On CBS' "Face the Nation" this past Sunday, John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio, did something that, for a politician on the Sunday political talk circuit, seems anathema: say something that not only sounds human but also makes sense.
Newspapers have had a centuries-long love affair with the First Amendment. Exercising our freedom of speech, after all, is our bread and butter. Whenever our favorite section of the Bill of Rights gets a shout-out in the news, we'd be stupid not to throw our two cents in.
This Monday, millions of Americans will gather in backyards, ballparks, churches and parade routes all across the country to celebrate the 235th birthday of the United States. For many of us, the Fourth acts as just another excuse to jet-stream unholy amounts of ethanol into our systems as we butcher another Lee Greenwood song and blow shit up. And why shouldn't we? It's American.
There are many ways we can describe the New York Senate's decision to pass a measure making same-sex marriage legal. We could lay out rustic philosophical arguments as to why such a move for our country was the prudent and rational thing to do. We could also build a 50-foot-tall "straw man" adorned in the ever-patented relics of religious bigotry and set it ablaze with bumper-sticker slogans and rally cries.
For some of you, it's part two of a sweltering summer in Gainesville. Halftime is over. Hang in there and drink a lot of water. Summer B is a little more lively around here.
With every passing day, it becomes clearer that nothing will stop the Republican Party from living up to Jack Kennedy's "circus elephant" characterization. On the national level, a clown car full of jokers, white sepulchers and those named Michele Bachmann continue to wallow in their own intellectual feces.
What a six weeks it's been.
About 40 years ago, a herd of reporters gathered in a Democratic politician's office for a casual, off-the-record Q&A session. However, the only "Q" the reporters were concerned with that day was the war in Vietnam and why the United States was still involved. They kept pressing the politician for a definitive answer, something they had tried to do repeatedly in the past to little avail. The members of the press would finally get their answer when the politician whipped out his whoopee stick, pointed to it and proclaimed "This is why we're in the Vietnam!"
Monday marked the 43rd anniversary of the death of Robert Francis Kennedy, the 64th attorney general of the United States and one-time presidential candidate who was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel only hours after locking up the pivotal California Democratic primary.
Sometime today, Willard Mitt Romney will unveil what has been one of the worst-kept secrets in American politics as he formally announces his bid for the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
This isn't even fun anymore.
Another day, another Student-Government-wants-to-quash-the-opposition-claim.
Of all the words and phrases that have been tossed around by pundits and politicos in describing the Obama presidency, which have included everything from Kennedy-esque to closet Quran worship, the one that never really stuck was "political miscalculation." While the Obama administration has been consistently hammered, fairly or not, for its stances relating to domestic and foreign policy, it was thought difficult, if not impossible, to find a chink in the armor of its political foresight. Its ability to navigate the tides of perception and political consequence within its own base come as no surprise given the president's education in a Cook County political system that forces those involved to think three steps ahead with one eye forward and the other peering over their shoulders.
In the wake of one of the most dysfunctional and ego-driven legislative sessions in state history, our state's Criminal-in-Chief and Voldemort stunt-double Rick Scott announced earlier this week that the efforts from his Hollywood-haired, Reagan-idolizing minions to hack away at Florida's budget didn't quite go as far as he would have liked.
In a clumsy attempt to salvage its ever-decaying name, the Roman Catholic Church released a letter Monday assuring the world that despite its proclivity for maneuvering through tripwires of legal culpability, it's willing to play ball when it comes to its darkest secret.
Standing on top of his soapbox in cyberspace, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich officially announced on Facebook and Twitter Wednesday his intention to seek the Republican nomination for President in 2012.
For all the time we’ve spent poking fun at the religious nuts on Turlington during our time at UF, now we’re the ones saying, “The end is nigh.”
You’d think it would be important to get the numbers right when you’re making a presentation about a budget of any kind. But when that argument is taking place in front of the Florida Supreme Court, and the money amounts you’re throwing around are in the millions and billions, any “minor” mistake becomes a huge one.
Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Although a year has passed, BP PLC still has some serious damage control to do. Of course, the oil giant focused on keeping its company’s name and reputation in tact during the crisis, which left many of us staring, mouths agape at video of oil spewing out of the Earth. Scientists and economists are giving us varied feedback on the outcome of the disaster.
With Tax Day here, we’ve come across news saying taxes collected on our nation’s top 400 incomes amount to 10 percentage points less than those collected in 1992. Sounds crazy compared to the average drop of 0.6 percentage points, doesn’t it? Well, keep in mind that 45 percent of American households pay no income taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.
Solutions by The State News
