Earlier this year, President Obama pushed for, and actually got, Congress to pass stricter rules about members of Congress using special knowledge to make moves on investments. For just about everyone else, this was already illegal under insider trader regulations, but now there are stricter regulations that apply just to Congresscritters. The bill ( Read more... )

This is the first in probably a long series on the various aspects of the American Republic, how they got that way, what is right with them, what is wrong with them and even occasionally how they might be fixed. This will get its own tag and will cover a wide range of issues, and right now, we're gonna hit the US senate. It seemed as good as place ( Read more... )

Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has long made a name for himself for taking on the administration. Elected in the elections of 2006, he first made news by showing up President Bush at a reception for new Senators. He had not taken the official oath of office and he was already showing his strong opposition to the war, his unwavering support for the ( Read more... )

In yet another example of the Government Accountability Office (or GAO) being one of the best and most vicious agencies in the American government, a report about exactly how much money the Pentagon is wasting on countless programs and just how bad those programs are for the US military. One of the programs was the replacement for Marine One, the ( Read more... )

Yes, this is being written on Valentine's night, a night that every romantic device and provocative clothing merchant tells us all is solely for romancing our beloveds, or at least whomever we're bedding that night. There have been many rants over the past years about Valentine's Day, and it's time to make it political, or at least more in keeping ( Read more... )

Yes, another state of the union, and there was nothing great that happened and nothing great he put forward. He had no real bold visions for the future, but seemed to be visions of the past. Granted, they were visions of HIS version of the past, including his bringing up discredited "terrorist plots". He did mention all the key events of the past ( Read more... )

So, in one more installment in the Super Tuesday analysis rants, tonight we look at the Democrats and how Bill Clinton may end up shooting Barack Obama just to watch him die. Like the Republicans, there are a lot, or the technical term, an ass load, of states having contests. Unlike the Republicans, none of the contests are winner take all. They ( Read more... )

There's an old saying in the military "A soldier takes a soldier's chance." This usually refers to the chances that a soldier can, while serving in the military, die but with the acceptance that he or she is aware of this by signing up (granted, this is less applicable in times of draft, but still it's said). But now, there is one less chance a ( Read more... )

Senators Webb (D-VA) and Graham (R-SC) were on Meet the Press debating Iraq, which means it was a beautiful thing to watch. Transcript of the carnage can be found here. Graham, an occasionally able bodied spokesman for Bush administration policy, stuck by his guns as well as he could. Webb, on the other hand, cleaned his clock pretty good. Senator ( Read more... )

Well, maybe he didn't, just like Sara Taylor didn't bring down the Republic but a little turnabout is fair play. And yes it is indeed hyperbole that Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine (not linking to that, you should all know what that is), is the savior of our Republic. Although, he did do something that did hold senators to a new standard ( Read more... )