The Editors

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: BRANCHING OUT. After years in which legislators ceded all ground on national security questions to the president and failed to challenge his expansion of executive powers, Hamdan is now forcing Congress to step up and show its cards regarding detention policy. As Jonathan Hafetz explains, “If Congress ends up blessing […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: IT’S THE STUPIDITY, STUPID. Matt thinks the president’s an idiot. –The Editors

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: JOE, KO’d. Provoked by that blistering Times editorial, Mike “Bossman” Tomasky speculates: What if Ned Lamont not only beats Joe Lieberman, but throttles him by, say, 10 points? “[I]f it were to happen, Lieberman�s career might be effectively over August 9,” says Mike. He explains why here. –The Editors

JUST POSTED ONLINE: WHAT WOULD JOE AND EILEEN DO? To complement the audio, here’s the transcript: It’s Chuck Schumer unleashed. The senator had breakfast with journalists from the Prospect and elsewhere on July 12. Hear him expound on the death of New Deal liberalism and Reagan conservatism, what American swing-voter prototypes Joe and Eileen can […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: RAMALLAH STIRS. Writing from the city that houses the Palestinian government, Jo-Ann Mort reminds us of the conflict that remains the core issue in the region, and documents glimmers of potential forward movement: Prior to Meshal’s meddling, Palestinian factions had been forging a partnership — one that might even produce […]

NOW ALL WE NEED IS A BAND. I’ve heard the lament from so many TAP readers: You’re walking along, listening to some music, and all you can think is, “If only I could somehow listen to Prospect content on my IPod.” Well now you can! TAP has hit ITunes. Subscribe to our podcasts (for free!) […]

JUST POSTED TAP ONLINE: COURTS DISMISSED. So should gay marriage proponents really be grateful that the New York Court of Appeals refused to overturn the state’s gay marriage ban? The argument is a familiar one: judicial interventions into hot-button public debates invariably provoke a bigger public backlash than legislative actions. Scott Lemieux says it’s bunk. […]

JUST POSTED ONLINE: ANATOMY OF A MURDER. TAP talks to director Chris Paine about his new documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? (It was Big Auto and Big Oil in the kitchen with the candlestick.) –The Editors

JUST POSTED ONLINE: POWER PLOY. To continue with the theme of the day, Marc Lynch of Abu Aardvark fame explains why pro-American Arab regimes are criticizing Hezbollah and Iran in such an explict and public fashion during this crisis. (Hint: shockingly, it’s not because they’re expressing the sentiments of their citizens.) The much-hyped communal dimension […]