Michael Jackson wasn’t a freak. He was "freakish" in the sense that some of his behavior was bizarre, but he wasn’t a freak like any of the famous and not so famous sideshow freaks . They were tragic figures born with grotesque features who were, depending on how you looked at it, exploited by the Barnums of the world or lucky to have a job. Their talent consisted of allowing themselves to be gawked at.
Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of powerful and popular Democratic congressman John Conyers, pleaded guilty Friday to accepting cash bribes in exchange for supporting a sludge contract with a Houston company.
Conyers, a political unknown who won her council seat in 2005 largely on her husband’s name, admitted in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery, responding quietly to questions from Judge Avern Cohn.
She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she’s sentenced.
Hours after the House passed landmark legislation meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions and create an energy-efficient economy, President Barack Obama on Saturday urged senators to show courage and follow suit.
The sharply debated bill’s fate is unclear in the Senate, and Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to ratchet up pressure on the 100-seat chamber.
The White House is considering whether to issue an executive order to indefinitely imprison a small number of Guantanamo Bay detainees, concerned that Congress might otherwise stymie its plans to quickly close the naval prison in Cuba.
Under the proposal, detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release would be kept in confinement in the U.S. or possibly overseas, two administration officials said Friday. Otherwise, the White House could get bogged down for months seeking agreement with Congress on a new legal detention system.
Republicans concerned about the Obama administration’s big spending on economic stimulus, energy and health care are asking, "Where are the jobs?"
"The president and Democrats in Congress claim this spending binge is necessary to put Americans back to work," House Republican leader John Boehner said Saturday in the Republican radio and Internet address. "They promised unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if their trillion-dollar stimulus was passed.
Justice Department lawyers told a federal judge yesterday that the disclosure of a hotly anticipated 2004 report by the CIA inspector general on the Bush administration’s interrogation program for terrorism suspects will be delayed until shortly before the July 4 holiday weekend.
COLUMBIA, S.C., June 26 — Fighting pressure to resign, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford moved to regain control of his government Friday and gave no indication that he will step down, even as the chaos surrounding his week-long disappearance to Argentina and confession of an extramarital affair …
The House narrowly passed an ambitious climate bill yesterday that would establish national limits on greenhouse gases, create a complex trading system for emission permits and provide incentives to alter how individuals and corporations use energy.
Obama administration officials, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, are crafting language for an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior gover…