The Revolution Will Be Commercialized  —  Sarah Palin is already president of right-wing America—and it's a position with a very big salary.  —  On the morning of July 3, 2009, a national holiday, Sarah Palin placed a call to her communications director and told her that she wanted to hold …

Lindsey Graham and the Real “Cynical Political Ploy” on Immigration  —  Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been courageous in working with Democrats on both comprehensive immigration reform and climate change legislation.  He has seemed deeply committed to both.

Dems say go, GOP says not yet  —  Washington (CNN) — Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has scheduled a late afternoon vote Monday to move ahead with a Senate financial reform bill, but Republicans warn they are not prepared to launch debate on the measure.  —  Leading lawmakers …

Op-Ed Columnist: Berating the Rating Agencies  —  Let's hear it for the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.  Its work on the financial crisis is increasingly looking like the 21st-century version of the Pecora hearings, which helped usher in New Deal-era financial regulation.

Not Even in South Park?  —  Two months before 9/11, Comedy Central aired an episode of “South Park” entitled “Super Best Friends,” in which the cartoon show's foul-mouthed urchins sought assistance from an unusual team of superheroes.  These particular superfriends were all religious figures …

Thousands Protest Obama's Stance On Israel  —  NEW YORK (WPIX) - Thousands of Jews gathered outside the Israeli Consulate Sunday to protest President Obama's position towards Israel.  —  Organizers said the event supports “Israel's right to build and live in its own country,” …

National Security Adviser Jones: Jews Are Greedy Merchants  —  As the National Security Adviser, General James Jones is not known as a friend of the Jewish State.  It was Jones who put together the team of Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to meet with the President and advise him to impose a solution on Israel.

Climate backers try to regroup  —  Backers of a bipartisan climate change bill are scrambling to revive efforts to pass legislation before the November midterms — even as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sticks by plans to slow-walk the measure behind immigration reform.

Hundreds protest immigration law in Arizona  —  Phoenix, Arizona (CNN) — Hundreds of people gathered outside Arizona's Capitol building on Sunday in a largely peaceful protest against the state's tough new immigration law.  —  Chanting “Yes we can,” waving American flags and holding signs reading …

The Cushy Life of the Rightwinger  —  If you're a connoisseur of people pointing out that Jonah Goldberg isn't a very intelligent man while simultaneously being too polite to come out and say so directly, I'd highly recommend this post from Conor Friedersdorf.

The Quiet Coup  —  The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States.  One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs …

Obama and Democrats appeal to new voters in midterms  —  President Obama will declare his stake in the November midterm elections for the first time on Monday as his Democratic Party announces an ambitious strategy to appeal to independent voters in its quest to maintain control of Congress.

How do you measure ‘epistemic closure’?  —  “Epistemic closure,” Julian Sanchez writes, is the toxic result of “confirmation bias plus a sufficiently large array of multimedia conservative outlets to constitute a complete media counterculture, plus an overbroad ideological justification …

Don't talk to aliens, warns Stephen Hawking  —  THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking.  He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

White House Memo: Is Obama Looking for Empathy by Another Name?  —  WASHINGTON — Empathy is out.  Understanding ordinary lives is in.  Is there a difference?  President Obama is about to find out.  —  A year after Mr. Obama made “empathy” one of his main criteria in picking …

Finding Hill day care not child's play  —  Congressional staffers compare getting child care on Capitol Hill to landing season tickets to the Redskins: nice idea, never going to happen.  —  With two waiting lists a total of 345 families long, admission delays at both the Senate Employees Child Care Center …

Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?  —  Bear with me while I vent for a moment.  On financial reform, there are clear villains in the political process: Mitch McConnell, the US Chamber of Commerce, etc.. But at this point I'm accustomed to that sort of thing.