Did Goldman Sachs Get Off Easy?
Rob Silverblatt

In the wake of the Securities and Exchange Commission's announcement that it has settled its case against Goldman Sachs, experts are divided about who exactly comes out ahead in the proposed deal. For its part, the SEC s touting the settlement as a landmark victory. Still, other observers have been lining up to say that Goldman got off easy.

Senate Passes Landmark Financial Reform Bill
Caitlin Huey-Burns

The Senate gave final approval to a 2,300 page financial reform bill after over a year of craftsmanship, concessions, and marathon debates. President Obama is expected to sign the bill, putting into law unprecedented regulations on Wall Street and protection for consumers

Republicans' Aversion to Financial Reform Misguided
Robyn Blumner

You would think financial reform -- after what bankers just put us through -- would be the one thing that Republicans would join in doing. However, GOP party leadership ducked its responsibility by fabricating a different narrative as to what caused the financial crisis. It's time to take on those myths and spell out the real reasons they did not support financial reform

U.S. Trouble With START and Other Treaties
John B. Bellinger III

President Obama has made the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia a priority for Senate ratification, but it is proving a contentious issue. The treaty will likely be approved by the Senate, but Republicans don't want to make it easy for the president. Overall, the pattern of failing to ratify a number of treaties even after winning desired changes undermines U.S. credibility

The Health Care Reform Timeline
Catherine Arnst

On March 23, President Obama signed into law a sweeping reform of the nation's healthcare system. When will the changes that most affect consumers kick in?

U.S. Needs Legislation to Protect Gun Rights
Caitlin Huey-Burns

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, calls McDonald v. Chicago a landmark decision, but says that doesn't mean the NRA's fight to protect the Second Amendment is over. LaPierre spoke with U.S. News about the need for legislation to safeguard the Supreme Court decision and to enforce criminal prosecution of those who obtain guns illegally to commit crimes

The War on Weeds
Robert C. Koehler

Today's big news stories -- the wars, the eco-disasters -- all seem to have the same gaping hole in them. This hole is lack of awareness, and its thrum, once you begin to hear it, soon becomes deafening: We can't go on like this.

Spies Like Us
Paul Greenberg

When the FBI announced the arrest of 10 Russian spies living in deep cover for years, aka sleeper agents, Moscow's feelings were hurt. As if it were the announcement, not the arrests, that was the big problem.

Role Reversal: The Feds vs. Arizona
Paul Greenberg

The administration's lawsuit against the State of Arizona for attempting to stem the tide of illegal immigrants across its southern border isn't just an exercise in litigation. It's an exercise in irony.

Restraining the Profit Itch
Robert C. Koehler

The gap between the diffuse human yearning for a decent world and the organized agenda of the corporatocracy, has never, in my lifetime, been wider. What the BP Oil Spill has yet to reach are the headquarters of corporate power and the consciences ensconced therein. The arrogance of the great capitalists remains undamaged

When National Strategy Document Is Not the National Strategy
Paul Kennedy

What does it mean when a national government, especially a government that is always at the center of world attention like that of the United States, issues public policy documents that are supposed to explain its defense priorities and its overall global strategy? And what sense does it make to let everyone, including your enemies, know what your concerns and your plans for the future are?

American Decline Is a State of Mind
Victor Davis Hanson

We are hearing of all sorts of reasons why the United States is doomed to decline. After all, America is piling up deficits at a record rate. The current recession is heading into its third year. Unemployment still hovers at nearly 10 percent. Many think the war in Afghanistan is as good as lost. The largest oil spill in American history has been gushing up from sea for nearly 80 days

The Cablinasian in Us All
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Pedigree is big in America, and for many of us, it's no trouble to identify the nationalities. This is a ritual in which very few African-Americans can participate. This is why, in recent years, African-Americans have taken to DNA tests. The possibility of a specific pedigree -- Ibo, Ashanti, Ga or even Irish -- holds promise for African-Americans, too, enjoying the American ritual of blood

New Birth of Freedom: 14th Amendment Restored
Paul Greenberg

It was expected. The outcome of the Supreme Court's hearing on Chicago's prohibitive handgun law had been predictable since a similar local ordinance was struck down in the nation's capital. The reaction to the decision was predictable, too

Empire Without End
Charles S. Maier

Many leaders of the American Revolution welcomed the idea that their new nation would grow up to be an empire. To them, the concept was compatible with a republic; it meant size and benign influence.

Urban Abandonment
Jesse Jackson

America's cities are in trouble -- and desperately needed help may not be on the way. Will America's cities turn into cauldrons of poverty, desperation and fear? Or will we revive our cities and rebuild the broad middle class in the process?

Imperative Need for America to Become an Innovation Nation
Arianna Huffington

On a recent flight, I started reading 'Innovation Nation,' the new book by John Kao. It was both frightening and inspiring. Frightening because of the details it provides about the ways America is falling behind the rest of the world; inspiring because Kao imbues it with a sense of optimism and great possibility. Yes, there is much to be concerned about

Why General Stanley McChrystal Had to Go
Paul Greenberg

A general in the field, who has his own chain of command to protect and preserve, shouldn't be mouthing off about his commander-in-chief, or even various civilian officials. Not in a republic that has always subordinated the military to civil authority.

Obama's Afghanistan Switch
Jules Witcover

Gen. Stanley McChrystal's reckless insubordination gave President Obama no choice but to dump him. In replacing him as the top commander in Afghanistan with Gen. David Petraeus, the president has turned a huge embarrassment into a demonstration of political sagacity

Bribing the Enemy
Jules Witcover

A congressional investigation report alleges that the U.S. government has been funding 'a vast protection racket run by a shadowy network of warlords, strongmen, commanders, corrupt Afghan officials and perhaps others' under the guise of providing U.S. troop security there

Busted Are the Peacemakers
Mary Sanchez

The U.S. Supreme Court says that certain kinds of peace seeking constitute material aid to terrorists. And under current law, that can carry as much as a 15-year prison sentence. A nonprofit organization called the Humanitarian Law Project challenged the law but was defeated in a 6-3 decision by the Supreme Court this week. The group has long sought to mediate international conflicts

Hoover Dam's Big Government Lessons
Zach Miners

The sprawling cities and suburbs of the American West would not exist as they do today without the Hoover Dam, author Michael Hiltzik says. But without the dam, they might also have been spared many problems that have come with decades of population growth.

Ancient Oceans Now Endangered Oceans
Robert C. Koehler

Now, along with endangered species, the Gulf spill has given us a new category: endangered oceans. The challenges presented by the BP Oil Spill disaster lay before us in their incomprehensible enormity. How will hurricane season complicate the cleanup? Will the flow of crude continue till Christmas? How many cleanup workers have gotten sick, and why?

Beyond Petroleum
Robert C. Koehler

It was more like a momentary rip in the global power continuum, a spill of outrage on the stage of a major oil conference in London when two Greenpeace activists interrupted a speech by British Petroleum chief of staff Steve Westwell

General Stanley McChrystal: Off the Reservation
Jules Witcover

Stanley McChrystal, the top American commander in Afghanistan, who sold President Obama on the 30,000 troop surge there last fall, is on the President Obama's carpet for his loose tongue about perceived critics in the White House. The president is hot under the collar over McChrystal's slaps at him and his national-security team in an article in Rolling Stone magazine

How Small Loans Became Big Business
Clarence Page

It's not really fair to refer to payday lenders as loan sharks. After all, loan sharks don't have lobbyists. Nor do loan sharks advertise with big signs. Yet, in the 35 states where they still operate legally, 'payday lenders' often charge percentage rates that on an annualized basis run high enough to make real sharks drool

BP Gulf Oil Spill Could Spur Energy Bill
Kent Garber

It wasn't until the massive Gulf oil spill that President Obama began pushing publicly once again for an energy and climate bill. The public, it seems, is with him: Several recent polls have shown that, in the aftermath of the spill, a strong majority of Americans support action to tackle carbon pollution and to spur more renewable energy

Gulf Oil Spill Could Bring U.S. and Cuba Closer
Andres Oppenheimer

Here's an interesting theory: the disastrous British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico will help increase U.S.-Cuba ties.

Newest National Security Strategy is Elaboration of Old
William Pfaff

The Obama administration has at last issued its own National Security Strategy, a 52-page document that takes the place of the strategy statements published by the George W. Bush administration, beginning in 2002

CIA Drone Strikes Draw United Nations Fire
Alex Kingsbury

The CIA's campaign of using drones -- unmanned aircraft -- against enemies of the United States is one of Washington's most open secrets. Last week, al Qaeda said its most recent No. 3 leader, an Egyptian named Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, was killed in Pakistan along with family members -- apparently by a CIA drone missile

Why Supreme Court 'Originalists' Are Wrong About Constitution
Zach Miners

While the U.S. Constitution was signed in 1787 as the final word on all legal matters, there's a lot of room for debate when interpreting it for contemporary times. In his new book, The Living Constitution, David Strauss examines how the understanding of the Constitution needs to evolve, as it has, while still providing the anchor for American jurisprudence. Strauss discusses his views

Supreme Court Diverges on Miranda
Mary Sanchez

A cop-vs.-bad-guy ruling is offering an inkling of just what kind of jurist Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor might become. America, she's got your back. The Latina justice has penned her first blast, a dissent of the court's recent 5-4 ruling in Berghuis v. Thompkins. The decision, in her words, 'turns Miranda upside down.'

BP Gulf Oil Spill: Shows Danger of Offshore Drilling
Senator Bill Nelson, Florida

Most presidents since the 1980s have supported a national moratorium on offshore oil drilling. They have concluded that it makes no sense to jeopardize our nation's coastal economies and fragile environments by expanding drilling. After all, the United States has only 3 percent of the world's oil supply. It simply wouldn't solve the problem of our reliance on foreign oil. Yet in recent years

BP Gulf Oil Spill: Safe Offshore Drilling Is Key for Our Energy Future
Senator Mary Landrieu, Louisiana

The United States can remain the world leader in offshore energy production, but we must do so in a way that protects the world's oceans and our coastal communities

BP Gulf Oil Spill: No-Win Situation for President Obama
Kenneth T. Walsh

Some think the government should take over the response to BP's oil spill. This is a no-win situation for Obama, as it would be for any president. The nation's leader tends to get the blame when things go wrong, whether he deserves it or not, and that applies to economic and social distress, wars, and environmental catastrophes

Stuck in the BP Oil Spill
Jules Witcover

Like those oil-besmirched pelicans thrashing about in misery in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama finds himself now politically engulfed in the worst environmental disaster in American history. The gigantic British Petroleum oil spill has compromised his ability to deal with all the other serious challenges of his presidency

Anger Grows Over BP Oil Spill as More Oil Comes Ashore
Kent Garber

Despite all the statements from BP and Obama cabinet members about what they are doing, what the public has seen, mainly, is the continued flow of oil. The White House has also struggled to explain just how technically complicated plugging the leak is. It is clear that the White House has had a hard time trying to communicate the extent of its crisis response, thereby fueling the anger

Who Runs America's Response to the BP Oil Blowout?
William Pfaff

The conduct of Barack Obama in the BP affair, and all that preceded it, has become to this writer all but incomprehensible. In Washington, above all, the priorities of national interest and the self-preservative instincts of presidents and presidential administrations cannot have fundamentally changed

Obama's Katrina - The Politics of It Is Oily
Paul Greenberg

If you missed President Obama's news conference, here's a succinct summary: It was about the BP oil spill. And it's mainly somebody else's fault. Whose? BP's or the previous administration's. Or it's the fault of unnnamed 'federal agencies' he really has nothing to do with, or the 'culture' of the oil industry and government regulation thereof. This he called taking responsibility

Taking the Kids To Clean Beaches and Avoiding the Oil
Eileen Ogintz

As vacation season gets into high gear -- with officials yet to figure out how to stem the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in the worst oil spill in U.S history -- families who planned to head to the Gulf Coast are worried too about clean beach waters -- as are those who count on their business

Opportunity in the BP Oil Spill
Jules Witcover

What took President Obama so long to start trying to make lemonade out of the lemon that is the horrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

Ongoing Gulf Oil Spill Destroys the Myth of Competence
Leonard Pitts Jr.

After a month and a half of top kill and junk shot, of chemical dispersants and high-tech domes, of skimmers and controlled burns, this is what we have to show for it. We are now told it may take another 'two months' to stop oil from spewing into Gulf Coast waters. Weeks later, one other consequence becomes jarringly apparent: the Myth of Competence has died

Free-Market Religion Gets Lost in Gulf Oil Spill
Leonard Pitts Jr.

11 people dead in an oil rig explosion, fragile marshlands damaged, perhaps irreparably, uncalculated millions (billions?) in lost revenue for the tourism and fishing industries, and a short attention span nation transfixed by a compelling image from a deep sea camera, brown gunk billowing out from a hole in the ocean floor, Things Getting Worse in real time.

