Last week, Rep. [tag]Katherine Harris[/tag] (R-Embarrassmentville) raised a few eyebrows by insisting that voters had to elect [tag]Christians[/tag] to avoid “legislating [tag]sin[/tag],” calling the constitutional separation of church and state a “lie,” and arguing that God did not intend for the United States to be “a nation of secular laws.” Since then she backed away […]
And I thought [tag]Ken[/tag] Tomlinson’s partisan, ideological, and generally ridiculous work as Bush’s chairman of the [tag]Corporation for Public Broadcasting[/tag] was bad before. As it turns out, it was even worse than I realized. State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his […]
If you missed Donald Rumsfeld’s remarks today at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention, you missed the Defense Secretary at his least sensible. This guy was on a roll, lashing out at “quitters,” who “cannot stomach a tough fight” and are inclined to “blame America first.” Throw in a few straw-man attacks and some […]
Yesterday, the American Family Association was whining about Wal-Mart and the non-existent “war on Christmas.” Today’s AFA target is a 9/11 documentary that includes (gasp!) actual profanity uttered the day of the attacks. As my friends at Right Wing Watch noted, Don Wildmon and the AFA hope to stop CBS from airing the documentary, which […]
In case readers are interested, I’d like to give everyone a heads-up about a just-posted article at The American Prospect that I wrote. It’s called, “Is our president learning?” Here’s a teaser: In January 2005, George W. Bush sat down with C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb, longtime host of Booknotes. When Lamb asked the president how much […]
The last we heard about the UK terrorist plot to hijack 10 U.S.-bound planes, the story was looking a little shaky. The suspects didn’t have the experience needed to carry out a plot, nor did they have materials or training. The Bush administration pushed the British to move before they wanted to; James Galbraith noted […]
Earlier this year, the Bush administration announced that it no longer saw any reason for the [tag]Census[/tag] Bureau to keep producing its annual report on poverty and income. It may be the only government survey that researchers how income changes affect their poverty status, health coverage, and use of government services, but the Bush gang […]
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: * Since [tag]Ned Lamont[/tag] defeated [tag]Joe Lieberman[/tag] in the Connecticut Dem Senate primary, a handful of Dem senators have said they’d ignore the will of the party’s voters and back Lieberman anyway. Yesterday, […]
Oh, so [tag]John Mark Karr[/tag] didn’t kill [tag]JonBenet Ramsey[/tag]. The [tag]media[/tag] didn’t have to treat this as the biggest story of the year. Now they tell us. Truth be told, if Karr had been guilty of the crime, the media’s breathless coverage would have been excessive to the point of embarrassment. But now that Karr […]
It’s quintessential Washington: Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) introduced legislation that would create a searchable database of government contracts, grants, insurance, loans and financial assistance, worth $2.5 trillion last year. Anyone would be able to search by by agency, recipient, and type of assistance. The point, of course, is adding a layer […]