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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

I guess this little baddie has been around a while… For more on the recent outbreak, check out our Swine Flu Roundup.

“It is near-extinct in many ways in the Northeast, it is extinct in many ways on the West Coast, and it is endangered in the Mountain West, increasingly endangered in the Southwest… and if you look at the state of the party, it is a shrinking entity.” – Former McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt on [...]

When I read the following I have to ask, “Who’s lying here?” Because haven’t we heard from some pretty high profile folks that these techniques worked, most notably former VP Cheney? I guess maybe Hillary was right. First, from NY Times, what traditional interrogation tactics gave us: Along with another F.B.I. agent, and with several [...]

That means he was made to feel as if he were drowning an average of 6 times and day for 30 straight days. Kind of puts that whole ticking clock scenario to rest. From Emptywheel: I’ve put this detail in a series of posts, but it really deserves a full post. According to the May [...]

“The United States is a nation of laws. My Administration will always act in accordance with those laws, and with an unshakeable commitment to our ideals. That is why we have released these memos, and that is why we have taken steps to ensure that the actions described within them never take place again.” – [...]

A new article from Bloomberg spells out the possible scenarios we face. Obviously I side much more with the Keynes approach because of the reasons laid out here, but obviously inflation fears aren’t unfounded. Here’s more… Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is siding with John Maynard Keynes against Milton Friedman by flooding the financial [...]

Personally, I just don’t care at this point. People will think what they want. It was dumb when the left did it to Bush and it’s just as dumb now. From David Horowitze agrees: Conservatives, please. Let’s not duplicate the manias of the Left as we figure out how to deal with Mr. Obama. He [...]

I do feel bad for the guy, but with the internet providing the means for anybody to easily donate to a campaign, the game changed and McCain’s public finance laws couldn’t change with it. From Wash Times: “No Republican in his or her right mind is going to agree to public financing. I mean, that’s [...]

Politifact tracked 513 promises Obama made during the primaries, and yesterday took a look at his top 10. Of the 10 promises, 1 has been fully kept, 1 has been kept via compromise, 5 are in the works and 3 have had no action taken on them. I’ll have more on those last 3 later, [...]

Looks like the London branch is mostly responsible for the mismanagement, and Hank Greenberg explains in detail what happened that led to this disaster. Here’s the thing…if most of these bonuses are going to Londoners who we can’t afford to lose because they’re the only people who can wind down all of these accounts, then [...]

From the moment I heard Republican hacks like Michelle Malkin start referring to the themes in Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’, I knew it was destined to fail. After all, to think that they don’t understand that the selfishness of the few led us to where we are today conveys a particularly acute brand of ignorance. Still, [...]

WTF? Obviously I don’t take part in jingoistic, populism often, but this just strikes me as just plain unamerican. From NY Times: In a sentimental gesture from a no-nonsense kind of guy, Jory Spears lifted his camera phone on Friday in a somber salute to this city’s beloved Sears Tower. “The Sears Tower has some [...]

More fun from the neo-conservatives. Here’s the transcript… MATTHEWS: The polling that took place before we attacked, conducted by “Time” and CNN, showed that 72 percent of the American people, nearly three quarters, believed it was likely that Saddam Hussein was involved in the attack on us 9/11. How do you think they got that [...]