Listening to the generals

The president delivered a speech yesterday at the Naval War College, rehashing most of what you’d expect him to say about the war in Iraq. (Surprise, he’s optimistic and sees a lot of “progress.”) When he opened the floor to questions, however, the audience seemed a little skeptical. Q: Mr. President, I just returned from […]

Dangerous bomb deactivated in London

While some of the recent alleged terrorist plots in the U.S. haven’t withstood much scrutiny, it looks as if London avoided a serious terrorist incident today. Police in London say they have deactivated a bomb packed with nails and capable of creating huge casualties, raising renewed fears of a terrorist strike almost two years after […]

Adventures in Fox News polling

As Eric Kleefeld noted, there’s a real gem towards the end of the latest Fox News poll (.pdf). This has to be a first. In its new poll, Fox News asked what may well be the ultimate in jingoistic, rally-around-the-flag questions — and the Democrats came out on top: “If there is an all-out war […]

I watch presidential debates — so you don’t have to

Last night’s debate of Democratic presidential candidates was the third of the campaign, and though it was dedicated largely to domestic issues and challenges facing the African-American community — there were no questions, for example, about the war in Iraq — it was probably the most substantive of the three. It was the first debate […]

Thursday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * TPMM: “Scooter Libby has a new name: inmate number 28301-016. That’s according to the Bureau of Prisons, which is ready and waiting for Libby’s arrival. After losing a motion earlier this month to delay his first day in prison, Libby’s currently trying a last ditch appeal before reporting to […]

A ‘sad-sack president’

The president responded to the failure of his immigration bill with a brief statement to the press. Take a look. Josh noted, “Have you ever seen such a sad-sack president? … He almost looks and sounds like someone has literally knocked the wind out of him.” I think that’s true, but also believe the president […]

Stop him before he shills again

Chris Matthews may go out of his way to help promote Ann Coulter’s bile, but it apparently makes him feel all icky. Concluding an hour-long interview with right-wing pundit Ann Coulter on the June 26 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews said: “We have sold a lot of her books tonight. I don’t know […]

Pot accuses the kettle of pork-barrel spending

Way back in April, during the first round of debate on war funding, Bush excoriated lawmakers for “spend[ing] billions of dollars on pork barrel projects and spending that are [sic] completely unrelated to this war.” It was one of his more disingenuous complaints — the president’s own war funding proposal included funds for federal prisons, […]

The truth is apparently out of the question

The White House “offer” to the Senate Judiciary Committee was fairly straightforward: if members wanted to talk to WH staffers about the prosecutor purge, the discussions had to be a) private; b) not under oath; and c) without transcripts. It’s that last one that never made any sense. Indeed, the Bush gang never even tried […]

High Court strikes down school integration plans

It’s been a discouraging week at the Supreme Court. Over the last four days, there have been five major decisions, all of them 5-4 rulings, all of them victories for conservatives, and all of them backed by the same five-member majority (Roberts, Alito, Scalia, Thomas, and Kennedy). Today’s ruling on school racial integration was probably […]