I remember all too well the food served in public schools back in the day. In high school, the main course offerings were, um, basic: “Lasagna” (perfect square, little piece of bread to go with it), Salisbury “steak”, Filet-o-”fish”, and yes, a perfectly rectangular piece of pizza. I also recall actual vegetables, like green beans and salad (nondescript iceberg lettuce with cherry tomatoes).

In today’s USA Today, the Secessionist penned an op-ed which could be titled, “Being honest about Social Security means calling it a criminal conspiracy” — and he criticizes former presidents for not doing so.

As U.S. drones continue to take flight over Pakistani soil and that country’s restive population becomes more and more resentful of what it views as excessive foreign meddling in its affairs by various actors – the West, Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists, and its old rival India – I think the topic of empire is more relevant than ever to the two countries that I consider my own.

Resentment has long driven much of American politics, and global politics too. Think of antebellum southern planters who resented northern manufacturers and moral “meddlers” we know as abolitionists. Think of yesterday and today’s anti-immigrant xenophobes. Think of anti-labor tycoons who resent the notion that their workers are human beings to whom a crude definition of “property” should not apply.

But the Right has no monopoly on resentment. Sadly, I’ve heard its call, and acted upon it.

Rewarding the Republicans for their hostage-taking — aside from being bad policy — is disastrous politics. By caving to a bunch of extremely unpopular ideologues, Obama looks weak and feckless, not like “the adult in the room.”

Who’s the party of Reagan now?

The notion that Ronald Reagan couldn’t make it out of the primary in today’s Teahadist GOP has been a favorite meme on the left for years. After all, Reagan raised taxes eleven times, signed one of the largest tax increases in US history, signed a SHAMNESTY! bill, sought to ban nuclear weapons, passed one of the most liberal abortion laws in the country, was a former union president as well as a divorced former Democrat who was married to a practitioner of astrology.

Well, this idea is increasingly popular on the right as well.

Getting Republicans to sign onto a deal could enhance Obama’s personal brand. It would show him to be a serious “deficit hawk,” able to rise above partisan politics and cut a deal. But he would be helping himself at the expense of everyone else in the party. By giving the Republicans the political “out” they want on Medicare privatization, he could be dealing a devastating blow to everyone else in his own party who hoped to use the Ryan vote against their GOP opponents in 2012.

I think if the President had spent the last three years repeating some variation of this, he’d be in much better shape — as would the Democratic Party.

You know things are bad for Republican candidate when his plan for cutting trillions in taxes is panned on Fox “News”. Tim Pawlenty, too boring to get any attention except with a radical plan that is too radical for Republicans.