David Sirota from Creators Syndicate

We've Seen This Trigger Before for 09/11/2009

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

After a summer of politics marked by esoteric phrases like "co-ops" and "insurance exchanges," the newest kernel of ubiquitous arcana is the term "trigger mechanism." This proposal, which is gaining momentum after President Obama's speech to Congress, would have any national health legislation include provisions only allowing a government-run "public option&qu ...

Updated: Fri Sep 11, 2009

Selective Deficit Disorder for 09/18/2009

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Watching the health care debate unfold these days is a little like watching scenes from "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" — the ones showing a collage of strung-out, deranged or otherwise incapacitated patients rotting away in a squalid psychiatric ward.

As the insurance industry's Nurse Ratched lurks in the background, congressional Democrats cower in the corner, fearing ...

Updated: Fri Sep 18, 2009

Country Club Etiquette Trumps Legislative Results for 09/25/2009

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The recent headlines about President Obama working to crush primary campaigns against Democratic incumbents would be great fodder for a canned column looking at hypocrisy.

Yes, it would be easy to read about the president trying to clear the Empire State's primary field for appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and then pen a screed wondering how that squares with Obama promising to ...

Updated: Fri Sep 25, 2009

Who Are "The Deciders"? for 10/02/2009

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The war in Afghanistan poses two important questions: What should be done and who should be "the deciders"?

Congressional Republicans say the answer to the first query is military escalation. But according to polls, most Americans disagree. At the same time, many experts wonder "whether or not we know what we're doing," as President George W. Bush's former deputy nati ...

Updated: Fri Oct 02, 2009

The Zombie Zeitgeist for 10/09/2009

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What's with all the zombies lately?

That could be a question about one of the hippest retro fads that pop culture has going these days. Inspired by horror genres of past, zombies have lurched back to pre-eminence in books like "World War Z," video games like "Left 4 Dead" and blockbuster films like "Zombieland." Even the highbrow producers at National Public ...

Updated: Fri Oct 09, 2009

Good Health Care Policy Makes Good Politics -- And Vice Versa for 10/16/2009

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I don't get it.

I know that's the simplistic refrain of every 10-year-old, but I'm 33 and I mean it: I just don't get it.

Specifically, I don't get why Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) — or any Republican senator, for that matter — is attracting so much attention.

In the last few months, Democratic senators eliminated the public option and substantially weakened the ...

Updated: Fri Oct 16, 2009

A Tale of Two Supermen for 10/23/2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

For better or worse, our American Idiocracy has come to rely on athletes as national pedagogues. Michael Jordan educated the country about commitment and just doing it. A.C. Green lectured us about sexual caution. Serena Williams and John McEnroe taught us what sportsmanship is — and is not. And Charles Barkley outlined how society should define role models.

So when a single week l ...

Updated: Fri Oct 23, 2009

TARP on Steroids for 10/30/2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

I recall that September day like it was yesterday — the explosion so stunning, so memorable. It wasn't 9/11/01, it was 9/29/08 — a moment when a rare blast of populist democracy briefly singed the economic terrorists who hold the Capitol hostage.

It had been a dark and stormy month of financial collapse, culminating in an attempted power grab. Pushed by his fellow Wall Street ...

Updated: Fri Oct 30, 2009

We Are What We Trade and How We Trade It for 11/06/2009

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Trade and globalization — when not referencing blockbuster sports transactions or raucous street protests, debates over these abstract terms can give Ambien and Jack Daniels a run for their money as a cure for insomnia. Of course, that's the problem — the rules governing what we buy and sell are now playing such a decisive role in almost every major policy that we're falling asleep ...

Updated: Fri Nov 06, 2009

Where Are the Real Deficit Hawks? for 11/13/2009

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Let's say you're a congressperson or tea party leader looking to champion deficit reduction — a cause 38 percent of Americans tell pollsters they support. And let's say you're deciding whether to back two pieces of imminent legislation.

According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the first bill's spending provisions cost $100 billion annually and its tax and budget-cu ...

