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

A Really Lame HMX/RDX Excuse

Two things to note from this CNN story. One is how the GOP is trying to find almost any excuse for Bush’s incompetence as far as securing the HMX and RDX explosives: But in the wake of the NBC report, the Bush campaign fired off a statement saying that Kerry’s criticism of the president over […]

Another $70 Billion

This is utterly unsurprising, but still depressing: The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday. Perhaps now would be […]

Rich Americans Losing Confidence

From CNN/Money: NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wealthy Americans are becoming increasingly worried about the country’s economic outlook, and their reluctance to spend and invest is hurting growth, according to a survey released Monday. As oil prices boil to new records and Iraq continues to appear unstable, McDonald Financial Group’s Affluent Consumer Confidence Index slid to […]

Reason #3 to Vote for Kerry: Democracy

One of the most worrying aspects of the Bush administration has been its consistent push to increase the power and authority of the government. This is particularly noticeable when juxtaposed to the administration’s moves to erode the ability of individuals to exercise their democratic rights to stand up against the government. Note that while the […]

Misleading Title Galore: "Unemployment drops in battleground states"

This story claims that unemployment was down in 8 out of 10 battleground states. The 8 are listed below but note that the story was comparing August 2004 to September 2004. The report also notes that unemployment rose in 22 states during the month and fell in 23 states. One of the 8 states mentioned […]

What Else Are They Hiding?

We just learned about the missing 380 tons of explosives from the New York Times even though the Administration has known about this for some time. The Times had to learn from the Iraqis as the Administration apparently wanted to keep the lid on this until after November 2. And the Administration’s prime concern seems […]

Staggering, Breathtaking, Overwhelming Incompetence

This story, originally just reported in the NYTimes but now being picked up by other news organizations, is big. And awfully, awfully bad, for all of us — but especially for our soldiers in Iraq. BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 24 – The Iraqi interim government has warned the United States and international nuclear inspectors that nearly […]

The Ownership Society

According to conservative wheeler-dealer Grover Norquist, if Bush is re-elected, “the Democratic party is toast.” There are two prongs to his plan to keep the Republicans in power. The first is to “defund the left,” which includes relatively well-known proposals like tort reform to get rid of the trial lawyers and contracting out government jobs […]

Ohio: Are You Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years Ago?

While ABC reported on Tuesday that Kerry is ahead of Bush by 50-47, the race remains exceptionally tight. Real Clear Politics, which tracks polls state by state, shows that when the seven Ohio polls taken from 10/14-10/21 are averaged the result is an exact tie, 47.4% to 47.4%. Certainly, some portion of Ohio voters are […]

New Ad

The Bush campaign is releasing a new ad entitled “Wolves“, that explicitly plays the fear card. Its intent is to generate a mood of danger, and then claim that Kerry would not be a good protector of the US. Some are already thinking that it will be an effective and memorable ad, though I’m not […]