Radioactive Loan Guarantees Get Cut

Friends of the Earth is reporting that $500 million in loan guarantees coveted by the nuclear industry were stripped from the Obama administration’s stimulus bill at the last minute. Last week, 243 environmental, consumer, and religious organizations and small businesses sent a joint letter to senators expressing their “dismay and More…

Bennett Serves the Pork, Then Votes Against It

As House and Senate leaders confer about the final details of what will be President Obama’s $800-plus billion stimulus plan, both sides are seeking to cut a small increment of the huge outlays. One item that may or not be on the negotiators chopping block is a $500 million bauble More…

Obama Inherits Bush Legacy in Israeli Elections

Among the many sorry gifts George W. Bush passed on to President Barack Obama, the next prime minister of Israel is among the most dubious. This particular present will be gift-wrapped by Israeli voters on Tuesday when they vote for a successor to the indicted and discredited Ehum Olmert whose More…

Obama’s Openness v. CIA Secrecy

As the Senate Intelligence Committee grills prospective CIA director Leon Panetta, President Obama’s commitment to open government finds itself facing a culture of secrecy that has grown broader and deeper since September 11.

Obama’s executive order strengthening the Freedom of Information Act, issued on his second day in office, signaled More…

Killing Gay Unions (Softly)

For the last few years, New Mexico has been close to becoming the first state between the coasts to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples. Many Democrats in both houses of the state legislature support the idea, and as a presidential candidate last year, Gov. Bill Richardson pandered to gay More…

The Triumph of Blue Patriotism

When Barack Obama took the stage at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, he signaled not only the arrival of a new administration to Washington but the arrival of a patriotism that looks new but isn’t. This patriotism’s founding document is the Declaration of Independence. More…

Elian Gonzalez’s Attorney Endorses Holder

When Attorney General nominee Eric Holder appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, he may well be asked about Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban castaway boy whose incredible saga dominated the news in the spring of 2000. At the time, Holder was serving as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. More…

Colorado Makes History

Two weeks before President-elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office, the Colorado legislature enjoyed a historic moment swearing in two African-American men as leaders the state House of Representatives and state Senate on Wednesday.

As Cara DeGette of Colorado Independent points out in a fascinating report today, “it wasn’t More…

JFK Lawsuit Tests Washington’s Culture of Secrecy

Last month dozens of public interest groups welcomed the election of Barack Obama with a call to reverse eight years of secrecy and restore openness in the executive branch.

It won’t be easy. While the non-profit National Security Archive and other groups are More…

Supermajority Gone, Minnesota Keeps Recounting (Coleman up 303)

Republican Saxby Chambliss defeated Democrat Jim Martin in Georgia’s runoff election Tuesday, preventing Democrats from gaining a filibuster-proof “super majority” in the Senate. With 71 percent of precincts reporting, the race was called, The Hill reports, as Martin trailed 61 to 39 percent.