Politics ~ Progressive

Where to put the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), which will centralize the writing and (to some degree) enforcement of federal financial regulations on such things as mortgages, savings accounts, and consumer debt. Should it be an independent agency, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, or a subunit of the Treasury Department or the Federal Reserve?

The Supreme Court has ruled that corporations may spend freely to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on their participation in federal campaigns.

Cornell Law School offers Syllabus, Opinion (Kennedy), Concurrence (Roberts, Scalia), CD-in-Part (Stevens, Thomas), in addition to primary ruling.

The U.S. disclosed for the first time on Monday the current size of its nuclear arsenal, lifting the veil on once top-secret numbers in an effort to bolster non-proliferation efforts.

Middle East Policy Council

Be careful. Be very careful.

In 2005, former CIA director 2005 approved a decision by a top aide to destroy dozens of videotapes documenting criminal torture of two detainees.

An Arab member of the Israeli parliament is demanding that a newspaper be allowed to publish an investigative report that was suppressed days before Israel attacked Gaza in winter 2008.

NATO's own figures revealed that the number of civilians killed by NATO in Afghanistan had well more than doubled year over year.

Gary Jackson, the ex-President of private security contractor Blackwater (now known as Xe), has been indicted on federal weapons charges, the Associated Press reports. Four other Blackwater officials will also face prosecution. As Mother Jones noted last month, this news wasn't entirely a surprise.