thinkness - political currents Archives

"political currents" archive

Thursday 17 February

Dear Democratic hay-makers, - Can you please make a demagogic, heart-string-tugging ad about how Republicans are eliminating the poor mustang from the American West? I'm thinking basically a live-action Disney scene where helicopters scare a bunch of horses into a truck and the protagonist-type... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 40 Comments

Sunday 6 February

And now, ladies and gentlemen: Lakoff the Genius - So it was slightly dodgy of thinkness to start filing posts into a category without properly defining it, so here it is: I'm starting a new category called Lakoff the Genius. I read his book Don't Think of an Elephant... Posted in lakoff the genius , political currents | 21 Trackbacks | 175 Comments
Conservative environmentalism - Last week Slate highlighted the trend of environmental-minded neocons, who are now advocating green policy and even driving hybrid cars. It makes sense for them: they don't want to feed tons of money to Saudi Arabia's conservative, autocratic regime [among... Posted in lakoff the genius , political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 404 Comments

Tuesday 25 January

Party Pooper - One Fed chairman apparently said his job was to "take away the punch bowl just when the party gets going." Damn dismal science. Also, it seems that Paul Krugman is a card-carring Lakoffnik. [He says Alan Greenspan is a "stern... Posted in color , lakoff the genius , political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 66 Comments

Monday 17 January

Sweden: still paradise - A great article in Dissent magazine checks in on Sweden as a reputed model of social democracy and finds that, basically, it is. Although its per capita GDP is below that of 48 American states [all but Mississippi and West... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 112 Comments

Friday 14 January

Happy regression - thinkness was just looking over The Economist's history of itself and came across this bit:The monarch, [former editor Walter Bagehot] argued, was head of the "dignified" parts of the constitution, those that "excite and preserve the reverence of the population";... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 41 Comments

Monday 30 August

The city doth not protest too much - thinkness went to the big protest in NYC yesterday. Nothing particularly eventful or exciting, mostly just hundreds of thousands of people lumbering down 7th Avenue on a hot day. Someone did set a dragon on fire [4th picture, which blocked... Posted in color , political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 53 Comments

Saturday 21 August

It's best to be not bad - Are negative political advertisements more effective than positive ones? "Political consultants cite a strikingly consistent pattern when it comes to darker, more confrontational commercials. "Focus groups will tell you they hate negative ads and love positive ads," said Steve McMahon,... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 22 Comments

Monday 16 August

Prescience, I tell you - Wow. thinkness just mentioned Michael Scheuer earlier today, just before the media started reporting that he sent a letter to the 9/11 commission criticizing pretty much everything they did. And yes, now that the CIA is ordering him to stop... Posted in political currents | 13 Trackbacks | 71 Comments
Defector believers? - thinkness has no idea why we haven't heard more about Michael Sheuer, the "anonymous" author of Imperial Hubris, a book criticizing American strategy in the war on Islamism. Sheuer was the head of the CIA's Osama branch in the late... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 33 Comments

Wednesday 11 August

The axis of limitation - This recent column of Christopher Hitchens brought up another phenomenon that thinkness first witnessed in Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic convention. Hitch says that the security apparatus of this country are getting slammed for being careful, and for not... Posted in color , political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 123 Comments

Tuesday 3 August

Where you can speak your mind - 'Free-speech zones.' That's what the authorities call the barricaded pens where they keep protestors. Makes you wonder: if the inside is designated for free speech... I think I can see George Orwell, spinning in his coffin as it disappears down... Posted in political currents | 23 Trackbacks | 340 Comments

Tuesday 29 June

Bushcorp vs reality - If you read both thinkness and The New Republic, you might think I sort of cribbed my previous post from their recent article, Closing of the Presidential Mind, but I assure you it's not the case. I think the article... Posted in monkey vs robot , political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 136 Comments

Friday 25 June

Neo is the one. Which one? - The other day thinkness came across a good review of a whole bunch of books attacking Bush, his administration, the war in Iraq, etc. (I almost always find it more useful and interesting to read commentary about multiple sources, because... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 132 Comments

Monday 24 May

Fun With Fascism - Okay, it's been a long time, but thinkness is back in the saddle. Last week was just too busy, and this weekend pulled me to New Orleans for a bachelor party. I'm still alive, surprisingly, and ready return to blog... Posted in emergence , political currents | 7 Trackbacks | 28 Comments

Tuesday 11 May

Osama bin Lenin - In a debate between Robert Novak and Niall Ferguson, Fergie says: The obvious answer [of how the US might make amends with Europe] is that continued terrorist activity by Islamist zealots should eventually convince the Europeans that Bush is right... Posted in political currents | 5 Trackbacks | 72 Comments

Thursday 18 March

No-way Nader and Third-way environmentalism - I just came across this http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1088336/posts " target=_blank>New Republic article that slags Nader, saying he hasn't only recently become an idiot -- he's been paranoid, monomaniacal, and disastrously inflexible and disloyal for decades. I believe it. Reminded me of this... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 355 Comments

