Free Republic

(Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Monday said it expects to be the target of a U.S. Department of Justice civil lawsuit over its ratings of mortgage bonds prior to the recent financial crisis. The lawsuit against the McGraw-Hill Cos (MHP.N) unit focuses on its ratings in 2007 of various U.S. collateralized debt obligations (CDO), S&P said. It would be the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating agency over alleged illegal behavior tied to the financial crisis. "A DOJ lawsuit would be entirely without factual or legal merit," S&P said in a statement. "The DOJ would be wrong...

The Washington Post article that Dan posted about last night is a head fake. President Obama is not caving on military commissions. He has already caved on them: He failed (thankfully) to abolish them, Congress enacted legislation endorsing them again in 2009, and the administration has already directed a commission trial for the Cole bombers. The real agenda here is to close Gitmo. That’s the ball to keep your eye on. The Post is trying to soften the opposition to shuttering the detention camp by portraying beleaguered, reasonable Obama as making a great compromise that will exasperate the Left. The...