The Old Deal

[This essay, about Obama's past, is the first essay I've published about the president today. The second essay is about Obama's future, and you can read it on Pushing Rope.] In January 2009, at the beginning of the Obama Administration, I thought everyone knew the deal. The Republicans’ eight year...

Emeritus Blogging

Howdy CFLFer’s.  Despite Michael’s attempts to get me on the team again, I’m not back — but I’m good for one more post. That post will be a postmortem on the 2010 elections, and it’ll be published on Monday. This is like guestblogging, but since I used to be a regular...

Playing politics with lives

I don’t want to say I reluctantly voted for Obama.  I was never totally enamored with him, but during the 2008 campaign I can’t say I didn’t feel the hope, either.  Finally, a younger candidate who wasn’t bred out of the older, Clinton and Bush-esqe generation of national...

Who are we fighting and what are we fighting for?

Matthew Hoh, a Marine veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan, was rising quickly through our Foreign Service ranks, serving as a Senior Civilian Representative for America in Zabul Province, Afghanistan.  Hoh had a bright government career ahead of him until he quit because the Afghan war is bullshit. The...

Helping a blogger in need

Barbara, the blogger at Mahablog, is getting jerked around by her landlords so badly that she could lose her apartment before Christmas.  I hope this isn’t a growing trend, but at CFLF, this is the second time this year we’ve published a post asking you to donate some money to a blogger...