The Plame Affair It looks like things are settling down regarding the Plame affair. The wheels have slowly begun grinding on an FBI investigation that will probably take months, Bush’s buddies are in charge of the investigation, the White House is effectively holding Congressional Republicans in line to stifle calls for an independent investigation, fallout […]
Are We Booming Yet? This week’s initial unemployment claims were up a bit to 399,000, suggesting that tomorrow’s unemployment report may not look too good. There have been a few other worrying signs about the economy lately: manufacturing activity may have begun slowing again a bit, and consumer confidence is falling, not rising. We’re supposed […]
Clark Interview Josh Marshall interviewed Gen. Clark yesterday and the entire interview is available here. Here’s a sample, but there’s much more and it’s worth reading: And this administration comes in with an ideology that blocks its ability to see, articulate, and resolve those problems. It’s an ideology that’s a sharpened sort of right-wing Republican […]
Rush Limbaugh’s a Big Fat Idiot Many of you probably have seen his comment from Sunday: “I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is a little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot […]
Freewayblogging For some time, reader Scarlet Pimpernel has been sending me pictures of various messages that someone or some group has been posting near Camp Pendleton on I-5 near San Diego. For example, the “we’re all wearing the blue dress now” picture. That’s a phrase I meant to use more, as in Whoever leaked Plame’s […]
What the Hell…. …is wrong with Texans? A high school band director has apologized for a halftime performance that included Adolf Hitler’s anthem “Deutschland Uber Alles” and a student running across the field with a Nazi flag. In fairness to the majority of Texans, the shool and its band were roundly booed. AB
Best of the Blogs I got a bit behind in my reading, so here are some highlights from my catching-up: Dan Drezner says that academic faculty are liberal and gives a compelling example from the humanities. Nevertheless, this argument is tiresome. While I’m not in a position to say one way or the other with […]
Good News! You may be more likely to be in poverty, but at least you are also much less likely to have health insurance. AB
Impeachable? A lot of discussion is happening today about the Valerie Plame affair, both in media and in the blogosphere. I’ve even started seeing the word “impeachment” come up in a few places, such as on Brad DeLong’s blog. But there are really two separate questions one can ask about this situation regarding impeachment, and […]
The Birth Tax, Revisited A friend posed an interesting question to me last week: exactly how much of the astonishing change in the finances of the US government is due to Bush, and how much is due to forces outside of his control? Put another way, exactly what is the magnitude of the tax increase […]