Barack Obama’s decision  to think carefully about the situation in Afghanistan before he sends more troops there is very good news. It shows a Commander-in-Chief unwilling to do what George W. Bush did–defer to others, first Dick Cheney, then David Petraeus, when it comes to making the most essential decisions that a President can make. It [...]

If like many people you wondered if you’d heard correctly when Judd Gregg specifically cited his differences with Obama over the census–the census? that census?–when he withdrew his nomination to be Commerce Secretary, you might want to read my Time.com story on why the national headcount is such a red-hot political issue.

Variations of this video, called Did You Know?, have been floating around for years. It is the product of Karl Fisch, a school teacher from Colorado, and Scott McLeod, a professor at Iowa State University. With apologies to the Van Halen video for the song “Right Now,” it is also a great example of how [...]

This looks real bad, both for Roland Burris and his country. First a quick recap: Burris gets appointed to the Senate by Rod Blagojevich, a self-made cartoon of political ineptness and alleged corruption. The U.S. Senate won’t seat Burris until he testifies under oath that he is unblemished by the Blagojevich stain. Burris does this–under [...]

It is a basic law of human nature that when vast sums of money are distributed rapidly by government agencies, corruption ensues. Hence, this story, which scratches the surface of the free-range robbery that took place in Iraq. It will behoove the Obama Administration–and the media–to pay careful attention as to how the stimulus money [...]

That’s right. It seems Lieberman played a crucial role in talking several Republicans off the ledge, thereby vindicating President Obama’s refusal to be vindictive toward the Connecticut Senator, who had some nasty things to say about Obama and Democrats in general during the presidential campaign. Lieberman has always been a moderate-progressive on economic issues so [...]

An interactive chart, courtesy of the Financial Times.

The Colorado Independent is reporting some interesting figures related to the involvement of major religious institutions in the campaign to reverse a California Supreme Court ruling allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry. For all the flack the LDS Church has gotten for supporting the ballot initiative, its financial investment appears to have been far [...]

The House just passed the stimulus conference report 246-183 with seven Dems voting against it and one simply voting “present.” Despite predictions that the compromise bill would draw at least a handful of House GOP votes, House Minority Leader John Boehner didn’t lose a single member. United they stand, I guess… The Senate is expected [...]