Legal Times’ Tony Mauro wrote an interesting profile this week on Alabama State Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker, whose far-right ideology makes him similar to the infamous theocrat Roy Moore. It was Parker’s connection to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, however, that stood out. To describe Parker as on the fringe of conservative legal thought […]
Dick Cheney seems to believe he’s in a position to lecture on the importance of fiscal responsibility. Vice President Dick Cheney urged Americans Thursday to do a better job of saving and challenged policymakers to strengthen pensions and fix Social Security to help people in their golden years. “The American dream begins with saving money […]
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: * With Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) giving up his seat to mount a primary challenge against Sen. Daniel Akaka (D), several Hawaii Republicans believe they have a shot at becoming the first GOP […]
President Bush has been routinely criticized for his lack of curiosity, but his visit to India this week has magnified just how little the president cares about foreign countries and their culture. Newsweek’s Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey noted that when Clinton visited India in 2000, he spent a week touring the country, “famously visiting […]
Dean Baker noted yesterday that the Bush administration plans to eliminate the Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), but is running into some resistance. More than 400 researchers, including 2 Nobel Laureates signed a letter opposing the elimination of the SIPP. The SIPP is the only major longitudinal survey that tracks the […]
I don’t mean to sound picky, but after nearly four years, I kind of hoped the Department of Homeland Security would be further along than this. Among other woes at Homeland Security, the inspector general’s office says it can’t widely distribute electronic announcements of new watchdog reports. A spokeswoman explains the department lacks capacity to […]
Last week, none of the major polling outfits produced national data. Since Tuesday, we’ve had five. Here’s a recap of what we’ve learned about public opinion this week, with the most recent polls first. * Gallup — Bush’s job-approval rating is 38%, the second lowest of his presidency in a Gallup poll. The proportion who […]
You know, maybe Al Gore is on to something. The Antarctic ice sheet is losing as much as 36 cubic miles of ice a year in a trend that scientists link to global warming, according to a new paper that provides the first evidence that the sheet’s total mass is shrinking significantly. The new findings, […]
Dan Froomkin raised a good point today about the White House response to the new Katrina video. Apparently as a rejoinder to the new video, the White House yesterday suddenly sent around a transcript that it previously said didn’t exist, from a conference call on the following day. It includes a second-hand account of Bush’s […]
The midterm elections are still eight months away, but if you want to know what’s coming up, look no further than Progress for America’s ad campaign, being tested in Minnesota right now. In an early sign of the imagery that may flood the nation’s television screens as congressional elections approach this fall, a conservative political […]