The President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was arguably President George W' Bush's single greatest achievement. Thanks to American leadership and over $50 billion in U.S. funding committed since President Bush launched the initiative in 2003, millions of lives have been saved and millions more HIV/AIDS cases prevented in 15 African countries targeted for […]

The New York Times had published a new report detailing the numerous cases of American and Iraqi soldiers accidentally exposed to chemical agents from Saddam Hussein's decaying Gulf War era weapons. But as disturbing as the fact that there were "17 American service members and seven Iraqi police officers who were exposed to nerve or […]

"Reality," Stephen Colbert famously explained to President George W. Bush, "has a well-known liberal bias." And for Republicans, reality bites most when it comes to tax cuts. After all, for over 30 years, tax cuts have been the GOP's one and only prescription for both economic booms and busts, recessionary slowdowns and budget surpluses, and […]

In the wake of September's strong jobs report, Megan Thee-Brenan and E.J. Dionne (among others) have concluded "Obama is unlikely to get credit for falling unemployment rate" and "Democrats aren't getting credit for the economy." The question is why. After all, when it comes to cutting unemployment, spurring investment and driving economic growth, Barack Obama […]

As the Washington Post explained Wednesday, Kansas Republican Senator Pat Roberts is in real trouble. And the consistently ineffective Senate veteran didn't help his reelection cause when he called Senate Minority Harry Reid (D-NV) a "dictator" and accused President Obama of leading the United States down the path of "national socialism." After all, it was […]

There was plenty not to like in President Obama address on ISIS Wednesday night. His claim to have authority to wage an open-ended military campaign without Congressional action doesn't pass the smell test. To the degree that "success" in restoring regional stability can even be defined, it is contingent on building and sustaining a staggeringly […]

The disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq wasn't just an American war of choice. As much as anything else, it was a war of talking points. Designed, as President Bush once explained, to "catapult the propaganda," the tried and untrue sound bites about "the smoking gun that could come in the form of mushroom cloud," about […]

If you're looking for a handy guide to the blame game over the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Vox has a helpful primer to "how the US, its allies, and its enemies all made ISIS possible." Zach Beauchamp's list of the guilty--the United States, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki and his sectarian […]

The past week has been very kind to Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Republican Party. That might sound like an odd statement to make after one of the GOP's 2016 highest profile White House hopefuls was indicted for abuse of power back in the Lone Star State. Nevertheless, there are three reasons to believe […]

Former Vermont Senator Jim Jeffords passed away Monday at the age of 80. President Obama eulogized Jeffords, whose departure from the GOP briefly handed control of the Senate to the Democrats. "Whatever the issue - whether it was protecting the environment, supporting Americans with disabilities, or whether to authorize the war in Iraq - Jim […]