Politics

News agency AFP is examining how the Republican Party will respond to a series of surprise setbacks, some suffered at the hands of their own “archconservative political shock troops” in the Tea Party. “We’re in a new era,” House Speaker John Boehner told reporters, shrugging off his woes as the new majority’s growing pains. “That…

The Associated Press is reporting that President Barack Obama is sending Congress a $3.73 trillion spending blueprint that pledges $1.1 trillion in deficit savings over the next decade through spending cuts and tax increases. Obama’s new budget projects that the deficit for the current year will surge to an all-time high of $1.65 trillion. That…

To some it may seem as though the uprising in Egypt happened without much warning. But not for Egyptian-born scholar and author Tarek Osman, whose predictive book, Egypt on the Brink, reads like a subtle “I told you so.” Egypt on the Brink unpacks the political, social and religious tensions that led to the eventual…

As Egyptians celebrate the end of Mubarak’s 30-year reign, Nicolaus Mills, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, remembers the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. In this essay, he talks about the power of nonviolent protests when demanding change. As I watched the television footage of demonstrators in Cairo’s Tahrir Square make the decision to reduce the…

Conservatives refuse to admit that it has often been politically expedient (and beneficial) to knock President Obama at every turn, regardless of whether the criticism has merit for something other than political sport. This Republican tactic in the media and in Washington — even for ardent conservatives — has become a BORE (Bash Obama, Repeat…

The Associated Press is reporting that the Obama administration will release long-awaited proposals for reducing government support of the mortgage market, but Congress will choose the path for reforming financially teetering mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Treasury Department is scheduled to release a report Friday that lays out three choices for…

The Associated Press is reporting that bus drivers and public-transport workers in Cairo joined thousands of state employees on strike Thursday in spreading labor unrest that has pumped further strength and momentum into Egypt’s wave of anti-government protests. With its efforts to manage the crisis failing, the government warned of the potential for a coup.…

First lady Michelle Obama talked candidly with Matt Lauer on the Today show, her first on-set appearance on a morning show. The first lady had praise for her husband, refusing to discuss his viewpoints on policy, but saying that she supports his decisions on different issues ranging from Egypt, unemployment and, of course, nutrition. When…

Only now am I becoming able to make peace with something that has nagged at me lately: I don’t think of the protesters in Egypt as my brothers and sisters. There, I said it. I am heartened daily by their victories. If someone asked me to help in some way, I would do all I…