If the left doesn't come up with a credible and comprehensive alternative to a focus on reducing the deficit, argues FPIF columnist Walden Bello, the far right might eventually fill the policy vacuum.

The only thing surprising about Clinton's horrifying proposal to apply a Colombian model to Mexico is that she said it out loud, reports columnist Laura Carlsen.

Buddhist teachers -- Eastern and Western alike -- who sleep with their students have left a trail of human wreckage in their wake.

The continent's own elites, together with the West and now China, are still making Africans progressively poorer, thanks to the extraction of raw materials.

Mexico, Canada and the United States have serious problems with the emission of diverse pollutants.

Andre Vltchek paints a grim picture of Oceania, which has suffered tremendously at the hands of more "civilized" nations.

World attention through the early months of 2010 focused on the tiny hamlet of Henoko in Northern Okinawa as Prime Minister Hatoyama struggled to find a way to meet his (and the Democratic Party of Japan's) electoral commitment to see that no substitute for the existing Futenma Marine Air Station be constructed in Okinawa.

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) postures as a deficit hawk, attacking efforts to inject recovery spending into the economy because he fears “borrowing another dime from China.” In reality, Vitter is really a deficit peacock who is currently fighting vigorously to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest two percent of Americans, a $678 billion dollar give away and one of the largest structural causes of the deficit.

Explaining his support for tax cuts for the rich on Wednesday, Vitter told a crowd at the Crowley city Chamber of Commerce that “virtually everybody” in the audience would be characterized as wealthy. As TPM notes, although the top tax cut set to expire applies to people earning over $250,000 a year, “the average household income in Louisiana was $43,635 in 2008.”

Earlier this week, Vitter doubled down on his deficit hypocrisy and told WorldNetDaily radio that paying for the Bush tax cuts for the rich would be a “recipe for disaster.” He added, “I don’t think we have to quote unquote pay for” the tax cuts:

VITTER: We aren’t talking about any additional cuts, we’re talking about keeping the present tax cuts in place. If we have to pay for keeping the present tax cuts in place, every year, every other year, that’s a recipe for disaster. That’s a recipe for significant tax increases, so I don’t think we have to quote unquote pay for that because it’s about Americans keeping their own money and our simply keeping the present tax rates in place.

Listen here:

Allowing the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire would simply restore Clinton-era rates and help pay down the deficit — a move supported by even former Bush administration officials. For some reason, Vitter sees no problem borrowing more money from China to finance giveaways to the wealthy.

During a White House press conference this morning, President Obama responded to a question about whether he believes Elizabeth Warren could survive a Senate confirmation process. Warren has been rumored to be Obama’s leading nominee to head the Consumer Finance Protection Agency. In responding to the prospects of a Senate confirmation fight, Obama slammed the GOP for “playing games” with his nominees:

QUESTION: Are you unofficially concerned about a Senate confirmation?

OBAMA: [...] I am concerned about all Senate nominations these days.

QUESTION: But with respect to Elizabeth Warren, are you –

OBAMA: Hans, I wasn’t trying to be funny. I am concerned about all Senate nominations these days. I’ve got people who have been waiting for six months to get confirmed who nobody has an official objection to and who were voted out of committee unanimously, and I can’t get a vote on them.

We’ve got judges who are pending. We’ve got people who are waiting to help us on critical issues like homeland security. And it’s very hard when you’ve got a determined minority in the Senate that insists on a 60-vote filibuster on every single person that we’re trying to confirm, even if after we break the filibuster, it turns out that they get 90 votes. They’re just playing games. And as I think Senator Voinovich said very well, it’s time to stop playing games.

Watch it:

The President is right. Since he took office, Republicans have abused a Senate rule which prevents the Senate from confirming more than a tiny fraction of Obama’s nominees unless its members unanimously consent to allowing the nomination to move forward.  Specifically, even the majority breaks a filibuster, the minority can force up to 30 hours of additional debate on the nominee before a final vote can be held. Thirty hours may not seem like a lot, but when you multiply it across the hundreds of judges, ambassadors and other officials that require Senate confirmation, there is literally not enough time to confirm more than a fraction of these nominees.  In other words, the Republicans are engaged in unprecedented use of this obscure loophole to hollow out the government and the federal bench — leaving the nation without essential judges, financial regulators and even national security officials in the process.

Despite the fact that Republicans in Congress have made reducing the deficit one if their signature issues this election season, they also have been arguing — without addressing the $700 billion cost — that the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy should not be allowed to expire. Yet a new USA Today/Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans see it differently. “While 37% support keeping the tax cuts for all Americans, 44% want them extended only for those making less than $250,000 and 15% think they should expire for all taxpayers”:

Gallup notes the bottom line: “Democrats may not be putting themselves at great political risk by allowing the tax cuts to expire for wealthy Americans. In fact, the middle ground of extending tax cuts for low- and middle-income Americans but allowing them to expire for wealthy Americans — the Democrats’ most likely proposal — is the specific option the public prefers most.”