On Wednesday, at a town hall meeting in Chickasha, Oklahoma, Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) told his audience that he was not going to read America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R.3200): “I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it. I’m going to oppose it anyways.”

“I don’t have to read it, or know what’s in it”? Yes, Senator, you have to know… Continue reading

Movie Review by Flo Martin

The title says it all: the couple in the film is composed of Julie, a New Yorker who turns thirty, and lives with her husband Eric in Queens over a pizzeria, and Julia, sixty years her senior, who experienced post World War II Paris and its delights (however, we never see the grunginess of the Paris of the time that is so vivid in… Continue reading

It is hardly possible to talk about the current economic mess without mentioning AIG, the bailouts, the executive bonuses debacle and so on… but I will leave that to the other blogs, remaining newspapers and other news commentary outlets. The AIG mess is indeed worth discussing, but there are other very real aspects of this depression – let’s call it what it really is – with cities across the country… Continue reading

Tags: bailout, depression, Economic Downturn, housing bubble

Good reporting and the need for journalists to investigate current events, to ferret out worthy stories and to eloquently present their findings to their readers are not about go away. Indeed, the diluted quality of reporting, prevalent during the past 8 years, can partly explain the downfall of newspaper publishing, but the physical medium of the newspaper publishing business itself was doomed to eventually lose its appeal. The web offers… Continue reading

Tags: internet, marketing, newspapers, publishing

I don’t know about you, but I have already read most of its articles, hours, sometimes even days, before I pick up my damp newspaper from our driveway in the cold morning air. I peruse the local information only because the local newspaper publisher is too scared of the Internet to fully embrace it. But that’s ok because its often poorly composed articles are rarely worth the paper on which… Continue reading

Tags: advertising, Economic Downturn, internet, newspapers, publishing, television

Real Time with Bill Maher reconvened for the seventh season this evening on HBO. Bill acknowledged that his role as America’s court jester will be more difficult under a new president who is neither “a horny hillbilly” nor an “illiterate dumb ass”. His first ever three-woman panel featured Maxine Waters, the Los Angeles Democratic House Representative, Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of TheDailyBeast.com and Chrystia Freeland, US managing editor of the Financial… Continue reading

Tags: Entertainment

After checking their spines with their coats at the Capitol, earlier today, and intent on forgetting the policies they had championed for 8 years, House republicans mechanically heeded to the hard lines that have helped bring down the world economy, refusing to recognize their primary responsibility in the unbridled spending of the last two decades (1994 to 2006), during which they controlled Congress.

In 2008, the Bush administration increased… Continue reading

Tags: Economic Stimulus, Taxes

The horse is not dead yet, but there is still a lot of beating going on… unedited C-Span footage has been featuring politicians in the House of Representatives or on the Senate floor, full of posturing, confusing and positioning language instead of what this nation needs: common sense.

Run the tape: the economy, under its own self-healing supervision – some believe – drove itself into the ground. The government… Continue reading

Tags: Economic Stimulus

Yes, Obama did it, he broke the racial barrier, and even more than just that he gave the people of our nation hope that no matter their ethnicity, their religion, their family’s background they can reach for something greater than before. This land is one of equality as it should have been since long before its creation. Even though it was not so Martin Luther King Jr.’s hard work… Continue reading

Tags: Inauguration trip

Yesterday was a lot to absorb for the millions of people who were in Washington DC, the millions more who watched the inauguration proceed on their TV screens and for the rest of the World. Many feared it would never happen even after the ballots had all been counted, even after the Electoral College had completed its archaic ceremonial vote last month. It just could not be a fully accepted… Continue reading

Tags: History

When the train arrived at Union Station in Washington DC, we joined the huge human wave of enthused supporters of President-Elect Obama and started to walk down towards the Mall. The areas close to the actual event were only accessible to ticketed visitors who had received their passes from various official sources, including senators, congress people and lotteries. We were told that we could enter the Mall from 2nd street… Continue reading

Tags: Inauguration trip, Obama, Obama Administration, Politics, Presidential Elections

With all the driving, I have barely read any news in the last three days and don’t even know if any progress towards a ceasefire has been made in Gaza. In contrast with news from so many troubled areas of the world, this trip humbles me as it underscores the quality of our life, here in the US: being able to go anywhere at any time, not having to constantly… Continue reading

Tags: Inauguration trip