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The Talk Shows Sunday, June 28th, 2009 Guests to be interviewed today on major television talk shows: FOX NEWS SUNDAY (Fox Network): Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius; Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. MEET THE PRESS (NBC): David Axelrod, White House senior adviser; Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.FACE THE NATION (CBS): Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Gov. Haley Barbour, R-Miss. THIS WEEK (ABC): Axelrod; Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. STATE OF THE UNION (CNN): Odierno; Gov. Tim Pawlenty, R-Minn.; T. Boone Pickens, chairman and...

Daniel Defoe, early eighteenth century novelist (Robinson Crusoe), pamphleteer, and part-time spy, is usually credited with the first use of some form of the phrase about the certainty of both death and taxes. Benjamin Franklin borrowed from Defoe and refined it: "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." And, in Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell included a play on the now famous maxim: "Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them." Columns such as mine talk a lot these days about taxes – maybe too much. But...

Healthcare reform important to BlacksBy: Brian D. Smedley, NNPA Guest Commentary Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 12:00 pm Health inequities are deep, persistent, and not new. From the cradle to the grave, racial and ethnic minorities suffer from shorter life spans, higher rates of disease and disability, and higher mortality relative to national averages. These problems have plagued generations of African Americans and other people of color in the United States. Yet these issues have historically received scant attention in Washington - until now. Both Congress and the Obama Administration are ramping up efforts to improve health and health care...

This is not a joke. Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision that required an Oregon public school district to pay a $5,200 monthly tuition (plus fees) for a private boarding school for a high-school senior whose psychologist had diagnosed him with ADHD, depression, math disorder and cannabis abuse. Also not a joke: The Obama administration had urged the big bench to so rule. Thus the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which mandates that all "children with disabilities" have the right to a "free appropriate public education," is turning into a cash cow for disability lawyers and...

At around 5:30am on June 27, an unoccupied building still under construction at Lianhuanan Road in the Minxing district of Shanghai city toppled over. One worker was killed. According to information, a 70 meter section of the flood prevention wall in nearby Dianpu River and that may have something to do with this building collapse.

By now, it's clear that Mark Sanford has about as much of a future in politics as he does in sumo wrestling. His confession of adultery was all it took to demolish any hopes he had of running for president -- and perhaps even to force him to step down as governor of South Carolina. But why? After all, we've had presidents who are revered by posterity despite being unreliable husbands. Hardly anyone even remembers now that Franklin Roosevelt had a mistress, that Dwight Eisenhower may have had one, or that John Kennedy had several. In the intervening decades, we've...

ECSTATIC space officials at Nasa could be about to unveil one of their most stunning discoveries for 40 years — new and amazingly clear footage of the first moon landing. The release of the new images next month could be one of the most talked about events of the summer. The television images the world has been used to seeing of the historic moment when Neil Armstrong descended down a ladder onto the moon’s surface in 1969 is grainy, blurry and dark. The following scenes, in which the astronauts move around the lunar lander, are so murky it is difficult...

"In the beginning," says a character in a Peter De Vries novel, "the earth was without form and void. Why didn't they leave well enough alone?" When Washington is finished improving health care, Americans may be asking the same thing. Certainly the debate will compel them to think more clearly about this subject. Most Americans do want different health care: They want 2009 medicine at 1960 prices. Americans spent much less on health care in 1960 (5% of GDP as opposed to 18% now). They also spent much less -- nothing, in fact -- on computers, cell phones and cable...

EU, US launch trade case against China 24 June 2009, 15:40 CET — filed under: Headline2, China, Trade (BRUSSELS) - The European Union and the United States on Tuesday launched WTO action against China, accusing it of restricting raw materials exports to feed its domestic market. "The European Union has today requested WTO consultations with China regarding China's export restrictions on a number of key raw materials, which it considers are in clear breach of international trade rules," the EU commission said in a statement. In Washington, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk accused China of pursuing a "troubling" industrial policy....

The four-year college degree has come to cost too much and prove too little. It's now a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer. A student who secures a degree is increasingly unlikely to make up its cost, despite higher pay, and the employer who requires a degree puts faith in a system whose standards are slipping. Too many professors who are bound to degree teaching can't truly profess; they don't proclaim loudly the things they know but instead whisper them to a chosen few, whom they must then accommodate with inflated grades. Worst of all,...