Political Fallout of the BP Gulf Oil Spill
Jules Witcover

The economy of the Gulf of Mexico Coast is not the only matter in peril as a result of the gigantic offshore oil spill there. As President Obama's latest news conference performance showed, his leadership and celebrated reputation for coolness under fire are in jeopardy as well

Obama's BP Gulf Oil Spill Nightmare
Jules Witcover

Obama's agenda of change at home has also been sidetracked by the nation's economic morass, and now by the despoiling of the Gulf Coast by a huge offshore oil spill running rampant. The latest man-made disaster is beginning to take on the dimensions of political damage to him that Hurricane Katrina imposed on former President Bush, haunting his presidency through its last days

BP Gulf Oil Spill: A Great Nation Immobilized
Garrison Keillor

I flew home from Washington, looking at live pictures on the BP website taken by an underwater robot of the greasy waters of the Gulf, and how's that for a Metaphor of Our Times? Aboard a Delta Airbus at 37,000 feet maneuvering around giant thunderheads, connected to the Internet via satellite, looking at dark gloop a mile below the sea, contemplating the death of a beautiful body of water

BP Gulf Oil Spill: No 'Katrina' for Obama -- Yet
Clarence Page

There's nothing quite as bracing for a president, I am certain, as a moment when the political becomes intensely personal. That was President Barack Obama's message late in his hour-long news conference about BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

The Crippling Price of Public Employee Unions
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

The American public feels it is drowning in red ink. It is dismayed and even outraged at the burgeoning national deficits, unbalanced state and local budgets. There is a mounting sense that taxpayers are being taken for an expensive ride by public sector unions. The extraordinary benefits the unions have secured for their members are going to be harder and harder to pay.

Why News Is Aimed At Your Emotions
Zach Miners

It can be hard to resist sensational news, from the 'if it bleeds, it leads' priorities of local newscasts to the harangues of cable TV pundits. Veteran newsman and journalist Jack Fuller wants to know why. Fuller examines the allure of emotionally charged news and how that affects the kind of information Americans are getting today

Elena Kagan's Short Paper Trail May Aid Supreme Court Bid
Kent Garber

Ever since Ronald Reagan-nominee Robert Bork had been harshly rejected by the Senate in 1987 after sharing his views on abortion, Supreme Court nominees have gone to great lengths to not reveal very much. For subsequent nominees the safest and surest route to the nomination is with judicious silence. Who would have done anything different? It is a question that now looms over Kagan herself

Elena Kagan - Mere 'Pipsqueak' or Bad-News Bear
Ross Mackenzie

President Obama has nominated Elena Kagan to succeed to the Supreme Court chair occupied by the retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. The Senate will hold confirmation hearings beginning next month. Who is Elena Kagan -- and on important questions, what does she think?

Six Questions for Supporters of Arizona Law
Andres Oppenheimer

Last week was a bad one for those of us opposing Arizona's anti-immigration law: Polls show a huge majority of Americans support the legislation, and key candidates for November's midterm elections want similar laws for their own states. But I would like to ask six questions to supporters of the Arizona law, and to politicians who are considering similar legislation

Prepping Elena Kagan for Confirmation
Jules Witcover

As Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan prepares to undergo Senate confirmation hearings, the Obama administration has the ideal coach for her in Vice President Joe Biden, former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Elena Kagan: Obama's Pragmatic Court Choice
Jules Witcover

President Obama's nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court is another disappointment to many liberals. They hoped he'd pick a fire-breathing lefty as a counter to the Court's unreluctant dragon on the right, Antonin Scalia. Instead, Obama has chosen a person who appears to be a political mirror image of himself

Kagan a Target of Look-ism
Robyn Blumner

It was inevitable that Elena Kagan's physical appearance would become fodder for critics of her nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court. The solicitor general, a woman of remarkable professional achievement, is still, after all, a woman.

Elena Kagan Faces the Panel She Once Panned
Clarence Page

Elena Kagan probably will be confirmed, if she can resist the temptation to follow her own advice. Her advice was offered in a 1995 book review of Stephen Carter's book 'The Confirmation Mess,' which criticized how the fight over Robert Bork's nomination turned the Senate's constitutional 'advise and consent' process into a politicized mess

Elena Kagan - What is the Law?
Cal Thomas

We are told by no less than President Obama and supporters of his nominee to the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, that she 'loves the law.' I love my cat, but what does loving the law mean for the Supreme Court, for the law and for the public?

Can Elena Kagan Fill John Paul Stevens' Shoes
Bill Press

He was the liberal lion on the Supreme Court. And when John Paul Stevens resigned, liberals like me demanded that President Obama name another proud, unabashed, full-throated liberal to take his place: the Antonin Scalia of the left. He didn't. He named middle-of-the-roader Elena Kagan, instead. Which should come as no surprise.

10 Things You Didn't Know About Elena Kagan
Jessica Rettig

I've Been Thinking About Women in Government
Andy Rooney

President Obama named Elena Kagan the new Supreme Court nominee. It's taken a long time, but the reluctance to appointing women to high government offices seems to be a thing of the past. It's my opinion -- which I reveal reluctantly -- that there are things men do better than women and things women do better than men. However, I don't think there's any difference when it comes to judges

A Nation of Profilers
Victor Davis Hanson

Profiling is considered among the worst of American sins. But is Arizona doing anything that much different from what most Americans do all the time -- namely, using all sorts of generalized criteria to make what they think are play-by-the-odds judgments that may or may not be proven wrong by exceptions?

Living with Risk is the Cost of Freedom
Leonard Pitts Jr.

We always seem surprised, always persist in believing the unbelievable: terrorism happens in other places, it doesn't happen in the United States. So the close call wherein a would-be terrorist left a crude car bomb in Times Square that luckily, blessedly, failed to explode, will eventually recede, leaving room for a new round of shocked indignation next time the reminder comes

Naysaying Anti-Terrorism Success
Jules Witcover

Some people in politics seem unable to accept good news. Take, for example, how House Minority Leader John Boehner greeted the arrest of the man accused of the Times Square car bombing plot

Hullabaloo in Times Square
Garrison Keillor

I often walk through Times Square where the Incompetent Bomber parked his 1993 Nissan Pathfinder with the alarm clocks wired to the M88 firecrackers in the canister between the five-gallon gasoline containers and the three propane tanks, the bags of nonexplosive fertilizer, and so I take a personal interest in the case

Sounds of Insecurity
Cal Thomas

After recent events, somehow gold doesn't seem to offer the kind of security we need. First, there was the attempted terrorist bombing in Times Square. Next came something that did produce chaos in our markets: a 1,000-point swing in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Then, the problem with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Life in the Age of 'Much Worse Than We Thought It Would Be'
Arianna Huffington

What was just a troubling oil spill is now, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, 'a very grave scenario,' and 'potentially . . . very catastrophic.' In other words, it's much worse that we thought it would be. Has there been a crisis in the last decade that turned out to be better than we thought it was going to be?

Shared Goals for Pakistan's Militants
General David H. Petraeus

There is clearly a symbiotic relationship between all of these different organizations; al-Qaeda, the Pakistani Taliban, the Afghan Taliban, TNSM (Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi) states General Petraeus. Petraeus added that it's not surprising that militants would look to wage attacks on American soil

Limiting American Citizenship Not the Answer
Andres Oppenheimer

The arrest of Pakistani-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad for the failed car-bomb attack in Times Square has led to a flurry of suggestions that the U.S. government is allowing too many people to become U.S. citizens and too quickly. But do these allegations make sense? Would we be safer if we drastically reduced the number of immigrants granted U.S. citizenship every year?

Arizona Immigration Law Controversy Only in Early Innings
Mary Sanchez

The Major League Baseball Players Association has taken a forceful stand against Arizona's new law that directs local law enforcement agencies to question the immigration status of anybody they have stopped who might reasonably be suspected of being in this country illegally. The association called for the law to either be repealed or modified promptly

Is Arizona Law Still Wrong if It Works?
Jonah Goldberg

What if Arizona's 'racial profiling' law worked perfectly? In other words, what if Arizona police were always right? What if they could take a look at someone and, using race or ethnicity as just one of many factors (no advocate of profiling has ever suggested that race be the sole criterion), could pick out illegal immigrants from the crowd every time? Would that make it OK?

Questioning the Wisdom of American Restraint
Michael Mandelbaum

For Jack Matlock, Giulio Gallarotti, and Christopher Preble, the authors of three new books about power and U.S. foreign policy, the essence of 'the power problem' is that the United States has too much of it. But the era in which U.S. foreign policy could be driven in counterproductive directions by an excess of power is in the process of ending

The Future of American Security Assistance
Robert M. Gates

Strategic reality demands that the U.S. government get better at what is called 'building partner capacity': helping other countries defend themselves or, if necessary, fight alongside U.S. forces by providing them with equipment, training, or other forms of security assistance.

Bigger Is Better: Case for Transatlantic Economic Union
Richard Rosecrance

The 27 states that now compose the European Union will soon be accompanied by almost ten others, making Europe stretch from the Atlantic to the Caucasus. Something similar, if more gradual, has been occurring on the other side of the Atlantic as well with the formation of NAFTA. Perhaps, the time has come for establishing a transatlantic free-trade area.

Marriage Hopes on a Tightrope
Clarence Page

Motherhood no longer appears to be what it used to be. Compared to 20 years ago, today's mothers of newborns are older, more educated, less often white, more often Hispanic -- and less often married. A record 41 percent of American births in 2008 were born to single mothers. Is marriage over? Not quite.

Census Reports Less Backlash Than Expected
Jessica Rettig

It's halftime in the 2010 Census, and the anticipated backlash doesn't seem to have materialized. Seventy-two percent of households returned their forms by mail, a better-than-expected response rate. However, as census workers begin their house visits on May 1, the count's endgame success depends on whether remaining households are willing to open their doors to census takers.

Solar Power Source of Optimism for Clean Energy Advocates
Alex Kingsbury

Solar power has long been the holy grail of energy production. It is clean, and sunshine is free and in inexhaustible supply. But it remains a tiny part of worldwide energy production. There are several serious technological hurdles that prevent solar power from cracking into the power-generation market in a major way.

Energy - Climate Bill Stalled in the Senate
Kent Garber

For all the hype that had been building around the energy, climate change bill in Washington, there's still very little known about its contents, and its political future seems to have grown even murkier in recent days as the giant oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico has again raised questions about the environmental costs of offshore drilling.

BP Oil Spill Calamity: Having to Play Defense
Jules Witcover

For a politician who got elected promising change, Barack Obama increasingly finds himself having to deal with what's already happened. The chief culprit no longer George W. Bush, or even Wall Street. Now it's British Petroleum. While still trying to undo the damage of Iraq and the recklessness of banking tycoons, Obama is now confronted with the worst environmental calamity

Jeb Bush Leads Fight for Immigration Reform
Paul Bedard

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and two of his brother's former administration aides are taking the lead to push Washington to consider a new comprehensive and compassionate immigration reform, the kind former President Bush failed to deliver on.

Shame on Arizona
Leonard Pitts Jr.

In 2006, President George W. Bush supported a proposal that would've required undocumented immigrants to take English classes and pay fines and back taxes in exchange for guest worker status and, eventually, citizenship. But Bush was shouted down by angry people carrying 'Go back to Mexico!' signs.

The Ideal Supreme Court Candidate
Jessica Rettig

As speculation over who President Obama will choose to replace Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens heats up, the likely truth, according to lawyer and former White House deputy counsel under George W. Bush, Bill Burck, is that the president has already had a nominee ready for some time. Bill Burck offers an opinion on what makes the ideal Supreme Court candidate

White House Expects Battle Over Supreme Court Nominee
Kenneth T. Walsh

Washington is bracing for another epic battle over President Obama's next nomination to the Supreme Court, which should come in the next few weeks. The trigger was Justice John Paul Stevens's recent announcement that he is retiring, opening up a 'liberal' seat on the court and prompting all sides to begin preparations for what will surely be trench warfare

Why Don't They Come Legally? They Can't
Andres Oppenheimer

After my last column criticizing Arizona's xenophobic immigration law, I got an avalanche of readers' comments. Most of them were angry anti-immigrant tirades, but some made important points that deserve an answer.

School Competition Restores Hope
Robyn Blumner

Every year around this time, my hope for our nation is renewed. I may despair that Oklahoma just set the cause of women's bodily autonomy back 40 years and Arizona has made brown skin a basis for police interrogation, but then I judge the annual We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution competition, and my hope springs up like daffodils in the sun

Three Steps to Survive a Disaster
Robert Pagliarini

Bad things happen to good people all the time. Some things we simply can't prevent. I live in Southern California, and on Easter we experienced a relatively small, but long, earthquake. One moment I was enjoying the holiday with my family, and the next I was wondering if this was the 'big one.' There are things you can do today to help protect your families and loved ones.

Journey of a Citizen
Robert C. Koehler

Too much awareness is a tough burden to carry. I got an e-mail the other day from a reader who opened up the deep, confusing paradox of being a citizen of the American empire

On Animal Cruelty and Free Speech
Jules Witcover

Sometimes, though rarely, a Supreme Court ruling is so startling and jarring that Congress is moved swiftly to counter it. That may, and certainly should, be the response to the court's decision declaring unconstitutional a 1999 federal law against creation and distribution of material depicting acts of animal cruelty

10 Cities Facing Double Whammy of Default Risks
Luke Mullins

Today, some particularly hard-hit markets are in the unenviable position of having both elevated unemployment and high concentrations of negative equity. Here is a look at 10 cities that face a double whammy of default risks.

Obama's Nuclear Policy Enhances America's Moral Position and Security
Lawrence J. Korb

The purpose of nuclear weapons, or any weapon in the U.S. inventory, is to enhance the security of the United States. By declaring that the United States will not use nuclear weapons against states that do not possess nuclear weapons, President Obama has enhanced the security of the country in two ways.

