TheNextReport

Benny Carson. Could he be the next new host of late nite TV? Is he the reincarnation of Karnack the Magnificent?  Maybe he's the act America's been truly waiting for --- a soft-spoken mister nice-guy; a non-threatening black man you could trust with your daughter; a talented neurosurgeon who's against universal healthcare, who says he can cure America's ills but who hasn't a clue about domestic or foreign policy. Just as Marco Rubio answers the Republicans' need to appear sympathetic to the concerns of hispanics, just as Carly Fiorina is the answer to the GOP's need to court women voters, so does Ben Carson answer their need to appeal to African Americans---a conservative Barack Obama who gets accolades for his calm personality, who can rail against the dangers of gun control, Muslims, climate change and higher education. One of the reasons George W. Bush was elected president was becuse he had an appealing, affable demeanor. Remember him? He was the gu...

As John Boehner prepares to leave the Senate this fall, it is useful to recall the history of the deliberative body that he, as Speaker of the House, spoke for.  Under the direction of Boehner and Mitch McConell, his counterpart in the Senate, the GOP pursued a policy of deliberately blocking legislation, coercing fillibuster,  subverting the legislative process by shutting down the government and forcing the president into legislating by executive action. Immigration, transportation infrastructure, education, environmental regulation, gun control, voting rights, jobs, all fell victim to a gaggle of right wing ideologues who essentially failed in their Constitutional mandate to create laws. By hamstringing President Obama, by blocking the creation of the country's legislative infrastructure, the People's representatives subverted the plan for representative government so painstakingly arrived at by the deliberations of Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the other founding father...

Prospective presidential candidate Hillary Clinton testified before the House select committee on Benghazi today and was appropriately grilled by Republicans. Afrer nine hearings and $4.7 million of taxpayers' money, the nation watched the current incarnation of the Benghazi investigation come to an end with the pitiful spectacle of the likely first woman president being thrown to the lions. Hillary's rapid responses ruled the day. The attempt to derail Clinton's presidential bid got nowhere, leaving the country scratching its head. This is what happens when you hand your government over to deluded conservatives who are convinced that they are the only true patriots. Committee chairman -- Grorgia Republican Trey Gowdy --presided over the 11 hour festivities today, looking a bit too much like the Banjo Boy from "Deliverance." The Congressional committee's actors, several of whom got into shouting matches with one another, did their best to show the world the...

Once again, the American people are forced to stand witness as a confused young person takes the lives of his fellow classmates. Now all the media pundits are once again citing the well known data that shows how the United States is the only advanced nation that allows such horrendous murders of its own citizens to carry on without passing meaningful gun control laws.  The folly of our national arrogance is tragic. Perhaps the massacre at the Umpqua Community College in Oregon will finally embolden enough people to enact sensible gun legislation. Putting firearms into the hands of psychopathic, angry young people is not only foolish -- it is insane. Maybe it's time we stopped referring to ourselves as an "advanced" nation?