The 2,074-page Senate health care bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is now up on the Web available for public scrutiny. And Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, spoiling for a fight, posed a challenge to his colleagues across the aisle.
read moreFormer U.S. Rep. William Jefferson (D.-La.) was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his conviction on 11 counts of corruption. Jefferson also was ordered to forfeit more than $470,000 after his conviction for using his office to solicit bribes.
read moreI grew up in a fundamentalist missionary family that in the 1970s and 80s morphed into my father's activity as one of the founders of the Religious Right. We would hobnob with Republican leaders from Ronald Reagan to Gerald Ford and the Bush family, Jack Kemp and many others. One day it dawned on me that the far right of the Republican Party --- in other words its base --- actually hates America.
read moreFrench scientists mixed gene therapy and bone marrow transplants in two boys to seemingly halt a brain disease that can kill by adolescence. The surprise ingredient: They disabled the HIV virus so it couldn't cause AIDS, and then used it to carry in the healthy new gene.
read moreAt a recent TEA Party protest in Washington DC, House Minority Leader John Boehner stood before a crowd of thousands. Encouraging him to stand against the proposed health care bill in the House (which is now endorsed by the AARP), he spoke of a great founding document, the U.S. Constitution. Holding his personal copy of the document in his hand, Boehner recited the Preamble to the crowd:
read more
I wish we would go back to being unmoderated. Posting personal info of others was a great joy of mine.