Here’s How To See Progress In Iraq

Leave.  Yup.  That’s what it took in Basra.

British General: Our Presence ‘Instigated’ Violence In Iraq, ‘90 Percent’ Reduction After Withdrawal

After Britain partially withdrew forces from southern Iraq in September, the White House slandered its “closest ally,” claiming “British forces have performed poorly in Basra” and suggested “it’s best that they leave.” The White House should take notice of what has happened in Basra as British troops have left. According to Maj. Gen. Graham Binns, commander [...]

The Huckabee Plateau (and more polls)

Perhaps he peaked too soon.  Huck’s down. Romney’s up. Way up..

Romney Holds Lead in Iowa

About that “other” race..

Iowa Caucus: Clinton 29% Edwards 25% Obama 24%

Aw, heck…as long as we’re running the numbers..

IA Head to Heads: Obama Stronger Than Hillary

SurveyUSA has general election match ups in Iowa (Nov 9-11, 546 RV, MoE +/- 4.3%) showing Barack Obama running significantly better against the GOP field than Hillary Clinton. Clinton can’t muster [... ]

Late Night, one more…

Gallup Poll

New Gallup poll (Nov 11-14, 485 Democrats or Democratic leaners, 398 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, MoE +/- 5.0%) showing little movement on the Democratic side: Democrats Clinton [...]

Friday Funny

Before the evening gets completely away from us, a chuck from the fine folks over at Fox News. Gotta prep these guests more!  (Just kidding! You know how I feel about that “prepped questions” thing).

FOX Guest unexpectedly bashes Bush after much build-up from FOX Friends

The Friends on FOX this morning 11/16/07 seemed proud of Bush’s announcement that military air passages on the East Coast will be freed up for commercial flights throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. Sounds good, doesn’t it? The Friends thought so and the chyrons in the teasers reinforced the upbeat message. Then aviation expert Mike Boyd came on and burst the happy-air-travel bubble. With video [....]

At the Bush Home

It’s Thanksgiving time!

Bush Stuffs Spending Bills With Earmarks For Dad’s Foundation, Wife’s Librarian Program

On Monday, President Bush explained his veto of the recent Labor-HHS bill, claiming the “majority” in Congress had abandoned his “clear goals for the Congress to reform the earmarking process” and was “acting like a teenager with a new credit card.” In reality, Bush “stuffs the budget with billions for pet projects.” According to Senate [...]

A Battleground State

Who?  Us? Little old Arkansas?  I missed Brummett’s column earlier this week, but the Political Insider blog was kind enough to snag it and talk about it.

Will Arkansas be a Battleground State in 2008?

Arkansas is often a forgotten state. Its six electoral votes are the fewest of any state in the South and it’s the smallest state west of the Mississippi River. “Arkansas is the land left over when Louisiana and Missouri were carved out of the Louisiana Purchase and what is now Oklahoma was fenced off as Indian Territory,” according the Almanac of American Politics. But in 2008, Arkansas News columnist John Brummett thinks it could be the epicenter of American politics. Brummett wrote in [...]

Audience Questions

CNN, why even bother with audience questions if this is the way they’re handled. This is a very thin ethical tightrope you’re trying to walk.

‘Diamond or pearls’? CNN made her do it.

During last night’s Democratic presidential candidates debate, UNLV student Maria Luisa asked the final question of the evening. Luisa laughingly asked Clinton: “Do you prefer diamonds or pearls?” Marc Ambinder reports that Luisa actually wanted to ask a substantive question about the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository, but CNN urged her to go with “diamonds or [...]

This post includes a response from CNN that somewhat explains what happened.  Still, I’m not liking the whole “pre-approval” concept.  And, while we’re at it, let’s hammer CNN just a bit more.  Jack’s right, it’s getting ugly out there!

CNN’s Self-Importance is Beyond Debate

At last night’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas, CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer spoke for more time than five of the seven candidates, repeatedly getting in the way of substantive discussion by reducing issues to yes/no options. But it wasn’t until the audience got its chance to ask questions that the CNN team demonstrated how inflated in self-importance our [...]

Human Flying Squirrels

Uh, no.  I’m not going to be doing this.  Not now. Not ever.   Thanks, anyway, Doc Searls!

I don’t know any other way to describe this. Wow. How long before that shows up in a James Bond movie? [...]

The Razorbacks

There’s much chatter this Friday evening about the future of Houston Nutt and the Arkansas Razorbacks.  In fact, knowing that there are always a ton of folks searching for Razorback information, allow me to link to a great summary, via Arkansas Times blog.

