Guest Post by Morbo And now an update from Croatia: Shopping on Sundays has been banned – kind of. Croatia is 90 percent Roman Catholic, and the country’s clerical hierarchy has been moaning for some time about the trend of people spending Sundays in shopping malls instead of churches. A new law will go into […]
Religious Right decides McCain will have to do
Guest Post by Morbo I’ve been wondering what the Religious Right is going to do about John McCain. These groups are clearly not crazy about the guy. But I predicted months ago that the fear of a Democratic president would terrify them so much that they would come around. That’s what appears to be happening. […]
Friday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * It’s hard not to laugh at this sentence: “Citigroup has become the latest big bank to quell Wall Street’s worries about a financial sector implosion, posting a $2.5 billion second-quarter loss that was smaller than expected.” Yes, a company lost $2.5 billion, over the course of three months, and […]
Afghanistan, McCain, and another misguided message
I haven’t seen any polls on this, but in general, I have to assume the two words that voters care about least are “committee hearing.” It’s not that they’re trivial — hearings can actually be extremely important — but for the typical American, committee hearings probably sound pretty boring. But for whatever reason, the McCain […]
It’s not a timetable; it’s a ‘general time horizon’
The White House issued a press statement this morning, coinciding with the latest video conference between Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Pay particular attention to the delightful new euphemism. “In the context of these improving political, economic, and security conditions, the President and the Prime Minister discussed the ongoing negotiations to establish a […]
McCain surrogate: Muslims are ‘going to kill us’
When news outlets and Republicans were apoplectic about Wesley Clark questioning John McCain’s presidential qualifications, the McCain campaign sent out Bud Day, who was a prisoner of war with McCain in Vietnam and one of the Swiftboat liars from 2004, to talk to the media. In retrospect, the McCain campaign probably should have asked Day […]
The right’s misguided frenzy over the American Physical Society
Daily Tech had an item yesterday afternoon that caused a bit of a stir in conservative circles. The American Physical Society, an organization representing nearly 50,000 physicists, has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming. The APS is also sponsoring public debate […]
McCain declares ‘we have succeeded’ in Iraq
Back in September, during a debate for the Republican presidential candidates, John McCain and Mitt Romney got into a bit of rhetorical tussle. Romney used a couple of phrases that McCain didn’t care for: “the surge is apparently working” and “if the surge is working.” McCain snapped at Romney: “Governor, the surge is working. The […]
Friday’s campaign 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: * Resolving a simmering dispute, the Obama campaign has indicated that Barack Obama will not speak at Brandenburg Gate in Germany during his visit, but will instead give a speech at Berlin’s Victory […]
McCain denounces ‘HillaryCare,’ says Obama wants ‘government takeover’ of healthcare
Long-time readers may recall a discussion we had last year about what I call “conversation enders.” These are comments that lead you to know, the moment you hear them, that the writer/speaker is either clueless or intellectually dishonest. Either way, the moment you hear a “conversation ender,” you know the discussion has ended. “If they’re […]