In fact, the wheels of commerce have nearly rusted shut for working people. They've found it harder and harder to afford a middle-class life, while leaders in Washington, D.C., looked the other way and attended to the needs of big business.

Right or wrong is debatable given the nature of the man and how you feel about capital punishment.  What I don't think is debatable is:

One more example of the personal corruption below the surface of so many outwardly pious moralizers.

Was it a good year for America?  For you, personally?  What about the coming year?

Poll time again, in the good old United States of Avoidance.  And all that's missing is a good dose of truth serum so that we could have some confidence in these self-reports from anAP-AOL News poll conducted by Ipsos:

It is a matter of debate whether Iraqis are now worse off than under Saddam's dictatorship. The chaos in their country, however, has produced one undisputed winner: an unchecked Iran, more menacing today than in Ayatollah Khomeini's time.

You don't have to pass an intelligence test to live in any given state.  And Texas seems to have far more than its share of residents who appear not to have passed any intelligence test lately.

I don't expect a lot of objectivity from most people, and I'm rarely disappointed in my expectations.  But this is really pretty sorry: A John Birch commentator manages to completely miss a major point on a study of pre-marital sex in America while excoriating the study, its author, and the institution for which the author works.

Sometimes you need to look at more than one source to get a feel for the reality of a situation.  Consider these two lines, from two recent news stories:

In honor of the coming new year, Media Matters has collected 2006's most outrageous comments by conservative "commentators."  My favorites (use th link for the entire list):

The Republican party and its adherents maintain numerous web sites devoted to their brand of reality. Needless to say, some of the statements found on those sites are a little...interesting.

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