Goode wants us to embrace his ‘principles’

Rep. [tag]Virgil Goode[/tag] (R-Va.) had the unfortunate luck of doing something offensive and stupid on a relatively slow news week, when political reporters are looking for something interesting to write about. By showing his rather blatant bigotry towards Muslims, Goode made this one easy. He might as well have walked around the Capitol with a […]

Bush’s VA secretary floats idea of draft

Let’s hope this wasn’t some kind of trial balloon. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson gave qualified support yesterday to renewing the draft – a suggestion that rattled the White House. “I think that our society would benefit from that, yes, sir,” Nicholson said of replacing the all-volunteer force with a tough draft purged of the […]

With goodwill towards some

Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” apparently doesn’t extend much to the issue of presidential pardons. The White House announced a new round of pardons yesterday, which is common at the end of the year, but it’s a fairly short list and the president is still on track to be one of the stingiest in American history. President […]

Flynt Leverett – redacted

Following up on an item from Saturday, we learned late last week that Middle East analyst [tag]Flynt Leverett[/tag], who served under Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times criticizing the Bush administration’s policy towards [tag]Iran[/tag] and recommending a […]

Thursday’s Mini-Report

Today’s edition of quick hits. * New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) signed a civil unions bill into law today, making New Jersey the third state to institute a law that grants gay couples “all the rights and responsibilities of marriage under state law.” * One more argument against Rep. Virgil Goode’s (R-Va.) ridiculous anti-Ellison, […]

Franklin did write an autobiography

George Will, who seems to be quite troubled lately with the blogging medium, devoted his column today to comparing us — that is, literally people like you and me — to 18th century pamphleteers. Apparently, we don’t measure up well. Richard Stengel, Time’s managing editor, says, “Thomas Paine was in effect the first blogger” and […]

If he’s lost Scarborough and Barnicle…

Yep, it’s this bad. MSNBC host, and former GOP congressman, Joe Scarborough, was once a strong supporter of the Iraq and the President, but he has turned harshly critical of both in recent weeks. This may have reached a climax of sorts on Wednesday night, when he welcomed, among others, Boston newspaper columnist Mike Barnicle […]

GOP lawmaker wants to win in Iraq by ‘spreading the message of Jesus Christ’

Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, Ann Coulter argued, in a syndicated column, that the only effective way to respond to Middle Eastern terrorists is to “invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.” It sparked an outrage that led National Review to fire Coulter as a columnist. Of course, Coulter is […]

Another one?

Just last month, a gay sex scandal forced Ted Haggard to resign from his New Life Church in Colorado. Last week, Paul Barnes, founding pastor of the 2,100-member Grace Chapel, also resigned in a gay sex scandal. This week, Christopher Beard, a pastor at the exact same megachurch as Haggard, resigned after acknowledging “a one-time […]

Don’t throw me in that briar patch

Maybe you like Hillary Clinton; maybe you don’t. Maybe you’re excited about Barack Obama; maybe you’re not. But before you dismiss either of them as presidential candidates, consider one very big upside to voting for them. On the December 18 edition of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, guest host Karen Hanretty asked Fox News political […]