Bob Goodlatte is the guy the GOP put in charge of today’s reading of the Constitution. He apparently chose to read the 10th Amendment–the foundation of state’s rights–himself. The 10th Amendment is supposed to read: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved [...]

David Ignatius got it wrong, IMO, when he asked whether Darrell Issa is going to be the next Joe McCarthy. When you see the righteous gleam in Issa’s eye, recall other zealous congressional investigators who claimed to be doing the public’s business but ended up pursuing vendettas. I think of Robert F. Kennedy’s ruthless pursuit [...]

Let me try this one out on you. The guy whose “Learned Helplessness” theories made it possible for Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell to make a killing (heh) on torturing detainees has figured out a way to make a killing–$31 million in sole source funds–himself: with an untested “Learned Optimism” program that claims to make [...]

Apparently, the White House has decided it had one too many adults on its economic recovery board, so now Paul Volcker has been decided to step down. I realize that “has been decided” is not proper grammar, but look at how Reuters refers to this decision: The departure of Volcker as head of the President’s [...]

The ACLU has a fascinating letter to Obama pertaining to his signing statement threat. It basically calls his bluff on his “pretend” problems with Congressional restrictions on his ability to close Gitmo. It does this, first of all, by pointing out that the provisions were part of the National Defense Authorization Act, and therefore limit [...]

Eli alluded to this in his post on Antonin Scalia’s claim that women and gays are not included under the 14th Amendment, but I wanted to expand on it. Scalia, one of corporate America’s biggest friends on SCOTUS, just killed corporate personhood. What other conclusion can you draw after reading Scalia’s assertion that the 14th [...]

The US government has a long history of refusing to turn over evidence on its torture program, most recently when DOJ refused to cooperate with a Polish inquiry into the black site at which Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times. So it’s no surprise that they are refusing to turn over the remains of [...]

Robert Gibbs has made it official: he’s leaving the White House. (Applause!!!) Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and close confidante to President Obama, said Wednesday that he will step down and become an outside political adviser to the president and his re-election campaign. [snip] Mr. Gibbs will remain part of the president’s inner [...]

A number of outlets are reporting on the OMB memo requiring agencies to review their security procedures in response to WikiLeaks. Now, this memo is explicitly a response to WikiLeaks. It’s a follow-up on a memo sent in November that names WikiLeaks. On November 28, 2010, departments and agencies that handle classified national security information [...]

I highlighted the NYT editorial that criticized Peter King’s planned hearing to fearmonger against Muslims the other day. In spite of the fact that the NYT backed off of highlighting King’s own ties to terrorism, instead focusing on how he ultimately helped to serve peace, King nevertheless responded in predictable fashion: In an interview with [...]