Nutt: Stick a fork in him

He’s done. Houston Nutt won’t return in 2008 as the Razorback football coach, Channel 40/29 is reporting. I think they’re right. (And, read on. I can envision a scenario in which he doesn’t complete 2007.) However, the university has issued this statement through Tysen Kendig, associate vice chancellor for university relations: “It seems some media outlets chose to falsely legitimize baseless rumors with unknown details from unnamed sources without first seeking the benefit of fact from the university.  “The fact is, [...]

UPDATE:  Nutt to Baylor?

Hey, welcome Razorback fans! That didn’t take long!  Posted an hour or so ago and, already, the clicks are coming in. Somebody likes to track the Hogs!

Bush Speaks

And Glenn Greenwald does what he does so well. Rips it apart. It’s tonight’s “Must Read”…

Self-satire scales new heights

It’s genuinely hard to believe that the writers of George Bush’s speech last night to the Federalist Society weren’t knowingly satirizing him. They actually had him say this: “When the Founders drafted the Constitution, they had a clear understanding of tyranny. They also had a clear idea about how to prevent it from ever taking root in America. Their solution was [...]

This Is Your Economy

Not the way it’s supposed to be…

The USA: Heading For Recession?

Recession in America looks increasingly likely. Can booming emerging markets save the world economy? asks The Economist. “IN 1929, days after the stockmarket crash, the Harvard Economic Society reassured its subscribers: ‘A severe depression is outside the range of probability’. In a survey in March 2001, 95% of American economists said there would not be a [...]

Care to be confused?

Dollar ’stable’ amid credit concerns

The dollar steadied against its major rivals as the market continued to track credit market concerns, traders said Friday. In early European trade, the euro eased to 1.4605 dollars, from 1.4609 dollars in New York late on Thursday. The dollar dipped to [...]

So, are we dead?  Or just dying?

Are We Already In A Recession?

New Items: Enough bad news coming from enough industries now that it’s reasonable to think we’re already in a recession (Economists can’t pinpoint recessions without the benefit of hindsight, and most usually start while economists are still predicting that we won’t have one). Of course, whether we are technically in a recession or not is irrelevant–it’s the trend that matters. And the trend is [...]

No Skullduggery This Time

Nope. Not gonna let it happen, again. 

BREAKING: Reid shut downs Bush recess appointments during Thanksgiving

Now who’s relevant? A statement from Senator Harry Reid (and more background on this issue here):  “The Senate will be coming in for pro-forma sessions during the Thanksgiving holiday to prevent recess appointments.  My hope is that this will prompt the President to see that it is our mutual interests for the nominations process to get back on track.  While an election year looms, [...]

Broken Promises

New Orleans. I think it’s safe to say it will never be what it was.  Oh, the touristy parts will remain touristy.  But, I’m afraid, the heart and soul of the city has been lost.  Or, perhaps, killed off.  And we all are a bit guilty.  For not paying attention.  For moving on as though everything was okay.

On America, progress, empty lots and empty promises

Over 2 years ago George Bush stood in Jackson Square and promised the “federal government will undertake a close partnership with the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, the city of New Orleans, and other Gulf Coast cities, so they can [...]

The Debate

Did you watch it last night?  Clinton had a much better night than a couple of weeks ago.  Edwards was on the receiving end of some boos.  Obama wasn’t impressive.  Biden apparently thinks jokes will win the election.  Dodd had some strong positions on education.  Those thoughts off the top of my head.  Other viewers thought otherwise…

Observations on the Debate

Well, I didn’t really see any of the things I wanted to see in the debate. That wasn’t the fault of the candidates, the CNN crew simply decided to ask different questions. I could go on a tangent about the quality of the questions but I’m just going to let it go. I’d rather talk about my impressions. I was most impressed with Barack Obama’s performance. He was willing to take courageous stands on the granting of driver’s licenses to undocumented people and on insisting that people that make over [... ]

The Debate

I wish I had anything very trenchant to say about the debate I just sat through. It seemed to me that no one actually changed the dynamic of their own candidacies or the cogency of their own arguments. Clinton will [...]

I watch debates, so you don’t have to

A couple of weeks ago, after a Democratic debate in Philadelphia, the media hype was unmistakable: Hillary Clinton had “stumbled.” She was “off her game.” She “waffled,” got “tripped up,” and “lost her momentum.” By any reasonable measure, all of this was wildly overstated — it might have been Clinton’s least impressive debate performance, but [...]

