Looters in Loafers  —  Last October, I saw a cartoon by Mike Peters in which a teacher asks a student to create a sentence that uses the verb “sacks,” as in looting and pillaging.  The student replies, “Goldman Sachs.”  —  Sure enough, last week the Securities and Exchange Commission accused …

Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor  —  The People and Their Government  —  By almost every conceivable measure Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.  A new Pew Research Center survey finds a perfect storm of conditions associated with distrust of government …

Hill's aides in ‘bully’ crystal  —  WASHINGTON — Politically connected staffers in Hillary Rodham Clinton's State Department twisted arms to steer a $5.4 million contract for crystal stemware to a tiny interior-design firm without putting it out for bid — a move that shut out a well-known …

Reaching Out Quietly to Muslims in America  —  When President Obama took the stage in Cairo last June, promising a new relationship with the Islamic world, Muslims in America wondered only half-jokingly whether the overture included them.  After all, Mr. Obama had kept his distance during the campaign …

First, define the problem  —  I HAVE been meaning to summarise my thoughts on financial regulatory reform in the wake of the Hyman Minsky conference on same.  I have to say, it has left me with a sense of resigned cycnicism.  I'll get to details in a moment, but I think that the most important thing …

David Gregory: “No, I won't fact check my guests and you guys can't make me...” A time line.  —  David Gregory, the host of NBC's Meet the Press, has painted himself into a strange corner with his assertion that there's no need to fact check what his guests say on the air because viewers can do that “on their own terms.”

The Republicans' 2012 problem  —  November 2010 is looking awfully good for the GOP.  But November 2012?  Not so much  —  Talk to most Democratic activists, and they'll concede that a Republican takeover of the House this fall is entirely possible.  Some will even contemplate …

Time's Klein: Beck, Palin Potentially Committing Sedition against U.S. Government; Heilemann Adds Limbaugh  —  Liberals are all too often eager to charge conservative personalities of using hyperbole to gain a political advantage, especially when it contradicts their world view …

World warming to US under Obama, BBC poll suggests  —  Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests.  —  For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative.

Group: White House delaying 'Don't Ask' repeal  —  A group lobbying for the repeal of the ban on gays serving openly in the military is “disturbed” by word that the White House is quietly working to postpone a vote on repeal until after the midterm elections.

Obama skips Polish funeral, heads to golf course  —  A massive volcanic plume covering most of Europe forced President Obama to cancel a Sunday trip to Poland to attend the funeral of the nation's president.  But the last-minute change left an opening in his schedule, so the president headed to the links for a round of golf instead.

LEAVE THE 19TH AMENDMENT ALONE.... I like to think I can take a joke, and appreciate political commentary intended as humor, but this item from Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wasn't amusing.  The headline read, “Time to repeal the 19th Amendment?”

Obama swooping into L.A. to boost Boxer in tough re-election fight  —  President Barack Obama returns to Southern California on Monday for his first fundraising swing in nearly a year to lend support to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.).  —  The three-term Democrat has seen her reelection prospects diminish …

Militia movement will be packing heat at rally on the Potomac  —  Daniel Almond, a three-tour veteran of Iraq, is ready to “muster outside D.C.” on Monday with several dozen other self-proclaimed patriots, all of them armed.  They intend to make history as the first people to take their guns …

No Minstrel Show Here!  —  Charles Blow recently deplored the lack of authentic diversity at a Dallas Tea Party, describing it as a “minstrel show”.  Conor Friedersdorf notes the heads they lose problem being faced by the Tea Party: … Jut so.  Meanwhile, I am eagerly awaiting a correction on this from Mr. Blow:

Tea partiers in two camps: Palin vs. Paul  —  Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new POLITICO/TargetPoint poll: one that's libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that's culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues.