So, I was on the phone with Pachacutec earlier and he was telling me about a Spanish New Year's custom that goes a little something like this: Spain The Puerta del Sol in 2005 New Year's Eve Spanish New Year's Eve (Nochevieja, or Fin de Año) celebrations usually begin with a family dinner, traditionally including [...]

Gregg Sargent still wants to know, and so do I — where are all the reporters who were so damned agitated about Ned Lamont's Halliburton stock, or his tax returns, or the global implications of his membership in a country club, who ate up every story pushed out there by the Lieberman PR team, who [...]

It's been an amazing first year for the FDL Book Salon.  When we first announced the inception, we had hoped to create a counterpoint to the wingnut welfare-subsidized right wing book scam which made it so difficult for serious liberal authors to compete, and we've been able to do that both by introducing online audiences [...]

For the week ending 12/30: Even though I'm an obsessive list maker, I'm staunchly opposed to New Year's resolutions.  I don't need the constant reminder of all the objectives I haven't achieved by year's end, although that type of failed behavior didn't seem to keep the 109th Congress or the Bush Administration up at night.  [...]

Tim Golden in the NYTimes describes the "process" of review for detainees at Guantanimo: The prisoner had seen just a brief summary of what officials said was a thick dossier of intelligence linking him to Al Qaeda. He had not seen his own legal papers since they were taken away in an unrelated investigation. He [...]

Richard Clarke has an op-ed in today's WaPo that is worth some consideration this morning: In every administration, there are usually only about a dozen barons who can really initiate and manage meaningful changes in national security policy. For most of 2006, some of these critical slots in the Bush administration have been vacant, such [...]

Here's the Sunday Talking Head line-up.  Surprises?  Not too many… C-Span's Washington Journal:  7:45am – Jim Vandehei, The Politico, Executive Editor; 8:30am – Samuel Assefa, Ethiopian Ambassador to the U.S.; 9:15am – Ruth Wedgwood, Johns Hopkins University, International Law Professor. Meet the Press (NBC):  A look back at the life & legacy of Gerald Ford [...]

Just a few quick thoughts about the netroots' year in review.  The following ideas are in no particular order, and I make no pretense that this is an exhaustive review.  This is just the stuff off the top of my head.  I'll also try to identify some areas for continuing growth. My point here is [...]

And now tapdancing in ringletts and dimples for the coveted John Tierney Unctious Hack spot at the Times, we have…drumroll please…Roger Cohen: Much of the left, in both Europe and the United States, is so convinced that the Iraq invasion was no more than an American grab for oil and military bases, it seems to [...]

[Matt writes at SOTUblog and recently joined The Right's Field -- a blog focusing exclusively on the GOP field for president in '08.]  Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report that stated the Department of Defense "lacks the ability to oversee contractors." Too few military officials, the report says, are [...]