The Carpetbagger Report

Guest Post by Morbo This is the time of year when we start thinking of titanic contests of national scope. The Super Bowl is approaching, the Oscar nominees have been announced and there’s a new search for the next “American Idol.” But it’s not enough. We need a new competition, and I think I’ve got […]

Guest Post by Morbo I think I’m on to the Rev. Donald Wildmon. The founder of the American Family Association isn’t really interested in stopping pornography. Rather, he’s presiding over a giant “porn-for-fundamentalists” empire in Tupelo, Miss. Consider his recent bulletin expressing outrage and disgust over an “explicit, sickening” homosexual scene that aired on a […]

Guest Post by Morbo The doctrine of academic freedom is so important that I believe it should be violated only in extreme and rare cases. Studying a subject that is a little weird is not one of those cases. Recently, Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University’s Department of Biological Sciences, has become a figure […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * Welcome back, Jane. * Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) deserves a lot of credit for being completely fearless. Feingold, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, will host a hearing next Tuesday to consider whether Congress has the authority to cut off funding for the war in […]

We learned this week of a horrific attack in Karbala, in which gunmen, impersonating U.S. troops, stormed a provincial governor’s office during a meeting between American and local officials, raising the nightmarish specter of American soldiers being vulnerable to attack from killers who appear to be colleagues. In this attack, the Pentagon said, five U.S. […]

I can appreciate that presidential campaigns have to come up with new and different ways to beg donors for money, but John McCain’s “Presidential Agenda Survey” is a pretty dumb stunt. Under the name of McCain’s campaign manager, Terry Nelson, possible donors received an email with the following message: I am writing you, a core […]

I don’t think the president fully understands that force of will is not a foreign policy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that President George W. Bush did not consult her before announcing his new strategy for the war in Iraq — a sign that, despite the cozy rhetoric, the relationship between Washington’s two powerhouses […]

Of all the stories, many of them horrific, on the Bush administration abusing detainees, Canadian computer engineer Maher Arar’s is among the most disheartening. Today, Justin Rood notes that Arar is going to get a formal apology from the Canadian government, though that isn’t quite as appropriate as an apology from the United States. Canadian […]

I never intended to do more than one post on the bogus right-wing reports accusing Barack Obama of having attended a Madrassa, possibly a terrorist recruiting center, as a six year old. At this point, the story isn’t even about Obama, or even Hillary Clinton who was also smeared as part of the same lie; […]

One wants to assume the president is at least vaguely aware of the embarrassing comments that open him to such extensive ridicule, but if Bush realizes it, he doesn’t act like it. Back in April, after explaining that he “hears the voices,” the president said he would stick with Donald Rumsfeld as the Secretary of […]