Remember in February, when Sen. [tag]Arlen Specter[/tag] (R-Pa.) unveiled a bill that would have mandated that the [tag]Bush[/tag] administration get a [tag]warrant[/tag] before tapping a domestic phone call? Don’t worry; neither does [tag]Specter[/tag]. The senior senator from Pennsylvania has been all over the map on this one. First he wanted judicial [tag]oversight[/tag]. More recently, Specter […]
When the right criticizes [tag]hate-crime[/tag] proposals, the main argument seems to be opposition to punishing one’s thoughts. As the argument goes, judge the conduct, not the motivation for the conduct. With this in mind, I’ve been wondering what these same people might say about the [tag]flag-burning[/tag] [tag]amendment[/tag] that’s supposed to come up for a vote […]
I know conservatives are upset about the Senate rejecting their anti-[tag]gay[/tag] constitutional [tag]amendment[/tag], and I can appreciate their intentions to try again in the future. But to even consider, out loud, the idea of calling for a [tag]constitutional convention[/tag] suggests the movement has gone from merely unhinged to completely over-the-edge. A second constitutional amendment to […]
The WaPo included an interesting tidbit towards the end of its report on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s death. Several discrepancies emerged in various accounts of Wednesday’s events. Police and witnesses at the scene told a Washington Post special correspondent that Zarqawi was only wounded in the attack and was whisked away by U.S. forces, dying in […]
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: * In Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, Rep. [tag]Jim Davis[/tag] has picked up considerable institutional support, but state Sen. [tag]Rod Smith[/tag] seems to have gained momentum in recent weeks. A new poll commissioned by […]
Whether you believe he was involved in massive electoral [tag]fraud[/tag] in 2004 or not, Ohio Secretary of State Ken [tag]Blackwell[/tag] (R) is clearly playing fast and loose in 2006. The latest sign that [tag]Republicans[/tag] have an election-year strategy to shut down [tag]voter registration[/tag] [tag]drives[/tag] comes from [tag]Ohio[/tag]. As the state gears up for a very […]
A few months ago, Tom Engelhardt noted that the “debate” over [tag]permanent[/tag] [tag]U.S.[/tag] [tag]bases[/tag] in [tag]Iraq[/tag] was practically non-existent. After a search of the LexisNexis database, he explained, “American reporters adhere to a simple rule: The words ‘permanent,’ ‘bases,’ and ‘Iraq’ should never be placed in the same sentence, not even in the same paragraph; […]
Fortunately, just enough senators had the good sense to defeat an estate-tax repeal yesterday, but today, [tag]Paul Krugman[/tag] offers some good advice about how to talk about the policy. On one side, a measure that would have increased scrutiny of containers entering U.S. [tag]ports[/tag], at a cost of $648 million, has been dropped from a […]
The debate among conservatives over “[tag]a la carte[/tag]” [tag]cable[/tag] — in which consumers pay only for cable [tag]TV[/tag] [tag]channels[/tag] they want — got a little more interesting this week when the James Dobson weighed in, on the opposite side of Pat [tag]Robertson[/tag] and Jerry [tag]Falwell[/tag]. Advocates for cable choice have picked up a big endorsement: […]
I was more than a little worried that the [tag]FDA[/tag] would cave to conservative political pressure (again), but the agency clearly did the right thing yesterday. In what officials called a major public health breakthrough, the [tag]Food and Drug Administration[/tag] yesterday approved the first vaccine developed to protect women against cervical cancer. The vaccine, which […]