When given the choice between having Barack Obama reach across the aisle to work with the GOP or pursue the policies he advanced during his campaign, a significant majority of Americans want him to stick to his guns (56 percent to 39 percent). And 79 percent of the public wants Republicans to drop the partisanship and work with Obama. No wonder Obama seems to be driving Republicans over the edge, with Tom DeLay calling the president's address to Congress "insane," John Bolton cracking jokes about the nuclear annihilation of Chicago, and Bobby Jindal using his time in the spotlight to rave -- inaccurately -- about wasteful "volcano monitoring" programs. You know times are tough for Republicans when the highlight of CPAC is a two-minute speech delivered by a 13-year old.
No single step would revitalize our fearful national spirit more than a new era of civic republicanism.
Try them, and let a jury decide. We know ours is not a nation of cowards. What will our leaders do?
When a gay man realizes he wants to have a child, it forces him to face his own queerness, in the true sense of the word. And it's contrary to his life-long mantra: "I'm normal."
Hot on the heels of the banking crisis, the employment crisis, and the mortgage/foreclosure crisis, the country is on the verge of experiencing a credit card crisis.
This has to stop. A highly organized, well-funded movement to deny the reality of global climate change has been up and running for a long time, but it doesn't change the verdict: the problem is real, it's accelerating, and we have to act.
Today, the TV techs are virtual wizards at getting us on the air in a flash -- even from the moon -- which is nothing short of amazing. What is also "nothing short of amazing" is how much unadulterated drivel finds its way onto the tube.
During the election there was a lot of talk of not using a hatchet when a scalpel is needed. It seems as if Citibank just brought out their hacksaw and blunt hatchet.
The decision to track Mr. bin Laden's movements, moods, and musical tastes came late last week after the agency discovered he was using the popular social networking utility.
The FBI identified the epidemic of mortgage control fraud at such an early point that the financial crisis could have been averted had the Bush administration acted with even minimal competence.
My first thought when reading no stimulus money was earmarked for hurricane recovery was, "Damn, three and a half years along, and we're not shovel-ready." But in fact, that's not the case.
Like Jindal said, "Americans can do anything," and that includes monitoring our own d*mn volcanoes. Seriously, how hard can it be?
Toilet paper may not be the sexiest environmental issue, but it really is one of the most important.
Whether it is 16 months or 19 months or 23 months, whether the residual force is 10,000 or 50,000 troops, the president's new plan will create a surge of new veterans coming home in 2009 and 2010. We need to be ready.
What's clear now is that after Tuesday night's flame out by Jindal, Steele is going to have to work double time in finding a new messenger. First, perhaps, he needs to figure out what the message is and how to deliver it.
I recently asked an intelligence source: what's being done to thwart Iran? His answer: penetration of the Iranian nuclear apparatus at the highest levels. The CIA is trying. The Mossad is more successful.
What the far-right appears to suggest is that ideas that are supported by 82% of Americans are criminal acts of tyranny, and an eventual tax increase of pennies on the dollar for the wealthiest 2% is worthy of opposition by revolutionary means.
It would behoove the State Department spokesmen and women to carefully consider the sensitivities of the Iranian people (as well consulting a map or an encyclopedia) in future references to the region.
As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress, what can we expect to hear? The pundits will stress the nuts-and-bolts policy issues. What they miss is the Obama Code.
