This week, the House Armed Services Committee held a hearing on conditions in our other war, the one in Afghanistan. Demonstrating the extent to which the nation remembers the conflict against the country that was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, no reporters bothered to show up for the event, despite testimony from Gen. Karl Eikenberry, […]
About two weeks ago, after months of rumors, we finally got a look at Fox News’ attempts to break into comedy. Apparently, with the success of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, the right decided that conservative humor was missing from the discourse, and Rupert Murdoch would fill the void. The first glimpse wasn’t […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The defense rested in Scooter Libby’s criminal trial today, but not before a little drama. Apparently, Libby’s defense team had led the judge to believe that the defendant would testify, which led to the lawyers having access to specific classified information. When the lawyers announced Libby would not take […]
Earlier this week, on an unrelated point, Paperwight had an interesting item about institutions and their brand names: “If you don’t use and defend a trademark or brand, you lose it.” With this in mind, how’s the Republican brand looking? It’s seen better days. Gallup recently found that people identifying themselves as Republicans dropped in […]
Intentionally or not, Instapundit’s Glenn Reynolds seems to have written one of those posts that has everyone buzzing. Responding to reports that Iran is providing weapons used to attack Americans in Iraq, Reynolds argued: This has been obvious for a long time anyway, and I don’t understand why the Bush Administration has been so slow […]
I’m not sure why I get excited about Bush’s press conferences; it’s not as if I expect informative answers and an insightful perspective on key events. Maybe I watch because I’m confident that the president will invariably get stuck on some important point, intentionally misstate the truth, and/or flub an answer entirely. It’s a bit […]
Given the inherent difficulties in military recruiting during an unpopular war, it stands to reason that the Defense Department would want to create more flexible standards. The number of waivers granted to Army recruits with criminal backgrounds has grown about 65 percent in the last three years, increasing to 8,129 in 2006 from 4,918 in […]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues yesterday that the non-binding resolution being debated on the House floor is the first of several steps. “A vote of disapproval will set the stage for additional Iraq legislation which will be coming to the House floor,” she said. We don’t know, however, exactly what that’s going to […]
I’m not exactly sure how, but the debate over U.S. torture policy appears to be back on the frontburner. There’s no legislation pending, and there haven’t been any new, high-profile scandals, but maybe all the talk about “24” got people thinking again. For example, Andrew Sullivan noted yesterday that Hugh Hewitt interviewed Col. Stuart Herrington, […]
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: * Shakespeare’s Sister’s Melissa McEwan resigned from John Edwards’ presidential campaign yesterday. “This was a decision I made, with the campaign’s reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was […]