A New Torture Law

Will it fly? Will the Bush Administration pay attention to it and follow it?  Stay tuned for the next exciting chapter in

Today’s Must Read

We’ve been down this road before, first with the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act and then with this summer’s executive order on interrogations. And, like water seeking its own level, each time the Bush administration faces some kind of legal obstacle to torturing terrorism detainees, it finds a way to circumvent it. Even so, Congress is prepared to pass yet another ban on CIA torture techniques, [...]

Mortgage Relief

The President announced a plan to help homeowners caught in the sub-prime disaster. It all sounds good, up front, but there are enough caveats and “what-ifs” to keep lawyers happy for a long time. Read all the way to the end of the post below to see who really benefits..

Bush League Policies

When history looks at the Bush administration from the perspective of the American people, it’s overwhelming conclusion will be “who did the policy really benefit, since it clearly didn’t benefit the citizenry?” Too, with today’s announcement of “mortgage relief for homeowners,” we should anticipate history. An historian’s job is not easy, and bloggers should assist him (or her) in any way possible: [...]

Surprised?  Not gonna help all that many people. Atrios spells it out even more clearly, with a little help from CNN:

Not Gonna Do Anything

The Obama Vote

Huge turnaround in black support in South Carolina. This has to send shock waves through the Clinton camp.

Obama & The Black Vote

The latest Rasmussen Democratic poll today from South Carolina has that race in almost a tie: Hillary Clinton leads Barack Obama 36%-34%. But the real import of the poll is the figures it shows on [...]

More Huckabee

You’ll find a preliminary post about the latest Huckabee hassles down below, but the post was growing into a huge thing.  And that’s not a good thing.  So, we begin anew.  With a warning.  This post links to a vertitable library of blogging about Huckabee today.  Settle in and start reading.

12/6: Huck Haters

Conservative bloggers continue to pile on Mike Huckabee, criticizing his positions on everything from illegal immigration to Iraq. Meanwhile, the latest revelations about Huckabee’s role in a serial rapist’s release have created an additional headache for Huckabee in the blogosphere [...]

Huckabee blames Clinton, spins himself in circles

The Wayne Dumond controversy has clearly thrown Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign for a loop — given the seriousness of Huckabee’s role in Dumond’s release, the story has the potential to permanently undermine his campaign. In response, the former Arkansas governor has come up with a two-prong defense: 1) Huckabee claims not to have been involved; and [...]

Special Comment Time

I must say, Keith Olbermann continues to impress me with the writing on his Special Comment segments.  Tonight’s was particularly powerful.

Countdown Special Comment: The NIE Reflects An “Unhinged, Irrational Chicken Little Of A President”

Far more scary than the nuclear threat presented by Iran, the NIE report released this week reveals a more domestic threat to the republic: We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least [...]

Off To The Races

Here we go.  Blogger vs blogger.  As for me, I’m posting a link, then ducking and running.

Battling Bloggers

Former White House aide Dan Bartlett has drawn a MediaLand of attention for an interview he did with Texas Monthly, disputing the notion that the media wasn”t aggressive enough with pre-war reporting.White House correspondents have been tagged, unfairly, with not being tough enough on the administration and President Bush in the run-up to the war. If you go back and look, they asked all the right questions. The problem is, [...]

The Mall Shooting

The Omaha tragedy, spilling the suddeness of violent death through so many families.  But this blogger asks a great question about how much more attention the incident would get, if the gunman had been someone other than who he was…

Omaha Musings

…Have we become so immune to tragedy? Have we become complacent about the ease and frequency with which such events occur? If Hawkins had been a convert to Islam, or an immigrant, rightwing bloggers would have found room for a post or several among their musings about Romney’s electability and Bolton’s paranoid fantasies. If Hawkins had been a [...]

The Tilting Hispanic Vote

Dems are looking better to Hispanic voters these days.  Surprised?

Poll: Hispanics Returning To Democratic Party After Drifting Towards GOP

Hispanics are returning to the Democratic Party after several years of drifting toward the Republicans, with many saying Bush administration policies have been harmful to their community, a poll showed Thursday. By 57 percent to 23 percent, more [...]

Dumond’s Attorney

I was wondering when John Wesley Hall was going to speak out, especially since he contributes to a prominent legal blog.  Today, he did.  And his thoughts on the Huckabee/Dumond story are worth noting.

Huckabee and Wayne Dumond: Interview With Dumond’s Attorney

Former Arkansas Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee is taking a lot of heat these days over his clemency decisions while Governor — particularly that of Wayne Dumond. Huckabee’s latest statement, released today, is here. This is a complicated tale. For the facts of the Dumond – Ashley Stevens rape case, and why Huckabee might have had doubts about Dumond’s guilt, based on problems with the scientific evidence and Stevens’ identification of Dumond, there’s no better source than the [...]

More Romney

Click here to find my earlier post with comments about Romney’s speech about religion.  It was getting quite long, since content about Mike Huckabee was piggy-backed in that one post.  So, we’re starting a new collection of “things said in the blogosphere” about that speech.

The Romney Speech

It is eloquent in many parts, stirring in its defense of religious liberty, with only a couple of notes off-key: Americans tire of those who would jettison their beliefs, even to gain the world. Ahem. But it has two deep [...]

Rules Are Rules

Except for “those special people” who have connections.  They can do whatever their little hearts desire.

Republicans Sens. Cochran and Stevens: “not only the kings of pork, they’re outright hogs”

Oink, oink. The Hill: Senior Republican appropriators in the Senate have collected more money in earmarks than any other members of Congress, even though President Bush and GOP leaders have forcefully criticized “pork-barrel spending.” Not only have these lawmakers defied their leaders, they have also taken a much greater share of the pot set aside for rank-and-file [...]

