You may have heard about McCain’s recent joke about American cigarettes killing Iranian citizens. Specifically, a reporter asked McCain about the U.S. exporting cigarettes to Iran. McCain quipped, “Maybe that’s a way of killing them,” and then quickly explained that he was joking, adding that he is an ex-smoker himself. Within hours, the blogosphere was all over it. Even the government of Iran put in its two cents.

This isn’t the first time McCain’s particular brand of humor has gotten him into hot water. Last year, he made headlines (in the papers and on the blogs) after publicly singing a parody version of the Beach Boys’ classic hit “Barbara Ann.” McCain replaced the familiar refrain “Bar-bar-bar, bar-barbara Ann” with “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran." (Video clip is here.)

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Thus far in this year's presidential race, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain have largely focused their immigration-related rhetoric on illegal immigration. And while the BBC states that "illegal immigration is set to be one of the key issues in the presidential campaign," what about immigrants who are already here legally? How might their opinions on politics resemble or differ from those of the U.S.-born young people I've interviewed?

In light of the recent Fourth of July holiday, when a nation built on immigration celebrated its history, I find it b...

In 2008, New York politics has been anything but dull. With Senator Clinton’s historic try for the Democratic presidential nomination, Governor Spitzer’s sensational sex scandal and subsequent resignation, and the arrival of our first African-American governor, David Patterson (as well as gossip about his sex life), we’ve had plenty to keep us buzzing in Albany, Manhattan, and everywhere in between. And on May 29, 2008, we found ourselves with another striking, headline-making development to discuss when our governor’s office made a big announcement regarding gay marriage.

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Our New York senator, Hillary Clinton, is widely believed to be on the verge of officially conceding the Democratic nomination to Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois). In the wake of Tuesday night’s historic speech, in which Barack Obama became the first African-American to assume the role of Democratic Party nominee for president, I spoke to several young New Yorkers about their reaction to Obama’s win and their thoughts on where Senator Clinton will go from here.

Lee Camp, recently featured in my video on the live comedy nonprofitLaughing Liberally, supported Obama prior to Tuesday’s win. “I was ecstatic,” he said of Obama’s nomination. “It really is momentous.”

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There's no doubt about it: college costs have risen dramatically over the past five years, and students are shouldering the burden.

According tothe College Board, the average annual in-state tuition at a public university for the 2007-08 school year was $6,185, a 4.2 percent increase from the 2006-07 school year. And the average annual tuition at a private university for the 2007-08 school year was $23,712, up 6.6 percent from the previous school year. And that's just tuition. Those figures don't take into account the myriad other costs associated with attending college, whether a student lives on-campus or off-campus. If you're a commuter student who drives his or her own car to school and has to pay for his or her own gas, you're familiar with just one added expense.Liz Bohinc, a rising junior at NYU whoappears in this new report about college costs, sa...

(Quit, that is.)

Our junior senator swept New York in the Super Tuesday primary, but nearly four months later, the Democratic Party nomination is hardly a lock for Hillary Clinton. While she continues to enjoy strong support in the state she represents in the Senate, Clinton's national support is either eroding or holding strong (depending on who you ask). Some analysts argue that it is now mathematically impossible for Clinton to win the Democratic nomination; the Clinton campaign says otherwise.

I asked New Yorkers what they thought Clinton should do.See their answers here.