Even though the US media wants to talk about Hugo Chavez, Michael B?rub? has a suggestion for Democrats: …get out there and say something like this: ?Torture and ?extraordinary rendition? are contrary to everything this nation stands for, every tradition of liberty and the rule of law for which our brave fighting men and women …
So the oh-so-moral dissident Senators made a deal with the White House to resolve the detainee and torture bill. Looks to me like those highly upright men got rolled. The agreement says the executive branch is responsible for upholding the nations? commitment to the Geneva Conventions, leaving it to the president to establish through executive …
Today on NPR’s Talk of the Nation there was a lively discussion about the problems of American automakers. One of the panelists (I think it was the LA Times’ Dan Neil) said he was fairly bullish on their prospects; the other two, not so much. I drive a 1997 Geo, which was made by GM …
We have a fair number of people coming over on Saturday. That happens to be primary day, so I went down to my local satellite city hall and voted early. The State of Hawai’i uses the SAT-style forms and electronic scanners, although they’re moving toward the touch-screen variety of voting machine (with paper trail). It …
From the NY Daily News today: There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers, the Daily News has learned. For decades, only one squad in Washington handled corruption cases because the crimes were seen as local offenses …
That was the most amazing baseball game I’ve ever watched. Down 9-5 in the bottom of the 9th inning, the Dodgers got consecutive solo home runs from Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin and Marlon Anderson to tie it and send it to extra innings. It’s only the 4th time in Major League history a …
The Pope recently quoted the 14th century Emperor Manuel II Paleologus as follows: ‘Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’” Bush said this about democracy in Iraq in 2003: “We …
The other night I participated in a telephone survey about our local elections. The primaries are next Saturday, and one of our two House Representatives (Ed Case) is challenging a long-time Senator (Dan Akaka) for his Democratic seat in Washington. At the end of the survey I was asked if the local news station could …
So yesterday during his press conference, talking about the torture bill, Bush said this: “The professionals will not step up unless there’s clarity in the law,” Bush said. “So Congress has got a decision to make: Do you want the program to go forward or not? I strongly recommend that this program go forward in …
NPR’s Bob Mondello reviewed the new movie The Black Dahlia today on All Things Considered. He’s not impressed with the film, but he gets off a really good line when discussing the director’s use of actors: “Scarlett Johansson playing a… um… sweater.” Having seen Ms. Johansson in a few films, I can only add that …