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Monica Potts argues that Dawn’s wildlife-rescue campaign just shows how good the company is at managing its image: While individuals may be able to donate a dollar to worthwhile organizations by buying Dawn, the reality is that Procter & Gamble’s profit goes to lobbying against environmental regulations. The company spent more than $4 million in […]

Nancy Scola follows one man’s quest to liberate all government information — with or without the government’s help: Carl Malamud has taken it upon himself to see that all public information — from court decisions to financial disclosures to Army training tapes — is actually, well, public. Malamud, 51, has worked as a network administrator, […]

Matthew Yglesias says it’s not enough for Obama’s strategy in Afghanistan to work; it has to be worth it: We should take a hard look at what our decisions in Afghanistan truly cost. But the way we’re currently funding the war hides trade-offs. A cryptic process masks what we’re spending. Congress votes on war appropriations […]

Tim Fernholz on what lessons the Sunlight Foundation’s efforts during the financial-reform battle can teach us for the impending regulatory phase: The financial-reform bill has been a good test case for what happens when Congress introduces transparency into a clash that pits the interests of the powerful against those of the public. While it will […]

Monica Potts on what meaningful assistance for unconventional farmers would look like: If President Barack Obama really wants to change the way Americans eat, his administration needs to do more to help the organic farmers who sell their food directly to local consumers. That means shifting funding from big conventional farms to smaller farms whose […]

Heather Rogers says that while President Obama is seeking to boost demand for organic food, he doesn’t offer meaningful support for the people who grow it: As George W. Bush’s before it, President Barack Obama’s Department of Agriculture is doing little to ensure the survival of holistic local farmers. Obama is making some changes at […]

Paul Waldman on how President Obama’s call for reform is putting the hot topic back on the map: It’s good to hear the president make a speech saying the right things about immigration. He not only discussed the legal immigration system, he spoke truthfully about our history of nativism, described the centrality of immigration to […]

Paul Waldman on how commentators have tried fitting Obama into all kinds of historical analogies — but clear narrative arcs are rare in the messy reality of governing: In the couple of days between the arrival of that fateful Rolling Stone article and President Barack Obama’s firing of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, one pundit after another […]

Courtney E. Martin on how Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project restricts aid and development groups — and leaves all of us more vulnerable to terrorism: According to the Supreme Court, many of our world’s most esteemed Nobel Peace Prize winners just might be criminals. Or at least that’s what it seems when one looks at […]

Adam Serwer runs through what the Republicans have got on Elena Kagan, and how the Democrats will respond: Solicitor General Elena Kagan’s nomination to the Supreme Court has drawn glum shrugs from the left and yawns from the right, and that’s probably just how the White House wants it — they are looking for as […]