New Obama Nuclear Policy Could Spur Proliferation and Harm America
Buck McKeon

President Obama, in an effort to appease the world community, recently altered the long-standing policy on when the United States would utilize a nuclear response to protect citizens, allies, and interests. While some may admire the president's goal of a world free of nuclear weapons, we need to consider French President Nicolas Sarkozy's reminder: 'We live in a real world, not a virtual one'

Obama's Promise to Work With Foreign Governments
Kenneth T. Walsh

During his 2008 campaign, President Obama promised to work more closely with U.S. allies around the world and to end the perceived go-it-alone attitude of his predecessor, George W. Bush. It's now clear that Obama was quite serious about these pledges, and the latest evidence came when he convened a 47-nation nuclear security summit in Washington

Obama Should Not Appoint Another Appeals Judge to Supreme Court
Robert Schlesinger

The U.S. Supreme Court, historically a mix of professional backgrounds, has become an appellate judges-only club. Former constitutional law professor Barack Obama noted this in his run for the presidency. He should start to correct it with his next court selection, after failing to do so with Sonia Sotomayor, who came from the federal appeals court.

Your Guide to the Goldman Sachs Lawsuit
Rob Silverblatt

As the Securities and Exchange Commission thrusts the Goldman Sachs case onto the national stage, Americans are once again getting acquainted with the most controversial members of the recession-era cast of characters: the subprime mortgage, the 'too big to fail' doctrine, the Wall Street bailout, and the housing bubble, just to name a few.

Preparing for Cyberattacks
Reader Comments

James Lewis at the Center for Strategic and International Studies says cyberattacks are a cause for concern; expert Marcus Ranum argues that we should focus our security efforts elsewhere. Your feedback

Arizona's Anti-Immigrant Law Will Spark Hispanic Exodus
Andres Oppenheimer

Now that Arizona has enacted the most xenophobic anti-immigration law in this country, get ready for the big Hispanic exodus. But it won't be an exodus back to Mexico or to Central America. It will be a stampede toward Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago and other cities with huge Hispanic populations, where Latinos will be able to live without fear

Obama Criticism of Arizona Immigration Law Ignores Federal Incompetence
Bonnie Erbe

Not so fast, Mr. President. I'm not saying I support the Arizona immigration legislation, but I have two points to make about President Obama's claim that federal legislation is needed and that Arizona's bill is misguided

Open Season on Latinos in Arizona
Mary Sanchez

Arizona has never needed Sen. John McCain more -- the 'maverick' version of years gone by, that is. The man who understood the inherent evil of demonizing groups of people. The McCain who stood up to strident voices, understanding that fear-based, reactionary sentiments must never be codified into punitive laws

Arizona's Illegal Immigration Catch
Clarence Page

Congratulations, Arizona. If your new 'reasonable suspicion' immigration ID-check law was intended to get Washington's attention, it has succeeded. It also has raised my reasonable suspicion that the immigration debate has been hijacked by wingnuts.

Arizona's Ugly but Necessary Immigration Law
Jonah Goldberg

Matt Lauer noted that Arizona's new immigration bill has the support of 70 percent of Arizonans. 'But get this,' Lauer added, '53 percent of those same people said they worry it could lead to civil rights violations.' Lauer and other commentators seem to think that there's something of a contradiction here

Arizona Takes Off Its 'Rainbow Shades'
Cal Thomas

Arizona has decided that if the federal government will not live up to its responsibility to control the border, it will. Governor Jan Brewer correctly noted that the new law 'represents another tool for our state to use as we work to solve a crisis we did not create and the federal government has refused to fix.'

To Stop Kids from Killing Kids
Clarence Page

What might the highly publicized suicide of a Massachusetts girl tormented by cyber-bullying have in common with the videotaped fatal beating of a teenaged boy in Chicago? Other students apparently knew that trouble was brewing, but no one managed to step in and stop it.

United States Census - Who Are We Now?
Paul Greenberg

The census form lay there for days on the sideboard at home. Not that most of it was hard to fill out. Name, address, members of the household, that sort of thing, but then came the boxes that always stopped me: race, ethnicity, that sort of slippery thing. Hate to be pigeonholed. Doesn't everybody? It's part of being American.

Archiving Twitter Tweets: Dumbing Down Journalism
Jules Witcover

Here's a warning about the latest virus of so-called social networking that is infecting American journalism. The august Library of Congress has decided to spend untold millions on archiving Twitter, that latest open exercise in getting off your chest in print anything that crosses your mind, in 140 characters or less.

10 Problems With the Income Tax
Paul Bedard

With each and every Tax Day, April 15 is the time of year when the anti-tax brigade starts the chant: Kill the tax code. Leading the rally is Ken Hoagland, who is chairman of the Online Tax Revolt and who just authored The FairTax Solution. His idea is to trade income taxes for consumption taxes.

Flat Tax Is Class Warfare
Holley Ulbrich

The proposed flat tax is, in fact, class warfare -- yet another attempt to reduce the tax obligations of higher-income households in exchange for the unenforceable hope or promise that they might use the money to invest and create jobs, maybe even jobs in the United States. Two considerations should give us pause before jumping on the flat-tax bandwagon

Eliminate Tax Brackets and Complicated Forms With Flat Tax
Daniel Mitchell

Every April, Americans endure the misery of the Internal Revenue Service code. It is hopelessly complicated and nerve-wracking since the IRS has such immense powers to destroy people's lives. It is time to implement a simple and fair flat tax. Here's what it would take

Fear Factor: Swine Flu, Nuclear Weapons, Reacting to Doom
Alex Kingsbury

A child of the early Cold War, Robert Muthnow says he's always had an interest in how society copes with the fear of its own extinction. His new book offers some surprising insights into how humans think about themselves and their capacity to face peril. Muthnow recently chatted about science, existential threats, and his own fears

Change for U.S. Nuclear Strategy: Nuclear War Planning and Non-proliferation
Alex Kingsbury

Hans Kristensen heads the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, a group founded by some of the scientists who built the first atomic bomb in 1945. FAS keeps a running public tally of the world's nuclear arsenals. Kristensen spoke about the new nuclear status quo and what's being done to change it.

Obama's Nuclear-Weapons Conference Fatally Flawed Before It Began
William Pfaff

The meeting on nuclear security convoked by Barack Obama was meant to prevent nuclear proliferation. This is a worthy cause, but -- while I am writing before the meeting closes -- I would assume that it will at best produce empty promises, as the meeting itself is fatally flawed.

Can SEC Beat Goldman Sachs?
Rob Silverblatt

News that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit against Goldman Sachs has sent the investment bank's stocks reeling. But are investors overreacting? To be sure, the case is bad news for Goldman, which has come under fire recently for its handling of mortgage-backed securities during the downturn

Why 'Open Carry' Gun Laws Work
John Pierce

'Open carry' refers to the act of law-abiding citizens carrying a properly holstered handgun in plain sight, wherever it is legal to do so, as they go about their daily lives. Those opposed to open carry often attempt to characterize it as an oddity of the law or a mischaracterization of the U.S. Constitution. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

'Open Carry' Gun Laws Turn the Country Back into the Wild West
Carolyn McCarthy

I have never been against people owning guns for protection, hunting, or sport. But there are days when I read the newspaper or am watching the news and it seems as if our country is back in the Wild West. Brazenly carrying firearms into restaurants and bars and schools and churches creates a situation that is intimidating to families, and poses risks to law enforcement and to the community.

Improving Health and Health Care in Rural America
January W. Payne

Facing a continued shortage of primary-care physicians nationwide, and an especially tight supply in rural areas and small towns, medical schools are making an effort to recruit students to launch long-lasting careers in rural areas. Although 1 in 5 U.S. residents lives in a rural area, just 9 percent of doctors practice there

Documents Reveal Al Qaeda Cyberattacks
Alex Kingsbury

Buried inside hundreds of pages of heavily redacted court documents from the case of a man accused of being one of al Qaeda's chief recruiters, is evidence that the terrorist group has launched successful cyberattacks, including one against government computers in Israel. This was the first public confirmation that the terrorist group has mounted an offensive cyberattack.

CIA's Panetta Announces Kappes Retirement
Paul Bedard

Well, that was fast. Just a few days after Whispers revealed insider rumors about changes inside the CIA and intelligence community, CIA Director Leon Panetta announced that his first deputy Steve Kappes is retiring from the world's premier spy agency

Do You Live in a Frugal State
Kimberly Palmer

It turns out it's not entirely your fault if you spend too much on shoes, golf, or any other temptation. How much we spend has a lot to do with where we live -- not just how much self-control we have

10 Problems With the Income Tax
Paul Bedard

With each and every Tax Day, April 15 is the time of year when the anti-tax brigade starts the chant: Kill the tax code. Leading the rally is Ken Hoagland, who is chairman of the Online Tax Revolt and who just authored The FairTax Solution. His idea is to trade income taxes for consumption taxes.

Replacing Justice Stevens
Jules Witcover

Of all nine Justices on the Supreme Court, the one President Obama can least afford to see leaving will be doing just that -- John Paul Stevens, who will reach age 90 next week. One might reasonably conclude that, at 90, retirement from the very taxing duties of the court is long overdue. However, ...

Empathy and the Supreme Court
Jonah Goldberg

Let's skip the bouts over which party is more hypocritical for switching its views on Supreme Court nominees. Democrats now insist that decency and precedent require Republicans to green-light anyone President Obama nominates to replace John Paul Stevens, and Republicans insist that there's nothing wrong with adopting the tactics advocated by Democrats when George W. Bush was in office

What's Driving Us to Road Rage
Mitch Albom

What makes us so angry behind the wheel? What makes us yell at a person who cuts us off? What makes us flip a finger if they yell back? What makes us slam on the horn, screaming through glass, as if the other driver insulted our family name? What makes us speed up, brake, weave in front -- any of the crazy acts that are now referred to as road rage?

United States - 5 Ways to Keep America Great
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Altogether Americans are a little sadder. Everyone seems to be talking about decline and recession, about an aging America that no longer leads the world and is falling behind a rejuvenated China. Worry has always preceded reform in America. We have had periods of decline and loss of confidence. But America has always bounced back. And, there is a developing consensus on what we have to do

Guantanamo Detainees Released Amid Debate Over Closing the Prison
Alex Kingsbury

Closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was one of the first promises made by President Obama, but that promise has proved one of the most difficult to make good on. As the White House continues to haggle with Congress over how and where to try terrorist suspects, the Department of Justice is quietly transferring prisoners from Gitmo to receptive nations

Debating the Morality of Torture
Alex Kingsbury

The Rev. Richard Killmer's message is as unambiguous as the banners he distributes to the nation's churches. Simple white letters set on a field of black in a simple sentence: Torture is wrong. Yet despite its apparent innocuousness, that message is a surprisingly tough sell to a nation that remains in profound conflict over the moral and legal conduct of the war against terrorists.

Restorative Justice: Crime and Healing
Robert C. Koehler

Restorative Justice -- a multifaceted system of criminal justice and conflict resolution that puts healing and truth-telling at its core, not punishment, revenge or the culling out of humanity's undesirables -- has been around and evolving for about 20 years now. It's slowly gaining a foothold in court systems and schools around the world

Wanted: Calm Credible Voice to Soothe Americans' Fear of Islam
Mary Sanchez

Here's a job posting worthy of only the most stellar applicants. In fact, only those rare individuals with near-superhuman powers to untangle the crossed circuitry in the American mindset need apply. The Muslim Public Affairs Council is seeking 'high-energy candidates' for a communications coordinator.

If We Europeanize Europe Is in Trouble
Jonah Goldberg

America is on its way to becoming another European country. Now, by that I do not mean that we're moving our tectonic plate off the coast of France or anything. But rather, that a century-long dream of American progressives is finally looking like it might become a reality. The recently passed health-care legislation is the cornerstone of the Europeanization of America

Mass Transit: Move America to Work
Jesse Jackson

One key to any prosperous economy is a transportation system that works -- that allows workers to get to their jobs and goods to move efficiently. But this essential economic building block is now under severe pressure. What should be getting stronger is getting weaker -- and our economy will suffer the consequences

Teens and Spring Break A Sometimes Lethal Combination
Mitch Albom

Matt James fell off a balcony. He died. He was 17, four years under the legal drinking age. Police say he was drunk. This would be a tragic story if it were an isolated story. It's more tragic because it is not.

Teen Violence: Senseless Rage Sparks Inexplicable Tragedy
Ana Veciana-Suarez

Why are teens so angry? That question invariably pops into my head when I read about teen-on-teen violence. Sadly, such incidents seem to have become more common, and the question has taken on a new urgency as I struggle to make sense of the senseless

Al-Qaeda has Lost the Battle. But has it Won the War?
Chris Thomas

In retrospect, 9/11 seems to have become an even more iconic day then we thought. Tactically, it was of course the most catastrophic attack ever on US soil. On the surface we have viewed 9/11 as a geopolitical event. But in longer range terms, and with the benefit of hindsight, it may be fair to ask: Has al-Qaeda achieved its strategic aim of bringing down the United States as a world power?

Former CIA Operative Sees Terrorism Vulnerabilities
Alex Kingsbury

Charles Faddis spent years thinking like a terrorist when he worked for the CIA, looking for vulnerabilities in other nations' infrastructure and learning how to exploit them. Now a private consultant, he writes in his most recent book, Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security, that the country is surprisingly vulnerable to a catastrophic terrorist attack.

To Protect U.S. Against Cyberwar: Best Defense Is a Good Offense
James Lewis

We have at least two opponents with the ability to launch damaging cyberattacks against the United States -- Russia and China. They have probably done the reconnaissance and planning necessary for these attacks, probing American networks for vulnerabilities. But they have not launched them. Why not?

