"This is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am abs...

Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution says that "hyperbolic attacks on earmarks do a disservice to the public": Put Earmarks in Perspective, by Thomas E. Mann, Senior Fellow, Brookings: It is hard to take seriously a political opposition whose major antidote to the most serious and frig...

I have made a number of posts the last few days of people who legitimately call themselves moderates who are having second thoughts about this administration.  And, for the record, I believe the number of moderates who are going to become angry in the weeks ahead is going to grow.  Maybe even Andr...

(1) Allow same-sex marriages before your neighboring states do: "Right now, so few states provide for marriage for same-sex couples that there is a kind of marriage tourism that goes on," Gates explains. In other words, states that legalize same-sex marriage -- and that are among the first...

Perhaps jealous that Limbaugh is getting all the attention, CNBC's Jim Cramer lashes out at the White House and, in particular, White House spokeman Robert Gibbs. Cramer has been on a tear against the White House recently.  Gibbs was recently asked about Cramer's criticism that Obama&#...

Steve Benen wrote the post I would write if I had more time: I don't doubt for a moment that there were probably some wasteful spending projects in the stimulus package. Likewise, it seems plausible that there's some "pork" in the omnibus spending bill, too. But have you noticed ho...

Ross Douthat has discovered Barack Obama’s evil genius: What Obama does have, though, is an atmosphere of crisis and a massively-unpopular opposition party, which grants him an unparalleled political opportunity to pass whatever spending the Democratic Party likes, and damn the short-term cost...

While many Americans are tightening their belts this spring, Congress has gone on a mad spending spree! In addition to the so-called “stimulus” passed just over two weeks ago, the Senate is now considering the pork-laden 2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act. This bill will cost taxpayers $410...

I have the attention span of a gnat. I find it incredibly difficult to get any meaningful work done. I seriously cannot even get up from writing simply to change a CD without being distracted by something shiny and then falling into a two-hour timewarp and then I look up and it's 5pm and instead of ...

In our old Brit Londoner’s famous rhyming-slang, cockney-speak, it’s called “boracic lint”. To the rest of we Brits it signifies absolutely “skint”. Translated into American, it says “stony broke”. U.S. economy is in worst decline for more than a quart...