Inside Washington

Republicans are trying their very hardest to scrub from the internet any and all praise, including "thoughts and prayers," for Bowe Bergdahl. Guess they wanted him to come home until Obama spurred the decision to get it done. Apparently, it took more than magic to bring home a captive U.S. soldiers.

Who was is that said that the United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists? It was Ronald Reagan, and he said it while he was in the middle of selling Hawk missile parts to Iran as part of negotiations with terrorists to return our hostages in Lebanon. It's unsurprising then, that the return of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is being wrestled into the latest "scandal" for President Barack Obama.

From the current VA scandal to Obamacare's implementation to immigration, to just about every major legislative initiative, Republicans have made obstructing into an art form. And the beauty of it all is that they're blaming the Democrats. AND the media is falling for it, hook and sinker.

President Barack Obama lambasted the media's penchant for false equivalency in a speech in Chicago Thursday night. We have a group (Republicans) who deny science, who continue to race bait, who's intractable political obstinance has caused the government to grind to a screaming halt. These positions are empirically wrong, plain and simple.

AT&T and its intended, DirecTV, gain D.C. clout via their contributions, fundraising, and lobbying expenditures. Another way their power is revealed is in just how much they make themselves known before the Federal Communications Commission.

The feisty Senator from Vermont is giving dinner speeches in Iowa, telling journalists he’s “prepared” to campaign, and is deciding whether he wants to compete for the Democratic nomination or take the “radical” step of heading an independent ticket.

Until recently, the Koch family empire ruled from the shadows afforded by unimaginable wealth. As more and more Americans open their eyes to the powers behind the modern conservative movement — and a whole lot of climate change denial — the information about this secretive family is beginning to spill out into the open. With a biography on the Koch family hitting bookstores on Tuesday, that story may finally be available for all to read.

Harry Reid has come out against Obama's terrible nomination of Michael Boggs, who's past votes in Georgia's Court of Appeals allowed the Confederate flag to remain on the state's flag, restricted abortion rights and denied gay couples the right to marry.

With the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) preparing the legal framework under which unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones) will be regulated in the United States, business interests from all sectors are amassing armies of legal analysts and lobbyists in hopes that their bottom lines are part of the ultimate equation.

Barack Obama has nominated Michael Boggs — a far right, anti-marriage-equality extremist judge — to the federal bench. Here is a clip of what Judge Boggs thinks of "activist judges" and equality. So why is the President pushing for this man's promotion?