The latest from the world of politics...

The last of the Kennedy's decides to retire from Congress

Connecticut Representative Patrick Kennedy, (son of former Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy), has decided not to run for re-election this year - which means this will be the first time in almost fifty years that a member of the Kennedy clan has not been in Congress.  Kennedy issued a statement announcing his decision, saying that his life was "taking a new direction".

Of course, this is best viewed in the light of the recent stunning upset victory by Scott Brown for his dad's old Senate seat...and the fact that recent polls all point to a tough re-election fight this November for Kennedy.

Shocking poll results: Most Americans think more than half their tax dollars are wasted

Not that it should come as a shock that most people think that most of the money that they send to Washington is wasted, but rather it's shocking that a Washington Post poll would suggest it.  According to the poll, 2/3's of the American public is "dissatisfied" or "angry" with how the federal government works (or rather doesn't work).  Further, on average, Americans feel that about 53 cents of every tax dollar is "wasted".

In what you could suppose is a way to balance the story, the Post dedicates most of the article to how most Americans don't really  know much about the Tea Party movement and aren't so hot about Sarah Palin.  But hey, at least they reported the poll results.

Paul Krugman says we're all doomed!

In what may surely be a sign of the end of times, liberal economist Paul Krugman wrote a recent article about Obama's dealings with banks entitled "Clueless".  Of course Krugman's complaints center around the fact that Obama has spent recent days trying to back away from the perceptions of those on Wall Street and the business community that he's "out to get them".  Krugman is firmly in the "stick it to 'em" camp.

Un-elect 'em all

Another recent poll has found that most Americans think the country would be better off if most incumbent congressmen were not re-elected.  in this case, 63% of the public would rather see all new faces in DC after November.  19% disagree and 18% don't know.  Of course it's really not new to see a large number of Americans wanting to see most of the people in Congress replaced.  What's different this time is that there's not the usual level of support for their own members of Congress.  The Rasmussen poll shows only 38% say that their representatives deserve to be re-elected.