My Facebook friend worried: "how will it affect my family when I'm working part time and just getting by? Am I on my own? I don't want to hear the usual empty blathering. What will it mean in plain English?" Who wouldn't wonder how the passage of the historic health...

I love Joe Wilson. Again! Which sets me up here and now to make sure a critical distinction is made. Joe Wilson is not Joseph Wilson, the former ambassador whom I really do love for the devotion and fiery outrage he's displayed in nonstop defense of his wife, outed CIA...

Okay, full disclosure, up top. Liberal here. Progressive. Especially about the mushrooming health care crisis in this country. I like the idea of a public option. I dislike how hate radio, political partisans, and manipulated tantrum-throwers have spread lies and helped pervert the public discourse about a subject we all...

Watching the pageantry accompanying the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy was striking, touching something way deeper in my heart than I expected.

Okay, full disclosure here - Irish Catholic, went to the schools, went to Mass, did the Missal thing, the Confession thing, the Rosary thing, learned the prayers...

Happy Independence Day, on the eve of which we've been reminded that we are FAR from declaring our national independence from the Sarah Palin addiction.

After watching her rambling, disjointed "W-T-F Moment" as she announced she's not only not running for reelection as Alaska's governor but she's bailing out...

Arlen Specter?!?!?! The first time I blurted that out was during an industry screening of Oliver Stone's JFK, in which his name came up in connection with the rogue "magic bullet" issue. I just had another Arlen Specter blurt a few minutes ago (as of this writing, anyway).

He's...

3 09 09

Reason Returns to the White House
By Mary Lyon

Like it or not, knuckle-draggers: Science is back IN.

As a life-long Catholic, I couldn't be more delighted. I'm sure the airwaves and the cable channels will soon be wall-to-wall with conservatives and Republicans and other...

2/25/09

A Tale of Two Speeches
By Mary Lyon

Feels like it's still the best of times and the worst of times. If the night of President Obama's first major speech to a joint session of Congress proved anything, it confirmed that America chose the better of two directions...

2 4 09

Three Little Words
By Mary Lyon

"I screwed up."

Sounds like a simple, ordinary, and harmless little thing to admit, unless of course you're the President of the United States. We haven't heard the likes of this in at least eight years. No wonder everybody...

1 21 09

So What Do I Do Now?
By Mary Lyon

This is a heckuva hangover. More than just the sun dawned on me on the morning after Obama Day. I realized as I woke up following the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the...

Mr. Bush, you shouldn't have bothered. It wouldn't have mattered what you said on your last Thursday evening as White House occupant. I'm sure many Americans did tune in out of curiosity as to how you were going to try to talk your way out of your mess this time....

1 7 09

Blago for Senate Majority Leader
By Mary Lyon

There! I said it.

Yes. I know embattled and ethically - well, um - relaxed Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has no business in the U.S. Senate. There's more than a fair amount of people who quite reasonably...

Third time's a charm, maybe?

I've compiled three of these lists now. In 2006, I issued the first one, looking back on everything George W. Bush has adversely affected since he first arrived in the Oval Office. Just a damage assessment, really. At the time, I thought it would be...

Maybe we were just behind schedule. Could it be that we simply got a late start launching the real New American Century?

There is an argument to be made that this, now, is the new and more formal start to the 21st Century, or perhaps it will be, come...

The piece of film that just made the biggest impression on me on this particular night, when Barack Obama aired his half-hour TV special, was not anything Obama presented. It was the sour grapes John McCain squeezed in reaction.

He complained about all those sinister mystery contributions, the suspicious...

How much do I not like John McCain now, because of this final debate in Campaign 2008? Let me count the ways - which, at this point, number far greater than the components of a well-equipped plumber's tool collection.

I'm struck, immediately, by two moments. No, the now-famous Joe...

Dear Senator McCain,

One way or another, you reach an end on November 4th. We do know that for certain, even though no one can say what kind of end it will be - whether the road takes you to the Oval Office or to the finish of your long-held...

I was going to start out by calling the second Presidential Candidates' Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain a "running out the clock" affair for Obama. Basically a draw - no big wins or losses, with an edge to Obama because he didn't give up any ground and McCain...

10 02 08

Advantage Biden
By Mary Lyon

I had help with this one. I watched Joe Biden and Sarah Palin square off, on CNN, specifically for that network's audience meters. In this case, it was a group of undecided voters in Ohio, both men and women. What was...

I'm mixed.

Who won? They both did. And didn't.

Here's what strikes me about the opening round of presidential debate season: the one-liners, the facts (or not), the jabs, the international names and one mispronunciation, the energy, and the eye contact. Or in McCain's case, the lack thereof.