It’s the war, stupid

How are Democrats going to approach the midterm elections? We’ve been getting some conflicting reports. Roll Call suggested this week that Dems are going to do what they did in 2002 and 2004. Forced to play defense on national security for the third election year in a row, Congressional Democrats have been huddling in recent […]

Clinton 1, Wallace 0

We won’t be able to see the video until tomorrow, but in the meantime, I think readers will enjoy checking out ThinkProgress’ item on Fox News’ Chris Wallace’s interview with President Bill Clinton. It was taped yesterday for broadcast tomorrow. As Judd noted, the interview was intended to be about the Clinton Global Initiative and […]

Hardly a Sister Souljah moment

ABC News reported last night that Arkansas Gov. Mike [tag]Huckabee[/tag] (R) played the compassionate-conservative card yesterday, appearing at the [tag]Family Research Council[/tag]’s “[tag]Values Voters Summit[/tag],” and delivering a half-way progressive message that the audience didn’t want to hear. ABC suggested it was Huckabee’s “[tag]Sister Souljah[/tag] moment.” It wasn’t. At today’s Values Voters Summit, Gov. Mike […]

This Week in God

First up from the God machine this week is a religion story I’ve been following quite closely lately, involving a dispute between All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena and the Internal Revenue Service. If you’re just joining us, a guest pastor at All Saints delivered a sermon shortly before the 2004 presidential election. The Rev. […]

Number of TVs > number of people

I know we take television pretty seriously in this country, but I didn’t quite expect this. The average American home now has more [tag]television[/tag] sets than people. That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to [tag]Nielsen[/tag] Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers […]

What’s to be done with this Nazi church?

Guest Post by Morbo Leaders of the Lutheran Church in Germany have an unusual problem on their hands: They don’t known what to do with a church full of Nazi imagery. As Religion News Service explained recently, Berlin’s Martin Luther Memorial Church definitely has some odd features. From the outside, it’s an ordinary church with […]

‘Reading first’ finishes last

[tag]Reading First[/tag] is not just another grant program in the [tag]Department of Education[/tag]. According to the cabinet agency’s website, it is “the academic cornerstone of the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act.” Reading First, the Department of Education has argued “is a prime example of the No Child Left Behind law’s emphasis on programs and […]

‘Questions the Press Should Ask’

In the wake of the “compromise” on torture between the White House and Senate Republicans, the media coverage has been a bit of a mixed bag. The WaPo and the NYT ran helpful, illuminating op-eds that everyone should read, but a lot of the coverage has been, sadly, more about the politics than the policy. […]

Bush, Armitage, Musharraf, and bombing Pakistan ‘back to stone age’

According to press accounts this morning, the Bush administration threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the stone age” in 2001 unless it cooperated in the US-led war on terror. We know this, apparently, because President Pervez Musharraf says so. According to a wire story, the Pakistani leader said former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage […]

VoteVets.org ad takes a shot, but stays intact

I noted last week that VoteVets.org unveiled one of the campaign season’s most effective ads in Virginia, criticizing Sen. George Allen (R) for his vote against body armor funding in 2003. The ad drew such a positive response, and garnered so much support, VoteVets.org brought its ad to Pennsylvania to take on Sen. Rick Santorum […]