Tancredo calls the police on bipartisan Capitol Hill press conference

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), ostensibly a presidential candidate running on an anti-immigration platform, has made his opinions unambiguously clear when it comes to those who come to the United States seeking a better life. So I suppose it shouldn’t have been too big a surprise when he asked law-enforcement officials to raid a bipartisan Capitol […]

Hey, big spender

About a month ago, during a White House press conference, Bush said with a smirk, “I think I got a B in Econ 101. I got an A, however, in keeping taxes low and being fiscally responsible with the people’s money.” Those who oppose increases in government spending may disagree. George W. Bush, despite all […]

California’s wildfires send CNN’s Beck into incoherence

The devastation caused by California’s wildfires is almost hard to believe. At this point, over 420,000 acres have burned, nearly 900,000 people have been evacuated, and nearly 1,200 homes have been destroyed. And CNN’s Glenn Beck is still focused on the patriotism, or lack thereof, of those in Southern California affected by the fires. Beck […]

The administration’s war on science — revisited

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a Senate panel yesterday that climate change “is anticipated to have a broad range of impacts on the health of Americans.” If that sounds a little vague and non-specific, there’s a good reason — the White House refused to let her say […]

Tuesday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * Conditions in Southern California are truly scary: “More than a half million people had been ordered from San Diego County homes Tuesday as wildfires rage from the Mexican border to north of Los Angeles. Across Southern California, more than 1,300 homes had been reduced to ashes, officials said Tuesday. […]

New JCS Chairman doesn’t think highly of Cheney, either

So far, I hold Adm. Mike Mullen, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in much higher regard than his predecessor, Gen. Peter Pace. A few weeks ago, he banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” in his office, and prohibited using it “in any future correspondence.” A few weeks […]

Bush’s demagoguery knows no bounds

Earlier this month, the NYT had a front-page blockbuster, highlighting secret legal opinions from the Bush administration, which endorsed “the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.” After insisting publicly that “torture is abhorrent,” administration officials “provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics,” […]

Romney’s convenient slip

When Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said it is “entirely possible” that Saddam Hussein hid weapons of mass destruction in Syria prior to the 2003 invasion, that’s a gaffe. When he made the bizarre assertion that IAEA weapons inspectors were not allowed entry into Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, that’s a gaffe. When he said that military […]

Another one falls under Huckabee’s spell

One by one, prominent media figures, who’ve apparently grown weary of the top-tier Republican presidential candidates, are lining up to sing Mike Huckabee’s praises. David Broder boasts on national television of being “a Huckabee fan.” David Brooks wrote a gushing love letter to the former governor last week. And now Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, whom I […]

Scaife, sex, scandal, and schadenfreude

Another blogging conundrum. Do I mention Richard Mellon Scaife’s ugly divorce, or do I ignore what is arguably a private matter with no political relevance? Tipping the scales is Scaife’s destructive role in financing every right-wing cause imaginable, including funding the Arkansas Project, created, of course, to dig up dirt on the Clintons’ personal life. […]