Muslim bashing has become an official part of the Republican playbook. As the New York Times reports on Dec. 21, Newt Gingrich, the erstwhile frontrunner, has declared:

"I believe Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as...

We are in a crisis of governance at the moment not because of excessive partisanship or lack of leadership, but because the American political system has become anti-democratic and dysfunctional. Arcane Senate rules have turned a republican system which already magnifies minority power into intolerable anti-democratic gridlock. A single Senator...

As the Christmas bombing illustrates yet again, we live in a dangerous world. Al Qaeda has had a resurgence in Yemen, where radicalism flourishes and a weak state lacks the ability, if not the will, to prevent it. Young Somalis disappear from the streets in Minnesota and are reported to...

Strolling through the leafy campus of American University of Beirut on a balmy late May evening, I can easily believe I am in Southern California. The buildings are Victorian-era sandstone; the students linger in shorts and T-shirts; a long street of fast food joints and bookstores faces the front gates....

Former Vice President Cheney has masterfully shifted the debate about torture from the realm of law and ethics to that of pure efficacy. Liberal columnist Richard Cohen "has to wonder if what he is saying now is the truth -- i.e., torture works." The famously secretive Cheney is now clamoring...