For years Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has opposed online gambling. No more. Staffers from his office are circulating a bill that would legalize web poker, the kind where real money exchanges hands. Could it be that Reid’s about face has something to do with major casino companies being among the largest donors in his recent re-election fight? According to the Wall Street Journal, casino interests...

However, as Brian Beutler reports, it’s almost certain to be a pyrrhic victory:

Metaphorically speaking, of course:

In a rare bipartisan moment, the Senate in August unanimously passed the Healthy Hungry-free Kids Act. Supported by major corporations, and with broad support across the political spectrum, the Act is the pet project of Michelle Obama. In concert with the President’s “Let’s Move” initiative, the child nutrition legislation is designed to be part of a campaign to fight childhood obesity. Specifically...

Republicans have not been at all bipartisan on tax cuts (or anything else, for that matter), but, writes Ezra Klein, Democrats come in for their share of blame, too:

So: After regaling us with their unctious hopes that they and Democrats can now achieve “common ground” after the White House summit yesterday (was it just yesterday?!); after praising Barack Obama with sickening condescension (I saw the post-summit press briefing by GOP leaders on CNN while on my second day of jury duty yesterday, and the patronizing back-patting made me so ill I had to leave the...

In my last post I argued that an analysis of WikiLeaks shows it is operating on anarchist principles and methods. These views were elucidated in the comments, including the point that Assange had worked on some key technical components behind the crypto-anarchist movement. As someone that has been exposed to these ideas, I readily understood the context in which Assange operates, if only on an intuitive level...

Easy answers to puzzling questions, via Steve King (R-Iowa):

A school crossing guard is attacked by a motorist and his passenger while 20 children and adults watched in disbelief. Two suspects later were arrested. For the life of me, I cannot think of a penalty that would fit the crime short of the Draconian 30 lashes. Suggestions?

There are digital reams of pages about how we should feel about WikiLeaks but nearly no one is talking about the actual content inside the US; which is the pattern for the prior leaks but is getting worse. I’m beginning to wonder how many Americans actually read the articles written about the leaked contents (I try to), let alone the primary documents (I have not nor would I have the time and patience…perhaps...

The feds are demanding that New Jersey return to them the $271 million that was spent on the aborted rail tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan before Christie pulled the plug on the project.

That really does seem to be Sarah Palin’s main appeal, as in this tweet, where she asks why the U.S. government can’t stop Wikileaks’ “treasonous acts” the way she “recently won in court to stop my book “America by Heart” from being leaked[.]”

In July of this year, Dana Priest and William M. Arkin published a series of articles in the Washington Post that were the fruit of a two-year investigation into America’s national security apparatus. In the introduction to the series — called Top Secret America — Priest and Arkin wrote:

I see that Robert Stein already wrote about the FBI’s claim to have foiled a terrorist plot that wasn’t, actually, ever a terrorist plot except in the FBI’s own design. I just want to add that Glenn Greenwald has a post up about the credulous media reaction to a story based on the skimpiest of evidence — basically, just the affidavit of one of the FBI agents involved in the “sting”...

This newest document dump has so far been leaked only to the major media, not the general public:

Steve Benen:

So this is the Thanksgiving message Sarah Palin wrote on her Facebook page:

Word just in that former Congressman Tom DeLay (R) is guilty of money laundering and conspiracy to money launder. He could face up to seven years in prison on the charges. Personally I always felt he was probably guilty and the jury seems to have agreed. However, I am sure there will be lots of partisan reaction to this, which is sort of sad. Some on the left will likely paint all Republicans with this while...

Who is Paula? I don’t know. But Barbara Bush told Larry King that it was Paula who put the fetus in the jar, and Larry, apparently — unless Politico cut it out of this video — was not curious enough to ask:

“I am a good American and I want safety for all passengers as much as the next person. … But if this country is going to sacrifice treating people like human beings in the name of safety, then we have already lost the war.”