatives.

In my last post I detailed some of the roadblocks that have kept the Democratic leadership in Washington from finding a way to pass a major health care reform bill with a public option. They’ve whittled the cost of the bill down a few hundred billion dollars by negotiating concessions from drug companies and hospitals, [...]

2008 Senator Lindsey Graham seems to disagree with 2009 Lindsey Graham. This is Mike Fritz and David Murdock from ANP. Senator Lindsey Graham was a passionate critic of the Bush Justice attorneys during this past summer’s Armed Services Committee hearings on interrogation. Lately, however, Graham seems to have had second thoughts on the matter. At [...]