Budget Update: Weapons of Math Destruction(+) CalPundit has an explanation, of sorts, for Bush’s untrue statement about discretionary spending: [referring to a chart in Bush’s budget titled “Percent Change in Discretionary Budget Authority] … discretionary spending outside of defense and homeland security went up 15% in 2001. Or rather, that discretionary spending authority — not […]

The Soft Bigotry of Lowered Expectations The reviews are in, and with the notable exception of Juan Cole, almost nobody — conservatives included — agrees with my take. And that’s a good thing. Rooting for Bush’s Iraq policy or economic policy to go poorly is one thing (i.e., I’m against doing that), but rooting for […]

My Take on MTP Here’s my take, prior to looking at other blogs: Bush did really, really, well. Most importantly, he sounded knowledgeable (which may fuel suspicions about vetting of questions.) Russert almost never interrupted or contradicted him, and I even caught him nodding in agreement a few times, which surely helped create this impression. […]

Bush’s Military Records I’m still digesting the President’s MTP appearance. One interesting bit of possible fallout just caught my eye. Bush was asked about the well-known allegations that he failed to report to duty with the National Guard for a period of time in 1972-73. Russert: But would you allow pay stubs, tax records, anything […]

Lies, Direct from the President’s Mouth From Bush’s MTP appearance this morning: RUSSERT: But your base conservatives, and listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, they’re all saying you are the biggest spender in American history. BUSH: Well, they’re wrong. If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, […]

Opinion from the UK No, this isn’t from the liberal Guardian, though it sounds like it is. Instead, it’s from the Sunday Herald (which, as far as I know is neither left nor right. The Telegraph and London Times are both right leaning, the Telegraph moreso. Perhaps a commenter can give some background on the […]

The South Bill Maher’s HBO show is very good — either in spite of or because of his including both liberals and conservatives on the panels. If you like The Daily Show, then it’s a pretty safe bet that you will also like Real Time. He had a great line last night: after discussing Kay’s […]

Red vs. Blue Given my proclivity for Red and Blue numbers (see “Topics,” left), I’m not sure how I missed this until now. On 1/30, the NYT ran an Op/Ed by Gore’s former speechwriter Daniel Pink on th subject: You might expect that in the 2000 presidential election, Republicans, the party of low taxes and […]

Prospects for Consumption Growth In the comments, General Glut asks the salient question in the wake of today’s unemployment report: “How long until these poor jobs numbers (and the even poorer wage and salary numbers) start eating into US consumption levels?” Good question! This is especially important when you consider that consumption spending (spending by […]

Bush Approval Drops Below 50 The AP just released its poll results this morning. It’s the second major poll this week (the other was Gallup) that shows Bush’s approval rating sinking below 50% for the first time. Do chickens really come home to roost, even for the Republican machine? For your edification and amusement, here’s […]