To Charles De Gaulle…

To the wife of Italian Prime Minister Giovanni Gronchi…

To Pope John XXIII…

Maybe he just liked to sneak a peek at their shoes?
(h/t: Gaucho Politico & Lawyers, Guns & Money)

Bernie Madoff being pinned to the wall by a huge, farting bull…which is supposed to represent Wall Street.
All from the mind of Chinese artist Chen Wenling.
I mean, come on…that is AWESOME!
A question…if you had to create a sculpture that summed up what happened last year…what would it look like and why?
(Photo: BBC)

“Sometimes you have to make the tough decisions. If you think this has to be done, you have my blessing. But someday you guys are going to need to tell me how we ended up with a system like this. I know this is not the time to test them and put them through failure, [...]

“It is difficult indeed to maintain a reasoned and accurately informed understanding… on the part of our citizenry when many prominent officials, possessing no standing or expertness except as they themselves claim it, attempt to further their own ideas or interests by resort to statements more distinguished by stridency than by accuracy.” – Ike

” I think the interrogations were in violation of the Geneva Convention against torture that we ratified under President Reagan. I think that these interrogations, once publicized, helped al Qaeda recruit. I got that from an al Qaeda operative in a prison camp in Iraq who told me that. I think that the ability of [...]

Everybody’s abuzz about the new Wash Post story today that starts off with the idea that Khalid Sheik Mohammed (KSM) was turned into some type of “terrorist professor” because he was waterboarded.
And away we go…
The debate over the effectiveness of subjecting detainees to psychological and physical pressure is in some ways irresolvable, because it is [...]

Listen, I truly hope that the Dems don’t use the reconciliation process to try and get the health care reform bill passed. Why? Well, it seems if they took this path they’d have to break up the legislation in two pieces, the budget portion and the insurance reform portion. The budget they could do via [...]

Whether you love them or hate them (it’s hard to be indifferent), there’s no doubt that the Kennedy brothers are still the people you think of first when talking about political dynasties.
MSNBC has put together a documentary of John, Bobby and Teddy and it’s set to air soon.
Here’s a preview of some of the interviews [...]

Our first head of the Department of Homeland Security has written a tell all and it’s more of the same we’ve heard from insiders about the former administration. They politicized nearly everything and made the wrong decision and nearly every turn.
From US News:
Among the headlines promoted by publisher Thomas Dunne Books: Ridge was never invited [...]

Many of us are already regard the Bush administration as a bad, distant memory, but today we’re reminded of just how morally bankrupt they were.
From Wash Post:
The dismissal of U.S. Attorney David C. Iglesias of New Mexico in December 2006 followed extensive communication among lawyers and political aides in the White House who hashed over [...]

Doug points this one out, and if true, well, no wonder France took a pass on backing us in Iraq.
French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice recounts the tale in his book release in March, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai (If You Repeat it, I Will Deny).
From Secular Humanism:
President George W. Bush told French President Jacques Chirac [...]

The Wall Street Journal uncovers what happened, but we’ve discussed it quite a bit here already. The banks were allowed to over leverage themselves to the point of failure. Sure, relaxed rules on home ownership were a contributing factor to the downfall, but that was a symptom of the disease of easy credit, not the [...]

Yes, the very same actors…but this time they might actually help get health reform passed.

Also, from the sound of the script, it appears as if they’re putting more pressure on Republicans to pass this than Dems…
As Louise and her “husband” — actually Harry Johnson — sat around the kitchen table, they pounded the message that [...]

After I read Matt Taibbi’s piece about Goldman Sachs gaming the oil/gas marketplace and wrote my own response, I started to think about the massive $24.3 billion budget deficit in California, and I wondered, “How could they get that far in the hole?”
Sure, the global economy has tanked the past couple years and revenues aren’t [...]

Happy Independence Day everybody. Hope you and yours have a fun and safe 4th.
And, as always, thank you so much for reading and joining the conversations here.

During this weekend’s D-Day remembrance ceremony, President Obama urged us not to forget those who fought for our freedom and what they managed to achieve.
Many estimate we are losing as many as 1,200 WW II veterans every day in America alone. But there’s no reason we have to lose their stories. For those of us [...]

There are few images as iconic as this, and none that serve as both a realistic and symbolic portrayal of the war China has waged against freedom and free thinkers.
And while this one was snapped on June 5, 1989, I felt the need to share it today. Because as Americans we should remember Tinananmen and [...]

I talked about a Gallup poll yesterday that showed only 11% of GOP voters were non-whites. But after reading some of the comments on that post, I felt the need to amend those thoughts.
Basically, the GOP has been VERY white for a while and are getting less so. But not enough to really make a [...]

We all knew this had to happen sooner or later, and it looks like the White House wants to put this issue to bed once and for all.
From Wash Post:
Government officials familiar with the CIA’s early interrogations say the most powerful evidence of apparent excesses is contained in the “top secret” May 7, 2004, inspector [...]

He was known for his dedication to supply-side economics and ushering in an entirely new era for the GOP.
Here’s more from TIME:
It is hard now to imagine the intramural fights that rent the Republicans in the late 1970s and early 1980s over tax policy. Following the economic troubles of the mid and late 1970s, a [...]