Pay no attention to the fact that “overwhelming numbers of Americans agree that, over the years, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid have been good for the country,” those fine “entitlements” are on the chopping block now, along with other government spending geared towards helping the poor and the jobless. Sure there’s complaints from plenty of people about these entitlements, and from those complaints the right wing draws their strengths in attempting cut back those dreaded entitlements, but the bottomline...

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Consider the imperial callousness of that act: the News of the World, as with any institution, has a kind of life of its own, has a history and a richness that the mere crass commerce of snapping up the company doesn't fully appreciate. And, consider the lives spent at the newspaper, and all the innocents -- who have done their jobs, and held positions and trusts whose existence predates the Coming of Rupert by at least a century --...

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Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and a number of other GOP senators voted Thursday for a non-binding resolution calling for shared sacrifice from the wealthiest taxpayers in dealing with the mounting federal budget deficit — and also scoffed at the measure. Rather than filibuster the “sense of the Senate resolution,” McConnell and more than 20 Republicans joined with most Democrats to allow the bill to move forward to a final vote. That doesn’t mean, however, that these Republicans have...

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Dear Mr. President, I have supported you through think and thin since you were elected. Unlike many of my progressive peers, I avoid being overly critical of decisions you have made that I disagree with. But today’s news that you are considering offering up Social Security and Medicare cuts in the debt talks, does not sit at well with me. As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is...

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