US politics

Earlier this week, we wrote about the accusations that the CIA was spying on Senate staffers on the Senate Intelligence Committee as they were working on a massive $40 million 6,300 pages report condemning the CIA’s torture program. The DOJ is apparently…

military

The Tea Party Congress Slashed Childrens’ Food Stamps but secretly Protected Pentagon Budget

contributors

(By Mattea Kramer) Washington is pushing the panic button, claiming austerity is hollowing out our armed forces and our national security is at risk. That was the message Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel delivered last week when he announced that the Army would shrink to levels not seen since before World War II. Headlines about […]

Economy

The Tea Party Just Turned Five — Is it Winning its War on Workers and Minorities?

Juan Cole

Some date the advent of the tea party to 2007, when then-presidential candidate Ron Paul held a “tax day tea party” fundraiser to fill his campaign coffers. But the broader movement began five years ago last week — shortly after Barack Obama was…

CIA

Rachel Maddow: CIA spying on Congress ‘is death of the Republic stuff’

Juan Cole

A dispute between the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Senate Intelligence Committee may have spilled into dangerous territory, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Wednesday, following a New York Times report that agency operatives gained access…

Barack Obama

Least Transparent Administration Ever: A New Front in Obama’s War on Whistleblowers

contributors

(By Peter Van Buren) The Obama administration has just opened a new front in its ongoing war on whistleblowers. It’s taking its case against one man, former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Air Marshal Robert MacLean, all the way to the Supreme Court. So hold on, because we’re going back down the rabbit hole with the Most […]

Barack Obama

McCain’s Mind-Boggling Hypocrisy on Crimea at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee Conference

Juan Cole

John Hickman, author of Selling Guantanamo, writes in a guest column for Informed Comment That the Crimean Crisis would be exploited by Republican Congressional leaders to criticize President Obama was inevitable. Politics hasn’t stopped at the water’s edge in the United States for a very long time. What wasn’t inevitable was the shamelessness of Senator […]

Barack Obama

Don’t Let the Global 1% off the Hook: Obama should Press Saudi State on Human Rights when he Visits Riyadh

contributors

(By Sarah Leah Whitson) President Barack Obama The White House Dear President Obama, As you prepare for your upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, we write to urge you to include critical human rights issues in all your discussions with Saudi officials. While the purpose of your visit may be to discuss “ongoing cooperation to […]

Environment

GOP v. Nature: House Voted Against Environment 95 Percent Of The Time In 2013

contributors

House Republicans voted in line with environmental interests on key environmental legislation an average of just 5 percent of the time in 2013, according to a new scorecard. The scorecard, released each year from the League of Conservation Voters, tallied…

al-Qaeda

Obama and the Golden Calf of National Security: Broken Commandments

Juan Cole

(Karen J. Greenberg) In January 2009, Barack Obama entered the Oval Office projecting idealism and proud to be the constitutional law professor devoted to turning democratic principles into action. In his first weeks in office, in a series of executive orders and public statements, the new president broadcast for all to hear the five commandments […]