Electronic Pen

Babak Sarfaraz The top candidate to replace the ailing Ayatollah Khamenei may be both a clerical traditionalist and a modernizer.

John Nichols If Obama wants to change our healthcare system, he will have to work every bit as hard as he did last year to win the presidency.

Jeremy Scahill The private security company, facing charges in a US court for killing and injuring Iraqis, is attempting to silence its victims.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell When police arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., they managed to handcuff and detain the living embodiment of post-racial possibility.

William Greider The Fed is at the zenith of its influence and has extraordinary powers. Yet the extreme irregularity of its behavior is producing a legitimacy crisis for the central bank.

Robert Scheer The news that Congress might actually stop production of a high-profit weapons system because it fills no legitimate function is a considerable victory for President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gates and logic.

John Nichols They're not exactly dismantling the military-industrial complex, but members of Congress are learning to say 'no.'

• Chris Hayes: Cut Military Budget
• Chalmers Johnson: How to Deal with America's Empire of Bases

Barbara Crossette On her first trip to India, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got some promises and some pushback on climate change and nuclear weapons.

William Greider In naming Phil Angelides as chair of the new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, Congress has picked an aggressive, visionary reformer.

• The New Colossus