Battling cancer — but only for a profit

This story was making the rounds yesterday, but in case you missed it, the piece is well worth checking out. (via Digby) It is expected there would be no problems securing funding to explore a drug that could shrink cancerous tumors and has no side-effects in humans, but University of Alberta researcher Evangelos Michelakis has […]

The Obama smear grows more contemptuous

About a month ago, some unhinged right-wing bloggers started a dangerous meme: Barack Obama’s “loyalties” may lie with Islam, instead of the United States. It was malicious and disgusting. And now right-wing news outlets are running with it. Insight magazine, a project of Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times, published an item in its new issue, […]

Rice aide says she lacks ‘vaguest notion’ of modern Middle Eastern history

Top Bush administration officials seem to revel in historical analogies, particularly when it comes to the war in Iraq. At different times, the Bush gang has referenced Korea, the Revolutionary War, WWI, and the Civil War. By mid-2005, the president had settled on World War II as a personal favorite. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice […]

Religious people can be pro-choice, too

Time magazine White House correspondent Mike Allen is a real reporter. I’ve been following his work for a long time, and he’s generally a serious guy who, more often than not, does solid work. Which is exactly why this was so disappointing. Appearing on the January 17 edition of CNN Headline News’ Glenn Beck, Time […]

Friday’s political round-up

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: * Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) probably expects to suffer politically a bit for his support of Bush’s policies in Iraq, but probably not this much. A new LA Times poll shows that more […]

The U.S. Attorney ‘purge’

Across the country, United States Attorneys are sometimes described as local attorneys general — each U.S. Attorney is the chief federal law enforcement officer within his or her local jurisdiction. There’s a pretty typical pattern for their tenures — a president nominates these federal prosecutors at the beginning of his term, and they serve until […]

Solomon has new target, old tactics

Several months ago, John Solomon wrote a series of odd and misleading articles attacking Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), accusing him of ethical lapses. The closer one looked at the criticisms, the weaker the charges looked. Months later, Reid was cleared of any wrongdoing, while Solomon was inexplicably rewarded — in December he took over the […]

A ‘Little’ cowardice for the White House Correspondents Association dinner

I realize that Stephen Colbert’s performance at last year’s White House Correspondents Association dinner was considered “edgy” by the old-school establishment. Colbert appeared in character, and delivered a hilarious monologue, which just so happened to skewer both the president and the reporters who cover him. It was a classic moment, which we weren’t likely to […]

Gonzales’ unique view of constitutional law

I haven’t seen independent confirmation of this, so consider it an unofficial transcript, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was asked yesterday about the constitutional right of habeas corpus during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. If accurate, his reported response was one for the ages. (Note: this transcript has been updated to be more accurate) SPECTER: […]

Thursday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * I can appreciate the fact that the story appeared in the Fashion section, but there continues to be far too much interest among reporters in Nancy Pelosi’s clothing. She’s been Speaker for two weeks; Dennis Hastert was Speaker for seven years. Guess whose fashion choices generated more “news” items? […]