Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai earned her right to address the United Nations the hard way. Malala was shot in the face by the Taliban in Pakistan's Swat Valley last October. She, and her father Ziauddin, had been activists for education for girls in Swat, and had incurred the wrath of the Taliban. The day she

"It's a nothingburger". That's how Chris Matthews described the Right's effort to find a scandal in the IRS where there isn't one. I agree. Indeed, when the dust settles, this matter will be more of a problem for the Right than the Left. Let's look at the essentials. The Law. Since 1913, organizations that "engage

Mr. President, let me say upfront, I don't think any of the present areas of concern … the IRS, Benghazi, Justice Department leak investigations … rise to the level of bona-fide "scandals". They are individually, and in toto, small potatoes compared to the incompetent bungling of Bush-Cheney that allowed us to get hit on 9/11

Our Republican friends think they have President Obama between a rock and a hard place on the issues of Benghazi, the IRS, and the Justice Department review of some phone records of a number of Associated Press reporters. In my opinion, there is less there than meets the eye. Let's look at these issues one

There's nothing quite like a tragedy such as Boston to bring out the political opportunists. Mix in Muslim perpetrators with looming crises in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon and the uber patriots are reaching Glenn Beck levels of hyperventilation in their race to the bottom. Our friends on the right who have made careers out of

When Ronald Reagan was running for President, one of his most dependable applause lines went like this:  "Government is not the solution to the problem, government is the problem." As soon as Reagan became President, however, he expanded the size of government and increased the deficit. When George W. Bush became President, he moved to

Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley of Boston is one of the 115 Cardinal Electors who will choose the next Pope. The winner must receive a two-thirds majority … 77 votes. It's almost a certainty, but not a necessity, that the Cardinal Electors will choose one of their own. I'm a Catholic. Probably not the best one

As of February 18, 2013, the Dublin based betting site, Intrade, has Chuck Hagel as a 95% favorite to be confirmed as US Secretary of Defense. I support Hagel and would hope his chances are that good, but I would put them at closer to 75%. Let's look at the parties and issues in this

When Chuck Hagel walks through a metal detector at an airport, he sets it off. He carries shrapnel in his chest from wounds suffered from his service in Vietnam. Now, multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson and the Right Wing of the Israel Lobby (RWIL), which he finances, are trying to defeat Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of

Decorated Vietnam War veteran and two-term United States Senator Chuck Hagel spent 8 hours on the witness chair, trying to convince 26 members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that his love for Israel was sufficient to warrant confirmation as Secretary of Defense. Everything else was of secondary importance for the Committee. I watched the