Christian Science Monitor November 21, 2014 The secretary of Homeland Security and the counsel to the president (OLC) directed the Justice Department to investigate whether the president had the authority to take contemplated actions with regard to illegal immigrants via executive order. In a letter dated Nov. 19, they found he did not. On Nov.…
Category: US Politics
Christian Science Monitor September 5, 2014 Dan Froomkin has returned to blogging at Glenn Greenwald’s Intercept. His debut posting is a doozy: In a lot of ways, we’re worse off today than we were under George W. Bush. Back then, Bush’s extremist assault on civil liberties, human rights and other core American values in the name of…
A graduate school colleague pointed me to a piece by Daniel Altman headlined “Why I Hope to Vote Republican in 2024” and with the subhed, “Face it: Hillary Clinton will be a two-term president, and I’ll vote for her. But a Democratic stranglehold on the White House is bad for America.” While I was intrigued…
The National Interest September 10, 2013 President Obama is pulling out all stops in a thus-far failing bid to convince the American people and their representatives in Congress to back military action in Syria. His secretaries of state and defense have been everywhere talking up the horrors of chemical warfare and the price to be…
RealClearDefense July 24, 2013 Senators John McCain and Carl Levin have demanded answers from General Martin Dempsey on Syria. Can they handle the truth? In open hearings before the Armed Services Committee last Thursday, McCain asked the Joint Chiefs chairman, “Do you believe the continued costs and risks of our inaction in Syria are now…
World Politics Review July 27, 2012 In “The Imperial Presidency: Drone Power and Congressional Oversight,” Michael Cohen argues persuasively that the U.S. Congress has abdicated its constitutional and statutory responsibility to reign in the executive branch in matters of national security policy. Then again, few who have been paying attention this past decade — some…
The National Interest July 22, 2009 President Obama took the oath of office six months ago. He did so after a long campaign in which he continuously promised “change” and to “restore America’s standing in the world.” Thus far, however, optics are all that keep his administration’s foreign policy from being a continuation of George…
TCS Daily March 23, 2007 The recent flap over the Bush Administration’s firing of eight U.S. attorneys has demonstrated the escalation of two related and unfortunate trends in American politics: the politicization of crime and the criminalization of politics. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and other Administration officials have contended that the firings were for “performance”…
TCS Daily February 27, 2007 There’s a never-ending discussion on the Internets about Al Gore’s massive consumption of energy while simultaneously traveling the world proclaiming that Earth is in the balance because man is using so danged much energy. The most recent iteration of this kerfuffle was sparked by a release from an obscure think tank that…
Human Events January 10, 2007 Senator Edward Kennedy yesterday outlined in a speech to the National Press Club and a column at the Huffington Post his arguments for a bill to “prohibit the use of funds for an escalation of United States Forces in Iraq above the numbers existing as of January 9, 2007″ absent specific congressional authority to…