This is a big decision: In a stunning 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today reversed its longstanding bright-line rule which had permitted warrantless car searches after an arrest, even when there was no concern for officer safety or the preservation of evidence. The case is Arizona v Gant. Writing for the majority in this important […]

Wow: The chief financial officer (CFO) of Freddie Mac, the giant US mortgage lender and guarantor, has died in an apparent suicide. David Kellermann, who was acting chief financial officer and a senior vice president of Freddie Mac, was found by his wife in their Virginia home, according to local media reports. This story will […]

Now we are seeing progress: President Barack Obama is leaving the door to open to possible prosecution of Bush administration officials who devised harsh terrorism-era interrogation tactics. He also said Tuesday that he worries about the impact of high-intensity hearings on how detainees were treated under former President George W. Bush. But Obama did say, […]

After yesterday’s back and forth of rather or not Jane Harman got the New York Times to hold the wiretapping story in 2004, it is now confirmed. She in fact did: Congresswoman Harman spoke to Washington Bureau Chief Phil Taubman in late October or early November, 2004, apparently at the request of General Hayden. She […]

Slate has a very cool interactive map showing where the job losses are occurring. I wonder if the Republicans still think the entire economic crisis is overblown? (h/t Sullivan)

We all knew this was coming: William Donohue of the Catholic League is on a mission. Whether it is a “mission from God,” as the Blues Brothers would say, only God knows, but the goal of his mission is clear: to paint me and the movie I directed, Angels & Demons, as anti-Catholic. For a […]

Those are five words I swore I never would write. Now I have to eat crow and defend him against this: Karl Rove follows me on Twitter. That’s creepy. I joined Twitter a few months ago; so far, it has been a liberating way to transition from political to personal blogging. It’s allowed me to […]

Following up on my post from yesterday about the gaining popularity of Huge Chavez’ book on Amazon. It appears that Drudge is trying to push some small victory in this: Chavez’ book is now at #2, from an obscure 40,000 something last week. Levin’s is at number one. Now lets put that in a little […]

Venezuela is a country whose defense budget is probably 1/600th of the United States’. They own Citgo. It’s unlikely that as a consequence of me shaking hands or having a polite conversation with Mr. Chavez that we are endangering the strategic interests of the United States. I don’t think anybody can find any evidence that […]

To prove this is a meme of the Republican Party just take a look at this blog post by Robert Stacy McCain (wingnut extraordinaire!): Let me explain something to you, David Axelrod: Obama and the Democrats didn’t “cut taxes” in a way that will stimulate economic growth. They didn’t reduce or eliminate the capital gains […]