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Imagine if Barack Obama Pulled a David Cameron With His Daughter
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2012 CommentIt's the silly season of news, and the latest developments from across the Atlantic have me wondering if the British are way too flaky or actually just a little more sensibly relaxed about parenting than we are.
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Gun in Campaign Ad for Gabby Giffords’s Seat Is Unconscionable
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2012 CommentIt was a little too close for comfort when the political action committee of former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin used crosshairs in ads to "target" Democrats for defeat. A number of lawmakers had received death threats during and after the vote on healthcare overhaul, and when Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head while she was meeting constituents at a shopping center, the threats became scarier. While it appears that Giffords's shooter was motivated not by ideology but simple craziness, the episode doesn't excuse the tastelessness of using gun-related imagery in connection with the democratic elections process.
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Barack Obama Rightly Calls Out Roadblock Congress
Tweet Share on Facebook June 7, 2012 CommentWell, it was a nice thought, while it lasted.
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Stop Trivializing Breast Cancer
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2012 CommentDespite the brouhaha over the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation's battle with Planned Parenthood, legions of pink-clad walkers were on the streets of Washington last weekend to raise money for breast cancer research. The Komen group's decision (quickly reversed) to stop giving money to the family-planning and women's health network because it was "under congressional investigation" was a distressing one. But the strong turnout last week showed that people are refusing to let one ill-advised move prevent them from paying attention to eradicating a deadly disease.
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Maybe Americans Need Michael Bloomberg's 'Nannystate' Government
Tweet Share on Facebook June 5, 2012 CommentMany of us, even those of us not on the make-government-smaller bandwagon, have something of a visceral reaction to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposal to ban the sale of super-sized, sugary sodas in restaurants, sports arenas, and other venues. Even if we know a quart of sugar water and artificial flavors isn't good for us, we resent the government—any government—from telling us we can't have it.
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Unions' Message Lost With Attacks on the 1 Percent
Tweet Share on Facebook June 4, 2012 CommentThis is a pivotal time for the nation's public- and private-sector labor unions, and American Federation of State County and Municipal Employee labor leaders Gerald McEntee and Lee Saunders are seizing the moment in their new book, The Main Street Moment: Fighting Back to Save the American Dream. But while the book is a passionate call-to-arms for those who are already sympathetic to organized labor, it misses its chance to do what the labor movement desperately needs to do.
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Mitt Romney's Ridiculous Unemployment Reaction
Tweet Share on Facebook June 1, 2012 CommentUnemployment, which is high but generally dropping, ticked up a tenth of a percent in May to 8.2 percent. This is not good news. There were 69,000 jobs created—a big improvement over the months when the country was hemorrhaging hundreds of thousands of jobs—but still not what economists had hoped for or expected.
