By Justin McCarthy – WASHINGTON, D.C. — As the Affordable Care Act’s second open enrollment period begins, 37 percent of Americans say they approve of the law, one percentage point below the previous low in January. On the other hand, 56 percent of Americans sampled say they disapprove of the law. Americans were slightly more…
Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – LEWIS MOUNTAIN, Va. – When the National Park Service was established in 1935 and the U.S. Department of the Interior along with President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps began building roads, retaining walls, campgrounds and trails to get ready for visitors, there was an interest on the…
Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The Shenandoah salamander is no endangered polar bear, cuddly panda cub or playful dolphin the American public may warm up to in the cause of fighting global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it is the latest poster child from…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – THURMONT, Md. – The weather forecast is calling for a dusting of snow here in the woods north of Washington, D.C. Thursday night, which we might as well call the first act of winter after one of the most lovely falls in memory for the people of…
By Robert Reich – The President blames himself for the Democrat’s big losses Election Day. “We have not been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that we’re trying to do and why this is the right direction,” he said Sunday. In other words, he didn’t sufficiently tout the Administration’s…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – If you are an educated liberal, an urban progressive Democrat or just an independent American voter looking for candidates to make government work better in the U.S., you are probably severely disappointed at the outcome of the election on November 4, 2014, concerned about the next two years…
Thomas Jefferson As A Tactful Tactician – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – MONTICELLO, Va. – In the introduction to one of the versions of The Writings of Thomas Jefferson available online at Project Gutenberg, former West Virginia Governor George W. Atkinson describes Jefferson as the quintessential tactful political tactician and statesman. “Thomas…
Secret Vistas – By Glynn Wilson – BALDFACE ROCK OVERLOOK, Va. – It is election day all across America and the big question is whether the Republicans will take over control of the U.S. Senate. But since I am not now living and working in Louisiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas or one of the…
By Robert Reich – Commenting on a recent student suicide at an Alaska high school, Alaska’s Republican Congressman Don Young said suicide didn’t exist in Alaska before “government largesse” gave residents an entitlement mentality. “When people had to work and had to provide and had to keep warm by putting participation in cutting wood and…
By Glynn Wilson – Fifty-two percent of Americans say they expect the Republican Party to win control of the U.S. Senate in November, according to the latest Gallup poll on the subject, although there are a few key races still up in the air that could change that. An even larger majority of Americans, 63…
Note: When the U.S. went to war in Iraq under the Bush administration, I noticed an immediate shift in the media. Suddenly, the major media used the work “kill” this and that. There was also the “de-humanizing” of Saddam Hussein and demonizing of Iraqis who surrounded and supported Hussein. I knew this was the major…
By David Underhill – NEW YORK, N.Y. – Teddy Roosevelt looked down from his bronze horse and saw time spin off course. The forged Indian and African afoot beside him for nearly a century abandoned the pedestal and strode into the street. In the Museum of Natural History behind him the display cases showing natives…
By Nick Sheppard – From The Sheppard Post – Near the end of 2012, Hillary Clinton’s health made headlines as she finished her term as secretary of state. She developed a stomach virus, hit her head, suffered a concussion and subsequently developed a blood clot in her brain but was medicated and made a good…
By Robert Reich – Americans are sick of politics. Only 13 percent approve of the job Congress is doing, a near record low. The President’s approval ratings are also in the basement. A large portion of the public doesn’t even bother voting. Only 57.5 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots in the 2012 presidential…
Super Lawyer Donald Watkins Thinks So – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – I’ve been following with some interest the stories about the arrest of U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller, sharing some of the links on Facebook and Twitter. But it seemed like a stretch to me that his arrest on misdemeanor battery…
By Nick Sheppard – From The Sheppard Post – There is an increasingly openly-stated view amongst the Israeli leadership that the conflict with the Palestinians can only be managed, not resolved by the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. In a recent press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “I think the Israeli…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – Richard Milhous Nixon hated the limelight, perhaps for good reason. When it shined down upon him like a police cruiser spotlight on a rabid dog, what it showed was not something to make the American people proud. He would have been a more powerful and successful politician…
If Union Members Were Not So Politically Conservative – By Berry Craig – PADUCAH, Ky. — Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes says Bluegrass State union members are her “secret weapon” in her quest to unseat arch conservative Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and help the Democrats keep a majority hold on the…
A new standard that limits miners’ exposure to the coal dust that causes black lung “will save miners’ lives,” the AFL-CIO Executive Council said in a statement issued Thursday at the council’s summer meeting at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Mine Safety and Health Administration issued the final rule in April and it goes…
By Nick Sheppard – From The Sheppard Post – When it comes to Benghazi, the Conservative commentariat is willing to make an association with almost anything that happens, past or present, domestic or international, relevant or irrelevant. On the Fox network’s show The Five, Andrea Tantaros opined about the missing Malaysian airliner: “Think how long…
