While the Obama administration has begun looking at ways to transform government-owned foreclosed homes around the country into rental properties, a group of lawyers wants the administration to do more to help keep embattled homeowners in their homes in the first place. The administration last week announced plans to convert some of the 250,000 foreclosed homes that the government owns through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration in an effort to improve the nation’s housing...

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This is all well and good for a Junior High School election, where the graffiti scrawled in the bathroom stalls is every bit as potent as any other form of campaigning about nothing. But it is not fit and proper for a great nation or even a mediocre people. We face serious and dire structural problems, not the least of which is that our infrastructure is rotting and needs help immediately.

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I’m 3 days into my carpal tunnel surgery recovery and I am typing a bit now with the left hand (and I know I need to not do that). Post surgery recovery aside, I wanted to post about this must read of the day from Warren Buffet on the deficit, tax cuts for the mega wealthy and what the Super Committee needs to do to begin financial recovery for our nation: Twelve members of Congress will soon take on...

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Earthquakes that are San Andreas' fault, and political developments that are Iowa's fault: A very active week in California (with animations) and the aftermath of the Iowa Straw Poll -- a poll in which the candidates essentially bribe the paid attendees (who get free tickets). Surrealism is alive and well.

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Life as a left-hander presents constant and unexpected troubles and annoyances in a right-handed world, and one is forced to improvise constantly, usually without any assistance -- for some reason, left-handers tend to be as solitary as cats when it comes to left-handedness -- and until the internet, damn few resources to use collective knowledge to solve whatever new Measuring Cup emergency that has arisen. From carpentry to auto repairs to drafting and dancing and shooting and appliancing, designs...

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I’ll let you on a little secret about what goes on here in Washington and reveal how policy wonks in Washington really have fun. (And, no, since this is a family friendly column, we’ll leave the likes of Anthony Weiner and his ilk aside for the moment.) The hot game inside the Beltway is for economists, journalists, and other assorted scribblers coming up with yet more proof that the 2009 economic stimulus plan actually worked.  It’s like the egghead equivalent...

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In an editorial published Wednesday, the Washington Post seeks to sketch out the underlying causes behind the riots which burned London for days. While the Post‘s editorial board clearly goes to lengths to separate the the largely peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations of the Middle East with the current violent and criminal unrest which has engulfed London and other British cities, they clearly see commonalities, too. “The common factors include high unemployment, resentment toward a prosperous and seemingly impenetrable upper class,...

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With the nation’s unemployment rate hovering about 10 percent, recent high school graduates are escaping reality by going to college, and college grads are avoiding reality by entering grad school. The result is that it now takes an M.A. to become a shift manager at a fast food restaurant. Colleges have stayed ahead of the Recession by becoming business models, where students are “inventory units,” and success is based upon escalating profit. Increasing the number of incoming units, class...

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