Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) in Serious “Ted Stevens-Style Trouble”? Did He Buy His Own Suits and Pay His Own Power Bill?

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Thanks to Politico‘s Ben Smith for sending this our way. This is the most painful press engagement between a campaign spokesman and a “polite, but persistent” group of media I have ever seen. Let’s just hope that Al Franken buys all of his own suits.

Checks and Balances Returning to Life in Washington?

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This is important and is more evidence of the dismantling of George W. Bush’s imperial presidency. Federal District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina has ordered the release by the end of this week of 17 Guantanamo detainees who happen to be Uighers.

Michael Lind on Hegelian Irony and How the Future Might Look

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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel My colleague Michael Lind — who is Senior Fellow and Director of the New America Foundation’s American Infrastructure Initiative — offered some thoughts on what the future might look like over at The New Republic‘s “The Plank“.

Salutations on Yom Kippur and a Great 5769

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I have a friend, Roee, who just sent me moving personal commentary of his own thinking about sin and atonement in the context of spending time with a Chinese immigrant family in San Francisco. I am not going to post his piece — but it did remind me that Yom Kippur starts tonight.

Round Two Begins: Obama Wins by Nose in Debate that John McCain Really Needed to Dominate but Didn’t

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First question is on the economy. Both Obama and McCain are doing well in responding to a person’s query about what to do with the average family being undermined by current economic conditions. John McCain and Obama both started to walk around and try to talk to the audience.

STREAMING LIVE TODAY: Time for Serious Deal-Making with Iran?

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Streaming Video by Ustream.TV Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett will outline their thoughts on a “U.S.-Iran Grand Bargain” today at 12:00 noon EST at the New America Foundation. I’ll be chairing the session. The article titled “The Grand Bargain” that accompanies today’s event can be read in the latest issue of the Washington Monthly….

LIVE STREAMING TODAY: Economist James K. Galbraith on “The Predator State”

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Streaming live video by Ustream One of the nation’s leading progressive economists, James K. Galbraith, will be speaking today about his new book, The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too, at the New America Foundation from 12:15 pm to 1:45 pm EST.