Cyberwar Rhetoric Scarier Than Threat of Foreign Attack
Marcus Ranum

Suddenly, the steady drumbeat of computer network security has been pushed to center stage, and now our government is talking about cyberwar and pointing a finger at China. Unless you've been asleep for a decade, you ought to be worried when our government starts using the rhetoric of warfare -- especially vocabulary like pre-emptive and deterrence. Why the sudden change?

Why Natural Disasters Are More Expensive But Less Deadly
Matthew Bandyk

The recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile come at the end of what may be history's most expensive decade for natural disasters. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates that the Haitian earthquake dealt about $14 billion in damage. As large as that figure is, it's relatively small compared with the costliest disaster of the past decade: Hurricane Katrina

Detroit - What Will Detroit Be Like in 2020
Mitch Albom

In my Detroit, a decade from now, there are no blocks with one burned-out house. Those eyesores have been leveled. Grass and trees have taken their place. In my Detroit, people leave work and walk home, because they live in the city, they don't just enter and exit. In my Detroit, the auto business is important, but it's hardly the only industry

2010 Census: We Don't Fit Neatly Into Little Boxes
Ana Veciana-Suarez

Eager to be counted and get my fair share, whatever that might be, I recently filled out my Census form like a dutiful citizen -- and stepped into a controversy along the way. It wasn't intentional, but that's what happens when, for practical reasons, we box in the complex.

Small Town Grapples with Legacy of Chemical Byproduct
Kent Garber

For the better part of 30 years, Nitro, West Virginia has been grappling with the legacy of dioxin. The plant is long gone, leaving a vacant lot, part gravel and part pavement, with weeds -- weeds, of all things -- growing here and there in the cracks

Side by Side in Need for Green Growth: China and America try cooperation
Joshua Kucera

When President Obama took office last year, two of his top priorities were stronger action to stem global warming and a more collaborative, cooperative approach to solving international problems. By making climate change a primary focus in America's relationship with China the president sought to accomplish two goals in a single stroke.

Return of the Three-Generation Household
Mitch Albom

A new census report raised a lot of eyebrows. In the past decade, there has been a reshuffling of the family deck: a 30 percent rise in U.S. households with at least three generations of family members. People are moving back in. Generations are consolidating.

The 1960s: A Decade of Promise and Heartbreak
Kenneth T. Walsh

The Sixties decade remains a very significant, landmark moment in the history of the United States. It was a huge jumping-off point for the country. In some ways the Sixties marked a defining moment. It really is a watershed decade in launching our 50-year history.

The 1960s: Decade of Change for Women
Kenneth T. Walsh

In the 1960s, deep cultural changes were altering the role of women in American society. More females than ever were entering the paid workforce, and this increased the dissatisfaction among women regarding huge gender disparities in pay and advancement and sexual harassment at the workplace.

The 1960s: Polarization, Cynicism and the Youth Rebellion
Kenneth T. Walsh

It was a decade of extremes, of transformational change and bizarre contrasts: flower children and assassins, idealism and alienation, rebellion and backlash. For many, it was both the best of times and the worst of times. There will be many 50-year anniversaries to mark significant events of the 1960s, and a big reason is that what happened in that remarkable era still resonates today.

The 1960s: Civil Rights Gains Made Obama's Election Possible
Kenneth T. Walsh

Massive social change fueled a profound surge forward by the civil rights movement in the 1960s, one of the most important developments in American history. World War II was a watershed in African-American history, raising the hopes of people who, with their children, would build the massive black freedom movement of the 1960s

Ex-CIA man John Kiriakou on Abu Zubaydah, torture, and 'The Reluctant Spy'
Alex Kingsbury

Startling anecdotes in John Kiriakou's The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror, which chronicles his 14 years working for the nation's spy service. Kiriakou recently spoke about a career in the fight against terrorim, shadows and torture

Terrorist Suspect JihadJane Shatters Stereotype
Alex Kingsbury

Terrorism cases since 9/11 have ranged from the criminally mundane to the James Bond-ishly exotic -- but few have been as puzzling as the story of Colleen LaRose known as Jihad Jane. The case against LaRose, a white, blond, middle-aged woman who apparently converted to Islam, raises old and troubling questions about the viability of profiling as a counterterrorism tactic

Jihad Jane Shatters Terror Stereotype
Leonard Pitts Jr.

Evil is not a color. It has no particular religion nor creed, nor style of dress, nor gender nor geographic home. Evil is an equal opportunity employer. One hopes we learn at least that much from the adventures of Jihad Jane.

Jihad Jane Terrorists Who Defy Our Biases
Clarence Page

Thank you, Jihad Jane for making a point about racial profiling that I've been trying to make for years: You can't judge potential terrorists by complexion. For years we have been hearing pundits and politicians argue for profiling Arabs and Muslims, as if ramping up our prejudices were all we need to do to protect ourselves from bombers and hijackers.

Terror and Sacrificing Privacy for National Security
Jessica Rettig

The 1983 terrorist attack in Beirut that killed 241 marines made the intelligence community's failings clear to then Deputy National Security Adviser John Poindexter. He launched a surveillance overhaul that, National Journal's Shane Harris writes, helped give rise to modern counterterrorism

Supreme Court Takes Aim at Chicago Gun Ban
Alex Kingsbury

It's rare for Supreme Court justices to rib their robed brethren in open court. But that's what Justice Stephen Breyer did when he said recently that the court's conservative bloc was advocating the very thing that conservatives have long reviled: judicial activism. The comment came during oral arguments in McDonald v. Chicago, a case over Chicago's handgun ban

On Our Co-Equal Branches
Jules Witcover

When George Orwell wrote in 'Animal Farm' that 'all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others,' he could have had the three American branches of government in mind. That Orwellianism is suggested by Chief Justice John Roberts' recent comment on President Obama's first State of the Union message, in which the president criticized a Supreme Court decision.

Pay-Go Budget Rules Do Little to Control Spending or Reduce U.S. Deficit
Gretchen Hamel

Politicians are desperate to prove they aren't out of touch with average Americans. They know the public is more disgusted than ever with the government. And their disgust is largely directed at government overspending. President Obama has tried to reassure a skeptical public with a 'pay-go' spending policy. Sounds like common sense, right? Unfortunately ...

LaHood Seeks Federal Texting While Driving Ban
Paul Bedard

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is fast becoming one of President Obama's most influential cabinet bosses, and not just because he's in charge of doling out billions of stimulus dollars. His passion now is switching off that glow in the hands of so many drivers: those cellphones and BlackBerrys lit up as people text and drive -- and sometimes crash and die.

Terrorists Are Criminals and Should be Tried in Civilian Court
Anthony D. Romero

The way some people are carrying on these days about the Obama administration's decision to handle would-be Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in the criminal justice system, you'd think the Constitution was a new document they weren't used to yet. Or that applying it was optional.

Use Military Tribunals to Handle Terror Suspects
Louie Gohmert

Trial of the suspected 9/11 coconspirators has brought forth cries that everyone should have the same rights under our Constitution. They misunderstand the Constitution. It guarantees due process, but that grants different rights in different settings.

Michelle Obama Vs. Childhood Obesity
Reader Comments

Michelle Obama is focusing on something vital for the future of America -- a healthy next generation. Mike Huckabee is showing sincerity in his commitment to the same cause -- and maturity as a human being, too. However, it looks like the USA has a fat chance for political and social maturity. Anyway, kudos to Mike and Michelle, and may you prosper in your endeavors!

High-Speed Rail Losers
Matthew Bandyk

President Obama announced the recipients of an $8 billion plan to develop high-speed rail throughout the country. In his State of the Union address, the president touted one of the biggest grants: $1.25 billion to begin construction of a high-speed line connecting Tampa and Orlando. But there's a wrinkle in the president's announcement: Most of the $8 billion is not going to high-speed rail.

Crying Wolf on the Web
Brian Lowry

On 'The Daily Show' segment, Jon Stewart mused on the phenomenon of Web headlines dramatically overstating events. Stewart acutely identified one of the more irksome aspects of Web reporting -- a tabloid tendency that has transformed us into a society of boys and girls who seem to feel increasingly compelled to cry wolf.

First Choose Your Future War, Then Choose Your Weapons
Paul Kennedy

What does a nation do when it faces plenty of external challenges and plenty of potential threats -- and has interests and obligations across the world? Well, perhaps it should think harder and more coherently than it might previously have been doing. The United States in today's troubled world needs to re-assess its global position and its global future.

The Struggle for Free Speech in the 21st Century
Jessica Rettig

The First Amendment has been at the heart of American values since the drafting of the Bill of Rights, but Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger argues that with new forms of media and expression, how people view a free press has been transformed, and now it means much more for Americans and others across the globe. A recent interview on how to preserve its protections

Partisan Rancor Follows Terrorism Announcement
Alex Kingsbury

Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, CIA boss Leon Panetta, and FBI Director Robert Mueller all said that they were 'certain' that mounting an attack against the U.S. homeland in the next three to six months was a top al Qaeda priority

Political Partisanship: Accentuating the Negative
Jules Witcover

With the possible exception of Nancy Reagan's pitch to America's youth to 'just say no' to mind-bending drugs, simply being against something in politics has seldom yielded much in the way of positive results.

Planned Bipartisan Summit Just an Infomercial in Disguise
Jonah Goldberg

President Obama has invited congressional Republicans to sit down and talk through health care at a 'bipartisan summit' on Feb. 25. Some think it's a little late for such a conversation. After all, the Democrats have built health care policy from the ground up. So Obama invites Republicans to debate the blueprints. Oh, and he wants to debate them, not change them.

Bipartisan Healthcare Summit: You've Got to Give a Little
Cal Thomas

At first it seemed like a great idea. President Obama, fresh from good reviews for his appearance at the House Republican retreat two weeks ago, invited Republican leaders to Blair House in Washington for negotiations on a health insurance reform bill. But the essence of negotiation is in its definition

Singing 'Kumbaya' on Health Care Reform
Bill Press

President Obama has summoned Democratic and Republican leaders for a half-day meeting on Feb. 25 to iron out their differences and produce a bipartisan health care reform bill. Now, as a Democrat and big Obama supporter, I know I'm supposed to bounce up and down with glee. But, pardon my lack of excitement, I think the whole thing's a waste of time ...

Use 2009 Tax Return To Guide 2010 Financial Strategy
Andrew Leckey

The future is now. Use your 2009 tax return as a line-by-line blueprint for constructing your 2010 financial strategy. Examine what went right and wrong as you determine your next tax and investment moves. Keep in mind the new conversion rules for Roth IRAs and the possibility of higher future tax rates.

IRS Cracks Down on Fraudulent Tax Preparers
Alex Kingsbury

The number of Justice Department actions against tax-return preparers and tax-scheme promoters has skyrocketed from a single prosecution in 2001 to more than 435 injunctions and other legal actions since. The dramatic increase in enforcement has coincided with growing calls from lawmakers and tax officials to regulate an industry that has quietly escaped oversight for decades.

Standard Deduction Will be Higher For Many Taxpayers
Humberto Cruz

For 2009 Tax returns, the standard deduction will be even higher for Americans who meet qualifications. The higher the standard deduction is, the lower the taxable income and tax bill are. The downside is increased complexity, including a new tax form to fill out called Schedule L. However, the tax savings can be significant. This in addition to other tax deductions this year

Security Risk: Eric Holder's Latest Folly
Paul Greenberg

Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder took responsibility for the decision to treat the suspect in the Christmas Day plot to blow up an American airliner as a criminal defendant rather than as an enemy combatant. Even though the president himself has linked the suspect -- one Umar Farouk Abdulmuttallab -- to al-Qaida in Yemen.

America Rides off Into the Sunset
Victor Davis Hanson

National leaders have only long-term self-interests and so seek to expand their influence whenever they can. Obama better understand that. As such, a world without strong U.S. leadership really would become a far more dangerous place where the strong do as they please and the weak obey as they must.

The Future of the U.S. Economy: 2050
Matthew Bandyk

Think back to 1967. The job you have today may not even have existed. The Internet, and all the jobs that have come with it, were decades away. The Detroit automakers were dominant. Quality of life was different, too. The lifestyle of the average American may change just as much from 2010 to 2050 as it did from 1967 to 2006. The economy will especially undergo change.

Who to Blame for the Financial Crisis
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

Class warfare, American style, is being waged between Main Street and Wall Street. With President Obama and Democrats in Congress turning up the populist heat against Wall Street, the financial community is losing. Its back is up against the wall. But the administration is also getting its share of the public's rage. So, Who's really to blame?

Fort Hood Report Reveals Deeper Dilemma
Anna Mulrine

There were a couple of points that immediately stood out in the Pentagon's report on the shooting that left 13 dead and 43 wounded at Fort Hood in November. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton made note of them this month in the first of two congressional hearings on what went wrong.

Deficits in a Growing Defense Budget
Greg Bruno

The Obama administration released its second defense budget on February 1 amidst talk of rebuilding the American defense establishment. But Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert, says while the administration's reform rhetoric is laudable, its defense spending plan doesn't allocate money to seriously rebuild the military to deal with such threats as irregular warfare.

