People say different things when they’re among friends than they do when everyone’s watching. It’s only human nature; we’re more inclined to let our guard down and speak our minds when we’re confident that no one will use our words against us later. Which is exactly why Tom DeLay’s remarks to the Family Research Council […]
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Bush administration looks at an issue, finds inconvenient facts, then hides the facts and pretends they don’t exist. Sound familiar? It’s happened again. U.S. law enforcement agents working at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, concluded that controversial interrogation practices used there by the Defense Department produced […]
My new daily feature about campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may nevertheless be of interest to political observers: * In Pennsylvania, a new poll shows state Treasurer Bob Casey Jr. (D) leading Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum (R) by the narrowest of margins — 44% to 43%. * […]
There’s this name that keeps popping up in stories relating to Terri Schiavo: Dr. William Hammesfahr. He’s been quoted in thousands of publications and programs over the last week or so, primarily in conservative outlets (such as TV preacher Pat Robertson’s 700 Club), but also in mainstream publications such as the Miami Herald, LA Times, […]
There’s always been a rather eccentric group of opponents for Bush’s Patriot Act, particularly among old-school conservatives who are uncomfortable with sweeping new powers for the federal government. With this in mind, I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that the opponents are creating a new organizational network with an interesting membership list. Chaired by […]
As if Bush’s EPA needed another black eye in its handling of mercury pollution rules, it has one. When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the […]
After the election, talk of Bush’s “political capital” was all the rage. We finally had a new political buzz phrase, which according to Karl Rove and the rest of the “strategery” team, would be key to the debate over privatizing Social Security. The basic premise behind all of the “political capital” talk was the notion […]
In recent weeks, as talk of the “nuclear option” has shifted from speculation to imminent floor fight, conservatives have wielded a double-edged kvetch: they’re irate about Dems blocking the least qualified of Bush’s judicial nominees, and they’re almost as incensed about how Dems would retaliate if Republicans gutted the Senate’s filibuster rules. A week ago, […]
For those of you who’ve been jumping up and down for weeks, practically begging for ethics investigations of high-profile Republican lawmakers, I have good news: a GOP senator is about to face a serious ethics probe. The odd part, however, is that the investigation will focus on a scandal that a lot of us had […]
Just last month, Halliburton benefited from “a departure from normal policy” that allowed the company to get paid despite audit reports that said the company had not properly accounted for a wide variety of work in Iraq and Kuwait. Army auditors recommended withholding part of the payments, but the higher-ups overruled them. The exception to […]