Political Commentary

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                            March 29, 2013What Happens After Immigrants Arrive Is Important, Too By Scott Rasmussen
Sixty-eight percent of voters believe that, when done legally, immigration is good for America. Most voters for years have favored a welcoming policy of immigration. Unlike many issues these days, there is virtually no partisan disagreement.
These facts raise a question that should make everyone in official Washington uncomfortable. If immigration is good for America and there is support across party lines, why can't the politicians figure out a way to come up with something that works?
March 28, 2013Without Fear or Favor: the Heresies and Vindications of Anthony Lewis, 1927 to 2013 By Joe Conason
Anthony Lewis, the former New York Times reporter and columnist who died Monday at the age of 86, shaped the American conscience on a broad range of issues, from civil liberties and civil rights to war and diplomacy, for almost 50 years. During his long career, Lewis won numerous awards and published several important books. Unlike many men of his generation who rose to high positions in journalism, he was a charming and thoughtful man who could listen as intently as he talked.   
March 28, 2013Republicans Grow Less Hawkish in Wake of Iraq War By Michael Barone
Are Republicans no longer the party more inclined to military interventions and an assertive foreign policy?
March 27, 2013Imperial Washington By John Stossel
The Senate did something this past weekend it hasn't done in four years: passed a budget. The law requires the Senate to pass a budget, but Congress often ignores its own laws. For most of Barack Obama's presidency, a series of continuing resolutions kept the money -- your money -- flowing. Now the Senate wants to add a trillion dollars of new taxes, even more than President Obama seeks. Despite our growing debt, the Senate wants to fund things like the Senate barbershop, which loses a third of a million dollars every year.
March 26, 2013Often You Don't Need a Doctor By Froma Harrop
You want a routine checkup. Or your throat is sore. It's probably nothing, but you're concerned. Do you need a full-fledged MD with all those certificates and perhaps a God complex?   
March 25, 2013New Census Data Show People Go Where the Money Is By Michael Barone
What parts of America have been growing during these years of sluggish economic growth?    
March 22, 2013Probing Intentions in the Cyber-fog By Froma Harrop
Two Ohio girls stand accused of saying vile, menacing things on Twitter --seriously accused. The high schoolers, ages 15 and 16, were arrested and face a possible six months in juvenile detention. They are charged with threatening a 16-year-old rape victim in the celebrated case involving Steubenville High School football stars. Two boys were convicted of the rape this week.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 22, 2013It's Time To Bust Up the Big Banks By Scott Rasmussen
Americans have a healthy respect for free market competition and are resistant to government interference -- even when they don't like what the market is up to. For example, 69 percent of Americans believe that large corporate executives are overpaid, but only 17 percent want the government to regulate their pay.
March 21, 2013Republicans Must Show Support for Hispanic Dreams By Michael Barone
Rarely does a political party issue a document so scathingly critical of itself and its most recent presidential nominee as the report of the five-member Growth and Opportunity Project of the Republican National Committee.   
March 21, 2013Multi-Member Districts:  Just A Thing of the Past? By Thomas F. Schaller
Given that at least a third of Americans identify strongly with neither major party, it seems anomalous that the two major parties boast all but two of the 535 members of Congress, 49 of 50 state governors, 99% of the nearly 7,400 state legislators nationwide and every American president for more than a century-and-a-half. Many third-party supporters are convinced that Democrats and Republicans at the state and national level collude to restrict third-party ballot access and make fundraising more difficult for third parties and their candidates.
March 21, 2013The Newsmaker Memo: an Interview With AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka By Joe Conason
Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, recently spoke with The National Memo about the sequester's automatic budget cuts, the danger of cuts to Social Security, the Keystone XL pipeline, immigration reform, President Obama and how to defend labor in an era of attacks on the right to organize.  
March 20, 2013The Blob That Ate Children By John Stossel
Shortly after I did my first TV special on education, "Stupid in America," hundreds of union teachers showed up outside my office to yell at me. They were angry because I said union rules were a big reason American kids don't learn.    
March 19, 2013Comforting Words for Young Workers By Froma Harrop
Many speak of Gen X and Gen Y as "lost generations" destined to "not live as well" as their parents. A new Urban Institute study finds that young people up to the age of 40 haven't accumulated as much wealth as their parents did at their age. They face a bleak economic future, breaking a pattern of generational advancement.   
March 18, 2013Support for Same-sex Marriage Crosses Party Lines By Michael Barone
In an opinion article in the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman announced that he has changed his mind and now supports same-sex marriage.    
March 15, 2013The Silliness of Demographic Panic By Froma Harrop
If you drove to work today, did you worry about too few cars on the road? Do you wish more people were waiting in line at the public tennis courts? Are you eager to see new housing developments replace your favorite truck farm?
If your answer to all three questions is "no," you're like most people. And America's falling fertility rate would seem to have its benefits. But if you're scraping for new ways to undermine Social Security and Medicare, portraying this demographic reality as a major disaster offers new opportunity to stampede the public into turning against these entitlements.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
                                
                
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                            March 15, 2013Beware of the New Elites By Scott Rasmussen
James Carville famously kept the 1992 Clinton campaign on message with the simple refrain, "It's the economy, stupid!" That's just as true for politicians today as it was two decades ago.    
March 14, 2013Ryan's Blurred Vision: What the 'New' Republican Budget Reveals (and Conceals) By Joe Conason
Someone needs to tell Paul Ryan that his party -- and the economic platform of austerity and plutocracy he crafted for it -- lost a national election last year. Someone also needs to tell the Wisconsin Republican that he still chairs the House Budget Committee mainly thanks to gerrymandered redistricting.
Someone clearly needs to remind him of those realities because the "vision document" he proposed on Tuesday as the Republican federal budget is only a still more extreme version of the same notions (and the same evasions) that he and Mitt Romney tried to sell without success last fall.
March 14, 2013Cardinals Would Be Wise to Ignore Journalists' Advice By Michael Barone
The College of Cardinals met in conclave on Tuesday to begin the process of electing a new pope. The cardinals have been getting plenty of advice from American journalists.    
March 13, 2013Frack to the Future By John Stossel
Celebrities are now upset about fracking, the injection of chemicals into the ground to crack rocks to release oil and gas. With everyone saying they want alternatives to foreign oil, I'd think celebrities would love fracking.   
March 12, 2013Harvard Profs Steamed at Opened Emails By Froma Harrop
"Harvard Search of E-Mail Stuns Its Faculty Members," the headline says. University officials rifled through the messages of resident deans to learn who passed on a confidential communication about a student cheating scandal to the media. The profs are steamed at this alleged invasion of their privacy.
Too bad, but hey. The wounded response has many outsiders scratching their heads. Most of us have a reasonable expectation of no privacy whatsoever.
There's also the recent example of former CIA Director David Petraeus having private emails to his lover/biographer intercepted. The two tried to cover their tracks by setting up an online service account and using fake names. The FBI found them anyway, leading Politico to ask the obvious question, "If the nation's top spy can't hide his personal communications from law enforcement -- who can?"