Before the war, the Bush administration insisted that Iraq’s oil money would be key to a post-Saddam future. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, on March 27, 2003, said, “We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.” Donald Rumsfeld told Fortune Magazine in the fall of 2002 that […]
The standard Republican line, which Dems no longer bother to refute, is that we don’t need more gun laws, we just need to enforce the ones already on the books. Indeed, as Bush personally explains on the website for Project Safe Neighborhoods, “If you use a gun illegally, you will do hard time.” Now the […]
To hear the religious right tell it, Christians are victims in American society. Their voices are squelched and their ideas are ridiculed. Christians, the movement argues, are in desperate need to defense from forces of secular hostility. With this in mind, where is the religious right on the UCC advertising story? In theory, shouldn’t Dobson, […]
Considering that Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s soon-to-be attorney general, was in the middle of the Plame Game scandal, it’s somewhat reassuring to hear that he won’t have any role in the ongoing investigation. Alberto R. Gonzales agreed on Wednesday to remove himself from oversight of the politically charged investigation into the disclosure of a C.I.A. officer’s […]
Yes, we should have done this a long time ago, but a) it’s better late than never; b) it’s proof that Dems are starting to understand how to play this game; and c) it’s the latest sign that Harrry Reid is going to make a fine Senate Minority Leader. In one of his first moves […]
It was bad enough to learn that Bush is boosting federal funding for abstinence-only programs that don’t work, but it’s so much worse that the programs getting our tax dollars are giving students outrageously incorrect information. Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion […]
In February 2002, the New York Times reported Bush administration plans for something called the Office of Strategic Influence. Its purpose was simple: misinformation. As an NYT editorial explained at the time: Plans being developed by the Pentagon’s Orwellian new Office of Strategic Influence call for planting false stories in the foreign press and running […]
In the unlikely event you haven’t heard about this elsewhere, I’d like to join the growing chorus of outrage over the decision by CBS and NBC to refuse advertising from the United Church of Christ. If you’re not familiar with the UCC, it’s a progressive and inclusive Christian denomination with a message (and a history) […]
My friend Eugene Oregon noted today that a GOP lawmaker in Alabama is trying to ban books with gay characters from public libraries, including universities. A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for “the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable […]
There was a memorable exchange in Aaron Sorkin’s “The American President” in which the idea of political capital is explored, albeit briefly. Lewis Rothschild (Michael J. Fox): “Sir, we campaigned on [the handgun-control] issue. Now, I understand we took it out when we were in the low forties, but we can push it through now.” […]