On Monday, President Obama as promised reversed George W. Bush's draconian restrictions on federal support for stem cell research in the United States. But just as important as that key step was its larger message that this White House rejects the politicization of science which has dominated Republican strategy for a generation. And at the […]

The week in war crimes was a busy one. As the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing about creating a truth commission to probe the wrongdoing of the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department released the first set of secret Bush DOJ memos which effectively eradicated constitutional and other legal protections for American citizens and […]

During the 2008 presidential campaign, John McCain's chief economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin took more positions on the federal budget deficit than Newt Gingrich has had wives. Within a matter of weeks last year, Holtz-Eakin alternately claimed John McCain would balance the budget by either 2013 or 2017, all before announcing in April, "I would like […]

As word of President Obama's proposed first budget leaked this weekend, his pledge to halve the federal budget deficit by 2013 quickly became the headline. Even after ending President Bush's practice of cooking the books to understate the red ink, Obama is targeting to slash the $1.3 trillion deficit he inherited to $533 billion by […]

As the New York Times detailed this week, the Obama administration will end George W. Bush's fuzzy math when it comes to the federal budget and budget deficit. But by accurately reflecting the true costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements, disaster responses and the AMT, the Obama White House is now […]

In the wake of Congressional Republicans' unified rejection of President Obama's just signed $787 billion economic recovery program, the AP's Liz Sidoti wrote Tuesday that "GOP tries to restore image of fiscal discipline." Sadly, that image is now as ever a myth. Far from the deficit hawks of Republican legend, the modern Republican party from […]

Even in its last throes, the Bush administration remained an irony producing machine when it came to the PlameGate conviction of Scooter Libby. As the Daily News reported, Vice President Dick Cheney furiously lobbied President Bush to pardon his former chief of staff even hours before Barack Obama's inauguration. But for sheer humor value, Cheney's […]

Back in 2007, President Bush described his future after the White House. "I'll give some speeches," he said, "just to replenish the ol' coffers." As the Dallas Morning News revealed Thursday, Bush will collect his first speaking fees on March 17 at an invitation-only event in Calgary, Alberta. As it turns out, it is altogether […]

Plugging his new book The Gamble on the Iraq surge, the Washington Post's Thomas Ricks offers a jaw-dropping account of the critical decision to pay off Sunni insurgents. Contrary to George W. Bush's "decider" myth, it was David Petraeus who simply informed the President of that defining change in tactics the General implemented on his […]

As recounted in the Los Angeles Times today, Karl Rove last week laughably claimed of the Bush White House, "we didn't leak." Of course, Valerie Plame, the covert CIA operative outed by the administration over its bogus claim that Iraq sought yellowcake in Niger, can attest to Rove's lie. As it turns out, Team Bush […]