The United States is a country that has been built on immigration and by immigrants. For more than two centuries, people have come from all over the world to become Americans. And for all that time we have taken pride in our ability to integrate people from many backgrounds into...

OK, OK. I know. It's time for my annual good news column.

It's a deal I made with a friend to make up for all the depressing news stories I had to write this year.

This was no easy task. Aside from the end of the Bush era, and the...

Amid the near-constant speculation over President Barack Obama's strategy for Afghanistan, there appears to be virtually universal consensus that rooting out corruption has to be a top priority if the US and its NATO allies are to have a "credible partner" in the Afghan government.

But corruption takes many forms...

My friends will probably be surprised to hear me say, "I'm a really lucky guy. I'm happy!" They'll think I've developed a marshmallow brain.

Well, maybe so. But here it is: "I'm a really lucky guy!" And happy about it!

And the source of these newfound feelgoods? No, I didn't...

Now, the first thing I want you to know is that I'm no health care policy expert. Far from it.

But, like the rest of us, I have a body and a mind that can get sick. So I'm a participant in the debate whether or not I want to...

For me, David Cole has long been the gold standard for his exquisite knowledge of our Constitution and his relentless dedication to its values.

So, when I read that the Georgetown University law school prof had a new book out, I quickly got my copy. I wasn't disappointed, and you...

Human rights activists and legal experts reacted swiftly today to disclosures that the U.S. Government is planning to introduce new measures they claim would give inmates at Afghanistan's notorious Bagram prison more opportunities to challenge their detention.

Their views range from cautious optimism to total condemnation.

There are some 600-plus...

Thanks to America Online, we've just hit a new low in the dumbing down of news.

Not a bottom, mind you, just a new low. Because the lowest of the low is probably some years off.

In its widely publicized push for more "quality content," AOL recently presented one of...

As the planned closing of the U.S. military's detention center at Guantanamo Bay draws nearer, human rights activists are raising questions about the treatment of detainees who will be transferred to the U.S. for trial.

But, while the media has focused virtually all its attention on these foreign prisoners held...

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, writing last week on health care reform, said "There's a point at which realism shades over into weakness."

But as I read his column, my brain seemed to wander, not to health care, but to another major news event of that week: The visit...

Rush Limbaugh. Glenn Beck. Bill O'Reilly. Sean Hannity. Lou Dobbs: Five now-household names made rich and famous by those wonderful folks who brought us cable and talk radio.

All were gung-go for that grotesquely-misnamed government euphemism known as "enhanced interrogation techniques." All were joined at Dubya's hip as cheerleaders...

With Sonia Sotomayor's swearing in over the weekend as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, legal experts are aggressively debating what was learned from her four days of grueling testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee - and even whether these hearings are instructive or merely Capital Hill's version...

Duarnis Perez, a native of the Dominican Republic, became a U.S. citizen at 15 when his mother was naturalized. But he didn't know that meant he was also a citizen. He thought he was an illegal immigrant, and so did the authorities. He was deported and subsequently arrested trying to...

Here's a note for the "to do" list of the Obama Administration's newly appointed Domestic Violence Czar - or Czarina in this case: Battered wives and significant others pose a serious law enforcement and public health problem affecting as many as one in four women in this country. But they...

On the issue of what to do with Guantanamo detainees, Barack Obama is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

As he struggles with the political backlash from a Congress determined to keep Guantanamo terrorism suspects out of the U.S., his administration is reportedly preparing an executive order that...

With their principles firmly focused on the 2010 elections, and juicy campaign contributions from the so-called health care industry, Republicans and some potentially endangered Democrats are furiously fulminating about "socialized medicine" and government bureaucrats who will "ration your health care" and "get between you and your doctor."

Can Harry and...

Human rights and open-government advocates were heartened by President Barack Obama's pledge during his first week in office to create "an unprecedented level of openness in Government" and "establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration."

But now, well into Obama's second 100 days in office, many are expressing...

Since the Obama Administration now has czars for cars, information technology, bonuses, financial products, et cetera, can a book czar be far behind?

Well, here's a memo for the inbox of our book czar (or czarina) to-be. It's about a slender volume that I want our new czar/czarina to mandate...

I know, I know. Now that President Obama has chosen a nominee for the Supreme Court, I'm supposed to be writing about Sonia Sotomayor.

I will, I will.

But before he disappears into the flinty wilderness of the rural New Hampshire he loves so dearly, let me first say a...

"My Administration is also confronting challenges to what is known as the 'State Secrets' privilege. This is a doctrine that allows the government to challenge legal cases involving secret programs. It has been used by many past Presidents - Republican and Democrat - for many decades. And while this principle...