Should the TSA Trust in Full-Body Scanners
Reader Comments

The Heritage Foundation's James Jay Carafano recently argued that scanners will help stop terrorists, while FlyersRights.org's Kate Hanni wrote that they won't work. A sampling of your thoughts

Fast Trains Are Cool ... and Very Expensive
Carl Hiaasen

Of all the ways Florida could blow through $1.25 billion in federal recovery funds, a bullet train is certainly the flashiest. Connecting Tampa, Orlando and Miami by high-speed rail is a scheme that's been chugging around for decades, and the prospects for profitability are the same today as they always were: nil.

'People Movers' Ease Airport Hassles
Ed Perkins

Dulles inaugurated its new billion-dollar 'people mover,' and it should make life a lot easier for you whether you live in the area, visit the area, or have to change planes there. Dulles joins a number of other airports around the United States -- and the world -- that offer an easier and more convenient alternative to trekking through endless corridors or schlepping on and off buses

Our Census Reflects our Confusion
Clarence Page

It is time to take another census, as we Americans do every 10 years, which means it is time again to argue about the census. If the census is designed to take a snapshot of our nation, the initial reaction looks like a family feud.

The Economy, Jobs and Justice
Jesse Jackson

The effort to save America's financial system and big banks has succeeded. However, the clot in financing remains. Finance is the blood of the economy. When there is a clot, the economy can't work and people suffer. Republicans contewnd that Obama's recovery plan has failed. Yet, they want to prescribe the same poison that created the breakdown in the first place.

Time for Obama to Look at Terrorism Differently
Jonah Goldberg

It is always dangerous to mistake your ideological preferences for shrewd political strategy, but that is precisely what President Obama and his advisors have done with the war on terror.

U.S. & China Trade Barbs After Google's Ultimatum
Alex Kingsbury

What began as a quiet post on Google's official blog has ballooned into a full fledged international tempest, with the U.S. and China trading barbs about the role of the government in regulating the Internet. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday condemned cyber attacks and called for an Internet where all have equal access to knowledge and ideas

How to Get Americans Working Again
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

There is no silver lining to the dark cloud that has enveloped America. A slight decline in the rate of job losses at the end of 2009, coupled with a rise in the GDP, gave hope that the U.S. was at the beginning of a recovery from the Great Recession. However that hope was. So, how can America accelerate job growth and the economy? There is no snap answer, but I do have a few proposals

Supreme Court Blindness: Unlimited Campaign Contributions
Jules Witcover

The Supreme Court has ignored precedent and inserted itself into politics, paving the way for an intensified campaign money arms race. That is the ramification of its 5-4 decision opening the floodgates to unlimited campaign contribution spending by corporate America. It brushes aside the 1947 protections in campaign finance law

 

Airport Security Checkpoints
(c) Walt Handelsman

Airline Travelers Should Fear Terrorists More Than Full-Body Scanners
James Jay Carafano

For those 'outraged' by the deployment of the full body scanners, where have you been since 9/11? These technologies are not new. The Transportation Security Administration has tested and evaluated them for years and given ample opportunity for public comment on how to regulate their use. So why is stopping the scanners suddenly a cause cŽl�bre in some quarters?

Full-Body Scanners Offer a Sneak Peek at TSA Bumbling
Kate Hanni

Federal officials are back to square one on airport security, despite nearly a decade of effort and billions of dollars. Now the TSA believes that full-body scanners hold the absolute answer to the world's airport security woes. Does that mean that passengers nationwide can now breathe a collective sigh of relief? Well, not quite ...

Assessing Airport Security
Reader Comments

I don't really believe you can put a cost on security and the lives of air travelers. I think TSA [Transportation Security Administration] should do whatever it takes to ensure the safety of the traveling public. If that means X-ray screening or patting people down, then so be it.

What Airport Security Really Costs
Matthew Bandyk

Many Americans see waiting in lines, taking off their shoes, and other security measures as necessary evils. Since the Christmas incident, the government has planned to spend about $1 billion on full-body scanners and other security technology. However, the money spent on airport security goes far beyond the actual equipment.

Detroit - Who's Your Tiger
Mitch Albom

In the last 18 months, the auto industry has become something bigger than just the buying and selling of cars. It has become an ideological ground zero, a tug of war with many hands on the rope, labor, manufacturing, nationalism, elitism, environmentalism, jobs, the survival of a shrinking but vital American city: Detroit

Afghanistan: Report Calls Military Intelligence Ignorant and Oblivious
Anna Mulrine

A bracing critique of U.S. military intelligence in Afghanistan came from an unlikely source earlier this month: the head of U.S. military intelligence in Afghanistan. Widely circulated and hotly discussed, the report was remarkable for its blunt candor regarding the intelligence community's mode of operation in Afghanistan.

Supreme Court to Hear Sex Offender Imprisonment Case
Alex Kingsbury

The Supreme Court will hear two cases about the rights of defendants in the criminal justice system. One case challenges a law that gives the government the authority to keep convicted sex offenders behind bars after their sentences have been completed. In another case, lawyers contest the right of criminal defendants to question the lab technicians who compile forensic evidence reports.

Let Us All Now Bail Out the States
Ross Mackenzie

Most states must balance their budgets by constitutional stipulation -- a concept also viewed with a federal sneer. In the depression year of 2009, the feds bailed out the states to the tune of $87 billion. In the current fiscal year, state budget shortfalls are expected to total about $180 billion, with a like amount (or more) anticipated for fiscal 2011.

Wall Street CEOs: The Mea Culpa That Wasn't
Robyn Blumner

Here is the testimony I would have liked to have heard from the CEOs of Wall Street's largest banks -- institutions whose irresponsibility and greed nearly brought down the economy

 

Trainspotter's Guide to the Future of the World
Paul Kennedy

The article didn't make for pleasant reading, especially for people like myself who think that efficient railway services and other forms of well-run mass transport are a subtle but nifty measure of a country's level of civilization and, in most cases, of its social and economic fabric

Northwest Flight 253: Obama Slams Failed Intelligence Calls for Reform
Alex Kingsbury

In response to what President Obama called a 'mix of human and systemic failures' within the intelligence community leading to the failed Christmas Day airline bombing plot, the White House announced a series of steps to thwart future plots

Northwest Flight 253: Obama and Congress Probe How The Airport Screening System Failed
Alex Kingsbury

The failure of U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to flag Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab before he took his seat on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit has prompted several federal reviews to ascertain what went wrong with the post-9/11 procedures specifically designed to spot potential terrorists before they attack

Northwest Flight 253: Cheney vs. Obama in Renewed Terrorism Fight
Kenneth T. Walsh

Republicans are attacking President Obama for being weak on national security in the wake of the attempted bombing on Christmas Day of a Northwest Airlines jetliner en route to Detroit. And the Democrats are fighting back with a vengeance. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is leading the charge for the GOP

Northwest Flight 253: Questions Must Be Asked But Not These
Leonard Pitts Jr

On Christmas Day, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a student from Nigeria, tried to blow up a jetliner bound for Detroit. He failed due to some defect in his explosives and the quick reflexes of passengers who subdued him. As you might expect, this close call has some of us asking hard, but necessary questions

Northwest Flight 253: A No-Fly List? Count Me In
Jonah Goldberg

The current debate over the underwear bomber is important and necessary, but it is detached from basic reality. To listen to the experts, the only relevant choice is between privacy and security. But people already understand that privacy is something you have to compromise to fly.

Terrorism: A War by Any Other Name
Cal Thomas

Suppose Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, the Christmas Day underwear bomber, had succeeded and blown up Northwest Airlines flight 253, killing nearly 300 people on board and perhaps others on the ground? Would the response of the Obama administration have been different?

Before Boarding Plane Remove All Clothing
Bill Press

Welcome to the Friendly Skies. Now take off all your clothes. In the wake of the failed terrorist attempt over Detroit on Christmas Day, it may not be long before those scary words greet you upon arriving at the airport, just before you step into the full-body scan machine.

Fight Against Terrorism Could Shift to Yemen
Joshua Kucera

In the wake of the airplane bombing attempt over Detroit on Christmas, President Obama vowed to take an aggressive stance against those who were behind the plot. 'The United States will do more than simply strengthen our defenses,' he said. 'We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us.'

Yemen's Problems Are Ours, Too
Clarence Page

Yemen has become a top priority for the Obama administration since Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day. Yemen is where he told authorities he received his training and the bomb that famously fizzled in his underwear.

Thwarting Terrorism
Reader Comments

If a security breach occurring on a president's watch makes him weak on security, then where does that leave Bush and Cheney? Obviously, the granddaddy of security breaches occurred on a Bush's watch

Flying Under the Influence of the TSA
Christopher Elliott

I won't insult you by repeating the obvious advice being dispensed by the so-called experts, such as arriving at the airport early or packing light. Instead, I'd like to take a longer view on traveling while under the influence of the TSA. Assuming that only half of the awful things people are saying about the agency are true, how do you fly?

Death to the Death Penalty
Robyn Blumner

People tend to have hardened views about the death penalty. Me, I'm opposed to it and always have been. But I ask the indulgence of those of you who favor the death penalty to give this a read and see what you think.

Understanding Why America Loves Animals, But Eats Them
Bonnie Erbe

A new book asks the question in the title, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, and then attempts to supply answers from a psychological perspective. Author and psychologist Melanie Joy has some pretty surprising answers to that question

Are the Holidays Too Secular
Reader Comments

I find it ironic that in a country so focused on individuality and diversity, it is becoming frowned upon to express our own ideas. If one celebrates Christmas, what is wrong with expressing it? If you celebrate Hanukkah, I'd be more than happy to hear you tell me 'Happy Hanukkah.' If you're offended, move to some country where no one can express ideas and freedoms don't exist.

Tiger Woods and Disposable Gods
Robert C. Koehler

Read the tabloids -- watch the tube -- if you want to know how a society that has lost its religiosity can still engage with the deities. The eerily appropriate term 'celebrity worship' is evidence of the extent to which we've improved on Greek culture: We've invented disposable gods and our latest example is Tiger Woods

Expensive Lesson: Gun is Not a Joke - Gilbert Arenas
Leonard Pitts Jr.

A gun is not a joke. Maybe Gilbert Arenas gets that now. But look at what it cost him to learn: his NBA livelihood, his reputation, maybe his freedom. But even at that, you could argue that Gilbert Arenas is a lucky man.

The War Against the Wannabe Rich
Victor Davis Hanson

There is class warfare going on in this country -- but it's not against the established rich. It's against those who are trying to become wealthy. Most of those targeted are not the already rich like Warren Buffett or Bill Gates. And they 're not the multimillionaire speculators on Wall Street who wrecked the American economy. Instead, it's professionals and small-business owners.

Asleep on the Terrorist Watch: Northwest Flight 253
Paul Greenberg

It was just as frightening, and in its own way even more infuriating, than the almost successful attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253 as it approached Detroit on Christmas Day. I'm talking about the wholly unacceptable comment/excuse offered by this country's secretary of supposed Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano.

Obama Asks for Vigilance After Attempted Terrorist Attack
Kenneth T. Walsh

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempted attack in which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, whose family is from Nigeria, tried to ignite an explosive but the chemicals failed to detonate. He was subdued by other passengers, and the aircraft landed safely

Northwest Flight 253: Fighting Among Ourselves Helps How
Mary Sanchez

Now might be a good time to remind everyone that terrorists don't literally have to hit their mark to make a mark. Sure, the young Nigerian failed to blow up that Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. His mission foundered on his own bumbling and the quick action of crew and passengers in tamping the flames. But considered from another perspective, he hit the bulls-eye.

Northwest Flight 253: Targeting the Prime Enemy
Jules Witcover

The news of another foiled suicide attack on an American airliner in flight has triggered a new political headache for President Obama, on top of his already overloaded plate of challenges

Northwest Flight 253: Multiple Malfunctions
Cal Thomas

Had it not been for a malfunctioning detonator, nearly 300 people traveling on a Christmas Day flight might have perished. Only the faulty device, along with some fast-acting passengers, prevented a disaster. But the detonator was not the only malfunction in this near-catastrophe.

Obama Decision to Move Guantanamo Detainees Spurs Opposition
Anna Mulrine

President Obama has directed the federal government to buy a maximum-security Illinois prison to hold Guant‡namo Bay detainees setting off what promises to be a spirited Capitol Hill battle with Republicans.

I Survived the GOP Purity Test
Mary Kate Cary

Certainly, the media jumped on reports of a proposed Republican National Committee 'purity test' as only the latest example of GOP extremism. However, the actual content of the 10-point 'purity test' is pretty mainstream. So what is so outrageous ...

2009 Chickens and Their 2010 Roost
Victor Davis Hanson

2009 may seem to have ended relatively quietly for the world. But in foreign relations, in the war against terror, in massive borrowing, and in energy policies, we created chickens that soon will come home to roost in 2010

The Caring Economy and Healthcare as Human Right
Anna Mulrine

'Health care is a human right, and that every citizen ... should have access to health care, just as every citizen has access to the fire department, the police or public schools.' And for a moment the fog of jargon and compromise lifted and a vision of what's possible hovered over Congress. America could return to the task of creating what economist Riane Eisler calls 'the caring economy.'

End of a Woeful Decade
Jules Witcover

Any way you slice it, the decade from 2000 through 2009 was on the whole about as bad a stretch for Americans as many of us have endured in our lifetimes

Year of Living Quotably: Quirky Quotes 2009
Clarence Page

You can tell a lot about a year from its great quotations. In the age of ubiquitous cell phone, surveillance and reality-TV show cameras, this was the year of living famously. Our cup of quirky quotes runneth over. A sampling:

Resolved: Tell the Truth
Cal Thomas

Congress might resolve to tell the truth in 2010. Most members probably know what truth is, but they cannot speak it for fear of offending groups that traffic in lies and fund their re-election campaigns. Lies usually raise more money than the truth. Which brings me to health care reform. Here's some memorable quotes from the 25-day health care debate. And there are some whoppers.

