Here are the headline and synopsis of Fox News’s article on Republican criticism of the Obamas’ Broadway date night in New York: Obamas’ Date Night in New York City Draws Criticism Even before the Obamas left Washington, the there-and-back trip drew criticism from Republicans who questioned the president’s decision to travel to New York for a night of entertainment during a recession and while automakers struggle to survive. This is, as you might (should) expect from Fox News,...

CNN: The tiny town of Hardin, Montana, is offering an answer to a very thorny question: Where should the nation put terror detainees if the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is shut down by the end of the year as President Obama has pledged? Hardin, population 3,400, sits in the southeast corner of Montana, in the state’s poorest county. Its small downtown is almost deserted at midday. The Dollar Store is going out of business. The Hardin Mini Mall is already shut. The town needs jobs —...

“Split threatens to rupture Republican ranks: Conservative vs. moderate divide plays out across the airwaves on Sunday.” Such was the oh-so-dramatic headline of an AP article at MSNBC yesterday. And, fine, Sunday was indeed a big day for the so-called moderates of the Republican Party, with both Colin Powell (on CBS) and Tom Ridge (on CNN) taking to the cable news circuit to criticize Dear Leader Rush and the extremist right-wing faction that currently dominates the party. “I am...

President Obama met the Tyrant Chavez at the Summit of the Americas on Friday — you know, because both men are leaders of countries in the Americas — and, according to Republican Senator John Ensign of Nevada, behaved irresponsibly by “laughing and joking” with him. Now, I have been a consistent and persistent critic of Hugo Chavez. As a liberal, I am opposed to all forms of tyranny, whether of the left or of the right. I would rather not have Obama, or any Amerian president...

I understand that George Will is, despite his global warming lies and distortions, one of the smarter conservatives out there — I’ll leave that up to you to decide just how much of a compliment that is (remember: it’s all relative). I understand also that Will was against the McCain-Feingold restrictions on political finance and that he remains opposed to any such restrictions on political “speech.” But is it really the case, as Will remarks again on Sunday, in his WaPo...

If you’re interested, my latest piece at The Guardian — on celebrated public intellectual, former Harvard professor, and current Canadian Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff — is here. In brief, I don’t much care for him. (I supported former Ontario Premier Bob Rae for the leadership, but Rae pulled out of the race late last year.) Here’s a taste: To me, though, he has never seemed to be much of a Canadian, and certainly not enough of one to be our prime minister....

Attorney General Eric Holder, yesterday: Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, a nation of cowards. In predictable fashion, the right-wing likes of Michelle Malkin are turning this around and spewing their venom at Obama, among others, while claiming that “Holder doesn’t want an honest dialogue about race.” The right generally likes to play the racist...

Over the weekend, as you might have heard, Venezuelans voted to lift the constitutional term-limit restriction on elected officials, thereby allowing Tyrant Chavez to run for re-election and essentially to remain in power as long as he wants. It was a huge victory for Chavez, who in December of 2007 lost a previous referendum on this and other constitutional reforms. As I wrote at the time — and I have written extensively (and critically) on Chavez’s slice-by-slice acquisition of power...

With investigations underway in Illinois, an ethics probe launched in the Senate, and more and more evidence that he’s a lying, corrupt scoundrel, it is indeed time for Roland Burris to resign. The Washington Post From the moment that Mr. Burris was selected, he strove to portray himself as a blameless public servant. The sad pictures of Mr. Burris being cast out into the rain by the Democratic leadership of the Senate, which initially refused to seat him, turned public opinion in his favor....

It’s done: 60-38. (The Democrats, the two independents, and three Republicans — Specter, Collins, and Snowe — voted for it, as expected.) Once again, as in the House, Republicans put themselves squarely in opposition to the American economy and the American people. And as flawed as the bill is, at least something was done at this time of historic crisis.

This headline from Wednesday’s Telegraph piqued my curiosity: Female FBI officer ‘tortured Mumbai terror attacks suspect with sex’. According to Fahim Ansari, one of the planners of the attacks, “three foreigners, including [a 'white woman], sexually abused him, causing him ’severe itching and wounds’ on his body, including his genitals. A Muslim, he claims that “this amounts to torture because it is against his religion.” And I suppose it is, however...

Anonymous Liberal makes a good point: “The Notion of a ‘Bipartisan Cabinet’ Has Always Been a Stupid One.” Very stupid. If you elect a Democrat, you get a Democratic Cabinet. It’s as simple as that. Or should be. There are plenty of ways in which a president can demonstrate that he’s open minded and willing to work constructively with the opposition. But putting members of the opposition in charge of implementing his policy is just dumb. The fact that the Beltway...

