Global trade and commerce is far ahead of our government's ability and willingness to ensure consumer safety.  Is it a campaign issue?  No.  China has once again made headlines with its bold approach to cutting corners on exports.  Already China leads in providing tainted pet food, hazardous toothpaste, and poisonous toys. Last week, we learned that contaminated heparin, a blood thinner, is suspected in dozens of deaths in 11 countries.

Eliot Spitzer's impact on New York state's unemployment has its ups and downs, and now he's out of a job, too. He was New York's top cop before becoming governor, an inspiration to law enforcement everywhere, before getting caught frequenting high-priced prostitutes himself. He was living a dirty lie...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture had to politely ask for the biggest meat recall in history since it actually has no authority to force a recall.  The Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Company was caught on Humane Society video mistreating animals and forcing "downer" cows, which could be carrying mad cow disease, to slaughter.

The immigration debate has heated up as it has moved from Congress to the campaign trail.  As if it wasn't hot enough already.  Whose policy is toughest?  Whose policy is "humane"? Who's in favor of amnesty?  Why isn't anyone asking: who's going to build that fence anyway?

Religious conservatives ponder the Romney question: which is scarier, a Mormon Republican as president, or "the religion of secularism"? In his speech on faith, Mitt declared that "freedom requires religion." He'll soon be proposing an amendment to repeal Article VI of the Constitution and to ban the A.C.L.U. in time for next Christmas.

The Supreme Court's constitutional literalists will have their hands full with the Court's first Second Amendment case since 1939.  If the job of the Court is to interpret the text, then why has it spent so much more time on grammatical gems of clarity like the Eighth Amendment and so little on the Second? 

George Bush is getting ready to take his leadership skills and oratory on the road -- for cash.  Sure, he hopes to remain relevant as the clock runs down on his second term. But after that, he's all set to "replenish the ol' coffers" on the lecture circuit and earn a living from the unique public speaking skills that serve him so well in office.
 

The Roberts Court opens its third term this week. This term will likely be as contentious as the last, when a third of the Court's opinions were decided by 5-4 votes and conservative justices held the upper hand.
 

 

John McCain has made campaign finance a signature issue.  For years, the senator has been trying to contain the corrupting effects of too much money in politics.  Now that he's running for the Republican nomination in 2008, his own campaign has the opposite problem.

Imagine a world where President Bush invades a country, restores democracy, starts bringing troops home in less than a month, and sees the deposed dictator convicted in U.S. criminal courts.

Dubya's fantasy? No, his father's 1989 invasion of Panama.

General Manuel Noriega has been in jail ever since. Now he's scheduled to be released in September, with time off for good behavior,having paid his debt to society. The Justice Department wants him extradited to France on money laundering charges, but since U.S. courts ruled he's a prisoner of war, Noriega's lawyers say the Geneva Conventions require the U.S. to send him home.

Scooter Libby is heading to jail. Many of his supporters petitioned for a lenient sentence, or none at all. Instead, the judge sentenced Cheney's former chief of staff to 30 months after his conviction on four out of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice in the Plame affair. Now, there's only one last hope for Scooter.