Opposes to the extent of… what? Does that mean the President would veto the defense bill if it were changed in this way? Or would he sigh heavily at the signing ceremony?

In federal court, government attorney Douglas Letter argued against a lawsuit brought by both the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) that the U.S. executive power had the right to kill an American citizen abroad, without review by the judiciary. The suit is an important one, and basic constitutional rights are at stake, but the use of assassination by the U.S. has been endemic since the 1960s. But where’s the societal outrage? Manipulated by a media that backs the “war on terror”.

The basic story is that, in the short term, there is no deficit problem; the problem is a plunge in private sector demand caused by the collapse of the housing bubble. In the longer term, the deficit problem is actually the problem of a broken health care system. The facts are as clear as can be.

So, why then do we have all these deficit commissions? It’s simply modern Washington’s way of digging holes and filling them up again. It gives these people something to do. Let’s hope it ends up being harmless.

Meanwhile, Chris Dodd can’t help himself: “It doesn’t matter if you are qualified, you gotta produce the necessary 60 votes . . .and I’m suggesting based on my observations that that would pose some difficulties,” he said yesterday in an interview with talk show host Charlie Rose at a conference for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.”

Someone who had way too much time on their hands, now deservedly has more.

We Didn’t Start The Fire – Billy Joel

Even Charlie Sheen is embarrassed by the White House communications team.

It’s unconscionable, but sadly a part of the new fabric of America, that debt collectors managed to pull off this scam for so long, inventing fake courtrooms, fake attorneys, fake judges, fake subpoenas and fake sheriff deputies to intimidate and bully debtors into giving up assets. Basically, that amounts to theft.

Massachusetts is considered one of the most liberal states in the country. It has already adopted a private insurance-based, near-universal health insurance system under Republican Governor Mitt Romney. Given that, it should come as no surprise that, in a large swath of the state, voters signaled their willingness to adopt a universal single-payer health care system, similar to “Medicare for all.”

Massachusetts allows for citizens to place non-binding, local “public policy questions” on the ballot. In precincts containing around 10 percent of the state’s population, the Massachusetts Campaign for Health Care Justice put on the ballot a question asking voters whether or not to instruct their local representative to “support legislation establishing health care as a human right regardless of age, state of health, or employment status, by creating a single-payer health insurance system like Medicare that is comprehensive, cost effective, and publicly provided to all residents of Massachusetts?” As of today, in the precincts reporting 62 percent voted yes.

What is the cost of getting elected? A lot. More zeros than I can count per candidate per election cycle. That money comes from their own personal wealth and even more so from campaign donations; case in point, failed California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, who could have done a lot more good for California giving that $140 million (forty of it hers), to schools and causes, funding small locally businesses in depressed neighborhoods, investing and spreading her wealth, rather than spending her owns and the combined of others besides. For decades it has taken small fortunes to get elected, or at least to run: Kennedy, Bush, Kerry, McCain, Edwards, these are storied and even more so moneyed names which come to mind as using personal wealth. Candidates without such a kick start need to work even harder to raise money, and along the way, America has lost. Pricele$$ points out that politics is not a poor man’s business. Yet the majority of Americans lack the funding to run for office, should they so choose.