From TNR’s Jason Zengerle: Utah Governor Jon Huntsman (who, needless to say, is a Republican, not to mention a potential 2012 presidential candidate) has come out in favor of gay civil unions. It’s not gay marriage, but it is Utah. It is indeed, a deeply conservative state, and yet what Huntsman is taking a pretty progressive position on one of the right’s key wedge issues. For that, he deserves our admiration. But is he crazy, or what? First, does he know what state he’s...

Calling the president “a master rope-a-doper,” Noam Scheiber has an interesting take on what may have been Obama’s strategy in dealing with the Republicans over the stimulus bill: For weeks now, Obama has soared above the fray — inviting dour-looking Republicans to the White House for cookies and patiently hearing them out on Capitol Hill. Once again, the Republicans have exploited this stance, notching a series of tactical victories, like their unanimous no-vote in the House...

Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, aka A-Fraud, has admitted that he took “a banned substance.” However, he claims that he didn’t know what it was: “I am guilty of being negligent, naïve, not asking all the right questions.” He claims further that he hasn’t taken it, or anything like it, since 2003, when he tested positive (see SI’s story for more). In other words, it wasn’t his fault. He was a just a dupe — “young,” “stupid,”...

I realize that part of what the economy needs is more consumer spending on big-ticket items, and so I understand why Republicans pushed successfully for a $15,000 tax credit for homebuyers to go along with a tax incentive for carbuyers, both now part of the Senate’s stimulus package, but is encouraging more spending at a time when jobs are being lost and the credit market has dried up really such a great idea? I mean, you can give people any sort of incentive you want, but what if they still...

Yesterday, my friend Creature noted that public support for the current economic stimulus plan has fallen to 37 percent, attributing this decline to “the failure of Democrats to get their message out.” Ryan Avent, linking to Steve Benen, made the same point over at Yglesias’s place: “[C]onservatives are winning the public relations battle, and as a result, public support for stimulus is falling.” I agree with this assessment. As bad as things are out there — as...

I used to read Maureen Dowd. Once upon a time. Way back when. I can admit that, can’t I? She was funny, sometimes, and her intertwining of pop culture and pop politics amused me. There was never any depth to her, but it didn’t matter. Reading her Times columns, pithy drivel and all, was a fine way to pass the time — when I had some time, didn’t feel like having to think all that much, and nothing more compelling was available, mainly because I was too lazy to look. And now?...

No, not really. But that’s the view of one Stephen Marche, who in The New Republic a couple of weeks ago wrote that Canada is about to become… the Balkans. Or Italy. Or something: If Canada does collapse — and the parliamentary crisis is pointing us in that direction — the U.S. will end up with something like a Balkans to the North. Canada has become ungovernable, entering a period of Italian-style instability. Marche was perhaps overstating his case for effect, but, regardless,...

On Sunday, the L.A. Times, certainly one of the more credible sources in American journalism, reported that Obama has authorized the CIA to continue to “carry out what are known as renditions, secret abductions and transfers of prisoners to countries that cooperate with the United States.” Essentially, the report went, Obama was going to maintain the “controversial counter-terrorism tool” completely “intact”: “[T]he Obama administration appears to have determined...

I wrote a Super Bowl post yesterday at my blog that included comments on the game itself. I’ve been a Steelers fan since the mid-’70s, when, as a young boy growing up in Montreal, I fell in love with Bradshaw and Harris and Swann and Stallworth and the Steel Curtain. Even before I came to be a Canadiens fan in hockey, which is more or less mandatory in that city, they were my #1 team. I finally made it to a game in Pittsburgh a couple of years ago. It was like a pilgrimage for me. It...

According to the AP, “U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians.” By “highest rate on record,” the AP means since 1980, when “current record-keeping began.” Still, needless to say, this is a horrible development, with at least 128 soldiers killing themselves last year — or 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers. Hopefully the military...

I think it’s hilarious that one of the Bush Administration’s leading proponents of torture — in fact, the very guy, a DoJ official, who wrote the infamous memos that authorized the use of torture — has come out against Obama’s decision to close Gitmo and end the use of torture. That’s right, John Yoo, in an op-ed yesterday in the WSJ, argues that “these actions… will also seriously handicap our intelligence agencies from preventing future terrorist...

The House of Representatives passed an $819-million economic stimulus package this evening. The vote was 244-188. Only Democrats voted for it. 177 Republicans voted against it. The package includes both spending measures and tax cuts. The American people would get some tax relief, money to save or to spend, perhaps to pay the bills and put food on the table, and money would go to infrastructure projects, for energy and education and health care, to support those who need it, those who have lost their...

McClatchy: The nation’s current recession is likely to be the longest since World War II, and by some measures could be the worst since the Great Depression, a new Congressional Budget Office forecast said Tuesday. Without a major economic stimulus plan, “the shortfall in the nation’s output relative to its potential would be the largest – in terms of both length and depth – since the Depression of the 1930s,” said new CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf in testimony prepared...