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While a great deal of attention has deservedly been given to Kathleen Sebelius's refusal to directly answer comedian Jon Stewart's question about why Obamacare's individual mandate was not been deferred until 2015 like the employer mandate was, at least one of her other comments about the wonders of the government-controlled "marketplace" has been ignored, and shouldn't be. Her supposedly…

I can think of one reason to end the federal shutdown: there are a lot of stupid people now roaming the streets. The Feds, however, do not have a monopoly on idiocy. Bureaucratic bumbling can be found wherever there's large government, even on the state and yes, on the county level. I know a thing or two about these things. Back in the early '70s I was in Spain with my brothers Michael and…

In an incident ignored by the media, race-baiter extraordinaire Andrea Mitchell and other big-name journalists candidly exposed their bigotry and racial prejudices at a friendly forum in the nation's capital last year. In an unusually candid conversation, mainstream media stars Mitchell, David Gregory, and Dana Milbank let loose in an orgy of Caucasian self-flagellation during a panel…

On Sunday, NewsBusters exposed the Los Angeles Times for admitting that it doesn't publish letters to the editor "that say there's no sign humans have caused climate change." The Times responded Tuesday:

.... and the envelope please for Most Overwrought Hyperbole from Left-Wing Radio Host Rendered Deranged by Government Shutdown ... the winner is .... Thom Hartmann ... and it was the unanimous decision of our judges! (cue applause) Alas, Hartmann will be unable to accept the award in person, seeing how the ceremony conflicted with the next round of his strictly monitored medication schedule…

Trade-offs apply to our economic lives, as well as our political lives. That means getting more of one thing requires giving up something else. Let's look at some examples. Black congressmen and black public officials in general, including Barack Obama, always side with teachers unions in their opposition to educational vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools and other measures that…

On Monday's All In show, MSNBC host Chris Hayes devoted a segment to blaming a "fatal flaw" and "quirks" in the U.S. Constitution for making it possible for government shutdowns to happen, as he suggested that parliamentary governments are preferable because they make it more difficult for divided government to exist.

With frustration building over Washington's refusal to behave in the public interest, perhaps it's worth noting a drastic solution tried by the Irish. Last Friday, Irish voters cast ballots on a referendum to abolish the country's Upper House, known as the Seanad. Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Ireland didn't need all of its politicians and they should be made to suffer along with everyone…

 One way to know if a journalist is asking a softball question is when the President of the United States compliments the reporter after he or she asks it. That happened twice on Tuesday as Barack Obama talked to reporters about the government shutdown. The President called on Sam Stein of the liberal Huffington Post website. Stein dutifully wondered, "With Speaker Boehner so far unwilling to…

Appearing as a guest on the Monday, October 7, All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC to promote the film, 12 Years a Slave, screenwriter John Ridley seemed to blame America for taking slavery and making it even worse than it previously had been by introducing "concepts of racial inferiority," and went on to assert that Americans have "all been indoctrinated in these thoughts" and need to "understand…

A lot of observers of Monday evening's discussion between Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius concluded that she refused to address – like the entire Obama administration at this point! – how many people have enrolled in ObamaCare. However, an analysis of the segment, along with the help of a Georgia reporter, indicates that…

It’s been 25 years since a grand jury concluded that young Tawana Brawley falsely accused a group of white men of raping her, but the Rev. Al Sharpton still believes he did the right thing by supporting Brawley back then. Sharpton was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Tuesday to talk about his new book when co-host Mika Brzezinski brought up the infamous Brawley rape case, in which Sharpton played a…

Ideologically-driven conservatives on the Supreme Court seem determined to nix a campaign contribution limit in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, thus dealing a blow to the fight against corruption of American politics. That's the implication of The Hill's Sam Baker in his report, "Justices clash over campaign finance law," published shortly after the Court heard oral arguments this…

In case you haven’t noticed, the government shutdown is all the GOP’s fault.  Today’s Chicago Tribune wanted to make sure readers knew that with a front-page headline titled “Hard-right bloc sticks to its guns: Shutdown stalemate continues as lawmakers in safe seats hold sway.” The article reports that some House Republicans “have chosen to defy Washington’s traditional norms of conversation and…