Will DiNovi

Jia Zhangke is one of the most respected filmmakers working today. But can his movies translate to American audiences?… More »

An athlete dies. Scaffolding collapses. The hockey team loses to America. Vancouver will be paying for the games for years.… More »

Hey Obama, yes we can. Troops out of Afghanistan, chanted the crowd. Barack, Barack, Barack, Afghanistan's the same as Iraq. And this: NoBomba! At last weekend's anti-war protest in Washington -- the first of the Obama era -- the refrains were clever, if perhaps somewhat predictable. But the frustration of the activists was hardly canned. "It doesn't look like Obama is changing anything," said Kyle Quigley, an Iraq War veteran who had traveled from Harrisburg,…… More »

The scandals that most move public opinion are those that ordinary people can understand. Though the failure of our financial institutions has often seemed shrouded in headspinning technical jargon and the mysteries of the market, the AIG bonus controversy hinges on a fairly simple and compelling narrative : AIG has received $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money; executives ran the company into the ground; and now reports have emerged that lavish bonuses are going…… More »

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on why he's taking some, not all of the stimulus money allocated to his state. … More »

The President could have resolved this issue in one statement - no more unauthorized pork barrel projects - and pledged to use his veto pen to stop them. This is an opportunity missed.… More »

The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) announced Monday that Van Jones has been appointed its Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Jones is the best-selling author of The Green Collar Economy and the founder of "Green For All," a national organization that promotes environmentally friendly jobs to help lift people out of poverty. According to CEQ Chair Nancy Sutley, Jones will "help to shape the administration's energy and…… More »

Last time the U.S. Census Bureau was in the news it was a source of heated debate - an alleged lynchpin in Sen. Judd Gregg's decision to resign as the Obama administration's nominee for Commerce Secretary. Now, with Census Day less than thirteen months away, the Bureau is once again the subject of serious scrutiny.Reports released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office show critical preparations for the 2010 census are behind schedule and the Bureau…… More »

If your enemies are fighting themselves, then don't get in the way.… More »

Via The Corner, we learn that the archbishop of Kansas City is taking a strong stand against Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Kathleen Sebelius. In a column from the upcoming edition of his archdiocesan paper, The Leaven, Archbishop Joseph Naumann expresses deep concerns about the involvement of the Kansas Governor, a practicing Catholic, "in promoting legalized abortion":In many ways, I can understand why President Obama selected Governor Sebelius. As…… More »

Camelot finally has itself a knight. During a joint session before Congress this morning, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that the Queen of England has bestowed Ted Kennedy with an honorary knighthood. Brown took the opportunity to single out the ailing Massachusetts Senator's services to British-American relations, especially his involvement in helping to bring about Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday Peace Accord."Northern Ireland today is at peace…… More »

On Monday, the Obama administration released nine previously secret legal opinions crafted by the Office of Legal Counsel to enhance the presidential powers of George W. Bush. The legal memos represent the most comprehensive demonstration yet of the sweeping definition of presidential power approved by Bush administration lawyers in the months after 9/11. They also lend added urgency to Wednesday's Senate hearing on the possible formation of a truth commission…… More »

Editorial boards across the "purple states" are looking ahead to President Obama's budget address, and continuing to assess the local implications of the passage of the stimulus package:… More »

Editorialists are getting used to the administration's new approach to the auto bailout. The Kansas City Star counsels that President Obama must ensure that government supervision is "based primarily on the broad public good rather than narrow political interests in Washington." A number of recent editorials and op-eds also grappled, in one way or another, with the Gregg debacle and GOP opposition to the stimulus, and the long-term implications of these…… More »

Editorial boards across the country are grappling with how the stimulus package will affect state programs and budget shortfalls, as well as the electoral fortunes of their local politicians. … More »

"We're going to push the Republican Party from vanilla to butterscotch," predicted Holland Redfield, a gregarious Republic National Committee member from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Strolling across the ballroom of the Capital Hilton between the fourth and fifth ballots of Friday's RNC Chairman's election, Redfield insisted that history was in the making: "You're going to see an African-American as the chairman of this party." Two rounds of voting later, he was…… More »