Lie All You Want, But Be Civil About It

I could not agree more with Greg Sargent’s take on Mark Halperin’s “indefinite suspension” from MSNBC for saying, on Morning Joe, that Pres. Obama is “kind of a dick.” I’m sorry, but this is crazy. Halperin’s crack was crude and dumb, but it doesn’t deserve...

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...

The Writing on the Wall is Left Handed

A week ago I chose to mark my return to this blog by taking exception to a trend that seemed to be emanating from leading voices in the Progressive movement. In this case I was referring to Glenn Greenwald and Jane Hamsher calling out the President for his antagonistic comments directed at his base during a...

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...

House Passes Resolution of Disapproval Against Joe Wilson

Politico has the story: House Democrats dealt South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson a formal rebuke Wednesday, taking the rare step of passing a resolution of disapproval for his famous “you lie!” outburst last week in the House chamber. The vote was 240-179, falling almost exclusively along party lines. While...

Small, Mobile Interrogation Teams To Interrogate High-Value Suspects

Spencer Ackerman is cautiously optimistic about the details emerging on the interrogation teams that a task force within the Obama administration has been putting together. Ackerman was the first journalist to report the administration’s plans for these teams, which are being publicly revealed in a...