Gallup did a state by state assessment and came up with the following map. Very discouraging for the Repubs out there.

I think this is mostly due to the fact that Republicans still aren’t proposing viable solutions. And that’s probably because they lack any true leadership right now.
Also, whether they want to admit it or not, [...]

I’ve been genuinely intrigued at how much fiction and reality have been intersecting recently.
See, there’s this film called MOON and it follows the story of a guy working on the far side of the moon who figures out that there’s a lot more to his mission than collecting the natural resource Helium-3. It’s a [...]

A great video for today.

What do you love about the United States?
And, on the other hand, what do you think we could be doing better?

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.

North Korea seems very insistent on testing President Obama. Apparently, the U.S. government is tracking a North Korean freighter suspected of carrying illicit arms.
Government officials say they will act within the bounds of a recent UN Security Council resolution which permits international navies to request the inspection of North Korean cargo vessels but does not [...]

It started in Flint, Michigan, but it could be extended to other blighted communities across the nation.
From Telegraph:
The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.
Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a [...]

Barack Obama’s handshake with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has managed to upset more than a few observers. Of course, the negative reaction from the right has been so predictable and overblown, there’s been little room for a more reasonable critique of Obama’s performance in Latin America.
Thankfully, Eugene Robinson, writing for the Washington Post has written [...]

Some good news already from G20:
After a meeting between the two men in London, on the eve of the G20 summit, President Obama also accepted an invitation to fly to Moscow in July, by which time both sides hope negotiators from both countries will have worked out an arms control deal to replace the Strategic [...]

If you thought $700 billion was a lot of money, well..
It is.
But $2 trillion is.. ridiculous.

This is Danielle Ivory from ANP.
Congress and the new administration have been focusing their attention on strengthening oversight for the Treasury’s TARP program, but meanwhile few are paying any attention to the Federal Reserve.
Since September, [...]

I didn’t post my reactions to Barack Obama’s inaugural address yesterday because I knew I could not be anything close to objective. I was moved by the occasion and caught up in the sense of hope (justified or not). I thought the speech’s tone was an excellent blend of forcefulness and humility, of reaching back [...]

In a few hours, Barack Hussein Obama will be President of the United States of America. This is an exceptional moment in U.S. history, not because Obama is the first black president (although that’s certainly noteworthy) but because we’re at one of those rare crossroads when we know the next four years will be of [...]

Hi, this is Danielle Ivory from the American News Project. My colleague, Lagan Sebert, and I just published a new video on the bailout and a lack of serious oversight.
Today, Henry Paulson urged Congress to release the second half of the $700 billion of the bailout money. But no one seems know what banks [...]

The International Herald Tribune has an opinion piece in it highly critical of the CIA. It makes one wonder if the guys in that agency have a mindset that much different from the automakers in Detroit. All have plenty of money to throw at a problem, but they seem to fail wherever they turn.
First, let’s [...]

Well, just when I think I understand Americans something like this comes around and smacks me in the face…
77% of U.S. voters say school children should say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Just 13% say they should not, and 9% are undecided.
Sorry, but aren’t [...]

To those who made it home, and to those who didn’t: thank you for being there.

So, it really is over.
John McCain has conceded. Barack Obama is currently giving his victory speech. We have some new blue states and, in a few months, we’ll inaugurate a new president.
The night has gone just about like the polls suggested it would. So I guess that data wasn’t so bad after all, although it [...]

Danielle, here!
I’m back in Philly, my home away from home, sitting in a swanky hotel lobby, facing a wall, like a crazy person, in order to borrow wireless. And I’ve just published a piece for ANP.
Here’s the scoop…
Today, registered voters in Philly found their names missing from local poll books, which are apparently [...]

As the election neared, I heard more and more outlandish remarks about John McCain and Barack Obama. I was told that voting for Obama put me close to the ideology of the world’s tyrants. I read here in the comments that only the stupid, rich and racist are voting for McCain. I’ve seen, again and [...]

We all know these three guys…

But do you know who Horatio Seymour is? Or how about DeWitt Clinton?
Check out ALL of the losers over at Hurty Elbow.

Because of talk like this…

Love him or hate him, this is exactly what he was saying in 2004.
And while some are puzzled by Obama’s appeal and think Americans are being irrational, I don’t think it’s any surprise that we’re going with a guy who has consistently been making the case for a “united” America [...]