Even the Conservative Economist The current Economist has an interesting piece, Hidden dangers: The American government’s accounts look about as reliable as Enron’s (article here–subscription required). The story reports on a study by two AEI economists, Jagadeesh Gokhale and Kent Smetters, that uses two new measures of how sustainable deficits are. One of them is […]

Liberal Media A number of bloggers (e.g., Atrios and Yglesias) are taking note of Billmon’s solid analysis of an NYT piece that inexplicably has the headline, “Hispanics Back Big Government and Bush, Too,” yet contains this statement: Mr. Bush won the support of 35 percent of Hispanic voters in 2000; in this poll, 21 percent […]

Rice Watch Day 13 Events continue to indicate that the Rice Watch may extend into triple digits: CRAWFORD, Tex. President Bush slipped speedily into vacation mode this past weekend at his furnace of a ranch in Central Texas, where he spent Sunday fishing, clearing cedar and going for a walk with the first lady and […]

Point of Clarification A note to conservatives: when states legalize gay marriage or civil unions, it does not mean that you (or any of your loved ones) have to personally engage in gay sex or marriage, witness gay marriages or sex, subsidize gay sex or marriages, have your church or other religious institution support gay […]

Surely the Next Tom DeLay Who? Why Paul Kelly Tripplehorn, Jr., of course, for he is apparently much better than you. Assuming this story is true (which it likely is since it comes from Roll Call, a reliable source for Capitol Hill goings on–subscription required, but see the teaser here), it provides a deeply disturbing, […]

Tom Tomorrow Today His latest book of hilarious yet scary comics is out now (conveniently available via the link to the right). Note that it’s a greatest hits collection, so if you own every other Tom Tomorrow book, it might be redundant. AB

It’s Funny Because It’s True Charles Kuffner, who recently had a brush with fame, links to this hilarious must-see photograph. The arrow is pointing to the front gates of the Texas State Capitol, which I suppose is ironic since the man holding the sign is standing on Martin Luther King Boulevard whereas Gov. Rick “Boss” […]

Rick Santorum Must be Outraged They say that Dog Bites Man is not newsworthy; Man Bites Dog, on the other hand, is news because it’s unlikely and unexpected. Well this essay (titled “‘Conservative’ Bush Spends More than ‘Liberal’ Presidents Clinton, Carter”) from the libertarian Cato Institute falls into the category of man and dog doing […]

Rice Watch Day 11 Or should it be Cheney-watch? Via Matt Yglesias, I find this story in Slate’s Chatterbox. The title of Noah’s piece is somewhat misleading: Did Condi Give the Game Away? Her Yellowcakegate alibi doesn’t add up, because Noah’s real target is not Rice, but Dick Cheney. Why Cheney? Tenet knew that his […]

Good News, Right? On the wire: “The Labor Department reported the nation’s unemployment rate declined to 6.2 percent in July from 6.4 percent in the previous month.” But before you get excited, read the next sentence: The figure was slightly better than analysts’ estimates, but much of the drop came from 470,000 disenchanted people who […]