With Watergate and Deep Throat back in the news, and new revelations about Bush-related outrages popping up on a regular basis, discussions about scandals are ubiquitous. With this in mind… This week’s topic: What is the best political scandal in American history? How does Watergate stack up against Iran-Contra? Teapot Dome vs. XYZ Affair? Where […]
Guest Post by Morbo The May 30 New Yorker has a profile of John McCain that’s well worth a look. McCain wants to be president. No surprise there. What is surprising is the number of otherwise sensible people who have been taken in by McCain’s shtick. By some accounts, McCain is the most popular politician […]
Guest Post by Morbo A Salt Lake City firm called Vehix.com that sells cars online is trying an experiment: Spanish-language television commercials. What’s the big deal, you might ask? Spanish-language commercials air on Telemundo and local stations that cater to the Hispanic market all of the time. The big deal is that Vehix aired them […]
Guest Post by Morbo The French have rejected the proposed European Constitution, and Washington Post business columnist Steven Pearlstein is flummoxed. Our snail-devouring pals across the pond, Pearlstein wrote, had a chance to adopt “an enlightened form of global capitalism” but said, “Non!” What’s up with that? I was amused by this sentence most of […]
Guest Post by Morbo A state judge in Indiana has issued a ruling that should alarm all who value religious freedom. Marion Superior Court Judge Cale Bradford has ruled that Thomas E. Jones and his ex-wife, Tammy Bristol, who are both Pagans, may not expose their son Archer to “non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals.” A […]
Guest Post by Morbo I was amused by a recent story in the Dallas Morning News about the rise of charismatic forms of worship in the Roman Catholic Church in Nigeria. The article chronicled the exploits of the Rev. Ejike Mbaka, a Catholic priest whose style is more akin to the “700 Club” than the […]
Recruiting and keeping soldiers in the military is a problem that is clearly getting worse. The military routinely falls short of monthly recruiting goals, to the point that the Pentagon has decided to start pushing off the bad news to avoid further embarrassment. In addition, in many communities, parents who used to encourage serving in […]
In recent months, we’ve seen countless examples of polls showing that Americans’ dislike for Bush’s Social Security privatization scheme tends to grow in direct proportion to learning more about it. Bush launched his infamous “60-day tour” in March to rally support for his proposal, which clearly backfired. “The more the president goes out there, the […]
When the compromise was reached in the Senate last week over how to avoid the nuclear option, the lawmakers who participated in the negotiations wanted to send a message to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue: the White House has been part of the problem. The deal specifically said: “We encourage the Executive branch of […]
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: * With Chris Cox giving up his seat to serve as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Orange County Republicans are scrambling to fill the vacancy. Among the candidates vying for the […]