Crude stereotypes don’t honor native peoples

Guest Post by Morbo And now an update from the world of sports: The National Collegiate Athletic Association has informed a state university in western Pennsylvania that it must stop calling its sports teams “Indians.” If officials at Indiana University of Pennsylvania don’t drop the name, the NCAA says, the institution will be ineligible to […]

Creativity is great for art school but dumb in the courthouse

Guest Post by Morbo I’m not a huge fan of “creative sentencing.” To me, a judge can do one of three things with a guilty party: Send him to jail, fine him or impose community service. Some judges would rather devise their own unorthodox punishments. In Painesville, Ohio, recently, Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti sentenced Michelle […]

A three-minute speech, hold the compassion

The president held a quick, three-minute “discussion” in the Rose Garden this morning on “strong economic growth and job creation.” Indeed, Bush was all smiles when he shared the news that the economy added 215,000 in November, slightly ahead of expectations. (“Discussion” is in quotes because, despite the White House’s description, there were no questions […]

McClellan’s al-Jazeera dodge

Juan Cole made the case this week that it’s entirely plausible that Bush really did tell British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he wanted to bomb the Al-Jazeera offices in Qatar. Cole makes a pretty compelling argument, but I keep waiting for the inevitable, harshly-worded, unequivocal denial from the White House. And I’m still waiting. […]

Somewhere, Karl Rove is thinking, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’

Apparently, the crowd noise at Indianapolis Colts’ games can get so loud, some have begun to wonder if the team is “enhancing” the sound through artificial means. The Indianapolis Colts deny they supplemented the already loud crowd noise in the RCA Dome during Monday night’s game against the Steelers by pumping heavy bass noise through […]

The ’95-10′ initiative makes its move

There’s a subtle but significant debate among Dem leaders about how best to deal with abortion rights as a political issue. With this in mind, the “95-10” initiative should spark a pretty interesting discussion. Democrats in Congress are preparing a bill they say will reduce U.S. abortions by 95 percent over 10 years by preventing […]

Dobson, Bolton, and the far-right at the United Nations

Max Blumenthal caught a very interesting exchange yesterday on James Dobson’s nationally syndicated radio show. Apparently, Dobson and Focus on the Family President Jim Daly had the privilege of a private audience with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. They all got along swimmingly. From the radio show: Daly: He’s [Bolton’s] a good […]

DNC billboard rejected for being ‘too negative’

After Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) lashed out at Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), calling him a “coward” for advocating troop redeployment in Iraq, the DNC had an idea: Schmidt and others like her deserve a billboard. From this day forward, the Democratic Party will commit to putting up a “Shame on You” billboard in the home […]

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: * Though Jeanine Pirro insists she’s in the New York Senate race against Hillary Clinton for the long haul, she’ll sit down today with Gov. George Pataki (R) to discuss whether to give […]

Connecting Abramoff and the ‘K Street Project’

The New York Times reported on some interesting developments today in the Jack Abramoff saga, not the least of which is the possibility of him joining his former business partner Michael Scanlon as a flipped witness. With a federal corruption case intensifying, prosecutors investigating Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, are examining whether he brokered lucrative […]