As a rule, I find talk about impeaching Bush to be an occasionally fun diversion, but little more. The focus for Bush’s critics should be on curtailing his agenda and winning as many elections as possible in November. With a Republican Congress, plotting the president’s removal from office seems largely unproductive. But since the Sunday […]
The Republican defense for the Jack Abramoff scandal is basically one phrase: Dems took Abramoff money too. Those five words have been repeated by every GOP activist and lawmaker, and regurgitated by reporters striving for some kind of fact-free “balance,” but the truth remains that Abramoff was a Republican operative, who donated to Republican candidates […]
As is too often the case with the Bush White House, there’s the president’s rhetoric… “And tonight I also offer this pledge of the American people: Throughout the area hit by the hurricane, we will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their […]
I generally just ignore Ann Coulter’s lunacy because it’s so terribly irrelevant. When circus clowns go on some tirades about liberals, it’s hard to get too worked up about it. But I nevertheless thought yesterday’s Coulter flap was a little more interesting than most. Speaking at a Little Rock college, conservative commentator Ann Coulter joked […]
In March 2005, John Orman, a poli sci prof at Fairfield University who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1984, said he would take a big risk: he’d take on Sen. Joe Lieberman (D) in a Dem Senate primary. Six months later, Orman looked at his campaign coffers — he’d raised $1,000. Lieberman had $3.8 million. […]
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that Fred Phelps and his truly deranged, Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church have taken to protesting at the funerals for troops killed in Iraq, literally celebrating their deaths. Phelps and his deranged followers carry signs that read “Thank God for dead soldiers” and “Thank God for IEDs,” because they […]
The ol’ “God Machine” has a lot to offer this week…. First up, in an international edition, is an interesting lawsuit in Italy, where a judge heard arguments yesterday on whether a small-town parish priest should stand trial for asserting that Jesus Christ existed. The priest’s atheist accuser, Luigi Cascioli, says the Roman Catholic Church […]
Earlier this month, Wal-Mart lost a key political battle when lawmakers in Maryland overrode a gubernatorial veto and effectively required Wal-Mart to spend more on employee health care. The retail behemoth’s biggest concern was how many other states would follow suit. The fears are well-founded — Wal-Mart now has to worry about Washington state. More […]
When it comes to his warrantless-search program, Bush’s honesty has been in short supply. He’s misrepresented his legal authority, his predecessors’ decisions, Congress’ authorizations, and his administration’s congressional briefings. But there’s one particular distortion Bush has emphasized that’s more annoying than the others. “In the weeks following September the 11th, I authorized a terrorist surveillance […]
In the 2004 presidential race, John Kerry offered a very clear approach as to how the United States should deal with Iran: have the international community offer Iran nuclear fuel to be used in a peaceful nuclear energy program. As Kerry put it at the time, “We should call their bluff and organize a group […]