There are many great villains in cinema -- men and women we pity, loathe, or even guiltily admire -- but many of them are nuanced, human characters, or otherwise mythologically ethereal, and therefore do not correspond well to the sort of creature that populates the political right. But there are indeed some characters so astutely, witheringly portrayed, and so accurately channel the basic animus of the right-wing pathology that they deserve specific mention.

Late last month, President Obama took yet another step back from realizing his promise to close Guantanamo Bay by the end of the year. The president signed legislation that erects several significant roadblocks: for the remainder of this fiscal year, Guantanamo detainees cannot be brought to the United States for release, detention, or prosecution on terrorism charges.

Watching the debate in the US over health-care from a Canadian point of view, is probably another diary all together, but I would like to share a typical Canadian experience with our good but not-perfect health-care system.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt asked Frances Perkins to be his Secretary of Labor in 1932, she said she would accept only if he would support her social justice agenda: Federal relief and large-scale public works programs to help victims of the Depression, federal minimum wage and maximum hour's law, a ban on child labor, and unemployment and old age insurance. The New Deal was born.

The White House sent a bill to Congress today that would finally require that hedge funds are regulated - to an extent. And now Reuters reports that hedge funds, which have forever resisted any form of meaningful regulation, really want to be regulated. Now we know why the industry contributed nearly four times as much money to federal candidates as they did last cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politic.

In all of the attention we are paying to the housing/foreclosure crisis and general chaos on Wall Street, we are forgetting another major component: pensions and retirement funds. The 'guaranteed income' that tens of millions of Americans currently depend on in the form of pensions, 401 (k) payments, and annuities is in more danger than ever before.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka announced his candidacy to replace John Sweeney"who is retiring as president of the labor federation"at a rally in Washington, D.C. on July 9.

As a lawyer who spent several weeks trying a landmark case in front of Judge Sotomayor, I watch with even greater interest. So, although my relationship with Judge Sotomayor is purely professional, I feel a great personal kinship with her and am excited to feel a part of this historic occasion.

On Monday, before heading out to toss the first pitch at Tuesday's baseball All-Star Game, the president kicked off a White House forum on urban policy by criticizing past federal measures that have encouraged sprawl and promising a new look at ways, including support for public transit, to help metropolitan (in other words, not just traditionally "urban") areas become more sustainable.

As the Obama administration and Congress mull reinventing for the third time a legal system to try terrorism suspects, three hearings were held today at Guantanamo Bay in the military commission cases of Omar Khadr, Mohammed Kamin, and Ibrahim al Qosi. The good news is that changes the Obama administration has asked for may help improve a process that has never operated in a way that folks familiar with the American legal system would recognize as justice. The bad news is that the system is so flawed that these changes cannot salvage it.

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