This … is CNN

I don’t want to get my hopes up, because I’ve been disappointed before, but it sounds like CNN is aiming to become … a serious news network. CNN announced a slate of programming and anchor changes Monday intended to refocus the No. 2 cable news network on hard news and analysis, and away from opinion […]

Wednesday’s political round-up

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) announced yesterday that she will run the Senate next year, taking on incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson (D). If today’s news about her campaign is any indication, her role […]

Editing out inconvenient facts

Two years ago this month, a report from the Environmental Protection Agency was going to provide the first comprehensive review of what is known about various environmental problems, where gaps in understanding exist, and how to fill them. Naturally, there was a large section on global warming — right up until the White House stepped […]

Use a condom, be ‘prepared to die’

As part of my ongoing fascination with the remarkable inanity of publicly-funded abstinence-only programs, I found a new report explaining that Ohio’s program is unusually ridiculous. Ohio abstinence-education programs contain false information and disregard the needs of sexually active or homosexual youths, according to a new report from a public health professor. One abstinence program, […]

A little public incentive on stem-cell research?

OK, one last word of the latest Washington Post/ABC poll. For the first time, the poll asked whether Americans approved of the way Bush is handling the stem-cell research issue. How badly did the president do on this question? Put it this way: Bush did even worse on stem-cell policy than he did on Social […]

Bush’s failsafe issue is slipping away

There’s been plenty of discussion about the latest Washington Post/ABC poll, but I wanted to emphasize the president’s slipping support on handling the “campaign against terrorism.” The rest of the poll, predictably, offers bad news for Bush on his overall job rating, and his handling of most of the major policy areas, including Social Security, […]

There may be a ‘war on drugs,’ but this is ridiculous

I realize that prosecutors have grown overzealous about going after drug users, but this story, brought to my attention by Carpetbagger regular PWalker, shows that sometimes a district attorney’s office can go a little too far. Jason Warner was killed last fall, but that didn’t stop Fulton County prosecutors from bringing drug charges against the […]

Political consequences of the U.S. Birth Roller Coaster

Guest Post by Ed Stephan. Nearly all news media now tend to “tabloidize” events — not just pointing with alarm to unusual events, but also seeing everything only from the point of view of how events affect an individual. A story about unemployment may begin with “Mary looks fretfully at what may be her last […]

K Street lobbyists tire of Republican demands

Yesterday I noted that top-level Republicans had created the K Street Project, which is an ongoing effort to seize control of Washington’s lobbying apparatus through intimidation, hardball political tactics, and even private threats. Today we see that K Street itself, despite being dominated by GOP staffers, is starting to resent their puppet masters. An alleged […]

Not exactly what voters bargained for

The LA Times’ Janet Hook recently reported that Bush run for a second term on a specific policy agenda. Many of the assets Bush brings to his second term distinguish him from other two-term presidents. Unlike President Reagan’s broad-brush “Morning in America” campaign for reelection in 1984, for example, Bush ran in 2004 on a […]