Sikander Hayat's America

Obamacare: One Punt After Another  - Nather & Kenen,  Politico The GOP's Health-Care Ideas Deficit  - Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine Pressing the Panic Button on Obamacare?  - Yuval Levin, National Review A Year After Newtown, Gun Carnage Continues  - Michael Cohen, Guardian 96% of Americans Are Wrong About Congress  - David Harsanyi, Federalist Why Obama's Political Survival Matters  - Steve Erickson, Am. Prospect GOP on Track to Gain House Seats  - David Wasserman, Cook Political Report N.C. Shows Why Voting Rights Act Is Still Needed  - Ari Berman, The Nation Linda Tirado's Far From Accurate Poverty Tale  - Cathy Young, RCP North Korea: "Richard III" With Nukes  - Gordon Chang, The Daily Beast Tech :  Google's Road Map to Global Domination  - Adam Fisher, NY Times Religion :  If Christians Flee the Middle East...  - Archbishop Sako, Reuters Energy :  Mexico Enters a New Era ...

Obama the Oblivious  - Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post Obama Should Govern in Poetry  - Timothy Egan, New York Times IRS Targeting, Round Two  - Kim Strassel, Wall Street Journal Megyn Kelly, FOX News's Brightest Star  - Dan Zak, Washington Post It's Wrong to Insist Jesus Was White  - Jonathan Merritt, The Atlantic North Carolina's Choice: Can Kay Hagan Survive?  - Manu Raju, Politico Obama's Not Finished, But Dems May Regret It  - John Podhoretz, NY Post Republicans Buck the Purity Police  - Dana Milbank, Washington Post GOP Gives In to Defense Lobbyists on Sequester  - Philip Klein, DC Examiner The Budget Deal & Defense: A Positive Step  - Max Boot, Commentary Republican Dysfunction Is Here to Stay  - Josh Kraushaar, National Journal Dems Face a Day of Obamacare Reckoning  - Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal Republican Hypocrisy on Health Care  - Ezra Klein, Washington Post Please Pray for Me... I Am Losing ...

In John Whitehead’s chilling new book,  “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State,”  there is a photo of a young Rev. Martin Luther King being arrested by two police officers. The photo is not unusual for the era of the Civil Rights Movement, and we are now decades removed from the incident. Yet it is jarring when one thinks on it for a moment: An American citizen, peacefully protesting legitimate injustice, is hauled off to jail. In the classic human justification, it happened to “him.” This is the essence of Whitehead’s book, and the fairly famous libertarian exposes a growing police state in this country that is flat-out scary. That doesn’t mean we should avert our eyes, however – just the opposite. An interesting quote that opens Chapter 10 (“Dominate. Intimidate. Control.”) comes from passengers’ rights advocate Kate Hanni: “They’re trying to scare the pants off the American people that we need these things. … Fear is a commodity, and they’re se...