The administration continues to push the legal envelope beyond reason on detainees, and the federal judiciary continues to smack the administration down. In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being […]
According to the available data, most Americans support abortion rights. That majority gets significantly bigger when Americans are asked whether women impregnated by a rapist should be legally able to terminate their pregnancy. And then there’s Sam Brownback. Sen. Sam Brownback, campaigning for president before the National Catholic Men’s Conference, questioned whether rape victims should […]
As you’ve probably heard, the Senate is poised to consider a non-binding resolution this afternoon, in which the chamber will tell the president it has lost confidence in Alberto Gonzales’ ability to serve as Attorney General. In response, Senate Republicans are expected to present reasonable arguments in defense of Gonzales’ tenure and evidence of the […]
With three admitted skeptics of modern biology seeking the Republican presidential nomination (Huckabee, Brownback, and Tancredo), there’s far more interest than usual in evolution and politics. USA Today added to the interest late last week with a report that showed two-thirds of Americans believe “creationism, the idea that God created humans in their present form […]
We learned last week that the president was staffing up with a new team of eight lawyers in order to help defend the Bush gang from the various charges they’re facing from the various scandals they’ve created. The new additions bring the White House counsel’s office up to 22 lawyers, which is about what Clinton […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * It was odd enough when Mark McKinnon, a senior media adviser to John McCain who also led George W. Bush’s ad efforts in 2000 and 2004, said he’d back Barack Obama if […]
Joel Achenbach had an interesting item yesterday arguing that the extended presidential primary season has led the candidates in both parties to pander shamelessly, in order to offer more “red meat” to their respective bases. I think Achenbach is only half right. We’re already deep into Red Meat Season…. It’s no secret that candidates play […]
At this point, the only thing about this story is why anyone might find it surprising. The Bush administration increasingly emphasized partisan political ties over expertise in recent years in selecting the judges who decide the fate of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, despite laws that preclude such considerations, according to an analysis by The […]
The WaPo had a front-page item on Saturday about U.S. forces, in several instances, aligning themselves with Sunni sectarian militias — including insurgents that have attacked Americans in the past — who are anxious to battle al Qaeda. The Maliki government (and Bush administration policy) has always been that the militias need to disarm, and […]
Bush at a press conference on Saturday: Q: And on the deadline [for Kosovo independence]? Bush: In terms of the deadline, there needs to be one. This needs to come — this needs to happen. Now it’s time, in our judgment, to move the Ahtisaari plan. There’s been a series of delays. You might remember […]