For some time now, whenever contemplating the political events of the day, I find myself wrestling with a troubling uncertainty. At any given moment, it's not entirely clear which group of politicians galls me more. On the one hand, we have the brazen and guiltlessly mendacious sociopaths who are setting...

We are no longer surprised that Republican scandals are so often ripe with the stench of hypocrisy. It is a fetor that frequently accompanies the predictable libidinous lapses of pious "family values" conservatives. Sanford, Ensign, Craig, Vitter, Haggard, Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Palin are only some of the more recent purveyors...

Romantic love is not for cowards. There are few things as dangerous as allowing someone to become so vitally important that life without them is unimaginable. You are rarely as vulnerable as when you allow one person to simultaneously become the object of your deepest emotional yearnings and your most...

"The Pentagon has decided that it will not award the Purple Heart, the hallowed medal given to those wounded or killed in action, to war veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder because it is not a physical wound."
--The New York Times, January 8, 2009.

Lesson One:...

"The only thing you'll find in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos...Voters want someone to kick ass on their behalf." When the sagacious Lone Star populist, Jim Hightower, made this observation in 1990, it was as if he was anticipating Nancy Pelosi's recent call for...

The frank comments of unapologetic anti-Obama racists across the country have recently gained a wide national audience. As Ricky Thompson, a pipe fitter from Mobile, Alabama, told a New York Times reporter, "He's neither-nor. He's other. It's in the Bible. Come as one. Don't create other breeds." Another denizen of...

The ultimate political power can be defined as the power to define -- the ability to wield such hegemony over the technologies of representation that one can determine the meanings words have for others. To uncritically employ terms and phrases like "liberal," "moderate," "conservative," "elitist," "family values," "patriotism," "Big Government,"...

At this point, to wax rhapsodic over the end of the Bush regime would be a foolishly premature celebration. A lot of damage could be done between now and January of 2009. And, I don't even want to think about the possibility that John McCain could replace the current autocrat-in-chief....

OK, we all knew, deep down, that our wondrous golden boy of change would one day reveal his feet of clay. What most of us did not anticipate was just how easily they would fit into jackboots.

There has emerged a conventional wisdom among progressives that is not entirely...

The racist lynchings of the 19th and 20th centuries featured castration as a central component of those ritualized assaults. The same appears to be true of contemporary rhetorical lynchings visible in the right wing media-scape. First aired on April 23 of this year as a news item, the latest ad...

The beautiful bosom of nature will be exposed to our view. We shall enter its garden and taste of its fruits, and satisfy ourselves with its plenty. - Thomas Sprat, a founding member of the Royal Society of London for the Advancement of Science, circa 1662.

Well ... you...

Opinion polls are the vital political weather reports that all politicians rely on, especially during campaigns. Arguably, there has been no political couple in history more vigilantly attentive to their fluctuations than the Clinton's -- and never more so than during the stormy conditions of electoral contests. Senator Clinton's campaign...

Hi, I'm Hillary Clinton. But tonight, in honor of the WWE, you can call me Hill-Rod. This election is starting to feel a lot like "King of the Ring." The only difference? The last man standing may just be a woman. -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, from her opening monologue prior...

One of the measures of just how successful Republicans have been at seizing and defining the political language of our epoch is the fact that conservative has become a much coveted designation, whereas liberal is an accusation. They have not yet figured out how to weaponize progressive but no doubt...