editorials and opinion

The deficit for the federal fiscal year ending Sept. 30 was an astounding $1.42 trillion, $958 billion in red ink more than the short-lived record set the previous year. And there doesn't seem to be much outlook for improvement.

It's too bad Rosewood Middle School in Wayne County, N.C., wasn't allowed to go ahead with its planned fundraiser. The results might have proved fascinating.

There is something about that familiar phrase, "White House summit," that induces mental fatigue and makes you realize we're in trouble.

Before leaving for a trip through many time zones to Asia, standing in front of a portrait of George Washington, President Obama announced that he is planning a jobs summit to be held at the White House sometime in December.

Re-canvassed votes in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District foreshadow the second coming of third-party candidate Doug Hoffman. As the Syracuse Post-Standard reported Thursday morning, Conservative nominee Hoffman's 5,335-vote deficit behind Democrat Bill Owens has shrunk to just 3,026 after Election Night tabulation errors were corrected.

Give Senator Mark Warner a star for enunciating some insightful thoughts. No, give him five stars, for he got it absolutely right the other day when he said the emphasis in the campaign to re-jigger health care has been wrongheaded and that the main thing was runaway spending.

WASHINGTON - The midterm congressional elections are a year away, but unsurprisingly, Republicans vanquished at the polls by the Obama landslide last fall are already talking about the possibility of reclaiming the House. Are they whistling past the party graveyard or do they actually have reason to be optimistic about the possibility of resurrection?

If there is actually a devil, maybe financier Bernie Madoff really did make a deal with him -- it? -- the classic Faustian bargain.

After trying for laughs in Hollywood nightclubs, game shows and the Latino comedy TV circuit, comedian Ernie G. got a chance to make some staid business and government types chuckle at a National Council of La Raza conference a few years ago. He told them how he got to college.

With predictable cynicism, Iran is preparing to charge three young American backpackers with espionage. The trio was arrested in July upon straying into Iran while hiking in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Hello, American women. Welcome to the back of the bus.

How did we end up here? We were pushed back six decades in time courtesy of an amendment to the House version of health care reform, approved this past weekend, called the Stupak-Pitts amendment.