Washington Independent

Peter Bergen, author of two books about bin Laden and a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, argues that capturing or killing bin Laden is as vital today as it was in the aftermath of Sept. 11. "I can’t imagine one single thing we could to that would be more important,” Bergen said. LINK

"Medicare naturally makes for strange bedfellows," Jacob Hacker, a political science professor a the University of California-Berkeley and the author of The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream wrote in an email. "Both conservatives and liberals have an interest in keeping the program's costs in line. The divisions are much deeper when it comes to expanding the role of government in health care -- and the political fight will be that much fiercer..."

..."Democrats should take away from the Medicare… more

...However there is one difference, said Gregory Rodriguez, author of "Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans and Vagabonds: Mexican Immigration and the Future of Race in America." As of 2004, 67 percent of those we identify as Latinos were of Mexican origin. But unlike the Irish who came here to flee famine or Jews fleeing prosecution, the Mexican experience in America is not a linear one....

"Previous immigrants have had a beginning, middle and an end," Rodriguez said. "The continuous nature of Mexican migration has caused major confusion both of what… more

...al-Suri is as famous to terrorists as he is unknown to the general American public. Lawrence Wright of The New Yorker penned the only substantive American profile of him in 2006, but apparently only had access to portions of "The Call." al-Suri "is highly intelligent, well read, focused, intense, no sense of humor, [and] speaks Arabic and Spanish and French, very little English" said Peter Bergen, a senior fellow at The New America Foundation and author of two influential books… more