For the past few months there have been a series of reports about the State Department trying to send officials to Iraq for diplomatic work. Not surprisingly, State employees are, shall we say, reluctant to go. Now, it appears the State Department, left with too few volunteers, is going to stop asking and start ordering. […]
First up from The God Machine this week is a fascinating study from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, which drew some interesting correlations between a nation’s wealth and its religiosity. Global publics are sharply divided over the relationship between religion and morality. In much of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, there is a strong […]
The St. Petersburg Times reported this week that WellCare Health Plans, a Florida-based company that provides managed-care plans for millions of Medicare and Medicaid participants, has come under federal investigation. Indeed, the FBI raided WellCare’s headquarters Wednesday morning, along with the U.S. Attorney’s office, HHS investigators, and the Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. […]
Guest Post by Morbo The Carpetbagger did a great job writing about the “Values Voter Summit” last weekend. Since I live in the D.C. area, I decided to stop by in person. I didn’t attend every session, and I missed some of the speeches (including Mitt Romney). But I did sit through a banquet honoring […]
Guest Post by Morbo You might have noticed that things aren’t going so well for the Republicans these days. The war in Iraq remains unpopular, many Americans are uneasy about the economy and the GOP continues to block expanding the popular State Children’s Health Insurance Program. On issues that matter to Americans, the Republican Party […]
A month ago, when Rush Limbaugh first blasted U.S. troops who disagree with the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq as “phony soldiers,” the far-right host and his eager caller also insisted that the “real” troops want to be there and support the mission. During the “phony soldiers” call, Limbaugh’s listener argued, “If you talk to […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Some welcome relief for our friends in Southern California: “Cool, damp weather moved into Southern California from the Pacific Ocean on Friday boosting efforts to beat down stubborn wildfires, while weary families returned to find many homes unscathed but hundreds of others burned to rubble. After six days of […]
This week, Rudy Giuliani played the crazy-person card in response to a question at an event in Iowa about torture. Asked if he thought waterboarding constituted torture, Giuliani said, “It depends on how it’s done,” adding that he was skeptical about the practice based on descriptions from the “liberal media.” Giuliani went on to say, […]
In one of the sillier far-right whine-fests of the year, conservatives were outraged back in April when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Syria, and wore a head scarf while visiting the 8th-century Omayyad Mosque. Drudge got the ball rolling with a big photo of Pelosi’s attire, and the rest of the right pounced. One […]
The LAT had a feature about a week ago highlighting the precarious position anti-war Republicans find themselves in. As disastrous as Bush’s Iraq policy is, and as unpopular as the war has become, “Republican lawmakers who have broken with over the war are under fire from party loyalists.” Ron Brownstein explains today that there’s an […]