Opinion

WASHINGTON, DC - The most controversial elements of Arizona's immigration law have been blocked by a federal judge. Major provisions, such as one requiring authorities to check the immigration status of individuals while enforcing other laws, will not go into effect. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton also barred the state from requiring immigrants to carry their papers at all times. While this isn't the last say on the Arizona law, it's a major victory for the bill's opponents. Here's what observers are looking at now and anticipating for the future: Full Story »

It should have been a good week for Democrats. The financial overhaul was signed into law. The extension of unemployment benefits passed. The Democratic Party finally looked like a party that could get things done. Full Story »

New York - A huge number of beachgoers, many of whom don’t identify as feminists, will be carrying a book with overtly feminist content in their tote bags this summer – in the guise of an absorbing thriller. Full Story »

The Nation -- At my Daybook today I link to a remarkable Garry Wills blog item at The New York Review of Books site, in which he reveals that he is breaking a kind of embargo a year after he and other historians had dinner with President Obama. It seems that most of them warned him about the "folly" of continuing/escalating in Afghanistan—and Wills is sad and angry that the President didn't listen one bit. Full Story »

Minneapolis, Minn. - Facebook is turning my mind to mush and I don’t like it. The IQ drop is palpable, and it’s really beginning to get on my nerves. Full Story »

Creators Syndicate - The outpouring of tens of thousands of classified military documents by WikiLeaks is not precisely comparable to the publication of the Pentagon Papers — but in at least one crucial respect, it may be more valuable. Full Story »

Creators Syndicate - Who knows what lies ahead for Shirley Sherrod — a book, the lecture circuit, a wrongful discharge lawsuit that could bring millions? But if she keeps talking, the woman "wrongfully portrayed" as a racist may out herself as exactly that. Full Story »

Read Richard (RJ) Eskow's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com Full Story »

Read Al Gore's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com Full Story »

The Nation -- Amid a conflicting report a nuthatch fetches a black fly, dips its plume in stagnant pool. This is a sky drawn, grafted, rescued, not a bath of vapors an afternoon v shutters with counterfeit meaning. It is just an incident within a field of possibility, something periodic and bruised, one location in which we grip that instant of contact. Upstream a scarecrow is ragged in the wounding, a music of terror barely rises above the slopes, reft with nothing but its melody's radius, the slow ancient call of the bird in the distant flicker. Full Story »

The great national debate over illegal immigration just entered the federal courts, perhaps the beginning of a new path toward finding a consensus on this divisive issue. Full Story »

Congress addressed a historic wrong on Wednesday afternoon, replacing it instead with a slightly lesser wrong, when the House voted to reduce the disparity in the sentencing of people caught with crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Full Story »

Read Gabriel Byrne's other articles on HuffingtonPost.com Full Story »

Back in February 2010, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) made a pitch to the titans of the financial services industry. "I sense a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of buyer's remorse on Wall Street," the Virginia Republican said, referencing the industry's supposedly souring relationship with the Obama administration. Full Story »

Proponents of filibuster reform moved swiftly on Wednesday to stem speculation that their effort to revamp the rules of the Senate lacks the requisite number of Democratic votes for passage. Full Story »

Ethical history Full Story »

Courting democracy Full Story »

Afghanistan is unwinnable Full Story »