Pot, Meet Kettle. Call it Black. This comes on the heels of GOP allegations that MoveOn is coordinating with the Kerry campaign. House GOP Committee Pays Soft Money Fine WASHINGTON — The National Republican Congressional Committee has agreed to pay a $280,000 civil fine for transferring big donations known as “soft money” to an outside […]

Can’t Say I Feel Sorry for Him Enron’s Skilling hospitalized after bar incidents Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was taken to a hospital early Friday after several people called police saying he was pulling on their clothes and accusing them of being FBI agents, a police source told The Associated Press. Police found Skilling at […]

Not Much to Say I want to write something, but I don’t have much to say. Rice’s testimony is big news, but it’s been well-covered elsewhere. Ditto for the insertion of Iraq into a handbasket headed (but hopefully not unswayably so) towards Hell. What do most people talk about when they’ve got nothing to say? […]

The Daily Show Thursday night’s coverage of Rice’s testimony was hilarious, though somewhat depressing if you reflect on it. Comedy Central replays TDS at 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m, Eastern time. Catch it if you can. AB

Pharaoh George Bush II? Let’s say you’re a deeply religious and born-again President of The United States. Furthermore, you have ties extending deeply into the evangelical church. Then it must assuredly be a bad sign when a Plague of Locusts (billions of them!) is set to descend upon the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. (Read about […]

Postcards from Old Europe – Special Easter edition Note: This week’s postcard comes one day early courtesy of Easter! Easter is a time to celebrate rebirth and renewal; something many European economies could really profit from. In discussions with friends and colleagues I’ve often heard the question: “Well, why don’t you change something? Why don’t […]

Reality in Iraq v. the Bush Administration From today’s NYTimes: Account of Broad Shiite Revolt Contradicts White House Stand United States forces are confronting a broad-based Shiite uprising that goes well beyond supporters of one militant Islamic cleric who has been the focus of American counterinsurgency efforts, United States intelligence officials said Wednesday. That assertion […]

Kerry’s Fiscal Prudence Yesterday Kerry gave a major policy address, in which he reoriented his economic proposals around the idea of fiscal discipline. As the Washington Post describes it: Sen. John F. Kerry outlined a broad deficit-reduction policy yesterday, scaling back several campaign promises that he now concedes the country cannot afford if his new […]

Echo Chamber? Arianna Huffington on blogs, in Salon: And because blogs are ongoing and daily, indeed sometimes hourly, bloggers will often start with a small story, or a piece of one — a contradictory quote, an unearthed document, a detail that doesn’t add up — that the big outlets would deem too minor. But it’s […]

What’s Up with Import Prices? Some people may find this morning’s release of the March import price data by the BLS a bit puzzling. It shows that, excluding oil, the price of imported goods into the US hasn’t really been rising – it has gone up by just 1.0% in the past 12 months (between […]