With political ads defending and bashing various proposals about how to “fix” Medicare reaching a crescendo, fact-checkers are having a field day in sorting through who’s right and who’s wrong. Claims by Democrats that Paul Ryan’s reform bill would “end Medicare as we know it” was awarded the “lie of the year” by Politifact, while Factcheck.org named it one of the “Whoppers of 2011.” Even the liberal Washington Post gave the canard its highest — or lowest — rating of “four Pinnochios.”

Conservative scholar Dinesh D’Souza has, with Gerald Molen (Schindler’s List) and John Sullivan, produced the documentary 2016: Obama's America, which was recently released in Texas and is now being presented at some 400 theaters across the country. The film persuasively projects a frightening future for America: emaciated in military power, weakened financially, with diminished allies such as Israel in a world increasingly dangerous and threatening.

Ten months after stitching together the pieces of the MF Global collapse and bankruptcy in October, 2011, the New York Times reported that criminal investigators aren’t likely to file criminal charges against the prime suspect: CEO Jon Corzine.

Conservative billionaire Charles Koch is going public with his massive efforts to influence politics in the short run and the direction of the country in the long run. Partly because of his determination to redirect the freedom conversation and partly because his efforts are beginning to have an impact, Koch is now coming into the public square with his beliefs and efforts. In the short run, he hopes his efforts will first show up in the November elections, but he also is working to influence the elections of 2016, 2020 and out.

The current drought afflicting the country is driving up the price of corn and reviving the debate over ethanol mandates that redirect corn from food to fuel.

Because of the drought, corn yield per acre this year will be the lowest since 1995, while the actual production of corn will be the lowest since 2006. A congressional mandate to turn corn into ethanol in order to reduce emissions requires converting nearly 40 percent of that harvest into 13.2 billion gallons of ethanol. That leaves precious little to feed cattle and people, driving up the price.

Calling potential Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s budget plan a “fairy tale,” David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan’s budget director from 1981 to 1985, took Ryan’s plan to task for not recognizing reality and for leaving behind the legacy of the GOP’s glory days when it reveled in touting small government.

President Obama made sure that Iowa farmers knew that he was “there for them” during a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, on August 13, by announcing another package of “aid” during the drought. The aid will involve the purchase of $100 million of pork, $50 million of chicken, and $10 million each of lamb and catfish. This comes on top of $30 million of aid announced last week.

"Scenario 2016" builds the case for more war college curricula to develop plans to quash Tea Party insurrections if and when they occur, according to a retired colonel and a history professor.

The latest numbers from China on its gross domestic product, factory output and electricity usage all show a bubble bursting.  Kevin Yao, writing from Beijing for Reuters, expressed surprise when the latest numbers about China’s factory output came in at its lowest level in three years: “China’s factory output growth slowed unexpectedly in July…[due to] stiff global headwinds…”

Plans announced by French President Francois Hollande to "tax the rich" are driving wealthy French citizens out of the country. Vincent Grandil, a partner in the Paris law firm Altexis which caters to rich French citizens, is increasingly being asked by his clients if now would be a good time to flee France for countries with lower tax rates.