After weeks of heated rhetoric and accusations directed toward the Tea Party movement in the days leading up to the debt ceiling agreement and afterward, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) stirred up the war of words again in California this weekend by saying: "the Tea Party can go straight to hell."

Let me say at the outset that I have not yet watched the movie version of The Help – the box office hit about black domestics in the deep south and a gutsy young white journalist who exposes their plight to the world.  But I have both read the book and lived the era.  Having grown up as a white southerner, I found myself in a storm of nostalgia recalling the separate but unequal nature of our lives as I sped through this moving novel.

In the wake of the debt ceiling crisis, there has been an astonishing wave of criticism directed at the two-party state and duopoly system of government.  For many Americans, the debt debacle appears to have been the straw that broke the camel's back.  But, will their anger translate into action?

Most people couldn't tell you their favorite candidate's birthday.  But if you are a 'Ron Pauler,' not only do you probably know it's his birthday, but you're probably giving him a present.  And as of 4pm EST today, supporters have dropped almost $900,000 into his campaign during today's one-day "birthday money bomb".

Mark Cuban, American entrepreneur and owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, recently unloaded on DC politicians for their failed attempts at tackling the nation's fiscal crisis.