BY FROMA HARROP The miracle in Massachusetts was made possible through a bigger miracle four years ago. That’s when the commonwealth became the first and so far only state to guarantee near-universal coverage. The Republican winner of the Senate seat long held by Ted Kennedy, Scott Brown, voted for the legislation as a state senator. […]

BY JOE CONASON Having taken the oath of office just one year ago, Barack Obama is a flashing meteor that sputtered out too soon – or so the national media narrative tells us. According to this story line, the young president is a presumptuous liberal who disappointed his own idealistic followers while irritating everyone else. […]

BY JIM HIGHTOWER Here’s a story that reads like the script of an old B-grade monster movie – and it would be comic, were it not so serious. The monster is named “The Fed,” a hydra-headed creature with enormous and destructive power, which it exercises from within the misty confines of a marble cavern that […]

BY FROMA HARROP Tax the bankers’ profits, tax their bonuses, tax their golf scores. I mean it. Take their windfall, and give it to the taxpayers who bailed them out. Britain and France plan a 50% tax on banker bonuses – coordinated lest their financial bigwigs think of crossing the channel for a better deal. […]

BY SUSAN ESTRICH The other day, I walked into a bookstore looking for some escapism and stumbled right into a wall of diet books. It’s January. I published a diet book right around this time back in the ’90s, which is why I’ve been able to mostly avoid the diet book section ever since. But […]