Toyota had been making its popular RAV-4 only in Japan and was looking to open a plant in North America. Canada offered the company $125 million in incentives to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs. Alabama offered Toyota double. Where’s the new plant going? Canada — because Toyota decided it couldn’t afford to gamble […]
This afternoon, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will unveil a clock which will highlight the number of days that have passed since the WhiteHouse leaked the identity of a CIA agent without the Republican-controlled Congress holding a single hearing on the issue. In the meantime, these numbers, by way of Harry Reid’s office, tell a pretty […]
Dick Stevenson had an item yesterday in the New York Times about the Plame scandal and its impact on the president. Frankly, the principal reason I like these stories is because they put Bush and the criminal investigation in the same breath — instead of just Rove and Libby — but this one touched on […]
For nearly four years, the conventional wisdom has told us that the war against terrorism is a “different” kind of war. When it comes to a sense of sacrifice, that’s absolutely true. The Bush administration’s rallying call that America is a nation at war is increasingly ringing hollow to men and women in uniform, who […]
I’ve written enough press releases to know that coming up with new quotes and phrases can be challenging, but this is embarrassing on a couple of levels. The U.S. military on Sunday said it was looking into how virtually identical quotations ended up in two of its news releases about different insurgent attacks. Following a […]
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: * Slowly but surely, Lt. Gov. Timothy Kaine (D) has expanded his support in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. With only about three months before voters elect a new governor, a new Mason-Dixon poll shows […]
Over the weekend, Senate Select Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) embarrassed himself — again — when dealing with protection of classified materials. This time, the subject was Valerie Plame’s status as an undercover agent. “There’s a five-year period, OK? And whether or not that five-year period had been reached or not is still questionable. […]
We learned last week that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, told prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from Tim Russert about Valerie Plame’s identity. This never really made any sense. Apparently, Fitzgerald doesn’t think so either. A deal that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald cut last year for NBC […]
I realized that political parties buy consumer lists and information to better tailor targeted messages, but even I was surprised to see the scope and breadth of the Republican information-gathering machine. The GOP’s mastery of data is changing the very nature of campaigning. Rather than concentrating on building the widest possible support, the Republican Party […]
About two months ago, Andrew Sullivan noted on The Chris Matthews Show that the ACLU had won a lawsuit over Abu Ghraib photos that had not yet been seen, but were, as he put it, “horrifying beyond belief.” Late Friday, however, Rumsfeld’s Pentagon announced it was not complying with the court order that was supposed […]