CNN Debates the Democrats

Democratic Presidential candidates were supposed to debate each other last night, but for much of the evening, I thought the battle was between Hillary Clinton and the reporters CNN chose to help Wolf Blitzer read the indictments ask questions. That contest wasn’t even close: Hillary won, while CNN made itself look worse than Tim [...]

Finally, from Newsweek. The headline gives it away, particularly if you watched!

Fireproofed–and Firing Away

UPDATE: The gloves, indeed, are off.

Hillary Camp Offers Post-Debate Facts

For those of you still going over transcripts from last night or are still talking about it, the Clinton camp’s excellent fact check site has some interesting points, including Obama’s shifting stance on social security, Obama falsely suggesting he opposed Kyl-Lieberman “at the time of the vote” [...]

Iraq=”Luck”

Well, whadyaknow.  It’s not the kind of quote I’d expect from a top military advisor, but it’s likely an accurate assessment.

Petraeus adviser: Violence reduction due to ‘luck.’

In an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Gen. David Petraeus’s adviser Stephen Biddle said that much of the U.S.’s recent “tactical successes” in Iraq have little to do with the impact of Bush’s escalation but instead are largely “luck.” Q: Well what do you attribute this whole change on the ground to? Is [...]

It doesn’t seem there’s going to be money to fund our “lucky” campaign much longer…

Republican Senators kill Iraq funding bill

…So in a nutshell, the Democrats were ready to give George Bush $50 billion for Iraq today and the Republicans killed it because they don’t want to provide any oversight whatsoever. The Republicans think the war in Iraq is [...]

Oh, they’ll come up with the $$$$ from SOMEWHERE. You know they will.  Even though there are plenty of assessments that indicate the long term outlook still isn’t very good.

On the Ground in Iraq

….Why is violence is down in Iraq? Possible answers: The surge is providing additional security. The Anbar Awakening has gotten Sunni tribe leaders on our side and reduced the killing power of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Sectarian [...]

Who Will Blink First?

Congress?  Or the White House?  We’re talking telcom immunity and your privacy.  Congress has been busy, creating…

Today’s Must Read

Hear that? Those are the hosannas of civil libertarians. The Senate Judiciary Committee, by a single vote, passed a surveillance bill yesterday. And it doesn’t include retroactive legal immunity for telecommunications companies that complied with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance programs. Since the Senate intelligence committee’s version of the FISA Amendments Act of 2007 does [...]

Flip Flop

The State Department flips.  With an excuse.

State Dept drops plan to force diplomats to Iraq.

Last month, the State Department announced that it would order “U.S. diplomats to take posts in Iraq next year” in “forced assignments.” The announcement was met with “anger and frustration” by several hundred diplomats. The AP reports that the State Department has now dropped the plan because [...]

Midnight Munchies

Got that midnight desire for fast food?  Just craving something from the drive-through.  Take two minutes and check this list before you run out the door!

The Fast Food Hall of Shame, 20 Things to Avoid When Eating Fast Food

So I recently came across the website fatcalories.com where they analyze the calories, fat, and fat calories in various fast food menu items and thought I’d put together a Fast Food Hall of Shame. I’ve been trying to eat better myself (more salads, fruits, vegetables and sushi these days and less fast food). In general I rarely eat fast food. I really like Taco Bell and In N Out though and Tommy’s Hamburgers down in L.A. is probably my favorite restaurant of all time. The good thing about Tommy’s for me though is that it is down in L.A. and I am up here in Northern California, so we only find ourselves a few times a year. I remember eating a lot of fast food as a kid. I used to love [...]

Rape Victim Punished

That’s right.  Read it again.  The Saudis punished the woman who was the victim of a gang rape. These are our “allies”?

Saudi punishes gang rape victim with 200 lashes 

A court in the ultra-conservative kingdom of Saudi Arabia is punishing a female victim of gang rape with 200 lashes and six months in jail, a newspaper reported on Thursday.  —  The 19-year-old woman — whose six armed attackers [… ]

Ultimate Pessimism

I’m sure life isn’t all that good over there, but the doomsday cult thing is a bit ridiculous.  Particularly when they’re dragging the kids along.

Russian cult members barricaded in cave ‘to blow themselves up before end of world’

At least 30 members of a Russian doomsday cult have barricaded themselves in a remote cave to await the end of the world and are threatening to commit suicide if police intervene, officials said today. The cult members, who include 29 adults and four children, are hidden [...]