Forty percent of our national deficit is due to the Great Recession.  The rest is mainly due to two wars funded off the books, massive tax cuts that benefited the wealthy, and run-away healthcare costs.  There are structural issues in our economy that also need to be addressed:  long-term adjustments to Social Security and Medicare. So the obvious, glaring reality is:  When we put people back to ...

In our last post, P.S., we posed the --- somewhat hopeful --- possibility that there is a strategic big-picture plan (something beyond "Fight 'em over there, so we don't have to fight 'em here!") behind our reason to still be in Afghanistan after nine years.  Well, here's what we heard from The Washington Post's, well-respected foreign policy expert, David Ignatius on Thursday.  According to Igna ...

As the previous post, 40 YEARS AFTER KENT STATE, unfolded on my computer screen I wasn't sure where it was going.  After it was written I realized that it could have become an anti-war rant.  The fact that it didn't, tells me that some of us really are looking for opportunities to have a little faith.  Maybe that truly is blind trust in this President --- trust that we may regret.  Yet, I can't br ...

On May 4, 1970 armed National Guard troops were sent onto the campus of Kent State University in Ohio to control young college demonstrators who were protesting the war in Vietnam.  On that day the unthinkable happened --- an unthinkable memory that still brings stinging tears.  The kids were yelling, protesting both the war and the presence of armed Guardsmen on their campus.   Some threw stone ...

No one’s happy with where America is today.  Too many problems, not enough solutions, everything moves too slowly in Washington --- or action is blocked entirely by politicians playing games.  In this environment, Democrats tell us that they’re going to frame the November elections as “a choice election.”  Good idea. The problems the Administration and Congress have inherited from the Bush years, ...

CLN was in attendance at a recent reception for Democratic Senatorial candidate for Pennsylvania --- former Admiral and current Congressman, Joe Sestak.  The event was held in San Francisco and was immensely enjoyed by the small and intimate gathering.  Each of the attendees had an opportunity to have a conversation with the candidate, following his passionate and moving presentation.  Overhead wa ...

Hey, anybody see The Rachael Maddow show on MSNBC Friday night?  Hooray for Rachael because she's the first cable or network host to explain to the American people the somewhat difficult to understand fact that drilling for oil off our own shores will NOT lead our nation to energy independence. We at CLN addressed that sticky (no pun intended) oil issue in a previous posting on May 26 titled OFF- ...

CHECK-IT-OUT:  The Dallas Morning News "I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) during a hearing on Thursday morning with BP's CEO Tony Hayward.  "I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown -- in this case a $20 billion shakedown ... I'm only speaking for ...

CHECK-IT-OUT:  Righties in the Senate are refusing to approve an extension to unemployement benefits for millions of Americans, even though there is an off-set in the legislation that would help pay for the costs.  This off-set is actually a first, as unemployment benefits have historically been approved as "emergency spending" without any budget off-sets.  The off-set in this current bill is a pr ...

The number of millionaires in America increased 16% last year --- in this economy.  The richest 1% of Americans now hold financial wealth that is six times greater than the financial wealth of the entire bottom 80% of Americans!  Income inequality in the U.S. is now greater than it has ever been in the last 100 years, and is much greater than it was in the thirty years following World War II (by t ...