In the first poll of Democrats who are likely to vote in the September 14 primary, Rep. Charlie Rangel leads with only 39%, according to a new poll by Public Policy Polling for Democrats.com. (Full results) Incumbents who fall below 50% are generally viewed as endangered. Rangel leads a crowded field of challengers led by Adam Clayton Powell IV with 21%, Joyce Johnson with 7%, Jonathan Tasini with ...

By David Swanson The latest hardcopy newsletter from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities opens with an article about poetry about war, which opens with this line: "Many of my favorite poets are soldiers." The author begins with a poet who "has served in the current war in Iraq." Served what we are not told. Then she jumps to Virgil and declares: "Neither Virgil ...

A number of Democrats and "liberal" pundits are smugly attacking GOP chairman Michael Steele for telling the "inconvenient truth" about Afghanistan: "Keep in mind again, federal candidates, this was a war of Obama's choosing. This is not something the United States had actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in."... "It was the president who was trying to be cute by half by flipping a script demonizing Iraq, ...

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer spoke Tuesday morning in a large private room (the Columbus Room) at Union Station in Washington, D.C. and took questions. He had no answers for the questions I put to him. Hoyer's topic was fiscal responsibility, and he said that his proposals -- which were all pure vagueness -- would be appropriate to enact "as soon as the economy is fully ...

45 of 10000 people have signed – see totals by state and Congressional District.BackgroundBP's massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will have disastrous consequences for the Gulf environment and millions of people who depend upon it. But under current law, BP must pay only $75 million in economic damages, while damages from this spill could reach $14 billion, if not much more. There must be ...