Washington Babylon

Face it, until recently many of you didn’t know for sure if Yemen was a country or an erectile dsyfunction medication. Now that Yemen has emerged as a major focus…

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From the Washington Post: When word spread earlier this year that American International Group had paid more than $165 million in retention bonuses at the division that had precipitated the…

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While completing a master’s degree at the University of Michigan, John Scott-Railton helped develop “participatory mapping” projects aimed at protecting the fragile property rights of poor families living in Phnom…

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From The Onion, via Andrew Sullivan: In a sudden and unexpected blow to the Americans working to protect the holiday, liberal U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt…

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From the Washington Post: Foreclosures already pocked Chicago’s poorer neighborhoods but the downtown still was booming as the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago convened its annual conference in May 2007.…

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Wonkette had a funny pre-climate change summit item about members of Congress, even conservative Republicans, fighting to go to Copenhagen. The story was headlined “Not EVERYONE In Congress Can Go…

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From Robert Samuelson: Barack Obama’s quest for historic health-care legislation has turned into a parody of leadership. We usually associate presidential leadership with the pursuit of goals that, though initially…

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“President Obama called on world leaders to come to an agreement on climate change, no matter how imperfect,” the New York Times reported today. The Times also said that Obama…

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I have an article in the January issue of Harper’s called “Shopping for sweat: The human cost of a two-dollar T-shirt,” which looks at the apparel industry in Cambodia. That…

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Tim Fernholz of the American Prospect wrote me an email complaining about an item I wrote yesterday, which questioned the motives of those attacking Matt Taibbi’s piece on Obama in…

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The Salt Lake City Tribune tells the tale of Helen Rappaport, a Utah woman who went shopping at Costco shortly before a Sarah Palin book signing event at the store:…

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I mentioned in a post yesterday that liberal bloggers tend to exempt President Obama for blame over the failures of his administration. Some times it’s said that Obama inherited a…

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Unemployment stands at over 10 percent, meaningful health care reform is collapsing, and the banks have reaped huge profits thanks to the Obama administration’s policies. Naturally, liberal bloggers are upset–but…

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From the Daily Mail: Is there any way this country can officially disown Anthony Blair? Those of us who were never fooled by him now have to watch as he…

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From the New York Times: President Obama didn’t exactly look thrilled as he stared at the Polycom speakerphone in front of him. “Well, I appreciate you guys calling in,” he…

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From ProPublica: During the turbulent days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, New Orleans police shot 10 civilians, at least four of whom died, according to interviews and internal police documents.…

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If you missed this last week, here’s Robert Reich’s take: The public option is dead, killed by a handful of senators from small states who are mostly bought off by…

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Robert Kagan, one of the intellectual architects of the Iraq War, is swooning over Obama’s speech. That’s scary: I don’t know what to say about an “Obama doctrine,” because based…

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From Politico: Defense contractors developing the Army’s largest modernization program — the Future Combat System — also were paid $91 million in 2007 to report back to the Pentagon on…

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She never learned what a “czar” was while studying at Oxford. From the Daily Show: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Gretchen Carlson Dumbs…

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From Public Citizen: The 16 representatives sponsoring two amendments that would weaken critical consumer protections in financial reform legislation have received at least $2.3 million from the financial services sector…

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From the New York Times: Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., a Wisconsin Republican, toured a prince’s vineyard and castle in Liechtenstein and spent an afternoon at a ski resort in…

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From the Washington Post: At a hearing in late March, the nation’s credit card companies faced the threat of expensive new rules from an unlikely regulator: the House Homeland Security…

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From Garry Wills: I did not think he would lose me so soon—sooner than Bill Clinton did. Like many people, I was deeply invested in the success of our first…

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The Washington Post recently announced the winner of its “America’s Next Great Pundit” contest, and Kevin Huffman, (who Wonkette aptly described as “nothing more than a composite of all preexisting…

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“On the night of the Obamas’ first state dinner, White House social secretary Desirée Rogers glided past the rope line of press and photographers at 6:53 p.m., pausing to boast,…

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Last night’s speech on Afghanistan was typical Obama: instead of acting decisively, he splits the difference. The United States will send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan but with a timetable,…

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From Tom Shales: Would you buy a used war from this man? Americans might be seeing their bright, young president in a dark, new light this morning after watching his…

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