Attending a party on the Fourth of July, I spent some time listening on the edge of conversations, much of which were about politics. “I don’t understand,” one fellow says, “how the government can send Martha Stewart to prison for insider trading when all those folks on Capitol Hill, who never had a pot to piss in, are all millionaires...

We interrupt our special Fourth of July commentary for this TMZ Exclusive: Jim Lichtman, ‘Renowned’ Ethics Specialist, is Lost! Lichtman was last seen giving Mel Gibson advice outside an L.A. eatery (as captured by this grainy cell-phone photo) around June 14th. Sources close to the writer confirmed that in spite of his work with the “ethically challenged,” Lichtman was reported to...

Health Battle Enters Round 2 – That was the weekend headline in the Wall Street Journal (June 30-July1). I’ve written about some of issues surrounding the health care law earlier this year: (March 5, April 20). However, no sooner had the Supreme Court ruled that The Affordable Care Act was constitutional than the lines were drawn on opinion pages as well as Congress as...

In August 2009, here’s how New York Times reporter and Supreme Court correspondent Adam Liptak first described the unleashing of a monster. “The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted.” Arguably, one of the biggest understatements in decades… and for the Supreme...

On Monday I received the following e-mail from a friend requesting that I pass it along to at least three others: “In 1952 President Truman established one day a year as aNational Day of Prayer. In 1988, President Reagan designated the first Thursday in May of each year as the National Day of Prayer. “In June 2007, (then) Presidential candidate Barack...

In order to understand why some in the media don’t like the new HBO series The Newsroom, here’s how TIME magazine’s James Poniewozik began his review: “The fourth episode of Aaron’s Sorkin’s The Newsroom is called ‘I’ll Try to Fix You.’ That may as well be the title of the whole series. Like Sorkin’s The West Wing, the show wants to fix America,  » Read more...

Ten years from now, historians may look back and label this period as the “reality show” era of politics. I’ve already talked about the reality show “quality” surrounding banker Jamie Dimon’s testimony before a Senate banking committee. Well, Dimon was on Capitol Hill again, this time testifying before House officials. Unlike the Senate, House lawmakers’ questions carried a much harder edge....

After learning that histrionic personality disorder would be used as part of the defense to explain, in part, the behavior of former Penn State Coach Jerry Sandusky’s alleged sexual abuse of at least 10 young boys, I began to see suspicious indicators in a number of recent events. Okay class, pull out your copy of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of...

Last month (May 14) after JPMorgan Chase Chief Jamie Dimon acknowledged “sloppy, stupid” mistakes that led to a $3 billion (maybe more) loss by the big and risky bet division of the United States’ largest bank, I wrote that “Dimon needs a lot more intelligent decision-making, and at the top of that list I would put: HUMILITY. So, how has...

“I was thinking faster, harder, there was no fog – and nothing could distract me. I felt like Sherlock Holmes.” That’s what an 18-year-old high school student reported after taking a 36mg. tablet of Concerta, a drug used to control symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A few years ago I was returning home from the east coast by plane....