The Vatican, today. The pope’s spokesman has launched a vigorous counter-attack against a report linking Benedict XVI to a sex abuse cover-up while he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1981. Father Federico Lombardi appeared to suggest in an interview on Vatican Radio that the pope, who also has strong links to the city [...]

I don’t know if this will derail Marco Rubio in the Republican primary – if I had to guess it won’t – but the biggest papers in Florida just looked back at his record and found a huge slush fund for both political and personal activities, maintained through special interest donations.

It appears that early in July 2004, the White House dictated to DOJ what torture methods would be approved. And only after Congress got involved did the White House agree to niceties like OLC opinions.

So the election results are trickling in slowly from the Iraqi parliamentary elections, and the coalition led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is expressing confidence that they will come away with the largest share of the votes — a confidence that may or may not be related to the gradually accumulating accusations of fraud in the ballot-counting process.

A proposed bill, S. 881/H.R. 2099, will transfer parts of the Tongass National Forest, one of our best carbon banks, to a private Alaska Native corporation for logging (carbon-bank-raiding) purposes.

Econned by Yves Smith shows how economists persuaded the political and media elites that they knew what they were doing. Smith shows that they didn’t, and then shows how Wall Street traders and their bosses exploited the world those economists and their corporate sponsors created. The result was financial collapse. Economists aren’t held accountable, and neither are the people who profited.

Following the passage of the House health care bill, the outcry against Bart Stupak’s amendment from pro-choice members of Congress was stentorious. Rep. Diana DeGette and Rep. Louise Slaughter co-authored a letter signed by 41 members of Congress, which says quite clearly:

We will not vote for a conference report that contains language that restricts women’s right to choose any further than current law.

In this installment, I am going to describe the visit to the attorney and talk about making the choice between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you are interested in the first part of this series, you can find it here. It is a description of how my wife and I worked ourselves into the position of needing to go bankrupt. Before I start, let me tell you all something I learned which everyone should know. Your 401K and other retirement accounts are exempt up to the first 1 million dollars. If you are in dire financial straights, do not raid these accounts to stay afloat. You will want that money later in life!

Rachel Maddow plays Clue on “who killed the public option.” Nancy Pelosi should put a strong PO — a Medicare buy-in available through the exchanges — in her reconciliation bill and let the White House carry the burden and the risks of getting its signature agenda proposal through the Senate.

Why Congress must pass the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act as part of the insurance reform package.