Today’s edition of quick hits. * If you haven’t seen “War of the Words,” check this out. (Thanks to D.M. for the tip.) * Only the Bush administration would conclude that half of $412.7 billion is $248 billion. No wonder the budget is so messed up; these guys are bad at arithmetic. * In an […]
After three and a half years in Iraq, violence in Baghdad has now reached an “all-time high.” The number of sectarian killings each month in Baghdad has more than tripled since February, and the violence has not slowed despite a major offensive in the capital. Death squads killed 1,450 people in September, up from 450 […]
I had an item earlier on David Kuo, the former second-in-command at the White House Faith-Based Office, who appears to have some fascinating revelations about the Bush gang in his new book, “Tempting Faith,” including the fact that the White House enjoys treating the religious right as a bunch of, well, suckers. But there’s another […]
Josh Marshall did a nice job the other day summarizing the broader dynamic of events leading up to the current [tag]North Korea[/tag] crisis. In sum, Josh said, the Bush gang “ditched an imperfect but working policy. They replaced it with nothing.” This week, the president and his allies have had a tough time getting around […]
A few months ago, the New York Times Sunday Magazine ran an interesting cover story on former Virginia Gov. [tag]Mark Warner[/tag] (D), and his burgeoning presidential campaign. The article demonstrated how very serious Warner was about 2008, including extensive travel, a top-notch staff, an aggressive political action committee, and forceful outreach effort to many of […]
The good news is several House Republicans expressed outrage yesterday over a White House controversy involving classified materials. For a change, these GOP lawmakers want Congress to take its oversight responsibilities seriously and launch a formal congressional investigation. The bad news is these House Republicans are still talking about the Clinton White House. House Republicans […]
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: * Less than a month ago, a Quinnipiac University poll in New Jersey showed state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr., maintaining a narrow lead over Sen. Bob Menendez (D). A new Quinnipiac poll, released […]
New York magazine has a great feature story in its new issue on Stephen [tag]Colbert[/tag] and his bombastic, over-the-top, O’Reilly-like on-air character. New York’s Adam Sternbergh raised an interesting point I hadn’t seen explored much elsewhere: Colbert’s on-air personality…leads to a peculiar comedic alchemy on the show. During one taping I attended, Colbert did a […]
The one minor flaw in the Mark [tag]Foley[/tag] scandal has been a nagging detail: the [tag]Bush[/tag] [tag]White House[/tag] hasn’t been connected to the mess at all. What fun is that? How can the [tag]Republican[/tag] establishment screw up this badly without any fingerprints from the Bush gang? We’re in luck. TNR’s Ryan Lizza reports today that […]
[tag]Fred Kaplan[/tag]’s 2004 piece for the Washington Monthly on U.S. policy towards [tag]North Korea[/tag], “Rolling Blunder,” is the definitive take-down of the Bush administration’s approach to the burgeoning crisis. Digby referred to the article the other day as the “gold standard,” which is the perfect description. Of course, the crisis has worsened since 2004, and […]