Originally posted on wplucey.com

Tuesday marks the 200 year anniversary of the birth of one of the most superb and gifted writers of the Victorian period, Charles John Huffam Dickens, who was born in Portsmouth, England on February 7, 1812.

After launching his writing career as a reporter,...

"Washington is horribly broken."

"The debt bomb is ticking."

Those were the words spoken by newly-christened Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul during his victory speech in Bowling Green on Tuesday night, after pounding his opponent Trey Grayson by a convincing 24 points.

You'll notice the eye surgeon didn't say...

With election results showing convincing wins for Democrat Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania and Republican Rand Paul in Kentucky, some hard analysis awaits both parties on what the results foreshadow for the November elections.

Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, in another closely watched Senate primary, failed to win the...

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Arizona, news came Wednesday that the Republican National Committee chose Tampa, Fla. as the site of their 2012 national convention, beating out Phoenix (and Salt Lake City).

Besides bruised feelings, Arizona will miss out on $200 million that would have...

"I think it's a home run."

That was the reaction of David Greenberg, professor of history and journalism at Rutgers University, to the news that President Obama nominated Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

"She's young, liberal, eminently qualified and personally appealing," Greenberg added.

So at age 50, Solictor General...

If the latest British election estimates hold, Conservatives have won 306 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, short of the 326 needed for a majority, but enough to form coalitions and govern as a minority party. Such a scenario would bring David Cameron to power,...

As BP personnel and volunteers try to contain the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the social and environmental costs to the Gulf States grow by the hour. The calamitous oil spill, which by most estimates is leaking 5,000 barrels a day, has a hefty price tag...

Immigration reform is back in the news, thanks to a law recently passed in Arizona, which gives enforcement officials the power to make "reasonable searches'' of anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

Arizona's illegal immigrant population stands at 460,000, according to statistics from the Department of...

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee came out swinging on Tuesday, tearing into Goldman Sachs executives about whether their firm made significant bets against the mortgage industry while selling their clients toxic assets. The grilling continued for over five hours. Mr. Levin, unsatisfied with the early evasiveness...

Far from the high-pitched partisan rhetoric so prevalent during the health care debate, President Obama's financial regulatory reform address at Cooper Union in lower Manhattan was significantly toned down.

The president opened his address to a crowd estimated to be 700 by reminding the audience that it was his second...

On April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day will be celebrated from coast-to-coast; a day which was first realized by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson who wanted to find a way to increase environmental awareness and to promote urgently needed federal legislation to deal with an alarming ecological crisis.
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As has been widely reported, Goldman Sachs was charged Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding investors in the sale of securities tied to subprime mortgages.

There are so many twists and turns to this story -- allegations followed by denials, what the investors knew and...

If you're not familiar with the following terms: "blue darter" , "dead mackerel," "cement mixer,'' "whangdoodle," or the "tools of ignorance'' and you consider yourself a baseball fan -- no better time than the present (especially with Opening Day fast approaching) to dip into the Dickson Baseball Dictionary...

It's the best of times; it's the worst of times.

America's tale of two cities is the story of a nation deeply divided over health care reform and what the future holds.

It doesn't matter which poll you read; half of the country welcomes health care reform as long overdue;...

Have you finished filling out your brackets for the NCAA Tournament?

If you haven't, time is of the essence. Tip-off is Thursday, just a shade past noon (EST) when Florida takes on BYU in Oklahoma.

That's when all the madness begins. Will a No. 1 seed go down earlier than...

Usually St Patrick's Day is a day of celebration: whether it's wearing different shades of green, nibbling on soda bread, taking in a parade, tipping back a few cold ones, reciting Irish proverbs or belting out popular Irish songs with the sounds of bagpipes and drums filling the air.

But...

The clock is ticking.

On Sunday, March 7, 2010, ABC will televise the 82nd annual Academy Awards from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, beginning at 5 p.m. PT/ 8 p.m. ET with hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.

If you find yourself away from your television set...

Now that the Winter Olympics are behind us, baseball fans (and especially fantasy baseball fans) will soon begin checking in on their favorite Major League Baseball teams and players to see how they're coming along in Florida and Arizona.

With the Internet, and in particular, blogosphere monopolizing practically ever phase...

It's not exactly breaking news to report how the newspaper industry has suffered immeasurable damage during the rapid migration to the Internet, made all the worse by the Great Recession, with lost advertising revenue translating into the shedding of jobs at an alarming rate.

According to the U.S. Census...

Ask any congressional historian and they will probably tell you that Congress has known gridlock before; with the isolationist filibusters prior to WW I, during the Harry Truman administration and the ``Do Nothing Congress'', during the contentious Civil Rights era of the 1950's and 1960's; during the post-Watergate era, and...