I think it’s fascinating that the political abuses of science, which has reached a level in the U.S. unseen in recent memory, is receiving surprisingly strong attention. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and his staff have done yeomen’s work on the issue, culminating with a detailed study — Politics and Science in the Bush administration — […]
The fine folks at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have prepared a great new report on the demonstrably stupid argument that tax cuts pay for themselves. What apparently set the CBPP off was House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle (R-Iowa), announcing last week, “Tax cuts don’t need to be paid for [with offsets] […]
Joe Lieberman isn’t quite in the same league as Zell Miller, but he’s getting close. If the former VP candidate is still having trouble figuring out why his “Joementum” couldn’t produce a single primary where his support broke double digits, he shouldn’t have to look further than some of today’s headlines. Lieberman has managed to […]
Let me see if I get this straight. In 1995, John Kerry recommended cutting $1.5 billion from the intelligence budget over a five-year period. The cut equaled about 1 percent of the overall intelligence budget for those years and targeted money the National Reconnaissance Office received but didn’t spend. Despite the fact that congressional Republicans […]
Just FYI, the list of GOP scandals that have been the subject of formal investigation has been updated. Due to an outpouring of assistance from a variety of readers, there are four more incidents, bringing the total to 16. A sincere thanks to everyone who helped out with this.
In the wake of Richard Clarke’s revelatations about the Bush White House’s handling (or in this case, mishandling) of the war on terror, many are drawing comparisons between Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. That makes sense, of course. It was O’Neill, a former member of Bush’s National Security Council, who said that the […]
By now, surely everyone who cares about such things has seen, read, or heard all about Richard Clarke’s new book and interview on last night’s 60 Minutes. From where I sat, Clarke’s perspective was devastating. Here we have President Bush’s top anti-terrorism advisor at the NSC coming forward to explain that all of our worst […]
My, my, it’s amazing what links from Salon and Tapped will do for one’s traffic. I’m already having my busiest day ever — on a Saturday, no less — and the day’s only half over. Welcome one and all. This is an exceedingly rare weekend post, I’m afraid, but I hope you’ll swing by again […]
As I am wont to do, I thought I’d wrap up the week with some poll numbers. Some recent state-by-state data is available, and since that’s the way the presidential race will be decided, I wanted to share. California (55 electoral votes) LA Times (2/18-22) — Kerry 53, Bush 40 Field Poll (2/18-22) — Kerry […]
That the Bush administration withheld cost information from Congress about its Medicare scheme is no longer controversial. Questions remain, however, as to who in the administration was directing the effort to conceal the truth. Medicare’s top actuary, Richard Foster, knew the administration’s cost estimates were entirely wrong, but was told to keep the information secret […]