Washington Babylon

A reader from England called my attention to this item from today’s Haaretz, in which Hillary Clinton–seeking to outdo Barack Obama in the candidates’ frenzied bidding war to be the…

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“The Army admitted about one-fourth more recruits last year with a record of legal problems ranging from felony convictions and serious misdemeanors to drug crimes and traffic offenses, as pressure…

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I complained recently that liberal media outlets, including those in the blogosphere, tend to be almost as narrow-minded in analyzing the Middle East (read: uncritically pro-Israeli) as the mainstream media.…

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There’s no reason that the Democratic nominee for president shouldn’t win the November election. “[John] McCain is a candidate of pronounced and glaring weaknesses,” New York magazine recently noted: A…

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The New York Times has a terrific piece today called “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand, which focused on how a Defense Department program worked with retired military officials and…

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From the New York Times: Over the past two years, Senator and Mrs. McCain donated about $340,320 from their community assets to charity, the campaign said. Most of Senator McCain’s…

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I’m just kidding with that headline–if it had been true–if, say, one of Barack Obama’s senior advisors had sought help for a failed brothel owner and convicted felon, you would…

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Now here’s a sweet deal: Step 1: Set up your own Political Action Committee. Step 2: Raise a million dollars in $20 contributions from little old ladies. Step 3: Pay…

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This compilation from TPM captures the full horror of last night’s Democratic debate. It’s worth watching for the grim amusement value. Incidentally, last night Hillary Clinton criticized Barack Obama–prompted by…

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How many Mexican presidents did the CIA have on the payroll? A veteran Washington journalist, Jefferson Morley is the national editorial director of the non-profit Center for Independent Media in…

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In response to yesterday’s post, a smart note from a reader that jibes with what I have been told by people on the ground in the region: It would be…

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Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos have been broadly panned for their work during last night’s Democratic debate. The best commentary comes from Tom Shales of the Washington Post, who said…

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Jimmy Carter is, predictably, being savaged for meeting with officials from Hamas during his current visit to the Middle East. “It’s bad enough that Carter…will be putting a stamp of…

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From Jonathan Schwarz at Mother Jones: What would it look like if Fox News produced a segment about bias in the media? Certainly it would follow the standard Fox format:…

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I agree that Barack Obama’s remarks about Pennsylvania voters, however badly stated, have been hyped out of proportion by the media, the G.O.P., and Hillary Clinton. The Daily Show explains…

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Old Spy magazine story on Charles Black not nearly as admiring as New York Times profile A few days ago the New York Times ran a generally flattering profile of…

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As noted here last week, Senator John McCain’s ties to the supposedly independent Reform Institute have recently attracted well-deserved media scrutiny. In 2001, McCain helped found the Institute, a non-profit…

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The Huffington Post has reported that Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign has sent out a fundraising letter attacking Democratic mega-donor George Soros even though the Reform Institute, a non-profit group…

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Ken Silverstein is away and will return to Washington Babylon April 12.

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Via Wired: A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.”…

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Last October, I reported here on the strange case of Interoil, a small firm that bought an Alaskan oil refinery from Chevron and shipped it 6,000 miles away to Papua…

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On March 11 of last year Reverend Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. wrote a remarkable letter to reporter Jodi Kantor at the New York Times, responding to an article by Kantor…

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Matt Bai covers national politics for the New York Times Magazine and is the author of The Argument: Billionaires, Bloggers, and the Battle to Remake Democratic Politics, which chronicles the…

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Before you write that next check to the Sierra Club, check out this story: The Sierra Club’s national board voted March 25 to remove the leaders of the Club’s 35,000-member…

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Augustus Richard Norton, a combat veteran and retired Army colonel, taught at West Point for more than 12 years and is now a professor of anthropology and international relations at…

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If Barack Obama does win the Democratic nomination, he’s going to be subjected to intensified charges from the G.O.P. that he’s a closet Islamist, Black nationalist, anti-Semite and, most menacing…

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From the Arizona Republic: Buckeye is either at the forefront of homeland-security readiness or under the spell of private-security consultants promising “hands-on” anti-terrorism training in a war zone. The town…

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“Who Created This Monster?” was the title of a mammoth New York Times piece yesterday about the nation’s unfolding economic crisis. The answer to the question–mostly financial speculators as well…

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