This column is for those of you who despair about "activist" judges becoming the Bush administration's echo chamber and look to Congress to solve the nation's problems. Here are a few things you might want to think about:

Since Dubya launched our "global war on terror," it was not Congress...

As a new report forecasts that the 190,000 private contractors in Iraq and neighboring countries will cost U.S. taxpayers more than $100 billion by the end of 2008, an under-the-radar Florida court case suggests that President George W. Bush - a staunch contractor supporter -- is preparing to throw security...

I never thought I'd find myself defending Karen Hughes, so this is a big deal.

Ms. Hughes, you will recall, is the Good Friend of Bush (GFOB) who was one of Dubya's closest confidantes in Texas and later in the White House. After taking a sabbatical from playing Karl Rove...

Millions of words have been written and spoken about the politicization of the Department of Justice before, during and after the departure of Alberto Gonzales. But the silence on two of the DOJ's most toxic practices has been deafening.

One is publicly labeling someone "a person of interest." The other...

In his speech in Berlin, Barack Obama spoke of many walls that need tearing down. By the count of New York Times columnist David Brooks, Obama used the word "walls" 16 times, and in 11 of them, he was talking about walls coming down.

Now, I haven't talked with anyone,...

In the name of "Global War on Terror," the U.S. Government is waging war on non-governmental organizations by applying "shortsighted, undemocratic policies" that are "constraining the critical activities of the charitable and philanthropic sectors, stifling free speech, and ultimately impeding the fight against terrorism."

This is the conclusion of a...

Could there be any more compelling commentary on America's loss of credibility among the international community then the inability of the Bush administration to find countries willing to accept Guantanamo prisoners who are scheduled for release because they have been judged by the U.S. military to have never had any...

Maher Arar, the poster boy for the U.S. Government's program of "extraordinary rendition" has again been denied his day in court and Congressional efforts to reign in the Bush administration's widespread use of national security as a defense appear to be floundering.

Late last month, a federal Court of Appeals...

Barack Obama's recent speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Council - AIPAC - dragged many of his supporters back from denial to political reality.

These Obamakins are hungry to believe his candidacy signals an authentic change in how politicians behave and the way American politics are run.

Key elements of the Bush Administration's anti-terrorist detention policies appear to be unraveling, according to human rights and legal advocates.

In the past two weeks alone, a military judge has disqualified a Pentagon legal official from participating in the Guantanamo war crimes trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a former driver...

In one of the more ironic episodes of the Bush Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation last week raided the office and home of the senior official in charge of protecting Federal whistleblowers on suspicion of whistleblower retaliation within his own agency - while he was investigating possible criminal acts...

Who should we blame for retired military men getting themselves hired by TV networks to be talking head cheerleaders for "progress" in Iraq? The Pentagon? The media? Our elected officials and presidential wanabees? The public?

I think my friend Steven Aftergood has it just about right. Here's what he told...

Ever wonder why prosecutors are so totally relentless in pursuing cases - even when they know they are baseless?

There are lots of reasons: Career advancement. Face-saving. Ego - another notch in a lawyer's belt. Another scalp to mount on the office wall.

Whatever the reason, for a government...

The most discredited bromide in American civic life is: "Give the American people the facts, and they will make the right decisions."

But who is giving them the facts?

Fox News? Rush Limbaugh? Bill O'Reilly? Lou Dobbs? The hysterical Chris Matthews?

I don't think so. These people are...

Last week, the central Florida newspaper that gave me my start in journalism ran a story based on a 1950s reminiscence I wrote for Huffington Post.

My column recounted how, as a cub reporter, I witnessed the every-weekend mass and indiscriminate arrests of African-Americans by a posse of...

When Jordan's King Abdullah II addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress in March 2007, his speech was filled with words like peace and justice.

He was, of course, referring to the plight of the Palestinian people in their ongoing struggle with Israel. He had a good case...

On the day General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are scheduled to testify before Congress on the state of play in Iraq, and the way forward, the ghost of Dwight D. Eisenhower will be hovering in the wings.

And he won't be smiling.

On January 17, 1961, Preident...

Amid the explosive controversy over remarks made in sermons by Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor, critics are charging that America's mainstream media has distorted his comments with out-of-context soundbites, failed to understand the African American church, sought to punish the Democratic Party presidential hopeful through "guilt by association," and gave...

The news went largely unreported, so you may have missed it, but last week the editor of a newspaper in Cairo was sentenced to six months in prison for spreading "false information... damaging the public interest and national stability" by reporting that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was in a coma....

By William Fisher

Only the terminally tone-deaf could fail to be astonished by the juxtaposition of last week's two major speeches - President Bush's address marking the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, and Barack Obama's remarks on race in America.

Because they speak volumes about the profound differences between...