Slate’s William Saletan noticed that the same day Bush accused Kerry of wanting to put “big government in charge” of Americans’ health care choices, Bush embraced the approach himself. President Bush on Monday repeated his opposition to allowing seniors to buy U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies as a way to save money, calling it […]
The substance of this story is irritating, but the underlying point is the truly offensive part. A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives is supporting legislation that would repeal virtually all of the District’s gun restrictions, targeting one of the nation’s most stringent handgun bans while the presidential candidates are battling over gun limits. […]
Just four days after a Florida judge ruled that Ralph Nader’s name must be left off the state’s presidential ballot, the Florida’s election chief has ordered Nader onto the ballot anyway. It’s as if the state was concerned that it wasn’t a big enough embarrassment to democracy, so it wanted to ratchet things up a […]
Remember when a U.S. Marshal confiscated and erased journalists’ tapes of an Antonin Scalia speech? The reporters involved in the controversy sued, and fortunately, won. The government has conceded that the U.S. Marshals Service violated federal law when a marshal ordered reporters with The Associated Press and the Hattiesburg American to erase their recordings of […]
Paul Krugman was in rare form today, writing in just over 700 words exactly why John Kerry enjoys the high ground over Bush on national security U.S. news organizations are under constant pressure to report good news from Iraq. In fact, as a Newsweek headline puts it, “It’s worse than you think.” Attacks on coalition […]
At a campaign event in Holland, Mich., yesterday, Bush seemed to suggest he spoke directly to John Kerry recently. “I’m running against a fellow who’s promised at least $2 trillion in new money so far. And we haven’t even gotten in the stretch run yet. So I said to him the other day, well, how […]
I’ve noted with some fascination the outrageous rhetoric Tom Coburn has used in his Senate campaign in Oklahoma. I’ve even speculated that his tendency for vitriolic language may ultimately ruin his campaign. It turns out, however, that Coburn has a far bigger problem to deal with. According to records obtained by Salon, Coburn filed an […]
On my less naïve days, there are a few rules I try not to forget, usually leading with the most important truism of ’em all: politics rarely makes sense. That said, Bush’s latest campaign foray into health care seems to be a direct affront to common sense. Bush’s record on the issue is abysmal and […]
It just keeps getting worse. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said yesterday that at the time he made the case to the United Nations for the invasion of Iraq some US intelligence officials already knew many of the claims about weapons and terrorist ties were suspect, but they had not informed him or other […]
Stop me if you’ve heard this one… The Bush administration prepared a detailed government report on health care benefits for seniors, but “inadvertently” left out information that shows burdensome new out-of-pocket Medicare costs for millions of elderly Americans. Raise your hand if you’re surprised. I didn’t think so. With a new Medicare drug benefit set […]