During a final press conference characterized by his trademark petulance, George W. Bush repeated the myth that opened his presidency. Defending his failed stewardship of the economy, President Bush falsely claimed Monday, "I inherited a recession." Sadly for the first MBA president, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the same NEBR which declared the current […]

In an interview Thursday with the AP, Vice President Cheney neatly summarized the failed Bush presidency. Comparing the financial meltdown and implosion of the American economy with the 9/11 attacks, Cheney insisted, "I don't think anybody saw it coming." As it turns out, from 9/11, sectarian conflict in Iraq and the election of Hamas to […]

As he prepares to slink into the sunset, George W. Bush is like a giddy child when it comes to his future presidential library. While acknowledging this week that the institution won't be a "George Bush is a wonderful person center", he said, "It will be cool-looking." But when it comes to his plans for […]

His inauguration just days away, President-elect Barack Obama is facing friendly fire over his economic stimulus plan. With today's grim news that unemployment skyrocketed to 7.2% in December came rumblings of discontent from economist Paul Krugman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a bevy of Democratic Senators worried that Obama's proposed recovery package is too timid […]

Just days after Bristol Palin officially became the poster child for her mother's failed abstinence-only sex education policy, a new report from the CDC revealed that in 2006 Alaska experienced the nation's fastest growing teen birth rate. While Mississippi suddenly surpassed Texas to earn the dubious leadership distinction, it comes as no surprise that the […]

In a Newsweek exclusive three week ago, former Justice Department official Thomas Tamm revealed his role in helping the New York Times make public President Bush's program of illegal domestic surveillance. Now Salon's Glenn Greenwald has details on the DOJ's efforts to punish the whistleblower. And as it turns out (and as I suggested back […]

Beaten and battered, the Republican Party long ago was reduced to an irony-producing machine. But for sheer productivity, Monday's hypocrisy generation by leading lights of the conservative movement was impressive. In the span of 24 hours, would-be RNC chairman and distributor of "Barack the Magic Negro" Chip Saltsman announced his party needed to improve its […]

On Monday, the Scribner division of publishing giant Simon & Schuster announced it had signed a book deal with First Lady Laura Bush. While her husband and his former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have each so far failed to secure publishers for their respective memoirs, Laura Bush's "intimate account" of her eight years in the […]

While the controversy over would-be RNC chairman Chip Saltsman's distribution of a CD featuring a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" continues, the transformation of the GOP into a Southern rump party appears to be virtually complete. After four decades in which race-baiting became a central Republican electoral strategy, Saltsman's gambit is finding both quiet […]

For Ohio State football fans, the arrival of the New Year's bowl season can't help but produce fear and loathing. After all, the Buckeyes not only got crushed in the past two BCS title games, but on Monday face a heavily favored Texas team many believe should be playing for the national championship. Which is […]