“If you ever do that to me again, I will throw you off this f…ing balcony.” That was United States Representative Michael Grimm bluntly threatening NY-1 political reporter Michael Scotto. After discussing Grimm’s reaction to the president’s State of the Union message, Scotto questioned the New York congressman about 2010 campaign violations. With that, Grimm abruptly ended the interview. However, immediately after...

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, right; says so in the First Amendment. So what’s all this fuss about A&E’s Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson sharing his opinions with a few million Americans? Well, if you’re A&E, the cable network jointly owned by the Hearst Corporation and Disney/ABC, you might want to step back and consider the impact Phil’s “opinions” have...

Drug maker Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay $2.2 billion and plead guilty to a misdemeanor in marketing the antipsychotic drug Risperdal and other drugs. “The agreement,” The New York Times writes (Nov. 4), “is the third-largest pharmaceutical settlement in United States history and the largest in a string of recent cases involving the marketing of antipsychotic and anti-seizure drugs to older...

All focus is on President Obama and Congress as to whether the U.S. will enter into a “limited” attack on Syria as a response to their use of chemical weapons. This is a difficult issue and there are no easy answers. As The New York Times (Sept. 5), recently made clear, the rebels opposing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have demonstrated their own...

Oprah Winfrey hit a racial hot-button recently when she compared the death of Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till. “Trayvon Martin parallel to Emmett Till, let me just tell you. In my mind, same thing.” Winfrey is referring to the 1955 Mississippi case where a 14-year-old black teen was brutally tortured and murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. His...

It’s time for Alex Rodriguez to go. After too many chances and too many lies, it’s time for baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to step up, take a stand for integrity and impose a lifetime suspension on the Yankee star third baseman. “Who does it hurt?” I asked in 2009 (Deconstructing the Champ). “That’s the question that needs to be answered...

In his closing argument in the George Zimmerman murder trial, Florida state prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda told a jury of six women that Trayvon Martin  “is dead because another man made assumptions, because his assumptions were wrong.” That statement pretty much sums up the entire Martin/Zimmerman incident. From the outset, as soon as the shooting death of the 17-year-old,...

Just when you think things couldn’t get any stranger… they do! Yesterday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony from Faris Fink, commissioner of the tax-collection agency’s small business and self-employed division. Fink was not there to testify about the wrongful targeting of conservative groups applying for 501(c)(4) tax exempt status. Mr. Fink was there to explain about a...

It’s become routine for Republicans in Washington to: a) discover an impropriety; then, b) examine if the president has any connection to it. Since his re-election, President Obama continues to deal with the fallout from three controversies: the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi, the questionable AP phone taps by the Department of Justice and the IRS scandal. Back in...

Last month’s revelation that the Internal Revenue Service wrongly targeted conservative groups who applied for tax exempt status under Section 501(c)(4) of the U.S. Tax code has done much to play into the conventional wisdom that the IRS does, indeed, target individuals and groups based on politics. Let me start by explaining to those readers who may be first-time visitors...