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Inside Politics Daily
The Census and Me -- Life in 10-Year Chunks
Michelle Obama Rejects Demonizing Twinkies In Her Anti-Obesity Crusade
Massachusetts Study: Health Care Reform Reduced Abortions
Women's Vote Will Likely Decide British Elections
Can the 'Bush Lied' Deniers Handle the Truth?
Democrats' Dilemma: Health Care Vote and the 'Enthusiasm Gap'
Pro-life Rep. Perriello Says Abortion Concerns Eased, May Back Health Bill
Chaos Theory - New Textbooks, Y'all!
Iraq War Debate: Surge Success, Intelligence Mistakes, Civilian Casualties- Huge Student Loan Overhaul Set to Be Tacked Onto Health Care Reform
Michelle Obama Takes Anti-Obesity Drive to Food Makers
Why I Don't Hate the IRS -- and Neither Should You
Bonnie Goldstein
Bonnie Goldstein has been a private eye, Senate aide, coat check girl, Slate columnist, and investigative producer for ABC News.... moreWhat Begets a Blond, Blue-Eyed Terror Suspect?
By Bonnie Goldstein
In a socially acceptable version of her life, Colleen Renee LaRose, the alleged modern-day Mata Hari of the Internet, who was charged with four federal crimes Tuesday, would have been more successful and happy as a reality-show contestant. Instead, to her deep discredit, the Pennsburg, Pa., woman with too much time on her hands allegedly turned to do-it-yourself jihadism. ...
Politics Daily Book Club: Is That Bob Woodward in 'The Room and the Chair'?
By Bonnie Goldstein
Let the first meeting of our bloggy book club come to order. This week, we are meeting virtually to discuss Lorraine Adams' "The Room and the Chair" with the author. Though I had never crossed Lorraine's path before reading her new novel, I have now learned that she is a warrior. The "Chair" in the book's title refers to a CIA-papered black ops chairman, on the James Angleton model, whose clandestine agenda intersects with the internal politics of an important newspaper's newsroom. In a not even slightly veiled roman a clef, the "Room" in the title mirrors The Washington Post, where Lorraine ...
Between the Lines: One Boy's Version of Juvenile Justice
By Bonnie Goldstein
Below is a three-page statement by Troy Isaac, part of his testimony to a House judiciary subcommittee hearing on safety conditions at juvenile detention centers. Isaac was incarcerated as a preteen "after an altercation I had with other kids in my neighborhood." He was only 12 years old but, he told subcommittee chair Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), and members of the committee, "after a couple of days, one boy forced me to have oral sex with him in the shower area," and within less than a week at the youth jail, "I was raped by another older boy." Describing his despair and confusion at the ...
The Parable of the Trophy Wife
By Bonnie Goldstein
This is a true story. Once upon a time, in the last century, there was a great, nearly stately institution that served the public nobly, at times even heroically. Though not as glamorous as Hollywood or royal as Versailles, the city in which the institution did business possessed elements of each. In a time akin to Camelot, when these near movie stars mingled with presidents, one particularly handsome and charming figure captured hearts and minds with his dash and verve. He was a man's man, of course, and the women he serially married were beautiful and clever. His oldest son and heir to ...
Between the Lines: Ethics Report on Marion Barry - Money, Power and Sex
By Bonnie Goldstein
Marion Barry is former mayor and currently a member of the District of Columbia City Council representing the city's Ward Eight east of the Anacostia River. He is a near mythical figure in the politics and history of Washington. There have been books written and movies produced about the former freedom rider, who once shared the civil rights torch with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The striking 6-foot-plus figure ran Washington in the city's infancy and, like many frontier sheriffs, Barry had a Wild West style of leadership. He was the second person to sit in D.C.'s version of city ...
Between the Lines: Blackwater Whistleblowers' List of Particulars
By Bonnie GoldsteinIn more bad news for the security company Xe Services, LLC, (formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide), the U.S. Justice department declined to join a lawsuit filed by two former employees, under the False Claims Act, accusing the private guard company of cheating the taxpayers. The FCA permits citizens to sue on behalf of the government and be rewarded by a percentage of recovered damages should the case prevail. You would think that having the government refuse to join a lawsuit against you would be good news for a federal contractor. But, in this case the "no thanks" from the Justice ...
What Was Alan Gross Doing in Havana?
By Bonnie Goldstein
Last week President Obama released his proposed $52.8 billion 2011 budget for the U.S. Department of State. Included with the billions for programs in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq is a relatively minuscule $20 million allocation to "promote self-determined democracy in Cuba." For one unlucky consultant hired to do just that, however, the mandate is particularly thorny. During the first week of December, Alan Phillip Gross, an American from the Washington, D.C., suburb of Potomac, Md., was arrested at Havana's Jose Marti airport as he was boarding a plane to leave Cuba. He has not been ...
ProPublica Investigates Corruption and Finds It, Bless Them
By Bonnie Goldstein
There are many reasons why the particular niche of journalism that goes after corruption and exposes threats to the public has trouble staying funded in the real world. There is not always an appetite in corporate America for exposing unflattering behavior, or a particular hunger among consumers for news that is discomforting, followed by spin and denials. Investigative reporting, typified by shoe leather and intrepid digging into what the record says or doesn't say, can be prolonged and expensive. For those reasons and many more, the good people at ProPublica -- an "independent, non-profit ...
Between the Lines: The James O'Keefe Criminal Complaint
By Bonnie GoldsteinToday we introduce a regular feature of PD Investigations, in which we read between the lines of news stories by dissecting the public documents, reports, e-mails, contracts and the other written ephemera that underlie them. Monday night, Fox News Channel's "Hannity" featured the first post-arrest interview given by one of the defendants charged last week in New Orleans with "entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony." The affidavit below, sworn to by FBI special agent Steven Rayes, was filed Jan. 25 with the innocuous heading "USA v. Flanagan et ...
In Defense of the Marriage Memoir
By Bonnie Goldstein
The following guest post is by Sascha Rothchild: A few weeks ago, WomanUp contributor Lizzie Skurnick wrote a spirited criticism of marriage memoirs, a publishing sub-category she called the "scorned-wives genre." Although Lizzie was talking in particular about books by cheated-upon political spouses, exemplified by Jenny Sanford and Elizabeth Edwards, I perked up when I read her post because I have also written a marriage memoir. My book, "How to Get Divorced by 30," will be released by Penguin today. ...
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