ARI MELBER

One of the great things about 'The Cycle' is that we have a wide set of topics - news, culture, music, and sports - and every week, we have several authors of new books on, which often injects literature, history, technology, business, and science into our show as well.

Obstruction takes time.

Law and politics are often overly complicated because there are people that don't want the rest of us to know what's going on.

I feel like I'm totally me, and I feel like the show reflects my intensity, my vibe, and my search for evidence and answers.

The Bush administration opened several lines of attack against the rule of law and the integrity of an independent Justice Department. The scandals are so famous that they've been reduced to shorthand: Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, NSA, Attorneygate.

There's a great deal of enthusiasm about quality, serious journalism. And some of it relates to personalities because it's people who do the news. But I think it reflects a real desire for facts, real news and reporting.

Why do Tea Party backers oppose abortion at higher rates than their traditional GOP cohort? Religion.

Barack Obama was first elected after a period of profound failure by elite and government institutions, from finance to foreign policy to Hurricane Katrina, and his first term immediately and unapologetically enacted a flurry of government solutions.

If you believe in democracy, you accept, by definition, the existence and triumph of opposing ideas. The people who believe deeply in the Internet's force as a commons operate on that kind of premise.

Only a few bloggers have the audience and credibility to effectively break stories, pressure the traditional media, incubate new ideas, or raise real money. These influential bloggers are usually sharp, opinionated, and focused on the world 'offline.' They refuse to view events through the solipsistic blinders of their own websites.

A healthy corporation acts on the interests of its stakeholders and customers.

The 'FISA Amendments Act' would gut the oversight system established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which subjected domestic spying to review by a special intelligence court.

Thieves don't usually make good therapists.

Tea Party adherents are actually more religion-driven and more anti-abortion than the party they are supposedly upending.

Obama must scrutinize and disassemble the post-Sept. 11 imperial presidency, even if he reduces his own power in the process.

'House of Cards' is full of hypocrites, some ashamed, many proud. There is no silver lining here, no appeal to a just system that is temporarily thwarted by corrupting forces.

Large majorities of voters support taxing millionaires and protecting social security.

There are a lot of things that people learn and live through culture first, and politics comes afterward.

Even George W. Bush, who as president pushed the boundaries of executive power, never proposed a statutory scheme to hold people indefinitely.

Many candidates use a political autobiography to sell their candidacy.

From the Fourth Amendment to post-Watergate reforms to the national outcry when Bush's warrantless surveillance was revealed in 2005, the United States has a strong tradition of overseeing the government's power to spy on its citizens.

Corporations, like nations, do not have friends. They have interests.

The Dream Act and the DISCLOSE Act, to name two, had majorities in both chambers during Obama's first term, but they were filibustered to death. They probably await a similar fate unless the filibuster is reformed.

TV ads are great for broadcasting, but voter turnout is about narrow-casting. And not all messengers are created equal.

I think politics is always about dialogue. I think journalism ranges from dialogue to monologue, and there are times when different poles are necessary.