Season's Greetings and We'll See You in Court: The Christmas Wars
Paul Greenberg

It just wouldn't be the holiday season without the annual squabble over Christmas decorations in public places. It's as expected as 'The Little Drummer Boy.' And about as monotonous. But tradition must be observed.

It's Still a Wonderful Life
Paul Greenberg

To many Americans, the Christmas season wouldn't be complete without at least a few scenes from 'It's a Wonderful Life.' The movie wasn't a box-office hit when it was released just after the Second World War, but it's acquired quite a following since -- and even some critical acclaim.

Congress Moves Forward on Media Shield Law
Alex Kingsbury

Legislation designed to protect journalists' confidential sources from being exposed in open court is progressing toward becoming law as the Senate prepares to vote on its version of the shield law. The House passed a version of the bill in March, but objections from the White House and others wary of its national security implications had stalled the Senate's progress until this month

An Elegy for Journalism? The Future of the News and Journalism
Peter Osnos

The twenty-first century has been a traumatic one for journalism. Changes in how people consume news combined with the Great Recession have produced a dark era in journalism. In Losing the News, Alex Jones, addresses how the rise of the Internet and the precipitous decline in advertising have left print journalism in desperate straits.

The New Energy Order
David G. Victor and Linda Yueh

The last decade has seen an extraordinary shift in expectations for the world energy system. After a long era of excess capacity prices for oil and most energy commodities have risen sharply and become more volatile. As such, a crisis is looming which will be difficult to resolve.

Internet Slip Leads to Trouble for TSA
Alex Kingsbury

The TSA placed five employees on administrative leave and launched a full review to determine how an improperly redacted copy of the agency's manual for airport security screening was published on a publicly accessible website for government contractors.

Anti-Gun Rumor Is Wrong
Paul Bedard

It's a rumor spreading like wildfire: Secret legislation signed by the president will tax all guns, require owners to be fingerprinted, require all guns be reported to the IRS, and bar gun ownership by Americans over 60. Unlikely as it is that lawmakers could secretly pass anti-gun legislation, stranger things have happened in Washington. So is it true?

America Through the Reality Lens
Jonah Goldberg

Culturally, this has been the decade of the reality show. And what do we have to show for it? Not much more than the contestants themselves.

Merry Christmas, Not Happy Holidays
Henry E. Brown

Communities across the country are abuzz with the 'acceptable' way to observe this holiday season, but why should those who celebrate Christmas feel pressure to say 'Season's greetings' or 'Happy holidays,' reluctant to express traditional Christmas words of good cheer?

Commercialism Only Adds to Joy of the Holidays
Onkar Ghate

I'm an atheist, and I love Christmas. If you think that's a contradiction, think again. Christmas serves as a time to reconnect with cherished family and friends, to share important events of the past year, and to look forward to the next.

William Eggers discusses his book If We Can Put a Man on the Moon
Jessica Rettig

The majority of Americans do not believe that the federal government is capable of major policy initiatives. After studying 75 major U.S. policy initiatives since World War II, William D. Eggers and John O'Leary wrote "If We Can Put a Man on the Moon...Getting Big Things Done in Government." Eggers discusses th book with Jessica Rettig

Journalism: Desperate Metaphors, Revenue Models and the Need for Better Journalism
Arianna Huffington

Apparently, some in the old media have decided that it is, in fact, an either/or game and that the best way to save, if not journalism, at least themselves, is by pointing fingers and calling names. It's a tactic familiar to schoolyard inhabitants everywhere: when all else fails, reach for the nearest insult and throw it around indiscriminately.

TSA to Conduct Full Review After Sensitive Information Leak
Alex Kingsbury

TSA officials say that a full review is underway to determine how a 2008 copy of its standard operating procedures for all airport security checkpoints was released in its entirety on the Internet.

Senate Report Revisits Osama bin Laden's Great Escape
Alex Kingsbury

Less than a month after the 9/11 attacks, the military began bombing al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan. It was the start of a campaign orchestrated by the CIA and Special Forces troops that quickly ousted the ruling Taliban from power but led to an insurgency that continues today

Assigning Blame in the White House Crasher Scandal
Reader Comments

It is terrifying that someone could get past 'security' and get that close to some of the most powerful people in the world

 

(c) Nancy Ohanian

'The Great Global Security Underwriter' Will Pay a High Price
William Pfaff

Most surveys on America's two current wars and on foreign policy generally, find majority support for staying at home and minding America's own business. Especially now, when it has become no longer possible to treat the national deficit as if it doesn't matter, and when the president has just ordered another 'surge' of troops to the Afghanistan war.

Obama's Surge in Afghanistan Hardly a Surprise
William Pfaff

There was much disappointment about Barack Obama's decision to widen the war in Afghanistan, but there can have been no real surprise. This was not a detached decision on foreign or military policy. It was a matter of domestic politics.

U.S. May Take New Look at 'War on Drugs'
Andres Oppenheimer

In a tacit admission that current U.S. anti-drug policies are not working, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to create an independent commission to review whether the U.S. anti-drug policies of the past three decades in Latin America are producing positive results. What's interesting about the planned independent drug policy commission ...

Financial Crisis, Enron, Hurricane Katrina Examples of Leadership Gone Wrong
Tamara Lytle

The New Orleans masses who huddled in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina, the Enron retirees who lost their life savings, and the laid-off workers buried under the economic ruin of financial companies all live with a simple truth. Just as spectacularly as great leadership can spark success, failed leadership can bring down cities, businesses, and economies

Crisis Management: Leading Successfully Through the Storm
Bret Schulte

Contemporary examples of strong crisis leadership are in surprisingly short supply, experts say. And all too often, the reaction to a crisis is to hunker down and ride it out. But there are a few modern standouts, especially in the business world.

How to Fix the Financial System: Let Federal Reserve oversee new regulations for finance giants
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

In the grip of our Great Recession, with more job losses to come, we have yet to fix the broken financial system that is an underlying cause of this whole mess. How can we do it?

Holder Defends Civilian Trials for Terror Suspects
Alex Kingsbury

Since Obama took office 10 months ago, the Justice Department has been deciding which suspected terrorists will be handled by the military and which will face civilian trials, as the prison at Guant‡namo Bay continues to empty at Obama's direction

New York Terrorism Trial Will Show U.S. at Its Best
Robert Schlesinger

My first reaction when I heard that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and four of his cohorts would be tried in federal court in my hometown of New York was: Of course we're using our justice system. We're America. That's just how we roll. It's a flip response, but it's also true.

Congress and Pentagon Look for Answers After Fort Hood
Anna Mulrine

The White House refused the invitation for administration officials to testify at the first hearing on the Fort Hood shootings, but Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut Independent, forged ahead. Across town, the Pentagon, in what many saw as a textbook move of political preemption, announced it would be launching its own investigation into the rampage that killed 13 people.

The Good Soldiers: U.S. Troops and the Wounds of War in Baghdad
Anna Mulrine

The 2nd Battalion of the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division -- the 2-16, as it's called -- spent 15 months in 2007 and 2008 in one of the toughest areas of Baghdad at the height of the surge. David Finkel chronicles their story in The Good Soldiers

We Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Victor Davis Hanson

High unemployment, the recession and a terrorist resurgence in Afghanistan are bad enough. But there are a number of problems on the horizon that could dwarf President Obama's first-year trials. Why the pessimism? In short, we are doing nothing to prepare for the crises to come.

The War on the Book
Paul Greenberg

In Ashburnham, Massachusetts, a prep school has just given up on books. The headmaster of Cushing Academy, one James Tracy, doesn't see any need for them. Not any more. Anybody who's anybody or wants to be now has an iPhone with apps, a Kindle or whatever the Next Big Thing turns out to transiently be. Who needs books?

Levi Johnston's 15 Minutes Are Up
Carl Hiaasen

Times are hard, but the pathway to fame in America has never been easier. No talent is required -- you can go on a shooting spree, give birth to octuplets or launch a homemade balloon from your backyard and tell the cops that your little boy is trapped inside. Exhibit A is Levi Johnston, who ascended to stardom by knocking up Sarah Palin's oldest daughter

Terror Trials Are Our Defining Moment
Leonard Pitts Jr.

If critics of Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his terrorist confederates in a New York City courtroom would be honest with themselves, they'd admit that this is what drives their condemnation, not questions of security, fears of acquittal or other obfuscatory concerns they've raised.

Trying Terrorists in U.S. is Dangerous
Cal Thomas

The Obama administration has chosen the wrong New York venue to try five co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Instead of a Manhattan courtroom less than a mile from the site of where the World Trade Center stood, the government should have chosen the Bronx Zoo, because a zoo is what will be created when this terrorist trial is held.

Civilian Courts Fight Terrorists, Too
Clarence Page

Terrorists by definition try to frighten you into changing the way you do things. In the run-up to his trial as alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed's success as a terrorist is showing in us. A lot of good patriotic law-'n'-order Americans suddenly sound frightened by our own civilian judicial system.

It's No Way to Fight a War on Terror
Jonah Goldberg

I get where President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder are coming from. They think that if we change our way of life, the terrorists will have won. In principle, I agree. If upholding our values makes fighting the war on terror harder, then it should be harder

What, No Ticker-Tape Parade?
Paul Greenberg

Why is the Obama administration transferring Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who proudly proclaims himself the mastermind of the September 11 attacks, to a federal district court in New York?

The Politics of Fort Hood
Jonah Goldberg

Let me say up front, I don't think President Obama is to blame for the Fort Hood shootings, and I don't think it's fair to say otherwise. But (you knew there had to be a 'but'), that doesn't mean Obama won't pay a political price for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's rampage.

Fort Hood: The Scapegoat Syndrome
Paul Greenberg

A familiar pattern emerges after every treacherous assault on this country. The surprise attack is dissected not just to learn who wreaked all the havoc, but who was responsible for missing the clues that it was coming.

Isolated Incident at Fort Hood
Robert Koehler

Moving forward from the Fort Hood massacre, three narratives -- well, one of them is no more than the familiar, all-purpose shrug of experts, puzzled over yet another 'isolated incident' -- are vying to explain what happened and set the direction of our future

Same Old, Same Old at Fort Hood
Victor Davis Hanson

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is accused of murdering 13 people (12 of whom were soldiers) and wounding another 30 at Fort Hood, Texas. We now see that authorities had, or should have had, reason to be suspicious of Hasan

Tale of Two Journalists
Mary Sanchez

Are journalistic standards holding up under the stresses the profession is facing? Two recent events offer an opportunity for reflection.

U.S. is Striking Back in the Global Cyberwar
Alex Kingsbury and Anna Mulrine

The two-day 'Cyberdawn' exercise, one of the country's premier electronic war games. It is run with the help of volunteers by the private firm White Wolf Security, which also arranges closed war games for some federal agencies. The chance to test their cyberskills has attracted groups from private companies as well as the U.S. military

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Investigates College Admission Bias
Zach Miners

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is investigating whether college admission offices are discriminating against female applicants to achieve gender balance in their student bodies.

Public Transportation and Fast Commutes: Harder to Find Than You Might Think
Matthew Bandyk

As clogged as our highways are, driving is generally a much faster method of commuting than public transportation. Nationwide, the average time for driving alone to work is 24 minutes, while for public transportation, it is 48.3 minutes

Cities for People Who Hate Driving and Long Commutes
Matthew Bandyk

Even though the recession has made it hard to move, many Americans are still trying to flee their cul-de-sacs and long freeway commutes for walkable neighborhoods closer to public transportation and their jobs

Moves to Seize Mosques Spark Outrage
Dan Gilgoff and Alex Kingsbury

Government authorities had long suspected that the Alavi charitable foundation, associated with the late shah of Iran, was linked to the country's current ruling theocracy

Supreme Court Weighs Juvenile Life Sentences
Alex Kingsbury

Four years ago, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-to-4 decision that executing anyone for a crime committed when he or she was younger than 18 is unconstitutional. On Monday, lawyers arguing on behalf of two Florida prisoners tried to convince the court that the rationale behind the death penalty decision also should extend to life sentences because they are equivalent to executions behind bars.

United States: Single-eyed Vision
Robert C. Koehler

The promise the United States once represented to the world has spent itself, and what we have to offer in terms of opportunity, or at least hope, is overshadowed by the spreading shadow of our hubris. And it's all coming home to roost.

Shock and Sadness After Fort Hood Shootings
Anna Mulrine

It was not a place they expected to be attacked. Soldiers tote their rifles with them everywhere when they are at war but generally not when they are in America. "As a matter of practice, we don't carry weapons here," said Army Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the base commander of Fort Hood in Texas. "This is our home."

Jihadists in the Military - Fort Hood Shootings
Cal Thomas

No amount of evidence -- from Koran verses urging the killing of 'infidels,' to cries of 'God is great,' reportedly shouted by the alleged Ft. Hood shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan -- will cure our self-deception. Sun Tzu famously wrote that all war is deception. But it takes two to deceive and the United States is behaving like a willing partner

Human Survival The Twin Brother of Nuclear Annihilation
Robert C. Koehler

Whether the underlying premise is faulty or valid, the nuclear weapons industry is here to stay as long as people believe in sufficient numbers that our survival is 'the twin brother of annihilation.'

