Now we know that, despite all appearances, Congress can act as one body and do what needs to be done.

Let's be clear on this. Your blogger has a strong connection to the district Congressman Weiner represents, but he does not live or vote there. The Congressman's value to those who see the New Deal as an irrevocable compact between the government and the citizenry, has been long apparent, but his interminable press conference on Monday and its shocking revelations about him, led to this post on Daily Kos:

So Sarah Palin does not know the story of Paul Revere's Midnight Ride. Her alter ego from Minnesota got her Concords mixed up a month or so ago and thought maybe the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired in New Hampshire (hence, the first in the nation primary?).

There are any number of things worth addressing this weekend: the way that four dead presidents could rally a congressional district in upstate New York to win a House seat---quite a trick, a recollection of why many people considered President Clinton to be the last reasonable Republican president but no Democrat, and why making Elizabeth Warren THE issue in the 2012 electio

You can feel it. The tide is turning. Heads are over the sand, and what they see is a political party that votes to continue subsidies to oil companies and rails against the concept of affordable health insurance for all. (They call it "Obamacare" which says more than its abject rudeness suggests.

You know what hope is
Hope is a bastard
Hope is a liar
A cheat and a tease
Hope comes near you?
Kick it's backside
Got no place in days like these

Nick Hornby, as sung by Ben Folds, "Picture Window" from Lonely Avenue

The Washington Post, reviewing Ron Suskind's book, The One Percent Solution, described one of its anecdotes, likely from former CIA director George Tenet or one of his allies:

Imagine John Adams, marked by the same man for hanging a decade earlier, for his role in the rebellion of the English colonies against the Crown. Yet now it was June, 1785 and he was presenting himself to King George III as the Ambassador of the United States to the Court of St. James. It is one of the most gripping scenes in David McCullough's magnificent book, and its dramatization in the television version was almost as good.

Bob Woodward: The story is dry. All we've got are pieces. We can't seem to figure out what the puzzle is supposed to look like. John Mitchell resigns as the head of CREEP, and says that he wants to spend more time with his family. I mean, it sounds like bullshit, we don't exactly believe that...

Deep Throat: No, heh, but it's touching. Forget the myths the media's created about the White House. The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

So that's how it ends. As NBC News White House correspondent Chuck Todd told Chris Hayes last night, the "price" for keeping Congress from cutting its minimal support of Planned Parenthood, was to make further cuts in other programs so that different poor and/or elderly and/or sick people get hurt.

None of this should have surprised anyone, particularly those who could not bring themselves to vote, or otherwise support candidates whose election would have gotten in their way. The handwriting was on the wall, plain for everyone to see or, perhaps, to read. But either the President disappointed, or did something with which the voter disagreed and they got elected.

If he had ever heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, it had never made much impact on him. It was so long ago, and in New York, and the victims barely spoke English. And, anyways, what does it have to do with him?

For those who are neither economists nor actors who play them on tv, it is not as easy as it is for Paul Krugman. With a Nobel under his belt, his Princeton and New York Times credentials intact, and maybe with an eye to not having to run naked through the streets, he tells us he has

Nothing in the following post is intended to or can be read to suggest that any political organization or affiliations as exist in the United States of America are offshoots, related to, intentionally emulating or seeking to impose a fascist or communist system in this country. It just seems that way sometimes.

Go ahead. I dare you. Watch those Sunday talk shows from our nation's capitol and see how much of what passes for political discussion concerns the need for government to cut back on spending. David Gregory will almost certainly ask someone what ideas there are to get "entitlements" "under control".

Then, even if you have already seen this, listen to what those who study these things say (about halfway into this):