I take another look at the swift-boating of a seventh grader in this story. It includes the following from an e-mail that I received from his father regarding the ordeal that began with a posting on a conservative website by an anonymous blogger:
My son Graeme has helped put on a human face, that of a young boy, representing the needs
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YES, MORE HILLARY.
Wrote a final piece about the “Middle Class Express,” just trying to give a sense of what the scenes were like. If I were not rushing under a deadline, I might have remembered to add how beautiful it was out there. Green and gold and perfect autumn sky, etc. But you’ll just have imagine that while you read about the …
In the ArenaUncategorized
I’ve been looking for some decent reporting about the situation in Basra, Iraq’s main port and the province that contains the large oil fields. It’s in the midst of a three-way gang war, among the Sadr and Hakim family militias, plus the Fadhila Party, which is Sadrist in orientation but doesn’t believe Muqtada is up to the job. Thanks …
As an obsessed Red Sox fan, I of course think Senator Chris Dodd’s attempt to pick up donors (and voters) by holding a raffle for a ticket to Game 6 of the ALCS at Fenway is borderline genius. But even discounting for bias, the scheme is very clever. After all, the Connecticut senator’s best (and probably only) chance to have an impact …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Lots of commentary about the Congressional Democrats “folding” on important issues the past few days.
For the record, I agree with those, like Dean Baker at Tapped, who think the Democrats should have tried to rectify a loophole that allows private equity fund managers to have their profits–in effect, their salaries–taxed as standard …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Some thoughts:
Fred Thompson was a piece of furniture. His answer about how to save social security was gobbledygook. He seemed to be saying that you save it by indexing it…but that doesn’t address how you find the money to pay for it. Certainly, as a Republican, you couldn’t ever, ever, like, raise t—-, to do that?
Rudy Giuliani …
Blogs–and especially conservative ones–are abuzz this morning over Mitt Romney’s answer in yesterday’s debate on whether he would have to ask Congress before taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities:
ROMNEY: You sit down with your attorneys and tell you what you have to do, but obviously the president of the United States has to do what’s
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In the ArenaUncategorized
Steve Clemons has news of a bipartisan group of foreign policy heavyweights imploring the Bush Administration to include Syria and Hamas in the upcoming middle east peace conference. This is a terrific idea–both Syria and Israel and have been making noises about getting together, making a deal, for several years now. A crucial part of …
A sketch from the last day of the Hillary’s economic policy roll-out tour, which, today, got hijacked into another health care tour by her audience. Please excuse the weird angles and hinky quality. I was working with this set up:
And a big thanks to Sharon Crosby, who sat for the interview shortly after she had participated in a Q&A …
FactCheck.org checks out Rudy Giuliani’s claim that he beefed up New York’s police force by 12,000 while he was mayor, and finds he’s off by, oh, 8,000 or so:
On his Web site, Rudy Giuliani claims that he grew New York City’s police force by 12,000 officers between his inauguration as mayor in January 1994 and mid-2000. That’s just not
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The tent pole of the retirement and savings plan Hillary introduced today was the “universal 401k” that would give tax breaks to all Americans who want to experience “the miracle of compound interest,” and matching funds of up to $1000 a year for couples earning less than $100,000. Businesses would get tax credits for helping to set up …
The Detroit Free Press reports that Barack Obama, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Joe Biden are having their names taken off the Jan. 15 Michigan primary ballot because that date violates Democratic party rules. All the contenders have pledged not to campaign there. With today being the deadline to withdraw, the paper notes:
The big
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There have been many debates in this primary season, but none thus far, in either party, has produced the kind of defining moment that fundamentally alters the dynamic of a campaign. This afternoon’s gathering of GOP candidates in Dearborn, sponsored by MSNBC and the Wall Street Journal, might be different. Mitt Romney has spent the past …
