Hopes that the infusion of cash from the state and federal government in California's 2010-2011 budget would spare university students from an additional jump in tuition were dashed last week after the Calfornia State University trustees voted to raise tuition by 15.5 percent.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum made waves this week when he told Politico that there are no real Tea Party candidates in the 2012 mix. 

Surprising almost no one, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will use the lame duck session of Congress to push the controversial DREAM Act, granting immigrants all the way up into their mid-thirties a pathway to U.S. citizenship.

The actual price tag of the War on Terror is much higher than commonly believed, while the estimated price tag of the health care reform bill is likely far too low based on historical precedent.  Republicans and Democrats don't like to admit as much, but history and hard data prove otherwise.

Though the mainstream political press has naturally focused on the stinging Democratic losses and sweeping Republican gains in last week's elections, 2010 has proven to be an historic year for third party and Independent politics in the United States.