Jesse Lava

Has Barack Obama betrayed the progressives who supported him in the 2008 election cycle?

Lefties have been outraged about Obama's repeated lunges to the right -- on the budget, on war, on the rule of law. Yet to hear pundits' tut-tutting response, you'd think these critics are naïfs.

In Politico,...

(updated below)

Elite institution, indeed.

Harvard University, where I'm pursuing a master's in public policy, has now honored Marty Peretz, editor-in-chief of the New Republic and world-class bigot. This honor has come in the form of a $650,000 fund that the Department of Social Studies is creating in...

"You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes, what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind?"

So begins the homepage copy for Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA, a new company that pledges to care for your four-legged fuzzy wuzzies...

Vieques is a small island with a big problem. And the Obama administration is fighting to keep it that way.

A municipality of Puerto Rico just a few miles east of the main island, Vieques has the lamentable distinction of being the venue of six decades of training exercises and...

The words vs. deeds debate continues, this time on health care.

Today, the New York Times's Robin Toner purports to show the differences between Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the issue. He frames the topic in the familiar way: Republicans want to "empower consumers to buy it...

Rev. Rob Schenk of the National Clergy Council leveled below-the-belt broadsides against the leading Democratic presidential candidates after their faith-focused forum last week. He kept to the passé script about abortion and homosexuality being litmus test issues. I called Rev. Schenk's press contact, Dane Rose, to ask for...

Shocking: giant agribusiness is more concerned with lining its pockets than with saving lives.

This time, AIDS patients in Africa are going hungry because the U.S. says they have to buy expensive gruel from heavily subsidized American companies. Never mind the fact that African farmers have plenty of food...

There's now a bomb-resistant vehicle called an MRAP that protects our troops far better than up-armored Humvees do. Evidently, no soldier has ever died in one. But, surprise, surprise, the Bush administration is willing to pay for a mere fraction of the number needed. United Press International:

"The...

UNICEF's latest report on child well-being shows the U.S. failing miserably.

The report looked at six factors: material well-bring, health and safety, education, family and peer relationships, behaviors and risks, and kids' own perceptions of their well-being. The U.S. showed up 20th out of 21 countries surveyed. We...

America's self-proclaimed values mavens will gather in D.C. this weekend for what they call the Values Voter Summit. Among the values-driven speakers will be Ann "Kill Jack Murtha" Coulter and Newt "The Sanctity of Three Marriages" Gingrich. No major Democrats will speak, and Zell Miller doesn't count.

But

To say both that I am a Democrat and that I trust in Jesus Christ should be a rather uncontroversial statement. But somehow the Christian-Democrat combination has come to seem paradoxical among the political chattering classes.

The truth is millions of us Christians are Democrats not in spite of...