Ours is one of the oldest written constitutions in the world and the first, anywhere, to be submitted to the people for their approval. As Madison explained, the Constitution is “of no more consequence than the paper on which it is written, unless it be stamped with the approbation of those to…

I consulted 20 or so historians, good-government advocates, and longtime political observers and insiders. Explaining why so many fools rush in to city, county, and state government in Illinois—and then never seem to leave unless led away in handcuffs—is “like finding the cure to the common…

Seven months ago and 2,400 miles away, the veteran Major League Baseball umpire cost Armando Galarraga a perfect game in Detroit. And every day, something trips Joyce’s memory about his devastating mistake and the subsequent fallout: from the death threats he and his family received and the…

Over the course of 45 years in the film business, Francis Ford Coppola has refined a singular code of ethics that govern his filmmaking. There are three rules: 1) Write and direct original screenplays, 2) make them with the most modern technology available, and 3) self-finance them.

F. Scott Fitzgerald was right when he declared the rich different from you and me. But today’s super-rich are also different from yesterday’s: more hardworking and meritocratic, but less connected to the nations that granted them opportunity—and the countrymen they are leaving ever further…

Future Speaker of the House John Boehner offered a rebuttal to Sarah Palin's earlier condemnation of the $858 billion tax cut legislation on Friday. The agreement is a "worthy" deal based on the balance of power, Boehner said, and one that accomplished the primary goal of preventing an expiration of…

The spending lobby, the tax haters and a ticked electorate all fouled up in 2009. But Gov.-elect Jerry Brown may give everyone a chance to redeem themselves next year.

The tax cut deal worked out between President Obama and Congressional Republicans will cost $858 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That’s not exactly small change. In fact, it’s more than the cost of the economic stimulus package that contributed to the…

Bill Clinton's appearance this month at the White House lectern in support of President Barack Obama's high-noon tax deal set the press buzzards buzzing. The remarks of the Great Triangulator were proof, or so they buzzed, that Barack Obama was triangulating too, as if that were a mortal sin.…

Advertise RSS Careers FAQ User Agreement Privacy Comment Policy About Us About Our Ads Contact Us Archive Copyright © 2016 TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. "The Huffington Post" is a registered trademark of TheHuffingtonPost.com, Inc. All rights reserved. Part of HuffPost • HPMG News

I. The Ringleader The Sulu Sea is a dazzling and distinct maritime domain, a roughly rectangular patch of Pacific Ocean defined by two chains of small islands—the peaks of volcanic ridges—that parallel each other at a distance of about 300 miles, reaching northeast from the coastline of Borneo to…

The last weeks of each December were a strange and frightening time to be a slave in America. (Was there ever a normal time, however?) In the antebellum period, the end of the calendar year was – as it is now – a busy period for financial transactions. Assets were liquidated, debts settled, taxes…

Photograph: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Barbara Rubin, Bob Dylan, and Daniel Kramer backstage at McCarter Theater, in Princeton, New Jersey, September, 1964. © Daniel Kramer. “ Bob Dylan in America ,” by the historian Sean Wilentz , will be published in September by Doubleday. The following…

Admire the sultry curves draped just so by sharp tweed fabric that leaves everything to the imagination. Smoke swirling inside what you can just make out to be the cold industrial lines of an office. A glass of scotch just outside of frame. And I don't think she has any clothes on under that…

The Senate rejected another Republican attempt to rewrite the new arms control treaty with Russia on Sunday as the signature foreign policy agreement of President Obama’s tenure moved closer to a decisive vote expected later this week.

While 80 percent of Americans think that America "has a unique character that makes it the greatest country in the world," more than a third say President Obama does not share that belief

On the heels of one of the most productive post-election sessions of Congress in recent history, President Obama on Wednesday evening urged lawmakers to continue working in a spirit of bipartisanship when the new House and Senate reconvene next month.

Great article about the upcoming movie True Grit

The inability of our elected representatives in Sacramento to fulfill their most basic assignment - craft an annual budget - is about to result in real pain and inconvenience to Californians.

During the campaign, Mousavi spoke out brazenly for women’s rights and for normalizing relations with the United States, and denounced Ahmadinejad’s statements questioning the reality of the Holocaust. Now he rarely leaves his home in north Tehran, appearing only in pictures and statements on his…

Add Rep. Mike Pence to the list of possible 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls who are coming out against the tax cut compromise between President Barack Obama and congressional Republican leaders.

How can President Barack Obama whip up public support for a "minimalist" war? That's the political challenge he faces as he proceeds with his current Afghanistan policy.

This series is supported by Gist . Gist provides a full view of the contacts in your professional network by creating a rich business profile for each one that includes the most news, status updates, and work details. See how it works here . Public relations specialists were some of the first people…

ROW 1 , left to right: Annie Ling, Jen Davis, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Elizabeth Weinberg. ROW 2: Dru Donovan (1,2,4); Marvin Orellana (3). ROW 3: David Wright, Latoya Ruby Frazier, Jen Davis, Annie Ling. Sign In to E-Mail Print Single Page Why are so many people in their 20s taking so long to grow up?…

Cue the credits: the era of financial thuggery is officially over. Three hellish years of panic, all done and gone – the mass bankruptcies, midnight bailouts, shotgun mergers of dying megabanks, high-stakes SEC investigations, all capped by a legislative orgy in which industry lobbyists hurled more…

News & Culture Sure, you could focus on the corrupt, quasi-fascistic side of Silvio Berlusconi's long reign over Italy. But as his adoring supporters will tell you, that's not the point of "Silvio!" What sustains a nation is the man's dyed hair and shameless libido. Devin Friedman goes in search of…

1854: Henry David Thoreau publishes Walden, or, Life in the Woods. His distillation of two years living in relative seclusion offers deep insights not just into the natural world and humanity’s place in it, but how that relationship was being impacted — and degraded — by the Industrial Revolution.…

It's been one week since Rolling Stone and CBS independently spotlighted the failure of the Gulf governors to mobilize the National Guard to combat the oil inundating the region's marshes and beaches. (Read: Dereliction of Duty ). The spectacular failure of these governors to step up as commanders…