In one week, the U.S. Constitution will be front and center as Barack Obama solemnly swears to "preserve, protect, and defend" it. Given all that has happened over the last eight years, that oath is not nearly as pro-forma as it used to be. During his final press conference yesterday, President Bush said that when it came time "to protect the homeland" he would "worry about the Constitution of the United States." It wasn't clear, as it hasn't been for most of his time in office, whether his concern was directed at upholding the document or circumventing it. So one of the questions facing the new president is: Will his promise to protect and defend the Constitution include an investigation into the assaults on it perpetrated by members of the Bush administration?
Sometimes the people the press thinks of as deviant types are closer to the sphere of consensus than the journalists who are classifying those same people as "fringe."
General Shinseki has the potential to be an effective and dedicated advocate for veterans of all generations. But nobody gets a free pass. The Senate must ensure that he is the right person for a very tough job.
Obama's dinner with conservatives indicates that he is completing the job of detaching the conservative intellectual elite from the GOP itself.
Obama ran as both the candidate of change and the candidate of pragmatism and bipartisan action. So does he tell the story of our economic collapse and what we need to do about it without mentioning that someone actually caused it?
This song popped up at the end of a session in NYC last month. We recorded it that night before we went home. Hope you enjoy this little Shakey Pix video we did last week. I'll be with you on the 20th.
President-elect Obama, we are calling on you to be the president who ushers in the time of women.
This weekend, Bush will have the honor of proclaiming his eighth National Sanctity of Human Life Day; his seventh while US troops are actively engaged in killing people. That's a new record for a president. See, he's not a failure at all.
Help me. I'm confused. Are we supposed to ignore the past, forget finger-pointing and blame-gaming and look forward? Or are we supposed to demand accountability? Or some third option?
The Bush White House and its State Department in their final days continue to be oblivious to irony, or at least to the almost comical aspects of their records and official statements.
We need to help the majority of doctors redesign the way they "do business." That includes changing incentives so that a small minority of physicians don't benefit from doing the wrong thing.
What Blagojevich did is so shocking that it could make "Lincoln turn over in his grave." But Caroline getting the seat because of her zillion-dollar fund raising ability wouldn't do the same?
It occurred to me that maybe more was going on at the site of the 1.1 billion gallon coal ash spill in Tennessee than what I could gather from the news. With an invitation from the community, I decided to make the trip to the disaster site.
After being in it for more than a year, I still don't know what to call it. Is it a recession, a depression, a correction, a downturn? It's the P. Diddy of financial disasters.
Mary Schapiro's advocacy for FINRA's flawed mandatory arbitration process - and her antipathy for investors' rights -- disqualifies her from confirmation as head of the SEC.
In choosing the special Inaugural issue cover, Ms. wanted to capture both the national and feminist mood of high expectations and hope as the 44th President of the United States takes the oath of office.
The Most Efficient Cabinet Selection Process in Modern History could be poised to get scandaltastic, with the nomination of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner hitting a snag over some spicy housekeeper stuff!
The absence of international journalists from the streets of Gaza allowed Israeli spokespersons to spin the rational of the war mostly unopposed.
What Obama should take from the fighting in Gaza and missiles in southern Israel is that high expectations, including your own, can eat you alive.
