Damn You, John Kerry I say that, because this is surely somehow his fault: (AP) — Soldiers headed for Iraq are still buying their own body armor — and in many cases, their families are buying it for them — despite assurances from the military that the gear will be in hand before they’re in […]

A Thought on Declassification If a document or testimony can be declassfied to cover a party’s political hide (or an attempt to do so), then why was it classified in the first place? AB P.S. My guess on how this works out: the testimony doesn’t get declassified and Republicans go on CNN, FOX, Op/Eds, and […]

When The Going Gets Tough … … the tough just plain get weird. Via Josh Marshall, here’s Bob ‘Champion of Women and Minorities’ Novak on Crossfire last night: ROBERT NOVAK: Congressman, do you believe, you’re a sophisticated guy, do you believe watching these hearings that Dick Clarke has a problem with this African-American woman Condoleezza […]

Kerry’s Tax Proposals Kerry is giving a speech today in which he will propose some significant changes to corporate taxes. The NYTimes describes the main features of his proposal: The essence of the Kerry plan boils down to two main elements. The first would be eliminating the ability of American multinational companies to defer taxes […]

More on Getting Your Story Straight I’m back from a few days out of town, and have been catching up on my reading – especially AB’s excellent commentaries on the Clarke affair and Karsten’s thoughtful post about population decline in Europe. I will confess that I’m petty enough that I’ve been enjoying the discomfiture of […]

Ranks of The DisgruntledTM Update The list as of yesterday: Jon DiIulio, Rand Beers, Paul O’Neill, Joe Wilson, Richard Foster (the Medicare guy) and Richard Clarke. Now, via CalPundit, former chief US Weapons Inspector David Kay may soon make the list: “We are in grave danger of having destroyed our credibility internationally and domestically with […]

Postcards from Old Europe – Next Stop Oblivion? Thank you very much for your positive reaction to last week’s post. I was especially pleased by your extensive use of the commenting system. You can rest assured that you have given me much input to fill my future postcards. I was originally planning on writing about […]

Get Your Story Straight That was my father’s sarcastic advice when he would catch me, as a young boy, stretching the truth. Good advice back then, good advice today. (Even better advice: tell the truth.) From today’s NYT: “He [Clarke] was in every meeting that was held on terrorism,” Ms. Rice said. “All the deputies’ […]

The AP on Clarke Morat catches some funny business with quotes in an AP summary of Clarke’s testimony. AB

The Good News: It’s Better than February Via CNN: The Labor Department said 339,000 people filed new claims for state unemployment benefits in the week ended March 20, compared with a revised 338,000 the prior week. But both figures were lower than those over the past few weeks. The March 13th week’s report was the […]