Bush’s Crowd Control — irony edition

Bush, last week: “I think whoever is the president must guard your liberties, must not erode your rights in America.” Bush event, yesterday: President Bush taught three Oregon schoolteachers a new lesson in irony — or tragedy — Thursday night when his campaign removed them from a Bush speech and threatened them with arrest simply […]

Poll Day

If you’re a Carpetbagger regular, you know the drill. If you’re new, welcome; we do this every Friday. It’s time for my round-up of statewide presidential polls released over the last seven days — a little something I call “Poll Day.” Like last week, there’s plenty here to make Kerry fans smile. Many of us […]

What an incredible coincidence

An interesting set of documents were released today by the Pentagon relating to Bush’s alleged service in the National Guard in the 1970s. I haven’t finished reading them yet, but there’s one thing that stands out before even reading the first word: today’s date. Tell me what all of these dates have in common, including […]

Could Rove still get ‘frogmarched’ due to Plame Game?

We learned months ago that Karl Rove, like virtually everyone else at the White House, had spoken with federal investigators about the Plame Game scandal. But ABC News reported this afternoon that Rove testified again today — for over two-and-a-half hours — and had no comment for the cameras upon leaving. Why the need for […]

No punishment, only promotions

The Washington Post had a good editorial today decrying the fact that the prison abuse/torture scandal has faded from public view and has commanded almost no attention in the presidential campaign. The paper’s editorial board asked, “Remember Abu Ghraib?” When it comes to the Bush administration, the answer is clearly, “No.” First, we learned today […]

Bush sort of endorses single-payer health care

A number of key writers noted yesterday that Bush’s criticism of Kerry’s health care plan had more angles than was initially apparent. It won’t get the kind of attention warranted for a discussion of whether Kerry was “mean” to Mary Cheney, but it’s worth following up on anyway. Kerry reminded the debate audience Wednesday night […]

Alabama ponders segregation — again

Alabama legally mandated segregated public schools long before the Supreme Court struck down “separate but equal.” After Brown, Alabama didn’t have a choice about the law, which the state could no longer enforce, but it remained on the books. Its presence was a moot point, but was an ugly reminder of the state’s racist policies. […]

Sinclair continues to get hit where it hurts

Keep it up, everyone; it’s working. WGME’s plan to air a documentary critical of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry prompted three Maine companies Thursday to pull their advertising from the Portland TV station. Hannaford supermarkets, the Lee Auto Malls, and the law offices of Joe Bornstein withdrew their advertising indefinitely from WGME [Channel 13, in […]

Dems fight back over Education Department stunt

We learned earlier this week that the Bush administration is using our money to create fake-news ads (you remember, “I’m Karen Ryan reporting…”) touting its education policy and “ranking” reporters on whether they made Bush look good or not. Yesterday, Senate Dems started fighting back. Two Democratic senators have asked for an investigation into whether […]

Bush raised taxes 63 times — this week

When the Bush campaign first started throwing around the “350 tax increases” nonsense earlier this year, the estimable Michael Kinsley explained: The best way to see the absurdity of saying that John Kerry voted for higher taxes 350 times is to apply Bush’s madcap logic to Bush himself. Every year, in the president’s budget, there […]