They’ve had some problems recently, and I certainly appreciate the sentiment…
What we’re not willing to do is allow the comments area to turn into a place where it’s OK to unleash vicious, name-calling attacks on anyone, whether they are Post reporters, public figures or other commenters. And that’s exactly what was happening. That leads into [...]

Should new marketing research be a warning sign for the left’s message meisters? Some former pollsters seem to think so.
In the great debate about how Democrats can stage a comeback (beyond simply waiting for the coming Republican implosion that never seems to arrive), American Environics rejected some of the more popular recommendations out there. Rather [...]

Yes, they’re talking about the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) that Congress gave Bush after 9/11, even though they specifically said that they didn’t have the right to do it back on December 22nd, 2005:
The Justice Department acknowledged yesterday, in a letter to Congress, that the president’s October 2001 eavesdropping order did not comply [...]

Transformational diplomacy – the approach described sure makes a lot of sense.
After all, the world power dynamics sure have changed dramatically over the past twenty years especially.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that she will shift hundreds of Foreign Service positions from Europe and Washington to difficult assignments in the Middle East, [...]

Could that be the title of the Presidential Daily Briefing today since a new audio tape warning of new attacks came out? Quite possibly. But is it Bin Laden? (UPDATE: The CIA says it is OBL)
Frankly, nobody knows yet, but this is some of what was said on the tape…
“Our mujahedeen were able to overcome [...]

Hey all, I was on Subject2Discussion last night. Good discussion about the spying scandal, the Alito hearings, the Constitution and our national security.
Download the podcast here.
From now on, I’l be on every other Tuesday. So look for again in two weeks.

I appreciate his service in Iraq, but this is ridiculous…
Hackett said in a Sunday column in The Dispatch: “The Republican Party has been hijacked by the religious fanatics that, in my opinion, aren’t a whole lot different than Osama bin Laden and a lot of the other religious nuts around the world.”
And no…he’s not backing [...]

This is hilarious and sad:
According to lobbyists and ethics experts, even if Hastert’s proposal is enacted, members of Congress and their staffs could still travel the world on an interest group’s expense and eat steak on a lobbyist’s account at the priciest restaurants in Washington.
The only requirement would be that whenever a lobbyist pays the [...]

Yes, yes and yes.
Although I am named in this suit on my own behalf, I am motivated to join it by concerns well beyond my own. I have been frankly appalled by the discrepant and contradictory positions taken by the Administration in this matter. First, the entire existence of the NSA’s monitoring was a secret, [...]

Looks like the SCOTUS doesn’t want to touch the abortion hot potato right now.
Hmm, I wonder why…
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 – The Supreme Court ruled unanimously today that the lower courts were wrong to declare a New Hampshire abortion law unconstitutional in its entirety. Instead, the justices said, the lower courts should look for a [...]

Looks like some pretty siginificant conservative voices are asking for higher scrutiny and an extensive investigation of the NSA wiretapping.
From the press release:
Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, chairman of PRCB, was joined by fellow conservatives Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR); David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union; Paul Weyrich, [...]

The latest on kidnapped journalist, Jill Carroll …
The captors of an American journalist kidnapped in Baghdad 10 days ago threatened to kill her in three days unless authorities freed all female prisoners in Iraq, according to an Arabic television network that aired a brief video of the woman Tuesday night.
Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter based [...]

Wow — Glenn Beck with his own show on CNN?
*Looking at calendar on wall*
Well, it’s not April’s Fool Day, so it must be true …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on January 17 that CNN’s Headline News has hired Glenn Beck — a nationally syndicated radio host known for making controversial statements — “for a new prime [...]

Looks like yesterday wasn’t really Martin Luther King Day, instead it was bash Bush and the Republicans Day …
First there was Hillary …
Sounding a little like a preacher, a fired-up Sen. Hillary Clinton lambasted the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled Congress during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event, predicting the presidency “will go down [...]

China and Iran will be the political story of 2006 — written either by their regimes, or their citizens.

The latest threats by Iran appear to be hitting a more sensitive area of concern – economic.
Iran stepped up its defiance of international pressure over its nuclear programme yesterday by warning of soaring oil prices if it is subjected to economic sanctions.
As diplomats from the US, Europe, Russia, and China prepared to meet today [...]

The following happens every single day to millions of Americans.
From the NY Times:
Workers in some of Baltimore’s homeless shelters and soup kitchens had noticed something new and troubling about many of the visitors coming in for meals and shelter: they happened to have full-time jobs.
So what do you do to make sure people have [...]

From Newsweek:
DICKEY: You’ve said you’re running out of patience with Iran. What does that mean?
ELBARADEI: For the last three years we have been doing intensive verification in Iran, and even after three years I am not yet in a position to make a judgment on the peaceful nature of the [nuclear] program. We still need [...]

He was a flawed and inspiring man. This is his day.
From the Houston Chronicle:
With the country now split by the bloody, open-ended struggle in Iraq and by the mistaken justification for going to war, it’s not hard to predict where King would stand on the matter.
Americans debate the revelation that their government is conducting warrantless [...]

As always, John Cole Tim F breaks down the current Iran situation in a very honest way.
Von at Obsidian Wings has noble and timely sentiments about Iran:
Iran is the next great challenge, and it is (and should remain) a nonpartisan one.
Then he links to a Q-and-O post which sniffs indignantly at lefty bloggers [...]