The Nation -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has caused quite a stir with his recent comments about the Palestinian people. Last week Gingrich said in an interview that the Palestinians are “an invented people.”

WASHINGTON -- Newt Gingrich has always had a way with words -- provocative words, harsh words, incendiary words. He and GOP consultant Frank Luntz pioneered Republicans' use of catchy phrases and misleading language not only to demean their rivals but also to redefine their rivals' policies.As speaker of the House, Gingrich famously fined his caucus members any time they failed to call the estate tax a "death tax." He was so successful that he apparently persuaded many Americans that the estate tax, levied only on the richest Americans, was routinely assessed on the corpses of common folk. ...

One graduated from Baker High, a public school in Columbus, Ga.; the other from Cranbrook, a private school in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. One has a Ph.D. in history from Tulane; the other has an MBA from Harvard. One steeped himself in the details of the colonial educational institutions of the Belgian Congo; the other in the minutiae of failing companies in the United States. ...

The Nation -- For a few weeks last month, the main outpost of Murdoch-ism in the US—the New York Post—ran the same headline on its opinion page day after day: “Read Andrew’s Lips.” It was the Post’s way of reminding New York Governor Andrew Cuomo of his “no new taxes” pledge, and the potential harm that would befall him if he reneged on it.

The fiercely-popular micro-blogging site rolls out a new look, hoping to woo users who were confused by the old interface