Some housing experts believe there is no alternative but outright forgiveness of a substantial chunk of mortgage debt for many people who are at risk of foreclosure.Government and private-lender attempts to stem the home foreclosure crisis so far have mostly focused on loan modifications or refinancing -- giving borrowers a temporary or permanent reduction in their monthly payments. But some housing experts say the next wave of help will have to address the core problem for many homeowners: negative equity. This camp believes that there is no alternative but outright forgiveness of a substantial chunk of mortgage debt for many...

was saddened to hear that both Farah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died, but I am extremely maddened by the amount of coverage that MSM and even our "reliable" conservative networks are giving to them in light of the serious events which transpired this week. One of the most serious events was the fact that Harold Koh was confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday June 24th as the State Department's Legal Advisor. His transnationalist views promote blending international and domestic law. Indeed, this is particularly scary knowing that he believes traditional sovereignty is obsolete. What are all those people thinking in...

Does stoning really have "nothing to do with Islam"? The Stoning of Soraya M. is a great film; I attended an advance screening of it last year in Los Angeles, and strongly recommend that you see it. It is a powerfully moving indictment of the Islamic practice of stoning adulterers, and indirectly of the Sharia in general -- however, those connected with the film are doing their level best to avoid giving the impression that the film has anything to do with Islam at all. The latest to do this, but by no means the only one, is actress Shohreh...

Former presidential candidate John Edwards is out of luck if he hoped that the extramarital affairs of Gov. Mark Sanford and Sen. John Ensign would take people’s minds off his own cheating scandal. Former Edwards aide Andrew Young says the ex-senator and his former mistress, Rielle Hunter, once made a sex tape, according to someone who has seen Young’s book proposal. St. Martin’s Press just inked a deal with Young, who also says in his proposal that, contrary to his public statement last year, he is not the father of Hunter’s infant daughter — Edwards is. Edwards has denied that....

Do the forces now in charge of our energy future prefer that the American economy continue to grow based on the exploitation of plentiful and less-expensive coal and other fossil fuels, or by replacing those older power sources with wind, solar and other "renewables," regardless of the cost? Based on developments here in Southern Nevada last week, the answer would appear to be ... that it was a trick question to begin with. Those in charge today have no intention of providing the foundering American economy with the new energy resources it needs to resume its growth, at all. Last...

Some Wall Street analysts suggest investors now plan for "an economic recovery in a post-bubble environment." Encouraged by the recent stock market rebound, they are convinced the economic downturn will sooner or later be over but are worried about the strength of the coming upturn. A New York Times writer frets that any recovery promises to be weak. According to him, "a sudden credit contraction" caused the downturn in economic activity. But the real start of the downturn was a dawning realization that asset prices, typified by home prices, were unsustainably high. This caused lenders to feel queasy and borrowers...

William Jefferson's activities cast as "official acts" by witnesses in corruption trialby Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune Friday June 26, 2009, 9:20 PM ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- Prosecutors called five witnesses Friday they hope convinced jurors that former Rep. William Jefferson engaged in "official acts" to promote a telecommunications project in return for payments and promised payments they describe as bribes. The issue is critical to the government's corruption case against the New Orleans Democrat. Prosecutors contend Jefferson solicited payments and stock from iGate Inc., a telecommunications company, to the ANJ Group, a firm controlled by his wife, Andrea Jefferson, in return...

Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t' By Molly K. Hooper Posted: 06/27/09 09:22 PM [ET] Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday. When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t." Using his privilege as leader to speak for an unlimited time on the House floor, Boehner spent an hour reading from the 1200-plus page bill that was amended 20 hours before...

< snip > Two steel plates along the bottom of a truss arch on the Main Avenue Bridge had rusted so thin in September 2007 that one had a four-inch hole -- leading transportation officials to worry privately that the span was in danger of collapsing. But no one warned the public about those fears. Although the outer lanes of the six-lane span were immediately closed, Ohio Department of Transportation officials said in news releases at the time only that they were repairing the bridge's structural steel. No specifics about the extent of the problem were revealed because the media...

Iranian media reported today that authorities have detained eight local employees of the British embassy in Tehran for what is described as their alleged role in post-election protests. The reports by state-run TV and the semi-official Fars news agency provided no further details and could not be verified independently. Iran's rulers have accused the west of stoking unrest following a bitterly disputed June 12 presidential election, singling out Britain and the US for alleged meddling. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, prompting the expulsion of two Iranian diplomats from Britain. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi alleges massive fraud in...