Joseph O. Patton: Don’t choke on that silver spoon in your mouth

  As it stands, for every job currently available in this country, there are six workers vying for it. The unemployment rate hovers at nearly 10 percent. And that figure is misleading and a woeful understatement considering it is based on the number of unemployed individuals receiving unemployment compensation. Once those individuals exhaust their benefits, they’re no longer included in the figure though they are still lacking work. That figure also fails to include someone who may work 40 hours a week but has no benefits and may earn as little as minimum wage, otherwise know as “underemployed."

  So why, oh why, do we hear the fatally flawed argument churning through talk radio and other outlets for the chronically ignorant and mean-sprited, all driven by the same, hateful, small-minded lie: “Well… those people just don’t want to work the jobs available!”

Sheldon Richman: Why WikiLeaks leaks matter

  Why should anyone care about the secret diplomatic cables WikiLeaks has disclosed? So what if State Department bureaucrats say unflattering things about other world “leaders?” Some people may be asking those questions in response to WikiLeaks’s latest disclosures. Okay, they say, leaks about atrocities on the battlefield (such as the first WikiLeaks disclosure, the “Collateral Murder” video) tell us something we should know about — the gross misconduct by U.S. military forces, condoned by the command all the way up to the president of the United States.

  But diplomatic cables? Who cares?

  We all should care. The documents serve as a timely reminder that the people who collectively call themselves “the government” are professional liars. Lying is what they are paid to do. They lie to their foreign counterparts, but mainly they lie to us. The biggest lie of all is that they do it in the American people’s interest.

Sam Fulwood III: Gearing up for the health care showdown

  This new year brings a return to old-school political fights.

  If leaders of the 112th Congress are to be believed, among the first orders of business will be a ceremonial vote to repeal the health care overhaul. That sweeping piece of legislation was President Barack Obama’s major achievement in the previous Democratic-led Congress. With Wednesday’s swearing in of the House of Representatives and a smaller Democratic majority in the Senate, more than a changed set of controlling leaders will quickly emerge—a doubling-down on partisan gamesmanship is just as likely to begin anew.

Gary Palmer: U.S. Constitution is back in vogue

  One thing that we can count on in 2011, the United States Constitution will be front and center in policy making and politics. To start the year off, on January 6th the new Republican majority in the United States House of Representatives mandated that the Constitution be read from the floor of the House.

  Frankly, simply reading the Constitution may not be enough. The Republicans may need someone on hand to explain it, especially to the remaining liberal members from the previous Congress who repeatedly voted for legislation that created the biggest expansion of the federal government since the New Deal.

Edwin Feulner, Ph.D.: Conservative solutions for all

  Here's what you'll hear in many end-of-the-year retrospectives: 2010 emerged as the year of the conservative voter.

  It's true. Fed up with health care "reform," runaway spending and lingering unemployment, Americans across the country ushered out many of the liberals who supported President Obama's big-government agenda.

  But here's what you won't hear: This conservative wave included some Hispanic-American voters. That fact inconveniently flouts the conventional wisdom that liberal candidates can consider Hispanic votes to be in the bag. It interrupts the usual narrative, so it must be ignored or explained away.

Steve Flowers: Inside The Statehouse: Organizing the Alabama Legislature

  When the Alabama Senate meets in organizational session next week it will be the first time since Reconstruction Rule ended 136 years ago that the Republicans will be in the majority.

  The November general election was a landmark watershed revival transformation. It was like an old timey foot washing conversion experience. It was a tidal wave that came from Washington and wiped away most of the Democrats in the state Senate. It carried with it iconic Democratic Senators that most Goat Hill observers were astonished were washed away. Names swept away and probably gone forever include Lowell Barron, Tom Butler, Wendell Mitchell and Ted Little. All these men were replaced with fresh faced Republicans.

Eric Alterman: The Missing “Least-We-Can-Do-No-Brainer Act of 2010”

  As I was reading Wednesday’s “Playbook” by Politico’s Mike Allen, the unofficial scorecard of Beltway obsessives (and those who wanna be), the story that caught my eye was, naturally, the one Allen labeled “The Big Idea/Pundit Prep/If You Read Only One Story.” In it, Bloomberg’s Lisa Lerer and Laura Litvan reported that “The 111th Congress made more laws affecting more Americans since the ‘Great Society’ legislation of the 1960s.” It quotes the great liberal historian Alan Brinkley calling this Congress “probably the most productive session of Congress since at least the ’60s.’”

  The authors note that it was also a historic year for the financial sector:

  Wall Street firms such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are positioned to complete their best two years in revenue, General Motors Co. has emerged from bankruptcy with more than $23 billion repaid to the U.S. Treasury, and American International Group Inc. was able to sell $2 billion of bonds in its first offering since the company’s 2008 bailout. The S&P 500 Index has gained 38.9 percent since Congress convened in January 2009.

Gene Policinski: New Year will see some old First Amendment issues

  Welcome, 2011, and all that you offer as a New Year: a chance for a fresh start and the promise of new opportunities.

  But it’s fair to say that in terms of the First Amendment, you’re going to look a lot like your just-departed calendar relative. Many of the major court battles, legislative debates and public controversies of 2010 will waft right into the next 12 months with nary a pause for a chorus of “Auld Lang Syne.”

  Several decisions on First Amendment cases argued this year are expected from the U.S. Supreme Court before its June recess. One involves whether relatives can sue over those hotly debated funeral protests. Another asks whether it's constitutional for a California law to prevent minors from renting or buying violent video games. Others concern access to government records.

Egberto Willies: Privatization of government services nothing but corporate welfare in disguise

  The article at The Huffington Post titled "At Kaplan University, 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep In Debt" hit a nerve. The premise of the article is that many at the mentioned private University used less than honest tactics to either enroll students or keep students enrolled. Worst, student's diplomas and/or transcripts were held hostage for phantom owed fees.

  This should not be surprising. Since Ronald Reagan professed that "Government is the problem," the government began the march to privatization. This was done under the premise that privatization would increase efficiencies and would somehow be less expensive. As an engineer well-schooled in math I always considered that statement one of the most deceiving lies of the politicians.

Michael Josephson: Character Counts: What I’ve learned

  It’s traditional to start the New Year with resolutions designed to help us live healthier, happier, and more fulfilling lives. But it’s also useful to reflect on some of the things we’ve learned over the years, the things that make us not only smarter, but wiser.

  For instance, I’ve learned that trying to be a good person is a lifelong commitment and that it often requires me to do the right thing even when it costs more than I want to pay.