Tempest in a Teapot? The American Prospect has a piece up on the various Draft Clark movements. At various points, the story says that the movement was not as big as it made itself out to be, that it was not really grass-roots, but organized by long-time political strategists from the Clinton White House, and […]

Presidential Reading Material Earlier I posted this exchange from Brit Hume’s Monday interview of President Bush: HUME: How do you get your news? BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you’ve got a beautiful face and everything. I glance at […]

Spies at Guantanamo Two soldiers are now charged with espionage. From what I’ve read, it could be something as innocuous as passing messages to and from prisoners’ family members in the Middle East, or it could be something more sinister. Overall, I’m having trouble coming up with a scenario in which prisoners at Guantanamo can […]

The Clark Economic Proposal Yesterday Clark issued his economic plan. Here’s an excerpted synopsis from the NYTimes: General Clark, who is retired from the Army, said he would devote $100 billion over two years to three programs, which he said would not expand the federal deficit because he would repeal President Bush’s tax cuts for […]

What Would Happen? Wow. You have probably figured out that I’m often a tad critical of the Bush administration. I think they’ve really screwed the pooch on Iraq (along with pretty much everything else they’ve touched), and I’m enjoying watching the Bushies squirm up on Capitol Hill as they take the heat for the (very […]

Gray Davis and Spam If Gray Davis successfully ends spam in California by October 7th, I predict that he will win the recall election by a large margin. On the other hand, I’m not sure the law can do much about spam originating from outside of California, much less spam from Nigeria. AB

Compare and Contrast Here are two reports of the same incident yesterday in Iraq. First, from CNN, reporting from US headquarters in Baghdad: BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — Coalition airstrikes killed an attacker early Tuesday after members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division came under fire near Fallujah, west of the Iraqi capital, the Coalition […]

Bush Economic Policy as Designed by Karl Rove I’ve written about the issue of the value of the dollar a few times before, but it keeps coming up in the news. Here are some bits from a Washington Post story on the front page of today’s business section: The Bush administration has embarked on a […]

Missed an Opportunity The initial reviews weren’t too bad, but the Times has a new story, Bush’s U.N. Speech Gets Scathing Reviews on Capitol Hill. Here are some highlights: Mr. Daschle, who is not running for president, continued: “He has now asked for $87 billion more. And I wish he would have made a stronger […]

UN Speech On balance, Bush’s speech was apparently not as aggressive as the advance billing suggested (as I previously) speculated would be the case. On the other hand, it wasn’t conciliatory either, and was sandwiched in between an obliquely critical speech by Annan (before) and a more direct critical statement by Chirac (after). Looking for […]