National: With fresh data showing that students in the United States are falling further behind their international peers, a commitment to universal parental choice at all levels of government is needed now more than ever. Comment.

Viewpoints: There was mention in the news the other day of the government’s ramping up of its focus and commitment of resources on homegrown terror. Episodes like the infamous “shoe bomber,” the failed bombing caper earlier this year intended to cause mayhem in Times Square and other close calls have apparently been enough of a red flag for the authorities to have the terror watch on the home front subjected to comparable vigilance akin to what’s been invested in the search for bin Laden and his ilk. Comment.

National: The national conversation on our fiscal health for the past few months has been about whether to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for households with incomes over $250,000, or to allow them to expire on Dec. 31. To my amazement, lost in all this controversy and discussion has been any mention of what this would really mean for high-income people in the context of historical tax rates. Comment.

Viewpoints: The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists. Comment.

Viewpoints: Republicans, it should by now be generally known, possess hubris in spades. So to hold the common man and his well being over a barrel in their steely determination to look out for the fat cats among us – all the while acting like this bit of dumping on the less privileged was all patently innocuous – is par for the GOP course. At its core the party has the wherewithal to do it to you without batting an eye. The attitude being: “You may be convinced this is bad medicine but take it; we say it’s great.” Comment.

Viewpoints: Like it or not, this instant-celebrity syndrome doesn’t figure to go away anytime soon. Grandly aided and abetted, as the phenomenon is, by the titanic power of the Internet, we should all by now be resigned to the idea that characters will continue to pop up who, despite the absence of any recognizable bona fides for so-called celebrity status, suddenly seem endowed with what it takes to assault our consciousness every which way. Comment.

Viewpoints: It is said that when one has a foot on a neck holding another down in a ditch, he/she’s also in that ditch. Comment.

National: “Obama Announces ‘Framework’ for Deal With Congress to Extend Bush-Era Tax Cuts.” That was the lead headline at this morning’s FoxNews website. It’s an eye-grabber, for sure. Comment.

Viewpoints: Immediately after the recent midterm elections, David Letterman came up with perhaps the most succinct and apt analysis of where the country stood and what our prospects were down the road. “Democrats and Republicans will have to work together,” he said. “We’re screwed!” Comment.

Caribbean: In the midst of the most desperate humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere, Haiti’s authorities chose to hold an election characterized by fraud and marked by the disenfranchisement of Haitian voters instead of focusing on fighting cholera and addressing the horrific conditions of one and half million homeless earthquake survivors. Comment.

Caribbean: Haiti’s elections, which were fraught with widespread irregularities and the arbitrary exclusion of political parties, should be rejected by the international community, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research said today. Comment.

National: An editorial in one of the city’s dailies, commenting on the House ethics committee’s vote to censure Congressman Charlie Rangel, made this point: “We suppose that future violators are not likely to be so obviously self-defeating. They will be more cunning.” Which cues us to wonder whether an inability to be “cunning” is basically why the congressman stands today in some rather awkward shoes. Comment.