Washington Babylon

From the Project on Government Oversight: Last week, the House inadvertently took a large step forward in protecting taxpayers from misbehaving contractors. The House passed the “Student Aid” bill that…

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From Eric Spiegelman, via Politico: Ladies and gentlemen, your President is a robot. Or a wax sculpture. Maybe a cardboard cutout. All I know is no human being has a…

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Must read piece at Reason on the media’s response to the ACORN scandal. Highlight: One of the more convincing non-coverage defenses came from Austin American-Statesman Editor Fred Zipp (“First, it’s…

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From the Washington Post: Democratic political committees have seen a decline in their fundraising fortunes this year, a result of complacency among their rank-and-file donors and a de facto boycott…

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From the Guardian: The number of former servicemen in prison or on probation or parole is now more than double the total British deployment in Afghanistan, according to a new…

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Remember those awful pictures of George W. Bush’s secretary of state Condoleezza Rice embracing an assortment of corrupt, brutal energy-rich dictators? Now Hillary Clinton is offering precisely the same service.…

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“Obama’s decision is complicated by a deepening domestic political divide and no guarantee of success whichever option he chooses,” the Washington Post wrote today in a story about Afghanistan. “One…

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From ProPublica: Rep. Mike Ross — a Blue Dog Democrat playing a key role in the health care debate — sold a piece of commercial property in 2007 for substantially…

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Luke Mogelson contributed reporting for this interview. Peter Maass, a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, is the author of Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil, which…

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From ProPublica: Last spring, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq got a makeover, replacing the scandal-plagued Blackwater private security company with a firm named Triple Canopy. The new $1 billion…

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I’ve always admired the work of ACORN and thought right-wing attacks on the group bordered on the hysterical, but that was a terrific undercover sting mounted by the two young…

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From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s new report on the most corrupt members of congress: Rep. Young’s ethics violations stem from the misuse of his position to benefit…

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From the Los Angeles Times: The American Medical Assn., after 60 years of opposing any government overhaul of healthcare, is now lobbying and advertising to win public support for President…

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Before he was named as the administration’s special envoy on international energy, David Goldwyn advocated for closer ties to Stalinist Turkmenistan as head of the energy industry-endowed U.S.-Turkmenistan Business Council.…

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I was on NPR’s On The Media on Saturday to talk about conservative critics of the Obama administration’s health care reform bill who are arguing that legislation is being rushed…

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Those of us at Harper’s appreciate rudeness no matter who is in charge. See this wonderful essay by Mark Slouka from June 2008: [S]urely one could argue that the American…

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From the indispensable Center for Investigative Reporting: Soon after hijackers obliterated the World Trade Center towers eight years ago, Marin County received more than $100,000 in surveillance equipment to keep…

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First off let me say that I’m not picking on Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina because he called President Obama a liar. I’m all for the breakdown of political…

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From Facing South: Rep. Joe Wilson is getting his 15 minutes of national fame after bellowing “you lie!” during President Obama’s health care address last night. But Wilson earned notoriety…

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From David Cay Johnston: This morning’s page-one Wall Street Journal story on incomes in America contains many bungled facts and concepts in a single sentence, giving a false impression about…

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From Wonkette: Republican Michael D. Duvall, a California state assemblyman representing Orange County, loves family values and ethics, and thus is a member of the Rules Committee…He enjoys telling his…

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From the Center for Public Integrity: For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha…

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From Huffington Post: The Federal Reserve, through its extensive network of consultants, visiting scholars, alumni and staff economists, so thoroughly dominates the field of economics that real criticism of the…

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From Lindsay Beyerstein: One of the featured corporate sponsors of the Tea Party Express had to pay millions of dollars to settle lawsuits for its role in a bus fire…

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There may not be a bigger moron in Congress than Paul Broun of Georgia. His latest, as reported in the Athens Banner-Herald: U.S. Rep. Paul Broun is again raising the…

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From USA Today: Four chief executives whose government-funded non-profit corporations are paid to deliver U.S. foreign assistance earned more than half a million dollars in 2007, a USA TODAY review…

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“Two months after he was overthrown in a coup, Honduras’s ousted president said Wednesday that he sees little progress in U.S.-backed negotiations aimed at restoring him to power and has…

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Like Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, I too am “torn between my desire for absolute security and my abhorrence of torture.” How can one solve this dilemma? Easy–cancel your subscription…

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