Campaign Confusion

Is that what the Huckabee team is trying to create in the Wayne Dumond story? Confusion?  If so, it’s working.  It’s become such a back and forth argument, with both sides tossing out additional information that’s just muddying the waters.  Read on, as Josh Marshall tries to sort things out at Talking Points Memo:

Glass Half Full! No, Half Empty!

I’ve been digging into this controversy over Huckabee and the rapist Dumond. And when you break it down, what they seem to be arguing over amounts to an almost ridiculous distinction — one that doesn’t put Huckabee in a very [...]

That NIE on Iran

Huckabee says he didn’t know about the Iran NIE the day it was released.  That’s not good, but it can be explained by busy campaign schedules. Kind of.  Somewhere along the way, you’d think a staffer would have been checking CNN on a cell phone and noticed it.  But, it’s a low-budget campaign and might not be all that well-equipped for high tech communications.  I see a bigger problem in the way the White House has danced all around the truth on this story.

UPDATE: In reading a bit more, I think that’s a bit too kind and understanding on my part. I just realized that the NIE came out Monday and the interview was Tuesday night.  That’s almost two full days of dozing off, news-wise.  One day, I can almost rationalize.  Two days?  Nope.  Not gonna happen. 

UPDATE 2: Clips, Quotes and Controversy via Think Progress:

Huckabee Bumbles Three Times In One Sentence, Compounds His Cluelessness On The Iran NIE

On Tuesday night, when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) was asked what he thought of the new National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, he said that he had neither “been briefed” on nor “heard of the finding” that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Not much has changed apparently. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe [...]

Big News Orgs Punt On Bush’s Iran Intel Lie; CNN’s Ed Henry Gets It Right…

One thing that always mystifies this blog: When the President is caught in a lie or a contradiction on something as urgent as war, why are the big news orgs so reluctant to do stand alone stories on it, with this key info right in their headlines and ledes?  Case in point: Today’s coverage of White House flack Dana Perino’s surprising statement last night. In it, Perino left little doubt that Bush had dissembled the day before about when he learned that new intelligence said the Iran nuke threat might be bogus. Perino said that [...]

Over at Capitol Hill Blue, Doug Thompson doesn’t pull any punches, starting with the headline…

The eyes of a madman

Hunters know all too well the look that spilled out of our television sets like political diarrhea Tuesday: The look of a cornered animal, the most dangerous time to face a desperate predator. You saw it in the eyes of George W. Bush, America’s too-often discredited President, caught in yet another lie. Faced with a damning [...]

More after the jump…as Joe Gandlesman says it’s a lose-lose situation for the Bush Administration.

Eating Well

I’m not sure about radiating and disinfecting the cattle that feed Americans eat. I’m becoming very anti-steroid, anti-hormone when it comes to the food we eat.  For some time now, we’ve managed to shop locally and buy beef and beefalo that’s been grown naturally near here.  For several months out of the year, we can get shrimp, tuna, grouper, etc that is caught far out in the  Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and Thursday, flown to town that night and sold on Saturday.  I’m vacuum-sealing some of it now, in anticipation of the impending months that it won’t be available.  Between super-sized chickens in the supermarkets and chemically-preserved meats, I decided some time ago to explore all options when it comes to what we eat.  It takes some time and effort, but I think it’s worth it.  Especially when I read stories like this one:

Meat Processors Look for Ways to Keep Ground Beef Safe

Even as the beef industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to keep harmful pathogens out of the meat it sells to the public, it appears to be losing ground [...]

The Razorback Soap Opera

I KNEW I should have done some screen grabs early this morning.  Just about every TV website had Jim Grobe to be named the new Razorback football coach today.  Some left a little wiggle-room (99% certain, etc) but several were out there on the proverbial limb and, boy, did they get bitten today!  Arkansas had a plane waiting for the Wake Forest coach, but he never got on it. Ouch.

Grobe To Stay At Wake Forest

Jim Grobe will not be the Razorbacks’ next head football coach, a source close to the University of Arkansas confirmed to the Northwest Arkansas Times. Grobe, the current coach at Wake Forest, had a change of heart after emerging as the leading candidate for the position Wednesday. Major media outlets in Arkansas said [...]

From the Hawg A.D.-to-be:

Long issues short statement on coaching search

The University of Arkansas’ Department of Athletics issued a statement from Athletic Director designee Jeff Long regarding the search for a head football coach. The statement followed reports that Wake Forest Coach Jim Grobe had back away from accepting the coaching job. Here is the full text of the statement: “The search for a head football coach [...]

Oh, Christmas Tree

Where are you, Christmas tree?  Not too many years ago, there were Christmas trees for sale on almost every corner. Church youth groups sold them to raise money for their projects.  Nice. Fresh. Fragrant. Then came the assault of the artificial trees.  I guess we became lazy.  Or protective of the living trees.  I’ve not seen a single Christmas tree lot this year, although my wife says the garden center down the street has them.  I’ve seen a couple of cars with trees strapped to the top, so I can (I guess) start driving in the direction from which they came and see if I run into any trees.  Our daughter insists on a live tree.  Always has.  Likely always will.  So, I will be out this weekend, looking for something to plant in the family room to brighten the holidays.

As for the political stage, highlights of the day appear to come from Huckabee and Romney.  For Romney, it’s his big religion speech.  For Huckabee, it’s the Wayne Dumond case and the ignorance of the NIE.  Huck was making the rounds on TV last night and today. I woke up to his appearance on Morning Joe on MSNBC.  They brought David Shuster on to do part of the questioning.  Shuster was a reporter here in Little Rock during that time and managed to get in some good questions.  Huckabee had the answers, but not all of them ring 100% true.  Let the digging begin.  He’s becoming a game of one man’s word against another’s. Lots of links, after the jump!