Rumors are spreading that the U.S. Supreme Court will vote 5-4 to rule that a U.S. president cannot be prosecuted for anything he does while he is president. Some Democrats are suggesting that Joe Biden bring a gun to his first debate with Donald Trump. If he shoots Trump, he would be immune, but if Trump shoots Biden he would be prosecuted because he is not a sitting president.   read more

Regarding an issue that made it all the way to U.S. Supreme Court, the Navy and environmental groups settled out of court a case dealing with the potential harm done to whales and dolphins by sonar used in anti-submarine warfare training. The Navy...   read more

Richard J. Leon is a George Bush-appointed federal judge who is increasingly finding himself at the heart of cases relating to the extent of executive power. Leon has a long association with the Republican Party. In 1987-1988 he served as deputy c...   read more

The highest ranking Asian-American in US military history, Eric K. Shinseki became a visible critic of the Bush administration’s force plan for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, correctly forewarning a problem that would haunt American military planne...   read more

In selecting former Republican Congressman Ray LaHood for Secretary of Transportation, Barack Obama fulfilled his promise to make his cabinet bipartisan. The centrist GOP lawmaker was not above the partisan fray, however, when it came to Bill Clin...   read more

Barack Obama’s choice for US Trade Representative is Ron Kirk, one-time mayor of Dallas and a former lobbyist and a key supporter of Obama’s in Texas during the presidential race.   The youngest of four children, Kirk was born in Austin, TX, on ...   read more

Fearing that President George W. Bush might go down in history as anything less than “the worst ever,” Robert Parry of ConsortiumNews attacks the Bush administration’s attempt to defend the efficacy of torture and the triumph of the 2007 surge in ...   read more

Laissez-faire economist Thomas Sowell of Stanford University warns the incoming administration of the dangers of a new New Deal. Contradicting the conventional story of how FDR saved the economy after everyone lost their jobs because of the stock ...   read more

Shirley Graham, one of the election judges working on the still disputed Minnesota senatorial contest between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman, was surprised to learn that her own absentee ballot had been rejected. The Coleman camp ...   read more

Tom Daschle, a 26-year veteran of Capitol Hill, is not only Barack Obama’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, but also the man to run the president’s new White House Office of Health Reform. In this capacity, Daschle is expected to...   read more

After the biggest toxic spill in U.S. history (100 times larger than the infamous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill), the Tennessee Valley Authority has advised residents (inaccurately) that boiling their water would remove dangerous heavy metals and ma...   read more

Senator James Webb, decorated Marine, journalist, novelist, and Ronald Reagan’s one-time Navy Secretary, has announced his intention to tackle the politically delicate issue of prison reform. Unafraid of being perceived as “soft on crime” by his c...   read more

A series of Bush appointees have effectively hobbled Occupational Safety and Health Administration by halting progress on a number of workplace safety initiatives, and by siding with employers against employees. During George W. Bush’s presidency,...   read more

Ever since the financial hard times reached Wall Street in September, there have been a series of reports that, in one category or another, this is the worst since [fill in the blank]. The unemployment rate for November (6.7%) was the highest in 1...   read more

Bill Richardson’s 30-year career in politics has included several controversies, including “pay to play” allegations that are likely to become highly publicized during his confirmation hearings for Secretary of Commerce.   Born William Blaine “B...   read more

Seventeen Chinese Muslims unlawfully held in Guantánamo are still awaiting news of their fate after U.S. Federal Judge Ricardo Urbina deemed them innocent and ordered their release and delivery into the continental United States in October. The me...   read more

Rev. Paul Raushenbush, Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University, reviews the ten worst religious stories of 2008. Coming in at number 9 is Sarah Palin’s Witchcraft video (Palin appears at about 5:00), in which visiting Kenyan pasto...   read more