Oh sure, in this NYT op-ed, Greg Mankiw shamelessly fiddles with numbers to try to show that raising taxes on rich people like him will be bad for the economy. But you don’t even have to point out the obvious flaws in his math [Update: Kevin Drum shows some of those flaws here] to read [...]

Remember cramdown? It was a proposed change to bankruptcy law that would have allowed judges to modify the mortgages on primary homes for people entering bankruptcy. Supporters of the change argued that cramdown would provide an important stick to force lenders into modifying loans–and in so doing help millions of people stay in their homes. [...]

On the plane from Edinburgh to London the other day, I sat next to two guys who were heading to talk to some football team called Arsenal to teach them how to promote their brand worldwide like the NY Giants do. So forgive me if the following post betrays how far out of “touch” I [...]

I spent a good part of a book beating up on George Bush for lying in an address to Congress in an effort to generate support for a policy that was being challenged on the merits. So while I’m not suggesting that protecting a secret deal with health insurance companies is as despicable as starting [...]

Dafna Linzer has two important pieces on the habeas petition of Abdul Rahim Mohammed Uthman which should both be read in full. This one describes how the government’s case against Uthman, which alleges that he was one of Osama bin Laden’s guards, relies on the following testimony: A statement from Hakim Abd Al Karim Amin [...]

Data octopus. That’s how one European Parliament official described the US’ continued grab for unfettered access to more and more European data. (h/t WM) “The Americans want to blackmail us,” said an agitated Alexander Alvaro, home affairs spokesman of the Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the European Parliament. The Americans have become “like a [...]

Because that’s just how these carefully crafted bills are treated by Presidents guarding their Executive Power. DDay pointed me to the signing statement that Obama issued in conjunction with the new Intelligence Authorization. There are three key points, IMO. Presidents still control all the secrets One thing Obama does is reaffirm the President’s right to [...]

Todd Purdum has a pretty extensive and in depth article on John McCain just up at Vanity Fair and it paints a very brutal picture of McCain the tired old gluehorse. It is a picture I know well.

The usual suspects are out wailing that Judge Lewis Kaplan’s order, excluding the testimony of Hussein Abebe from Ahmed Ghailani’s trial, proves civilian courts don’t work for terrorism. Glenn rounds up more of the whiners and notes that you really can’t complain about Kaplan’s decision and still claim to believe in rule of law. I [...]

Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York just issued an order excluding a key government prosecution witness, Hussein Abebe, excluded.