The Carpetbagger Report

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: * Barack Obama yesterday became the third senator to announce his opposition to Michael Mukasey’s nomination as Attorney General. “We urgently need an Attorney General who will check the vast and unconstrained executive […]

It’s a genuine challenge to come up with adjectives, which haven’t been used thousands of times before, to describe the multitude of fiascos in Iraq. They each appear more painful than the last. Consider, for example, the story of the Mosul Dam. The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse […]

Two weeks ago, Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) made some intemperate comments about the president, which led to a major-league, far-right freakout (Stark later apologized). But as “edgy” as Stark’s comments were, they were no more unhinged than this. On Iran, Giuliani criticized Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., also a candidate for president, for saying […]

The Wall Street Journal editorial board argued today that waterboarding doesn’t necessarily constitute “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of U.S. detainees. The paper’s editorial was dismissive of Congress’ concerns about the technique, chiding lawmakers who “want to denounce what they call ‘torture.’” This comes a day after National Review’s Rich Lowry scolded John McCain after […]

At this point, it appears Rudy Giuliani is just daring the national media. Following up on yesterday’s item, the candidate who can barely go a day without making a wildly misleading exaggeration, has unveiled a new radio ad with a truly audacious whopper, even by Giuliani’s low standards. OK, Rudy Giuliani has just released an […]

As outrageous as the incident at Nisour Square was in September, during which Blackwater guards opened fire on Iraqi civilians, the administration’s handling of the incident has been almost as offensive. Shortly after the shootings, the State Department launched its own investigation, through its Bureau of Diplomatic Security, apparently with the intent of whitewashing the […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * Bloodshed in Baghdad: “A suicide bomber rode his bicycle into a crowd of police recruits in Baqouba on Monday, killing at least 29 people in a province that has become a battleground among U.S. forces, al-Qaida militants and Shiite radicals. A group of Shiite and Sunni clerics, meanwhile, were […]

I suspect David Horowitz will be very disappointed to hear it, but Paul Krugman explains that Islamofascism isn’t a real phenomenon. [T]here isn’t actually any such thing as Islamofascism — it’s not an ideology; it’s a figment of the neocon imagination. The term came into vogue only because it was a way for Iraq hawks […]

The last time a Melinda Henneberger piece shook up the political world, it was back in June, when she argued, unpersuasively, that Democrats would be better off politically if they opposed abortion rights. Today, Henneberger’s at it again, with a new series at Slate on the presidential candidates’ marriages. Digby, who received the same email […]

The legendary Studs Terkel has a fascinating NYT op-ed today, noting the trend over the last several generations about the way that “politically active Americans view their relationship with government” — and the way the government views politically active Americans. In 1920, during my youth, I recall the Palmer raids in which more than 10,000 […]