Read Marcia Angell, M.D.'s other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
With Democrats Like Him, Who Needs Dictators?
Creators Syndicate - I spoke at a recent town hall forum. The many issues discussed included the Obama administration's attack on Fox News. Later, one of the audience members came up to me and sneered, "Well, even you must admit that Fox News is biased in favor of Republicans."
AUSTIN, Texas -- A guy walks up to you in a bar here and asks, "Are you a Republican, conservative or independent?" You can't tell if he's kidding. After all, this is the most liberal place in the state. It's also where I first heard about Shona Holmes, the Canadian lady.
Creators Syndicate - President Obama likes to preen himself on his supposed moral superiority to his predecessor.
MSNBC, Aug. 31, 2009, Keith Olbermann on Robert F. McDonnell, Republican candidate for governor of Virginia:
Failure on H1N1 Highlights a Bigger Crisis
Creators Syndicate - When Newt Gingrich warned Republicans that they were making a grave "mistake" by driving out moderates and enforcing the angry orthodoxy of the far right, the sober tone of his remarks was stunning.
Read Robert Kuttner's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com
The Nation -- The New York Times has an excellent graphic up today profiling the 39 Democrats who voted against healthcare reform in the House of Representatives on Saturday night.
Creators Syndicate - In 2006, the minority party in Congress issued a dire report on the "unprecedented erosion of the democratic process." Democratic Rep.
The Nation -- We know that the House healthcare reform bill passed after an eleventh-hour compromise (you might say betrayal) on abortion access. We know the compromise, the Stupak-Pitts amendment, is bad. But do we know exactly how it's bad for women (and their partners)? Here's a quick primer on what the amendment actually means for any woman accessing healthcare through the newly-created health insurance exchange.
LOS ANGELES -- Was George Santayana right when he said that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it?
In February 1995, President George H.W. Bush and the Forum for International Policy invited British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, and French president Francois Mitterrand to Colorado's Broadmoor Hotel for a reminiscence of their decisions and doubts concerning the fall of the Berlin Wall and the unification of Germany.
Forty years ago, President Nixon used the unfortunate phrase "War on Drugs," launching a misguided crusade that has encouraged street violence, eaten away at state budgets and packed our prisons with nonviolent offenders. The nation's punitive approach to drugs has turned us into a penal colony. We lock up more of our citizens per capita than brutal dictators like Robert Mugabe and Fidel Castro.
On Election Day this past Tuesday, the people of Maine voted to repeal gay marriage, 53 percent to 47 percent.
Creators Syndicate - Democrats are having a hard time explaining away their big losses on Tuesday. First, the White House let it be known that President Obama wasn't actually watching election returns, choosing instead to tune into HBO's puerile documentary about his own presidential campaign. Talk about ego; the man just can't get enough of himself.
The Democrats' all-new "opt out" idea for health care reform is the latest fig leaf for a total government takeover of the health care system.
Creators Syndicate - When America is about to throw an ally to the wolves, we follow an established ritual. We discover that the man we supported was never really morally fit to be a friend or partner of the United States.
Creators Syndicate - For the Blue Dogs, Tuesday was a fire bell in the night.
Creators Syndicate - Is there a more hypocritical figure in American politics than Joe Lieberman? The Connecticut senator declared Tuesday that he would support a filibuster of any health care reform bill that has a public option — even the version with the "trigger" compromise accepted by Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe — because it might cost money.
Creators Syndicate - Here is one of the loudest messages of the 2009 off-off-year elections: Conservatives in America will no longer let their opponents define them as outside of the mainstream. They will not submit to Democrats. Or to the media. Or to Beltway Republican capitulationists. They will not "rebrand." They will not sit down. They will not shut up.
Creators Syndicate - The New York Times editorial page is a perfect weather vane for the way the liberal media's hot air is blowing. In an Oct. 26 editorial called "Torching the Big Tent," they lamented: "The feeble pulse of moderation in the Republican Party is in danger of flat-lining in the Nov. 3 Congressional election in upstate New York."
Creators Syndicate - The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.
WASHINGTON -- As we looked at the TV and other press coverage of the terrible massacre at Fort Hood last week, we rather quickly learned a lot about American Muslims, our military and our citizens in general -- only it is not exactly what we would expect to learn.
NEW YORK--Shortly after 9/11, George W. Bush secretly signed two executive orders. Both violated basic constitutional protections as well as U.S. obligations under international treaties, yet both carried the force of law.
Creators Syndicate - In the earliest days of television, shows were often supported entirely by one sponsor. There was the "Texaco Star Theater" with Milton Berle. Remember "General Electric Theater" with Ronald Reagan? The corporate patron was held responsible for the content within the program. More to the point, the corporate patron wanted the association with the show it was sponsoring.
WASHINGTON -- A new term is making the rounds in foreign policy circles in Washington these days. It is undeniably clumsy. The term is "the un-Vietnam," referring to a war that has been over for 34 years yet still comes back like an arrow gone wrong when we talk about Afghanistan.
Creators Syndicate - Violence — especially grotesque, gory or bloody violence — has become a staple of network television during sweeps periods.
Creators Syndicate - There's an old story about a Harvard professor who gets a call from the president (of the United States) and responds that his president is the president of Harvard.