The Middle-Class Tax Trap  —  “Let's tell the truth,” Walter Mondale said, accepting the Democratic nomination in 1984.  “Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you.  I just did.”  —  Three months later, Mondale lost 49 states, and liberal politicians learned a valuable lesson.

How Nancy Pelosi Can Save The Day, And Regain Power, In Debt Ceiling Fight  —  Could House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) save the day in the fight over the debt limit, and in so doing return to a position of great influence on Capitol Hill?  Yes she could.  —  The House minority is the Siberia of Congress.

What's Donald Trump really after?  —  Despite an almost universal refusal by Republican establishment figures and the press to take him seriously, Donald Trump is taking very concrete steps toward forming - and announcing - a presidential campaign.  —  He has interviewed at least two people …

President Obama and Vice President Biden's Tax Returns and Tax Receipts  —  Today, the President released his 2010 federal income and gift tax returns.  He and the First Lady filed their income tax return jointly and reported an adjusted gross income of $1,728,096.

It's Now Patriotic to Call Paul Krugman a !  @%$#%@ Hypocrite  —  For almost the entire two and one-half years I've been blogging I've had to put up with Paul Krugman accusing Republicans, conservatives and Tea Party supporters of inciting violence through heated rhetoric over policy differences, particularly Obamacare.

S&P Affirms US AAA Rating, Cuts Outlook to Negative  —  Standard & Poor's on Monday downgraded the outlook for the United States to negative, saying it believes there's a risk U.S. policymakers may not reach agreement on how to address the country's long-term fiscal pressures.

Where the Tax Money Is  —  Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich.  —  A dominant theme of President Obama's budget speech last Wednesday was that our fiscal problems would vanish if only the wealthiest Americans were asked “to pay a little more.”

TheDC Exclusive: Conservatives hit Beck for taking content without attribution  —  A number of conservative activists and bloggers say they're furious at media magnate Glenn Beck for what they call content theft.  Over the past several years, Beck has relied on video, audio and written content …

Sarah Palin's website sparks White House buzz  —  Sarah Palin rolled out a new website for her PAC on Monday with significantly more content and features, along with a vehicle for Palin to start gathering email addresses and information from her supporters.  —  The new site, sarahpac.com …

(UPDATED) DOJ Source: Gov't Muslim ‘Outreach’ Jeopardized Active Terror Investigations  —  (UPDATE: Rep. Peter King demands answers following Poole's previous article on this topic.)  An explosive, must-read interview brings sunlight to our counterproductive “outreach” programs.

Roger Ailes Caught Spying on the Reporters at His Small-Town Newspaper  —  The small-town newspapers in New York's Hudson Valley that Fox News chief Roger Ailes owns with his wife Elizabeth are in a staff revolt after employees caught Ailes spying on them with News Corp. security goons.  More »

Trump: Rove “devastated” by Romney's performance  —  On Fox & Friends this morning, Donald Trump fired back at Karl Rove for calling him a “joke candidate.” … Trump then offered another reason for Rove's comments. … Trump's assertion that Romney is doing poorly in the polls is hardly air-tight …

Electric Car Catches Fire, Again  —  Chevy Volt Is Believed To Have Set A Garage On Fire In Barkhamsted  —  BARKHAMSTED,Conn. — A hybrid electric Chevrolet Volt believed to have sparked an overnight blaze in a garage in Barkhamsted last week, reignited again on Monday.

Relieve Pain by Swearing, Study Says  —  Hey, after all these years, I'm vindicated at last: … And, indeed, some of what we were taught in schools was wrong.  —  For instance, the story has it Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death.”  He really said: “Wear one of those dreadful Tory hats?

GANG OF SIX ‘VERY CLOSE’ TO AN AGREEMENT, INTENDS TO ‘MAKE EVERYBODY MAD’.... Two months ago, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six” deficit-reduction talks, said the group was “getting close” to striking a deal.  Two weeks ago, however, the negotiations …

AFSCME Union Threatens to ‘Weaponize’ Government Jobs  —  It's becoming clearer that the “public service” mentality is quickly slipping way from government employees, if it didn't hit the exits a long time ago.  —  Instead of government employees serving the public, it's clear now their belief is that the public exists to serve them.

The 30-Cent Tax Premium  —  Tax compliance employs more workers than Wal-Mart, UPS, McDonald's, IBM and Citigroup combined.  —  There is a lot more to taxes than simply paying the bill.  Taxpayers must spend significantly more than $1 in order to provide $1 of income-tax revenue to the federal government.

Can't Talk About Residency Patterns Without Talking About Prices  —  Ben Adler, reviewing Suleiman Osman's The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn: Gentrification and the Search for Authenticity in Postwar New York makes the excellent point that you can't discuss the social underpinnings …

Citing immigration reform, liberal House Dem might not back Obama in 2012  —  A liberal House Democrat warned Monday that he could withhold support for President Obama next year if the White House doesn't do more on immigration reform.  —  Rep. Luis Gutierrez, who represents sections …

Rep. Frank: Administration ‘wasting time’ with online poker crackdown  —  The Obama administration is wasting time and resources by targeting online poker sites, according to Rep. Barney Frank (Mass.), the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee.

2011 Pulitzer Prize Winners Announced  —  The New York Times won Pulitzer Prizes on Monday for its economics commentary and for its reporting on Russia in 2010, while The Los Angeles Times received the coveted public service Pulitzer.  —  The prizes, which are administered by Columbia University …

'91 report bears repeating  —  Why two journalists are reinvestigating “What Went Wrong” for the middle class. … Question: You recently announced that you will be revisiting the “America: What Went Wrong?” investigation that appeared in The Inquirer in October 1991.  Why did you decide to update the project?