Quick: Tell me why U.S. and NATO troops are in Afghanistan. If you say it's to retaliate for the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and destroy the government that allowed the rural nation to serve as the launching pad for the bloody offensive, well, that's already been accomplished. It's disappointing, then, that President Obama has granted a request from his military commanders to commit another 30,000-35,000 troops to the Afghanistan War for an indefinite time.   

Last fall ACORN's alleged promotion of voter registration fraud and voter fraud got lots of media attention during the 2008 election campaign. The right wing's assault on ACORN and news media complicity are the subjects of an independent media study by Peter Dreier and Christopher Martin: "Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN was in the news and what the news got wrong."  

Sometimes it’s difficult for white men to really understand how hard it is to break through a glass ceiling (can’t you just smash it with a broomstick and try not to get cut when you climb up?). One organization that has proven over centuries that it won’t tolerate its womens speaking out or breaking anything is the Catholic church, which today reinforced its stained glass ceiling by banning a nun who supports the ordination of women priests.  

The Cash for Clunkers program ended at 8 p.m. Aug. 24. It is survived by thousands of appreciative middle-class auto buyers, several hundred thousand tons of smashed SUVs and dozens of stimulus programs that no one has heard of.  

If Mayor Mark Mallory isn't an expert on streetcars after visiting Portland, Ore., last week, then Michael Jackson isn't dead and Jeff Berding is respected by his peers. The Enquirer reported today that Mallory, fresh off a field trip to America's leading producer of progressive mass transit and Indie rocker boners, said that if Cincinnati's proposed anti-streetcar ballot measure passes that it will be an end to local mass transit (including Midwest commuter rail) forever.  

States' rights. For most CityBeat readers who are too young to remember it, the phrase sounds vague and innocuous, but it's a code word frequently used throughout the 1950s and '60s when Southern states resisted federal efforts aimed at ending deep-seated racist policies. Amazingly, the current Tea Party movement has revived the mantle of states' rights as its latest rallying cry.  

People who follow local politics were probably surprised recently to read Mayor Mark Mallory's response to the news of a pending budget deficit next year. When Cincinnati City Council received its monthly financial report in late May, members were informed that the city potentially faced a $40 million deficit in 2010 due to a drop in earnings tax collections. The news prompted some council members to contemplate possible layoffs at City Hall or cuts in services to citizens. But when The Cincinnati Enquirer contacted Mallory, who was in Las Vegas attending a convention of the International Council of Shopping Centers, the mayor did his best impersonation of Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman: What, me worry?   

It's complicated and not very sexy, but don’t fool yourself: The messy debate going on in Congress right now about health care reform will affect every single American. Forty-six million people, including 9 million children, are uninsured in the U.S. To put that statistic in perspective, that's just a tad less than the combined populations of California and Ohio and is larger than some Third World nations.  

Are you tired of paying service fees to print out a concert ticket on your own computer? Do you think it's unfair when the ATM and your bank charge you for taking money out of the wrong machine? Have you ever let someone kick you in the nuts for no reason?  

The same people who organized the local Tea Party last month are planning a march from Fountain Square to Cincinnati City Hall on Tax Day, April 15, so I think it's reasonable to broach the topic again. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the latest edition of "Angry White Conservative Pop Quiz," the game show where most contestants would rather demagogue than participate.