It’s been bubbling just beneath the surface for a while now, but the scandal surrounding a lucrative Boeing contact continues to get more interesting. In fact, questions about the White House’s role in the controversy have never been sufficiently explored. First, a quick recap for those who haven’t heard about this. A year ago this […]
Bush addressed the Organization of American States yesterday and suggested, indeed he predicted, that Fidel Castro’s regime will eventually fall and democracy would come to Cuba. “In the new Americas of the 21st century, democracy is now the rule, rather than the exception. Think of the dramatic changes we have seen in our lifetime. In […]
It’s a tough call, but for my money, the most offensive of the charges swirling around House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is his efforts on behalf of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). In the late 1990s, DeLay visited Saipan, the main island of the CNMI, on Jack Abramoff’s dime. Though it was […]
Congress may not want to see medical marijuana on its legislative agenda this year, but it looks like it might end up there anyway. There are currently 11 states that permit medical use of marijuana under controlled and highly-regulated conditions. The Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday did not strike down those laws, but did conclude that […]
That Nancy Reagan is an enthusiastic advocate of federal support for stem-cell research is well known. What’s interesting however, is her willingness to literally get on the phone to lobby lawmakers directly on behalf of the policy. Former first lady Nancy Reagan called members of the California congressional delegation shortly before the House voted May […]
Guest Post by Ed Stephan. The White House seems to be happy with what’s going on in Iraq during recent weeks. Bush, augmenting his remarks with a Pat-Robertson semi-giggle, tells us he’s “pleased”. Speaking in the White House Rose Garden, Bush said he was pleased with progress in Iraq more than two years after he […]
Guest Post by Ed Stephan. In testimony May 26 before the Immigration Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (chair John Cornyn, R-TX), Princeton University professor Douglas Massey, at the invitation of ranking Democrat Ted Kennedy, cited two decades of research which point to a fundamental contradiction in U.S.-Mexico relations: On the one hand, […]
Guest Post by Ed Stephan. Carpetbagger asked me to expand on my post about the Italian economist/sociologist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). There I talked about the cycle Pareto said most governments went through: obtaining power through actual or promised problem-solving, followed by increasing concern about merely staying in power. Since problems aren’t getting solved, governments turn […]
When the typical American thinks about corruption in Washington, they probably imagine movie-like scenarios in which an obese man with a cigar summons a congressman, hands him a briefcase full of cash in a darkened room, and the congressman in turn does the donor’s bidding. Real-life corruption doesn’t look like this at all. It looks […]
The Washington Post’s Mike Allen had a terrific item today about a phenomenon Republican strategists are calling “the DeLay effect” — the way in which questions surrounding Tom DeLay are starting to hurt his House GOP colleagues. This is exactly how the Dems hoped to capitalize on The Hammer’s scandals. It’s not just about one […]