This recent article in Newsweek was a refreshing and simple read. If one candidate or eleced official used this as a blueprint for making some short term progress, I’d donate, endorse and vote for them. I can’t vote though, but you probably can.

8 Ways to Fix Our Politics

For a few months now I’ve been claiming that Romney will be the Republican nominee, to the chagrin of Poppa-outlaw who would prefer Bachmann or even Ron Paul.

Despite Bachmann’s recent victory in the Iowa Straw Poll, I just can’t accept her as a legitimate potential president. She’s centering up now but she’s got a fair share of wacky comments in her recent history. Everything from religion and science to sexuality and the minimum wage have fallen prey to her skewed, uninformed, Palinesque distortions. Continue reading

I had a lovely dinner the other night with my wife’s family and some close family friends. All told there were 9 adults, one baby and a dog. We split pretty easily into ideological camps, the five of us that were under 40s were liberal, the four over 50s were conservative. The dog and baby were the independents among the group. Continue reading

Bob Inglis is no longer the U.S. Representative for South Carolina’s 4th congressional district and it’s a shame. Inglis is the poster boy for those of us believe in pursuing nuanced disagreements and respectful differences. He was opposed by Tea Party supported Trey Gowdy who easily won the runoff election with 70% of the vote to Inglis’ 30%. Continue reading

There’s been a ton of blather about the recent compromise bill between the two major parties, Republicans drew a line in the sand at tax cuts and Dems wanted to extend unemployment benefits. Am I missing something here? Wasn’t last week all about the looming deficit and how the Bowles Simpson plan proposed to address it? Sure it didn’t get the support it needed from it’s own committee (11 of 18 members supported it including 3 republicans) but there was so much in there that was workable, had potential, would be tough to swallow but could yield real results.

I’m unnerved by how fragile a country America appears to have become. Continue reading

Yesterday was a sad day for America with the untimely passing of Richard Holbrooke. I’ve watched him, read him and appreciated his nuanced views on foreign policy for the past few years. At the time I wasn’t aware of the part he played in brokering an end to the Bosnian war but I personally saw the consequences. Continue reading