My hometown supervisors again set up The City for national ridicule and general hilarity, this time with the ban on Mcdonald’s Happy Meal toys. I guess it is a good thing that in these trying times we can offer ourselves up to the rest of the nation as civic clowns to help lighten the national mood.

I fully understand that – in the most progressive major city with the most progressive governing body in the country – it is impossible for them to resist the temptation to occasionally succumb to their core belief that no one is capable of making decisions for themselves or their family without their benevolent dictates guiding forcing us in the right direction. But… when even the Daily Show is pointing and laughing – you’d think our Supes might get a clue.

In America, in matters of religious tolerance, there should be no close calls, no qualification of primary principles, and the first amendment should not be location dependent. I hold no quarter with the distinction of “rights” vs. right which strikes me as a Clintonian parsing for those looking to rationalize making the Cordoba Project move the mosque/cultural center.

This week the ACLU released a disturbing report documenting the permanent enshrinement of the Bush/Cheney definition of the Unitary Executive by the Obama administration. With the tacit acceptance of the Democratic Congress, the balance of power between executive and other branches continues to shift heavily to the executive. While distressing, the report is unsurprising as it was clear in the first few weeks of the new administration that Obama’s campaign rhetoric of rolling back the Bush/Cheney power grab was just that – empty campaign rhetoric.

About the author: Byron C. Tau is a journalism graduate student at Georgetown and a recent graduate of McGill University in Montreal. You can find him all over the Internet, from his politics and commentary website Heartless and Brainless to his Twitter account to his personal blog. His favorite topics tend to be civil liberties [...]

The unusual case of a cancer-stricken thirteen year-old who is refusing treatment is quickly becoming one of those unusual and unfortunate legal cases that mix religion, law and the rights of the individual. With the support of his parents, the thirteen year-old in question is refusing chemotherapy because the family believes in “natural” healing (they [...]

2008 Senator Lindsey Graham seems to disagree with 2009 Lindsey Graham. This is Mike Fritz and David Murdock from ANP. Senator Lindsey Graham was a passionate critic of the Bush Justice attorneys during this past summer’s Armed Services Committee hearings on interrogation. Lately, however, Graham seems to have had second thoughts on the matter. At [...]

First, let me say that I respect Sonny Bunch. A lot. I rarely agree with Sonny, but he is clearly and genuinely interested in engaging those with whom he disagrees. That said, the posts (and subsequent responsive comment) with which E.D. and Mr. Schwenkler take issue is emblematic of something that has been particularly frustrating [...]

There was some question, with Obama’s statement on the release of the OLC memos, whether he was making a blanket declaration that there would be no prosecution of former torturers or torture-enablers, or whether he was being wishy-washy. Today he was asked again. Wishy washy it is. I take this as, more or less, reassuring. [...]

Today, the Supreme Court heard an important case that could greatly affect the McCain-Feingold campaign laws. It involves a movie highly critical of Hillary Clinton which was originally scheduled for release during the Democratic primaries but was stopped by judges concerned with its legality. This case illustrates the inherent problems with McCain-Feingold. Namely, it forces [...]

Some good news for free speech today: the Senate has used its oversight authority to bar the FCC from reconsidering the Fairness Doctrine. While President Obama has publically opposed reinstating the arcane rule that required equal time on the airwaves for opposing political views, Republicans wanted to make sure the Democratic-controlled government didn’t recreate the [...]

It is not too early to checkpoint how President Obama is progressing on “undoing the damage” of the Bush/Cheney Imperial Presidency. The most egregious offenses of the Bush/Cheney administration fall under the umbrella of expanding executive branch power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, with a commensurate erosion of constitutional protections. On balance – So far… all is not so good.

I’ve been pretty harsh on philosophical neo-conservatism over the last year or so. In fact, it’s safe to say that of all the various (actual) political philosophies that form a significant portion of our governing political coalitions, I have consistently held neo-conservatism in by far the most contempt. And without a doubt, the basic tenets [...]

In one of the more, forgive me, torturous staffing processes, it looks like Barack Obama has finally settled on the last major appointment he had left to make, that of CIA director. Given that the Bush administration has done so much long-term, institutional damage to our intelligence superstructure, basic tenets of human rights and the [...]

This is Lagan from ANP, We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories, to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit. Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, [...]

I thought California’s Proposition 8 would fail and California would become the first state where the voters themselves actually voiced approval for gay marriage. Obviously, I was wrong. Turns out the progressive coalition that swept Barack Obama into office is not so progressive, at least not on the issue that many on the left consider [...]

McCain is going to need an argument that will attract more moderates, centrists, independents, and libertarians to win. George Will has identified that argument

Do we really think that this many people could be a threat to our national security? From AFP: A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. The ACLU said it derived that figure from [...]

How are you feeling this morning? I’m not feeling great. I am a little unhappy about the news. You might not have noticed, as this was only the third most important story yesterday. Based on television news coverage, the most important political story yesterday was Rev. Jesse Jackson caught making crude remarks about Obama on [...]

Keith Olbermann reverses himself (sort of) and expresses some mild criticism of Obama’s position on FISA (sort of) in a “Special Comment“