Jim Neal

Over the weekend I bemoaned news that the Senate and the Administration had waived their opposition to an extension of payroll tax cuts tied to the Keystone XL Pipeline. Only days earlier, Senator Reid had declared the House bill "dead on arrival" while the president threatened to veto...

Yet more numbing news about the breadth and depth of the impoverished in America, a cohort whose numbers have skyrocketed as a consequence of the Great Recession. An article in the New York Times profiles how profoundly poverty is spreading beyond inner city and rural communities which most...

I've read the reports about soaring rates of unemployment amongst 20 to 24-year-old Americans, currently around 15 percent. That figure doesn't paint the full picture of underemployment which would also count part-time workers and those marginally attached to the labor force. Living in a community loaded with talent...

The Economist's report that the GOP is "economically illiterate and disgracefully cynical" was spot on but the story doesn't end there. An inexplicable outcome of the debt ceiling saga -- cutting spending while tossing tax increases overboard -- is really happening.

An angst-ridden nation's concern over the economy...

The recent revelation by the president and CEO of the Phoenix Suns that he is gay is another step toward cracking the door to one of the last vestiges of homophobia: the sports world. More athletes, coaches, front office leaders and fans need to step forward and put...

Snowfall totals rank this week's blizzard as the third worst in history, but you can't begin to judge the storm's presumptive ferocity by a mere 1.8" margin. Trudging from my Lakeview apartment into the arms of Chicago's fiercest climate phenomena took a lot of energy but rewarded me with a...

Given my overexposure to US politics and the lessons gleaned from my unsuccessful candidacy for the Senate in 2008, I now get to be soothsayer of sorts. I advise clients on how certain legislation of interest is likely to exit the Congress. What I do is piece the...

Update 6:50pm EST: President announces new "framework agreement" with hodgepodge of goodies for all. Assails critics. McCain tweets "I applaud the framework agreement."

Go figure.
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After a week or two of negotiating with himself over tax cuts to the wealthy, Mr. Obama has played his hand. All...

At the President's press conference in Lisbon Saturday Margaret Warner from PBS asked him to comment on Republican opposition to ratification of the START Treaty. Instead of delivering a punch, Mr. Obama stammered for half of the entire press conference trying to answer the question.

God, I thought, is he...

For those of you unfamiliar with sports-speak, an audible is basically a play called at the line of scrimmage by a quarterback. Former NFL QB turned Congressman Heath Shuler (NC-11th) was rated by ESPN as the 4th worst professional sports draft pick in history when he was drafted...

A jolt to self-esteem would be an understatement for the sort of personal rejection Barack Obama endured Tuesday. At Wednesday's press conference, Mr. Obama was reflective, somber if not depressed. He seemed unsure of himself and lost in a cobweb. He is clearly taking the midterm losses very personally despite...