¶ The Paragraph

As Democrats try to extend tax cuts for 98% of the people, Republicans threaten to kill those tax cuts by filibuster, unless they can also extend tax cuts for the 2% with the highest incomes ($250,000+, filing jointly).1 Last week, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) cast the expiration of those tax cuts for the […]

Mobile Bay native Brinkley Hutchings flew over the water and saw the crude oil heading for her home. On May 13th, the 22nd day of the oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico, Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP, gave an interview and downplayed it.1 “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The […]

During the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Republicans latched onto three theories that allowed them to hand out tax cuts and pile up debt. One theory is “Starve the Beast“, which says to cut taxes now, so to bring on a budget crisis that would force cuts in social spending later. As one Republican consultant put […]

Rep. Roskam (R-IL) shakes his Etch-A-Sketch as Pres. Obama looks on. from C-SPAN “[The American people] … have rendered a judgment about what we have attempted to do so far,” said Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) at the president’s big health care meeting last week.30+31 “[P]ut that on the shelf and … start over with a […]

From Climbing Mountains to Building Schools K2 from air, West Face (Guilhem Vellut) Greg Mortenson is an American, who grew up near Mount Kilimanjaro, where his father started a teaching hospital and his mother started a school.20+21 From that background, Mortenson became a nurse, and an avid mountain climber — but later switched to become […]