California's Education Sinkhole

Mon Jun 20, 2011 12:20 PM EDT

This week marks the one-year anniversary of one young man's graduation from Oakland, California's Oakland Tech High School.

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The Absence of Elegance

Tue Mar 1, 2011 9:30 PM EST

As fourteen year-old Hailee Steinfeld made her way to the red carpet walkway to the Kodak Theater, a hyper-ventalating woman clutching a microphone with a white knuckle grip asked her "are you ready to take the most important walk of your life? To have your life changed forever? …

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The State of Obama

Wed Jan 27, 2010 6:21 PM EST

As Barack Obama ends his first year as our president it's clear that not only was he our first African American president, more importantly, he is our first real amateur.

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Why Healthcare is so Ugly...

Tue Dec 29, 2009 3:32 PM EST

Regardless of where you stand in the healthcare debate the one thing everyone can no doubt agree on is that it has been one of the uglier episodes in American political life for many, many years.

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Mistaking War for Something Else...

Wed Dec 9, 2009 1:35 PM EST

On Sunday we remembered the attack on Pearl Harbor and the beginning of the war that has defined our country ever since. People often try to compare September 11th with December 7th, but the two events are not even remotely comparable.

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The End of an Era...

Mon Nov 23, 2009 7:23 PM EST

Last night in the town of Buffalo, New York, a luminous chapter in American cultural history closed with the last performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

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Fort Hood and Terrorism

Sat Nov 7, 2009 1:17 PM EST

It has been widely reported that before he opened fire on his fellow soldiers Maj Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allah Akbar," or "God is great." This, along with his Arabic name, naturally led to the conclusion that this was an act of "terrorism" and the work of what Rush and his il …

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The Hardest Choice

Tue Nov 3, 2009 1:11 PM EST

When asked why, after decades of opposition, German Chancellor Willy Brandt was suddenly ready to reverse himself politically and engage East Germany, his response was "I got smarter." He did not, of course, get any smarter but what he got upon attaining his country's most powerf …

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Thirty cents on the dollar...

Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:34 AM EDT

Yup, thirty cents on every health care dollar, that's what we pay health insurance companies. Think about that...and then ask yourself what you get for that thirty cents? We pay real estate agents a percentage because they know the business and help us buy our homes.

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Obama's 4th and 10

Fri Sep 4, 2009 10:20 AM EDT

It is no overstatement to say that a, if not the, defining moment in Barack Obama's presidency will come when he addresses the joint session of congress next Wednesday. While the topic will be health care reform the real subject will be one word- spine.

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Drowning in Fear

Tue Aug 11, 2009 2:50 PM EDT

Once you really look beyond all the noise and the anger in America right now you see what is behind the chaos- not corporations, or right wingers, or socialists- but fear. Plain and simple fear.

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Why Stewart really is the new Cronkite

Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:57 PM EDT

Many people scoffed when Jon Stewart was named the new "most trusted man in America" in Time Magazine's new poll in the wake of Walter Cronkite's death.

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An American Embarrasment

Sun Jul 12, 2009 2:38 PM EDT

It's almost impossible to believe that at the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close that there would actually be a debate in this country over the value and the use of science. But there is.

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A Nation Deluded

Fri Jul 10, 2009 12:55 PM EDT

When you really think about it, the very core problem we have in America can be boiled down to one simple concept- we lie to ourselves and we allow others to lie to us. America, after all, is theoretically all about free markets, which means sales and marketing, which means lying.

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Palin Goes Over the Edge

Fri Jul 3, 2009 5:42 PM EDT

Amazing! If you saw Sarah Palin's breathtaking, stream of very, very dim consciousness press announcement that she was not only passing on running for re-election as governor of Alaska, but stepping down right away, you could only watch with wide eyes and slack jaw.

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What is the Don't Ask Holdup?

Wed Jul 1, 2009 12:32 PM EDT

It's true that any decent candidate for national office needs the ability to make people feel that they are on the same page, regardless of what they might say.

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A Pass for a Pedophile

Tue Jun 30, 2009 2:15 PM EDT

With all the teary and predictably over-hyped noise around the demise of Michael Jackson the most disturbing thing is the pass he is getting for being a notorious pedophile.

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The Sad Tale of Mark Sanford

Mon Jun 29, 2009 12:22 PM EDT

It is really easy to heap scorn on South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford from just about every angle.

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A Tormented Soul Finally Finds Peace

Thu Jun 25, 2009 8:58 PM EDT

Just over thirty years ago Elvis died of a drug overdose on the eve of a concert tour shocking the world and unleashing a media and tabloid frenzy that lives on to this day- and whose fury will certainly now be visited upon the corpse of Micheal Jackson.

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It Ain't the Sex, it's the Repression...

Thu Jun 25, 2009 12:24 PM EDT

With the publication of the salacious emails Governor Mark Sanford sent his Argentine mistress you can't help but think of that poor bastard Larry Craig reaching underneath the bathroom stall to fondle another man's love gear or former mega church pastor Ted Haggard on his knees …

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The Health "Insurance" Scam

Sun Jun 21, 2009 3:12 PM EDT

Sometimes contentious issues are more complicated than they seem and sometimes they really are that simple. Healthcare reform is very simple. That doesn't make it easy but it's not complicated.

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Khamenei Makes The Bonehead Play

Fri Jun 19, 2009 9:34 AM EDT

The biggest problem infallible dictators have is that they buy into their own hype and today Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's "Supreme Leader," pushed all his chips out on his losing hand.

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Going Crazy over a Crazy Guy

Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:08 PM EDT

There are times like today that demostrate just how terrible mainstream news coverage is in this country. Honestly.

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Newty Hits the Tipping Point...

Wed Jun 3, 2009 3:06 PM EDT

It was bound to happen. In the ever intensifying jockeying for leadership position in the moribund Republican Party someone from the whackjob wing was going to go too far and it was bound to be Newty.

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California Court Punts

Thu May 28, 2009 10:39 PM EDT

One of the hardest things for lay people to understand when it comes to court rulings is that they are often not about what they seem. Roe vs. Wade, for example, was not about abortion, per se, it was actually about privacy and the limits of government.

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