What the Census Will Get Wrong
Mary Sanchez

The 2010 U.S. Census will shortly be upon us, and by now you may have heard one of the patriotic pitches to comply. Every breathing soul must be tallied during the massive federal endeavor, the national headcount taken every decade. The census is central to the functioning of our democracy, we're told.

Military Contractors and the Perils of Outsourcing War
Alex Kingsbury

Half the U.S. presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is made up not of soldiers, marines, and airmen but of private contractors. And although contractors are not combat troops, almost 1,800 of them have been killed since 9/11. Allison Stanger says this is a dangerous and unprecedented outsourcing of foreign policy that bodes ill for the future of the nation. Her latest book, One Nation Under Contract

Woman's Place Is at the Pentagon
Anna Mulrine

The ranks of American women in defense have grown over the years. Michele Flournoy, the under secretary of defense for policy, is the No. 3 civilian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, outranking all of the U.S. military combatant commanders. Women now make up 37 percent of the Defense Department's civil labor force and about 12 percent of its active-duty military rank

Today's U.S. Army and Its Ambitions
William Pfaff

It is possible that the creation of an all-professional American army was the most dangerous decision ever taken by Congress. The nation now confronts a political crisis in which the issue has become an undeclared contest between Pentagon power and that of a newly elected president.

Viewing the Cost of War
Jules Witcover

President Obama's middle-of-the-night visit to Dover Air Force Base to view the return of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan was a dignified recognition of their sacrifice. But it also was a reminder to him of the human stakes in his long deliberations on the course to take in the war triggered by the 9/11 terrorist attacks of eight years ago.

Voting Present on Illegal Immigration
Victor Davis Hanson

Immigration activists are demanding that President Obama deliver on his promised comprehensive package of immigration reform. However, expect the public to oppose any so-called comprehensive immigration reform even more vehemently than it did George Bush's 2007 doomed proposals. Here's why ...

Three Dangerous Stooges: Gadhafi, Ahmadinejad & Chavez
Victor Davis Hanson

Recenty, three dictators -- from Iran, Libya and Venezuela -- delivered lunatic hate speeches at the UN General Assembly. Why do these dictators feel so free to damn America from downtown New York? Why do their abettors spurn our requests for help? And why do creepy regimes plot to get nukes, and fund terrorists? Easy. They do not fear, much less listen ...

A Simple Plan for Killing al Qaeda
Alex Kingsbury Interviews Howard Clark

Howard Clark's answer is to both amplify the nihilism of its message and promote moderate Islamic voices. Clark, a former marine who served two tours in Iraq, now works as a consultant on counter-terrorism problems for the Department of Defense. He is also president and founder of Seventh Pillar, a nonprofit that seeks to combat al Qaeda's ideology. He recently spoke about his three-part plan for strengthening moderates and defeating extremists

Golden Opportunity to Declaw Patriot Act
Robyn Blumner

You remember the USA Patriot Act, don't you? It was that 342-page bill that sped through a supplicant Congress within weeks of 9/11, dismantling our privacy rights like a castoff Hollywood set. A reauthorization in 2006 made some things better and some worse, but mostly the law stayed the same -- really bad for American freedom. Well, it is time to revisit the Patriot act

The Long War (September 11, 2001 -- )
Paul Greenberg

This long, long war now enters its ninth year, counting from that fateful September morning when everything changed, or was supposed to change. After that terrible morning, not even the blindest could deny that America had been attacked. Yet this war had been going on for years. The same enemy had launched earlier attacks in Somalia, against U.S. embassies in Africa, and off the coast of Yemen against the USS Cole.

Culture War, Literally
Leonard Pitts Jr

I don't know who coined the term 'culture war' to describe our political divisions, but I'm reasonably sure he or she intended it only as a figure of speech. It feels like something else in light of a new report which monitors extremist groups. 'Terror From the Right' is a listing of bombers, killers, would-be assassins and insurrectionists motivated by anger over abortion, gays, taxes, blacks, Muslims and illegal immigrants. Which raises an obvious fair and balanced question: What about terror from the left?

Why Do I Mistrust Fox? Let Me Count the Ways
Leonard Pitts Jr

Fox News is in a class by itself. In its epidemic inaccuracy, its ongoing disregard for basic journalistic standards of fairness, its demagogic appeals and its blatantly ideological promotions it is, indeed, unique -- a news source in name only. That's not just an opinion: a 2003 study found Fox viewers more likely to be misinformed than those who get their news elsewhere.

How the Lowest-Paid Workers Get Ripped Off
Liz Wolgemuth

According to a new study, the average low-wage urban worker earning $339 a week is cheated out of $51 of that amount by an employer committing one or more workplace violations--such as paying less than minimum wage, refusing overtime pay, requiring off-the-clock work, or preventing workers compensation claims.

Pitchfork Populists Play Press for Putzes -- Again
Mary Sanchez

The shame of the health care reform debate is not that citizens are coming unglued -- although some of them certainly are. It's that the media can't seem to get enough of the outbursts of a handful of vocal people at town hall meetings across the country. We seem to have lost our way, suckered into showing the footage over and over again, so that the protests are the story, period.

No Charity for Child Predators
Leonard Pitts Jr.

We lack consensus on what to do with sexual predators. From the Catholic Church shielding pederastic priests to the profusion of databases that let you check if your neighbor is a sex offender, to the pseudo celebrity enjoyed by Mary Kay Letourneau when she married her former student Vili Fualaau, whom she raped when he was 12 and she was 34, our responses scream irresolution.

Michael Leiter Works to Keep Tabs on Terrorists
Alex Kingsbury

In his current job as head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Michael Leiter is again in the business of interfering with the enemy. But instead of radar units in the former Yugoslavia or air defenses in Iraq, the adversary is global terrorist networks. And rather than scramble enemy communications, he is coming up with new strategies to match the new attitudes in the intelligence community.

Biofuel Technology and Performance Issues Could Slow Acceptance
Ari Axelrod

Biofuels are a conundrum. Their potential advantages are undeniable: reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, lessening of our dependency on imported oil, support of domestic agriculture. And they certainly have their supporters. The Obama administration repeatedly affirmed its backing of rapid development of alternative energy sources, including biofuels. Still, the hurdles are high.

America's 10 Best Places to Grow Up
Luke Mullins

Low crime, strong schools, green spaces, and fun activities are key ingredients for a happy childhood. So we dug into our database of 2,000 different places all across the country and pinpointed the locales that met these criteria. We then examined these communities more closely to determine which places offered the best combination ...

Frustrated Baby Boomers Alienated from the Political Debate
by Mary Kate Cary

There's a big disconnect in politics right now. The older baby boomers, the ones in their 50s and 60s, are increasingly left out of the political discourse. That crowd is part of the biggest demographic segment of our population -- more than a quarter of our citizens. They're dismayed that their local newspaper -- if it still exists -- places more emphasis on obituaries and local real estate news. Any national news is buried somewhere far from the front page. They feel like they can't get issue-oriented policy news anymore and are ...

GT RT BCK TO U -
(c) Dana Summers

Put the Brakes on Driving While Texting
Leonard Pitts Jr.

The amazing thing about the debate over the need for laws to ban texting while driving is that there is a debate over the need for laws to ban texting while driving. In the first place, you'd think you wouldn't need a law, that simple common sense would be enough to tell us it's unsafe to divert attention to a tiny keyboard and screen while simultaneously piloting two tons of metal, rubber, glass and, let us not forget, flesh, at freeway speeds -- or even street speeds.

The Call of the Highway (From a Cell Phone)
Garrison Keillor

In Minnesota it's illegal to text-message while driving -- trying to type on a tiny keypad at 70 mph is crazy -- but it's legal to make calls while driving, which in my case means removing my glasses so I can see to scroll down the directory while steering with my knees at 70 mph. I call up my mother while driving, which is exciting for her since she is 94 and remembers when phones were attached to the wall and you talked on them while standing still. 'Is that safe?' she says.

Working to Improve the Economy
Kenneth T. Walsh Interviews Christina Romer

Christina Romer -- chairwoman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers -- recently spoke with Kenneth T. Walsh about what has gone wrong, when an economic recovery might occur, and what it's like to work with President Obama.

Our Angry Aristocracy
Victor Davis Hanson

Scolding Americans for our various sins is proving popular among an elite group of self-appointed moralists. Take well-meaning environmentalists who warn us that our plush lifestyles heat up and pollute the planet. Elite critics in the business of racial grievance offer the same contradictions. Then we have other aristocrats on the barricades railing about the economic inequality of America.

America's Homeland Security Surplus
William Pfaff

Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama's secretary of Homeland Security gave a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, meant to convince American civil libertarians and security specialists that the country can be kept safe, and neighborly as well.

Janet Napolitano's Tough Job at Homeland Security
Alex Kingsbury

Chief among the issues Janet Napolitano will have to address is defining a mission for her agency. Rather than a well-oiled machine responsible for keeping America safe after 9/11, as Bush administration officials claimed, Homeland Security is actually an organizational mess, says homeland security expert Stephen Flynn

Declassified Documents Reveal KGB Spies in U.S.
Alex Kingsbury

In the two decades since the end of the Cold War, various archives in formerly Communist countries have been opened to historians, who have eagerly pored over their files in the hopes of fitting more pieces into the Cold War's most vexing jigsaw puzzles. A new history of Soviet espionage in America full advantage of a brief peek at one of the crown jewels of Cold War history, the brown and green file folders of the KGB's American Department.

California's Dysfunctional Democracy Leaves Bleak Budget, Future
Mortimer B. Zuckerman

For decades, California was the state of dreams, the home of Hollywood, sunshine, and a boom that extended from defense spending to dot com and high tech, one that produced the revenue to invest state dollars in schools, universities, and freeways. It became America's fastest-growing large state. Now it is an object lesson for the whole nation on what not to do.

President Obama
(Samantha Appleton)

Obama's Approval Ratings Show a Summer Slump
Kenneth T. Walsh

President Obama got some good news this week.

His nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court was approved by the Senate on a 68 to 31 vote. She is the first Latina on the high court, and her confirmation is a definite victory for the new administration.

But Sotomayor's approval masks some serious problems for Obama. In short, he is in a summer slump as the President's first priority, legislation to overhaul the health-care system, is still running into trouble on Capitol Hill.

Obama Doctrine: Spread Freedom? Not so Much
by Jonah Goldberg

The Obama Administration has made it clear that spreading freedom is so much ideological foolishness. Before the inauguration, he told The Washington Post that he was concerned with "actually delivering a better life for people on the ground and less obsessed with form, more concerned with substance." There's merit to this view in principle, though Obama seems to be thinking about "economic justice" more than a free society. But in practice, when American presidents say they don't care about democracy, tyrants rejoice.

House Buys Time for Transportation Overhaul
Amanda Ruggeri

By passing a $7 billion patch for the Highway Trust Fund, many in the House of Representatives hope they've bought themselves enough time to pass a massive transportation spending bill that would reshape both how America's transportation operates and how it's funded. But with the administration and the Senate opposed to passing the larger bill now, it might not be enough to get the $500 billion package through Congress -- at least not before the current law expires this fall.

Women Sell Their Eggs, So Why Not a Kidney
Amanda Ruggeri

I was as upset as anyone by the allegations of organ selling associated with New Jersey's recent corruption scandal resulting in more than 40 arrests. But a Wall Street Journal column this week calling for more incentives for folks to donate organs makes the issue seem more complex than at first blush.

Is the Economic Marriage Between China and U.S. on the Rocks?
Niall Ferguson Interview

China and America had effectively fused to become a single economy: Chimerica. The Chinese did the saving, the Americans the spending. The Chinese did the exporting, the Americans the importing. The Chinese did the lending, the Americans the borrowing. As the Chinese strategy was based on export-led growth, they had no desire to see their currency appreciate against the dollar. The unintended effect of this was to help finance the U.S. current account deficit at very low interest rates. Without that, it's hard to believe that U.S. financial markets would have bubbled the way they did from 2002 to 2007.

Boomers, Housing and Retirement:
A Symbiotic Relationship Unravels
By Mark Miller

The housing market is showing some tentative signs of recovery. But if you're a baby boomer relying on housing wealth to help fund retirement, don't hold your breath. True, the most recent Standard and Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index showed that U.S. home prices rose in May on a month-to-month basis for the first time since July 2006. But that shouldn't be taken as a sign that the market is going to rebound to pre-crash levels anytime soon. At best, the Case-Shiller index hints that we may have found a bottom in housing. Maybe

 

healthcare reform

Hard Choices on Healthcare Reform
by Mortimer B. Zuckerman

In the 1980s, if you had a heart attack and got to the hospital, you had about a 60 percent chance of living a year. Today, it is over 90 percent. We have been able to transform the health of the American public because of the rapid development of new medicines and technology. These innovations have come at a cost: They are responsible for as much as two thirds of the annual spending increases in healthcare. We'd like to get back to the costs of 1980, but nobody is willing to go back to 1980 medicine

Healthcare Reform's Effect on You
by Bernadine Healy M.D.

Some elements might change before a final healthcare bill is in hand, but enough common threads have emerged for people to look beyond the headlines for an idea of how the new healthcare system will affect them personally. For starters, consider these seven ways in which your healthcare experience is apt to change ...

Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a Question of Eugenics
by Jonah Goldberg

Ginsburg was surprised when the Supreme Court in 1980 barred taxpayer support for abortions for poor women. After all, if poverty partly described the population you had "too many of," you would want to subsidize it in order to expedite the reduction of unwanted populations. Left unclear is whether Ginsburg endorses the eugenic motivation she ascribed to the passage of Roe v. Wade or whether she was merely objectively describing it

Walter Cronkite On Assignment
(c) Paul Conrad

Walter Cronkite Dies at 92
Brian Lowry

Walter Cronkite died Friday at the age of 92, but the kind of journalism he represented -- tough, spare, serious -- has been on the wane since he left the anchor's chair.

As anchor of 'The CBS Evening News,' Cronkite was often referred to as 'the most trusted man in America.'

When he spoke out against the Vietnam War on the air, President Lyndon Johnson famously remarked, 'If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America.' TV news anchors in those days were deeply respected figures on the American landscape -- Cronkite most of all. Today, the leading news anchors have been seriously diminished.

 

We're Too Self-Absorbed Today to Dream of the Moon
Mitch Albom

We heard Neil Armstrong say "One small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind" and when the shadowy spaceman seemed settled on ground, we all clapped, because it felt like that's what we should do, clap for something great. And it was something great. I have been trying to figure out why that moment, July 20, 1969, still resonates with me, still gives me goose bumps 40 years later, and why, on the anniversary of that event Monday, it seems as if I'll never feel that way again.

 

Political History of the Stars & Stripes
by Andrew Burt

The history of the American flag is the story of a nation struggling to find its identity, Woden Teachout argues in her new book, Capture the Flag: A Political History of American Patriotism. Teachout, a professor of graduate studies in history and culture at the online Union Institute and University, recently spoke about the evolving meaning of the flag in American culture.

On Terror 'No-Fly' List, But Still Buying Guns
Clarence Page

For gun purchasers, should "no-fly" mean "no buy?" People on the government's terrorist watch list tried to buy guns almost 1,000 times in the last five years, a federal study finds. In nine out of 10 cases, federal authorities let them do it, the report finds, because there was no legal way to stop them. And that appears to be OK with the gun lobby

Break Political Traffic Jam on Transportation Overhaul
Joshua Schank and Matthew Dallek

Any transportation project, including the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska, creates jobs. However, transportation has become a policy orphan amid the healthcare tsunami that's overwhelmed the news coverage of Obama's America. Thus, stalling all the economic benefits that flow from enacting a revitalized transportation policy.

Supreme Court: Strip Search of 13-Year-Old Unconstitutional
by Zach Miners

In a decision that could have significant implications for school administrators' ability to keep their campuses safe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, 8 to 1, this week that the strip search of a 13-year-old Arizona girl by school officials who were looking for prescription-strength drugs violated her constitutional rights.

America's New Energy Dependency: China's Metals
by Kent Garber

America's Clean-energy economy needs rare-earth metals to succeed and China has a near monopoly. In 2007, a standoff unfolded between China and several American companies. China was threatening to withhold supplies that keep refiners in business. A worried State Department intervened. Because the metals come almost exclusively from China, if the government had not acted, sources say, oil refineries could have been forced to shut down, possibly triggering shortages across the country.

Yucca Mountain: Harry Reid Declares Nevada Nuclear Containment Facility Dead
Robert Bryce

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared that Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada where the federal government has been planning to store high-level radioactive waste, is "never going to open." Reid may be right. President Obama's 2010 budget nearly zeroes out federal funding for the waste site.

Bulldozing American Cities: Shrink to Survive Flint, Michigan Program
by Cal Thomas

There are perhaps dozens of small towns and failing neighborhoods beginning to resemble ghost towns. The Obama administration reportedly is considering whether to broaden an experimental shrink to survive program in Flint, Mich., -- one of the nation's poorest cities -- that proposes to raze districts within some cities and towns while bulldozing others in their entirety.

Immigration Reform Now Moves to Center Stage
Nikki Schwab and Paul Bedard

It has been delayed twice and is flying in under the healthcare debate, but the president and a select group of lawmakers are finally talking about immigration reform.

5 Things to Know About the Employee Free Choice Act
Liz Wolgemuth

The heated debate over the merits of the Employee Free Choice Act is particularly poignant for both union leaders and business interests, as it plays out during a recession that has ransacked corporate profits but sharpened the perception of high times that excluded workers in favor of shareholders and executives.

The Pentagon's Wasting Assets
by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr.

Several events in recent years have demonstrated that traditional means and methods of projecting power and accessing the global commons are growing increasingly obsolete--becoming "wasting assets," in the language of defense strategists

Safety Board Says D.C. Metro Should Have Replaced Train: Nine people died in the worst crash in the Metro's 33-year history
by Queenie Wong

A federal safety investigator says that the older subway train that slammed into the back of another on Washington's Metro system yesterday, killing nine people and injuring at least 70, should have been replaced years ago because of safety concerns.

10 Pricey Cities That Pay Off: The 'Amenity Value' of 10 cities
by Matthew Bandyk

When you pay a lot of money for something, you hope to get a lot of value in return. So why are people willing to pay a fortune to live in certain places. According to a recent working paper from University of Michigan economist David Albouy, there's a great deal of value to be found in those high prices -- in other words, "amenity value," which measures the amount of satisfaction the asset brings to its owner.

Editorial Cartoon by David Horsey

Waiting for the Payoff:
Debate Continues Over Obama's Recovery Plan
by Justin Ewers

When Obama took office, many economists were skeptical about how the largely untested former senator would handle the array of economic problems before him. While there certainly has been no shortage of quibbling about the specifics of his recovery plans and there continues to be little certainty about what lies in store for the economy

Ray LaHood: 'Transformational' Time for U.S. Transit System
Amanda Ruggeri

Four months into his new position as secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood has a great deal on his plate. Given everything that is going on right now, is this a watershed moment for transportation?

Tax Cuts: Why Obama is Leaving the Reagan Era Behind
by Justin Ewers

As similar as the economic challenges facing Reagan and Obama may sound, the fiscal solutions proposed by the two presidents could not be more different. Obama has gone on a Keynesian spending spree, raising taxes on the highest-income earners and pouring money into energy, healthcare, and a massive stimulus bill. Reagan took the opposite path during his first few months in office, pushing through the biggest tax cuts in history, while massively increasing the defense budget. Politicians have been arguing ever since about which approach works better.

In Defense of Civil Rights:
Justice Department renews fight against discrimination after years of neglect
by Alex Kingsbury

It is a telling reflection of the priorities of the last president that one of the few civil rights cases before the nation's high court this year is a reverse discrimination case.

Facing the Race Factor:
Civil rights leaders want Obama to talk more about racial inequality
by Justin Ewers

It took a remarkably long time before someone finally popped the question. At a press conference in March, two months after he had moved into the White House, Barack Obama was asked for the first time to describe how his race has affected his presidency.

Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation - Supreme Folly
Jules Witcover

Those 31 Republican senators who stretched out on the tracks and let the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor run over them may somehow feel better for the gesture. But the political pain could linger afterward.

Chances are her confirmation in spite of them as the first Hispanic-American on the highest court will be remembered -- with help from the Democrats -- when the nation's largest-growing ethnic bloc troops to the polls next year, and again in 2012.

Saint Sonia the Obscure - Triumph of the Opaque
Paul Greenberg

The Sonia Sotomayor Show before the Senate Judiciary Committee has ended, yet it lingers in the mind -- like a fading hangover. Yet it is still capable of setting off a sudden jab of pain somewhere in the cerebral cortex. Especially when recalling how Her Honor could dive into the murkiest legalese to avoid answering the simplest question.

Sotomayor Hearings Remind Us Republicans Can Be Judicial Activists
Robert Schlesinger

"Judicial activist" typically refers to judges who go beyond ruling according to the existing law by using their decisions to create new laws from the bench, disregarding legal precedents and legislators' intent. Judicial activists, critics complain, discern heretofore unseen rights and governmental powers in the Constitution. It is a long-standing conservative cudgel. However, ...

Moving Beyond Bush's War on Terrorism
Obama Changed Tone, But There is Some Surprising Continuity
by Alex Kingsbury

Perhaps the most dramatic shift when it comes to terrorism is simply that it is not dominating the White House agenda in the same way it did for the past seven years. Intelligence officials warn that al Qaeda remains a persistent national threat, but the terrorist network has been overshadowed in Obama's early months by the global economic crisis, among other challenges.

Editorial Cartoon by David Horsey

Obama's Uphill Battle to Reform Healthcare
by Kent Garber

President Obama stood at a podium flanked by six healthcare leaders and announced what he called "a watershed event in the long and elusive quest for healthcare reform." Obama, by almost any account, had just scored what appeared to be a major concession from several of the country's biggest healthcare players

 

When Healthcare Reform Hits Grandma
by Bernadine Healy M.D.

Obama has laid the groundwork for a massive overhaul of America's healthcare system into a more publicly managed, cost-conscious enterprise that focuses more on wellness than sickness. Driving most government outlays, however, are the many millions of Americans, particularly the elderly, with extremely resource-intensive chronic diseases.

However, what's tried and true, is the government's power to restrict reimbursement and change medical behavior. Medicare, which covers virtually all of the elderly, can say "No" to expensive treatments. That's great if the care is unnecessary. But you can't always tell if you're not at the bedside.

Government-run Healthcare Insurance Program Sure to Backfire
by Phil Gingrey, M.D.

My fear is that creating a government-run health insurance plan wouldn't guarantee quality care by physicians -- in fact, it will not guarantee care at all. The quality of care in a government-run health plan may seem irrelevant to those individuals who are happy with the coverage they currently have -- after all, President Obama promised during his campaign that, "If you like the plan you have, you can keep it." But most individuals don't really have their own health coverage -- they get it from their employers.

Obama Blazing New Trail With His Bold Moves on Economy
by Kenneth T. Walsh

For most Americans, Barack Obama 's most vivid presidential moment came on election night. Since that electric Chicago night back in November, he has pivoted from poetry to prose, playing down charisma and emphasizing competence. And he has moved with impressive speed to focus on the nation's No. 1 problem: the recession and the collapsing financial industry, widely considered the worst economic calamity since the Depression. In the process, Obama is pushing the political pendulum from the conservative approach of Ronald Reagan, who said government was the problem, to a more liberal philosophy that holds that only Washington has the wherewithal to provide the answers.

Don Wright

What Does the Future Hold for GOP?
Future of the Republican Party by Jonah Goldberg

Compare and contrast Jack Kemp, one of the architects of the Reagan Revolution, who passed away last weekend at the age of 73; and Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania senator who switched parties.

Kemp's death should be cause for deep reflection about what the Republican Party is about. Specter's defection is much less significant.

The Jack Kemp I Knew
by Cal Thomas

Many have commented on the life and legacy of Jack Kemp -- the former Buffalo, N.Y., congressman, former vice presidential candidate, former HUD secretary, former professional football star and a friend for life to all those who knew him. Next to Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp was probably the most optimistic Republican I knew.

We Need a Hero
Future of the GOP & Conservatives by Jonah Goldberg

We conservatives are having one of our grand, knock-down, drag-out fights over the future of conservatism and the GOP. Should conservatives compromise on gay marriage or abortion rights? Should we jump on the environmental bandwagon? Are there ways to reform health care without abandoning our principles? What would Reagan do?

Frankly, I love these arguments. I think they are healthy and good for conservatism and the country. One of the things I love about conservatives is that we have these internal debates more often than the Five Families went to war in "The Godfather."

We Are What We Are
by Garrison Keillor

When I heard former Vice President Cheney talk about the meaning of Republicanism the other day -- "We are what we are," he said -- I felt drawn to the simplicity and dignity of that. And I have never been a Republican, just as I've never been to South America, and that makes it tempting.

A 'Kinder, Gentler' Recession for Seniors
Mark Miller - Retire Smart

Is the Great Recession bypassing seniors? The Pew Research Center poll reports that Americans over age 65 are less likely to have been forced to cut their spending by the downturn than middle-aged people.

 

What's in the Headlines
by Andy Rooney

Look at these headlines. Does everyone know what the editors are talking about

ALSO from andy rooney:

Once Upon a Time in 2002
by Victor Davis Hanson

Opportunism, not principles, guides most in Washington. Consider also the dexterous Obama administration's own about-face. It still finds it useful to damn the old Bush government's embrace of wiretaps, military tribunals and renditions -- even as it dares not drop or completely discount these apparently useful Bush policies, albeit under new names and with new qualifiers.

 

The Complex Case of Complexity
by Alvin and Heidi Toffler

In an important recent speech, months after the current financial crisis began, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke, placed partial blame for the catastrophe on "the sharp increase in the complexity of the financial products offered to consumers." Unfortunately, his description of the problem comes late and underestimates its importance. ...

Why are Bankers Still Being Treated as Beltway Royalty
by Arianna Huffington

Despite all that I know about the reform-killing power unleashed by the nexus of lobbying, campaign cash and legislation, I have been flabbergasted by the amount of behind-the-scenes influence recently being wielded by the banking lobby.

Could America Suffer Lost Economic Decades?
by Paul A. Samuelson

I am a macro-economist and a realist who expects that, despite excellent programs by the Obama teams and the Democratic Congress, the U.S. and global recovery of real GDP growth and high employment will probably follow a slump measured in years rather than months.

Suppose, however, that I am being too optimistic? Maybe the U.S. could have a "lost decade" like Japan's "lost decade."

 

 

President Obama's First 100 Days