The elementary school I attended as kid in Brooklyn was located in a "mixed" neighborhood --- which in the early 1940s meant Irish, Italian and Jews. Many of my classmates were first generation Americans - the children of immigrants.

These three groups fought constantly - over what, I'm sure none...

Poor George!

His administration can't seem to catch a break these days.

As some of you may have heard, Dubya finds himself at the center of an economic meltdown. And neither he, nor his trusted lieutenants, appears to have much of a clue about how to reverse it. (The Presidential...

No, this isn't about the economic meltdown - but it's almost as complicated. Try to follow it along.

In what some government critics are citing as an egregious example of public foot-dragging and bureaucratic inefficiency in immigration rule-making, the woman at the center of one of America's longest-running asylum disputes...

During this seemingly endless presidential campaign, there's been a ton of criticism of the so-called mainstream media and its alleged fawning love affair with Barack Obama.

Yeah? Maybe on cable TV with Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. But they're a pretty fragile counterpoint to that medium's many wing-nuts like...

Tonight, Sarah Palin and Joe Biden will engage in the first and only debate for vice presidential candidates in the 2008 election.

Who will "win" this debate should be a no-brainer. Joe Biden has lots of style, but he also has lots of substance. Sarah Palin will attempt to use...

David Brooks of The New York Times has always been my favorite conservative commentator.

Our worldviews are often different and the same sets of facts often lead us to quite different conclusions. But his thinking has consistently challenged my own. He has forced me rethink some of my own...

A woman who was denied asylum in the U.S. despite her fears that she would suffer additional female genital mutilation if she was deported to her native Mali has been given a second chance.

Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey -- whose intervention was sought in a national campaign by women's...

I know, I know. I'm supposed to be writing about Hank Paulson's "rescue" plan, or the wisdom of sending more troops to Afghanistan, or the first presidential debate, or fact-checking the misstatements of the candidates.

But sometimes, less is more. The story that goes un-noticed and under-reported can often illuminate...

Political junkies follow poll numbers. So we know that there is more than a remote chance that John McCain might indeed become our next president. Which would make Sarah Palin our next vice president.

Just after her nomination, Governor Palin famously admitted that she had no idea what a vice...

After almost eight years of George W. Bush's secret government, "of the people, by the people, and for the people" has become a joke.

Not a joke like lipstick on a pig. A joke like pathetic.

Because government secrecy is one of a cornucopia of serious issues our presidential candidates...

So now we know all about Alaska's famous jet.

Thanks to that vast left-wing media conspiracy, we know Sarah Palin didn't sell the thing on ebay.

We know her administration tried several times - and failed.

And we know that it was finally sold - at a loss - to...

Cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners is an issue about which John McCain cares deeply. He should: As we all know, that's exactly what he endured for more than five years in the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War.

That's why it's unsurprising that, back in 2005,...

During the run-up to the election that made Sarah Palin the governor of Alaska, the right-wing pro-life group Eagle Forum sent a detailed questionnaire to each of the candidates.

Among its many questions was this one:

"In relationship to families, what are your top three priorities if elected
...

OK, can we please forget the unforgettable Sarah Palin for five minutes and focus on one of the dozens of issues that obviously look like third rails to candidates of both parties.

Let's spend a few minutes pretending:

You're an American Muslim. You live in Dearborn, Michigan. You work...

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...