Kyle Bell

For all of the talk in the media about how bad of an “anti-incumbent year” 2010 is turning out to be, only six members of Congress have so far been swept from power. Two of them – Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith – were party switchers that had never won [...]

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Today was a historic day for gay and straight Americans alike. Judge Vaughn Walker, a federal judge for the Northern District of California, ruled that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional. His actions invalidate the initiative passed narrowly by voters in 2008 that banned gay marriage in the state of California. While Judge Walker issued a stay [...]

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President Bush was in Grand Rapids, Michigan yesterday giving a closed-to-the-media speech in which he admitted that he ordered the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Considering the fact that we already knew that this occurred would seemingly make this less newsworthy, but the fact that President Bush admitted to ordering it is a significant development. [...]

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The American economy is bouncing back. The Labor Department reported that 162,000 jobs were added in the month of March, the highest number in three years. It also marks the third month since November to post job gains, a strong sign that the recession is ending and that employers are looking to hire again. The [...]

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Now that health care reform has passed both chambers of Congress and is going to be signed into law today by President Obama, the election year political messaging begins. A lot of attention has been given to the 17 House Democrats seeking re-election in districts John McCain won in 2008 after having voted for health [...]

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The United States House of Representatives today voted to increase Pell Grants to college students in need of financial assistance and voted to reform how student loans were awarded. As part of the health care reconciliation bill, these reforms will take away federal money that previously went directly to banks to provide loans to students. [...]

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It was not a common phrase in our lexicon until recently. Only after a black man was nominated and eventually elected president did the term “socialism” resurface to describe the Democratic Party’s leader. Bill Clinton avoided the accusation, as well as Al Gore and John Kerry. “Liberal” or “far left radical” was sufficient for them. [...]

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In 2008, the California Supreme Court ruled that banning gay marriage in the Golden State was unconstitutional. The basis of this ruling was simple: the act of banning marriage for gays amounted to creating a status of second class citizens. Gay activists applauded the ruling, while conservatives derided it as an assault on traditional values. [...]

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Just a day after former senator Dan Coats announced his entrance into the Indiana Senate race, a poll shows that he has a lot of ground to make up before he can call himself a “current senator”. Incumbent Democrat Evan Bayh, who enjoys a 61% approval rating in the state, leads Coats by 20 points. [...]

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President Obama went full steam into the lion’s den on Friday as he joined Republicans at their annual retreat in Baltimore, Maryland. While he gave a speech that sounded similar themes to his State of the Union, such as a shared burden on solving America’s problems, he also took questions from House Republicans. It was [...]

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