In only two weeks inspectors have gleaned enough information on services in Haringey to know that something has gone very wrong. But most of the criticisms damn every agency – health as much as childrens’ services, and baby P will......

Obviously there are a lot of interesting storylines to write about coming out of this historic election. I intend to write about many of them, but I want to start with a pet peeve of mine. I'm going to quote myself at length, if you'll permit me. A post I wrote back in February: Tonight, during the ...

Two new polls out this week spell doom for Barack Obama in Pennsylvania! The latest NBC/Mason-Dixon poll has it Obama 47, McCain 43, and the most recent Strategic Vision poll has it Obama 49, McCain 44! Now, as you know by now, I believe that polls, especially averaged together, present a highly acc...

With the bailout plan going down in spectacular flames today and the markets following suit, the question is now, "what happens next." As Nate Silver points out, a big part of the failure of the plan was that Congressman in competitive districts voted against it. This shouldn't have been much of a s...

Well...it has begun. The usual suspects have started peddling a ridiculous narrative about the Democratic nominee in ear-bending 12 part harmony. David Brooks got the ball rolling on the New York Times' opinion page, declaring Barack Obama "the most split-personality......

Silverdocs 2008: "Hard Times at Douglass High" [feature, Washington Post Express]...

Blencoe, IA - Boy Scout leaders are asking hard questions this morning, after a tornado killed four heterosexual boy scouts and wounded dozens more. Questions like, "Jesus Christ...what more could you ask of us?" Local and national Boy Scout officials......

The debate that is currently taking place before the DNC Rules Committee is an embarassing joke. It features intra-party partisans behaving like children. If I didn't know any better, I'd assume that Karl Rove was running the Clinton camp's strategy team. I'm ashamed as I watch committee members fei...

I'm reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. Zinn, writing in 1980, describes the methods developed by the ruling elite during the Revolutionary War to manipulate and coerce the poor to fight their battles for them: Edmund Morgan sums up the class nature of the Revolution this ...

As if anyone needs another reason to despise the Duggars and the health insurance industry... I'm looking at the enrollment information for my employer's health care plan, which is administered by AETNA. The options available to my family of three are as follows: Employee - $2150/year Employee/Spous...