Updated: Fri Nov 13, 2009

Intelligentsia Against Intelligence for 11/20/2009

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In the parlance of our times, the term "Idiocracy" means a nation run by idiots — and the term "idiot" is defined by the dictionary as "an utterly foolish or senseless person" who exhibits "a mental age of less than three years old."

There are obvious reasons to believe America is becoming an Idiocracy — a series of horrendous governmen ...

Updated: Fri Nov 20, 2009

Colbert Conservatism for 11/26/2009

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Pop quiz — name the political leader who said the following:

"We must be willing to pull the plug before sinking more dollars into weapons that do not provide what our warriors need."

Now name the leader who said this:

"(W)e cannot track $2.3 trillion in (Pentagon spending) ... We maintain 20 to 25 percent more base infrastructure than we need to suppor ...

Updated: Thu Nov 26, 2009

Political Moral Hazard for 12/11/2009

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Washington's favorite term these days is "moral hazard.” Though this buzzphrase may seem like a complex and even intimidating idea, most of us, whether consciously or not, understand the principle because it's basic common sense.

Applaud your kid for punching another kid — rather than grounding him — and you've created a moral hazard that means he'll probably punch ...

Updated: Fri Dec 11, 2009

The "Candidate vs. President" Canard for 12/18/2009

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Every now and then, an insider inadvertently exposes the hideous rationalizations that run the American political grotesquerie. The best known of these statements are memorialized on TV as "gaffes." But the ones that never become famous tend to reveal the ugliest assumptions of all.

Case in point is the comment the pharmaceutical industry recently let fly in the Washington Post ...

Updated: Fri Dec 18, 2009

What Happens When We Can't Trust the Verifiers? for 12/25/2009

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0800

This month, a British government report admitted that one of the major rationales for invading Iraq — the claim that Saddam could deploy WMDs in 45 minutes — probably came from a cab driver. Had the public originally been told about this sketchy sourcing, there may have been a more, ahem, forceful mass opposition to pre-emptive war in the Middle East.

It's a good lesson about ...

Updated: Fri Dec 25, 2009

Learning from the Last Decade As We Move Into the Next One for 01/01/2010

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

While I'm loathe to write a top-ten list, if only for fear of falling short of Dave Letterman's legendary bit, I'm making an exception in this first week of 2010 — a moment when we get to not only make New Year's resolutions, but resolutions for the new decade. As we make those prospective pledges, let's take a moment to look back at the Top Ten Quotations from the last ten years — ...

Updated: Fri Jan 01, 2010

Right Is Not Center, but 2010 Resembles 1984 for 01/15/2010

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

"War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength" — more than a quarter century after those oxymorons were supposed to pervade an Orwellian 1984, today’s media make such newspeak even more preposterous: On economic issues, we are often told that right is center, center is left, and left is fringe.

For a year, national reporters (with help from conservativ ...

Updated: Fri Jan 15, 2010

Democratic Corporatism Brings Reagan Back from the Grave for 01/22/2010

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

"After months of struggling to find their footing, it looks like the GOP has finally found an effective spokesman: Republican leaders have unveiled the reanimated corpse of Ronald Reagan (and) the undead former president has quickly emerged as the new face of the Republican Party." — The Onion

This line from a recent satire perfectly captures the moment's polit ...

Updated: Fri Jan 22, 2010

Our Addiction to Disaster Porn for 01/29/2010

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The black t-shirt — so tight, so come-hither. And oh, those safari button-downs — joke-worthy on Eddie Bauer mannequins, but on news correspondents, so ... enticing.

America missed these sartorial seductions, pined for their sweet suggestive nothings. And now, finally, a nation of television addicts can thank its disaster pornographers for bringing back the lurid garments &md ...

Updated: Fri Jan 29, 2010

The Case for Choosing Life for 02/05/2010

Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Judging by Tim Tebow's much-hyped Super Bowl ad, “choose life” remains conservatives' favorite abortion shibboleth. But really, the phrase better captures the stakes in the Great Budget Wars of 2010.

Plagued by deficits, communities everywhere must now decide between tax reform and public spending cuts — between economic life and death. And thanks to two Western bellwether states, ...

Updated: Fri Feb 05, 2010