Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Texas Democrats: What Next? Charles Kuffner is collecting posts: Today a group of progressive Texas bloggers are all posting on the subject “What Texas Democrats Should Do Next”. The following is a link to everyone’s post for today’s blogburst, which will be updated through the day as they come in. Please take the time to […]

Repeat Formula In his latest budget, Bush proposed $8 billion in tax incentives aimed at domestic energy producers. The incentives take the form of accelerated depreciation and deferred taxation on new oil and gas exploration and pipeline capacity. While I’m ambivalent about the wisdom of that, there is at least a reasonable argument in favor: […]

Update on Steel Tariffs I’ve taken a close look at the ITC’s newly-released report on the impact of Bush’s steel tariffs (see my earlier post for more). Here are some selected bits of information that I’ve drawn from the report: – Since the tariffs caused the price of their biggest input (steel) to go up, […]

Americans’ Net Worth Up 10%! Well, not all Americans, but if you are one of the 400 richest people in the country then, on average, your income is up 10%. If, on the other hand, you are part of the other 90%, then you are now paying higher interest rates on your loans, and bearing […]

At First Glance… …I thought they were talking about Newt Gingrich, then I thought “or maybe Rush Limbaugh,” then I realized it was Diamond Bill Bennet. AB

Bush the Diplomat MSNBC NEWS SERVICES Sept. 19 — With little chance that a resolution on Iraq will be approved quickly, President Bush is pinning his hopes on face-to-face diplomacy — including meetings with two of the most vocal critics of his policy in Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder — […]

Yet Another Bush Failure: Steel Tariffs Later today the International Trade Commission (ITC) will release its midterm report about the effects of the steel tariffs that Bush imposed in March of 2002. It looks like the steel tariffs have been yet another Bush failure. The Washington Post discusses why, and has a fascinating peek into […]

US Morale in Iraq is Good. Really. Today’s Guardian contains a powerful commentary written by Tim Predmore, a US soldier who has been serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq since the beginning of hostilities. It starts off with this: For the past six months, I have been participating in what I believe to […]

More Lies from the Vice President Cheney’s lies about the existence of an Iraq – 9/11 connection on his Meet the Press appearance last Sunday got some long-overdue attention, as pointed out in yesterday’s AB post. But Cheney, being the fair-minded guy that he is, didn’t restrict his lying to just one topic. He actually […]

Blogs you might have missed Here are some blogs that are new, new to me, or that don’t get read as much as they should (in no particular order): Nitpicker (not sure how I missed that one until now). Skeptical Notion Modulator A Taxing Blog The Talent Show Eschaton Check ’em out. AB UPDATE: Dwight […]