Monday 9 February

The coalescing Big knock on Bush - I'm seeing a very interesting phenomenon pop up after Bush's Meet the Press appearance. While news outlets mostly carried it pretty drily, just summarizing what he said [transcript for ya], a consensus is building among some pretty shrewd analysts. It's... Posted in political currents | 4 Trackbacks | 197 Comments

Wednesday 24 December

Dean's success is imminent -- sort of... - There is a growing brouhaha emerging between Dean and the more moderate wing of the Democratic party, such as the Democratic Leadership Council. First Dean steals all their thunder by bashing Bush and jumping out in front of the pack.... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 367 Comments

Wednesday 17 December

Internet killed the political party? - This is a quite-interesting take on how Internet organizing is, Everett Ehrlich says, going to do away with political parties. He says Ronald Coase hypothesized in 1937 that the cost of gathering information determines the size of an organization, and... Posted in political currents | 13 Trackbacks | 201 Comments

Monday 24 November

Bushlisted - Time for my weekly post! [Ugh. Not happy with that fact.] Yesterday I saw the show Trumbo, about a Hollywood screenwriter blacklisted during the Red Scare. Richard Dreyfuss ably played Dalton Trumbo, while some other shmoe not so ably played... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 243 Comments

Friday 14 November

Pastime politics - Mickey Kaus brings up an interesting comparison of the presidential election to game 7 of the American League Championship Series between the Yankees and Red Sox. The important point here, if you're not a baseball fan, is that Pedro Martinez... Posted in political currents | 7 Trackbacks | 206 Comments

Wednesday 1 October

Look out, Scott, it's contagious - White House spokesman Scott McClellan accomplished the rare feat of a doubly-mixed metaphor -- three figurative references in one brief comment, none of which actually fit together: "I'm drawing a line here. I'm not going to play the game of... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 98 Comments

Thursday 25 September

The truth comes out, and it is this: The truth came out long ago - Strange how 9/11 made false become true. Want a prime example? An Australian journalist reporting from Britain last night reported that he had dug up a videotape of Secretary Powell from February of 2001 saying that Iraq had basically no... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 167 Comments

Tuesday 23 September

Dean and Bush -- two sides of the same privileged coin - Weekly Standard editor David Brooks recently got a column at the NYTimes, and with William Safire now they got 2, count 'em, 2 conservatives in house. I've got to say that Brooks is way better than Safire. First of all,... Posted in political currents | 3 Trackbacks | 173 Comments

Thursday 4 September

Republicans and fiscal responsibility - Ed Gillespie, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the Manchester Union Leader that the national Republican Party has little desire to try to shrink government, per its old, Reagan-era ideals. Its stated goal of fiscal responsibility involves only growing... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 200 Comments
US hegemon as UK empire - I just came across this interesting story by Niall Ferguson, a rising academic superstar, musing about the US as an imperial or hegemonic power. It starts with a comparison of the very similar quotes uttered by the British general occupying... Posted in political currents | 3 Trackbacks | 264 Comments

Wednesday 3 September

God bless that woman - Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that. -- Britney... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 151 Comments
Tell it, dad - An Israeli guy who won a peace prize in Germany reminds me of my father. I'm wondering if I should pass along this story to him and try to get him to realize maybe Israel isn't only the land of... Posted in political currents | 5 Trackbacks | 183 Comments

Tuesday 2 September

Biggest Fibbest - or... The Fibbonacci Series Heh. This is hilarious. The Washington Monthly and Beliefnet have teamed up to take a poll of which of the past four US presidents [Reagan to BushII] was the worst liar. Interesting idea, in that it... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 214 Comments
Old tricks - I'm back from Burningman. Miss me? As I was driving back, I was wondering if the world had changed much while I was incommunicado. Then I read Daniel Benjamin's straight-dope Slate story that shows that Rice and Rumsfeld recent concocted... Posted in political currents | 10 Trackbacks | 192 Comments

Monday 18 August

Cali's split GOP - So now Cruz Bustamante is apparently leading Schwarzenegger in the polls. And the CSMonitor says the main Republican problem is that support is split between different candidates: Schwarzengger and a few hard-line conservatives. So how does this fit in with... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 426 Comments

Friday 15 August

Crack, damnit, crack! - The California governor game is weird. Really weird. I am looking over the tea leaves and I'm getting some strange encouragement. I might be reading into things way too deeply, but this is what I got: Schwarzenegger may win the... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 163 Comments

Monday 11 August

General Stick-it-to-ya - Retired general who until recently worked in the Pentagon's Near East South Asia department says she lost faith in this administration when she saw how it was guided by 'groupthink': 'Groupthink. Defined as "reasoning or decision-making by a group, often... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 217 Comments
Straight enough! - Brother responds [to previous post]: 'Thanks, doctor! Nice to see such a thorough response. I agree that BvG was a bad decision (as Alan Dershowitz put it quite memorably, the decision fails the simplest of bullshit-detector tests: the Other... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 206 Comments

Saturday 9 August

Set the sucky record straight - My brother takes issue with my post from July 29 when I mentioned the Bush v Gore decision. I said, 'Dean's got an element of domineering asshole in him. Hey, worked for Bush. [Along with that SCOTUS decision, their worst... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 366 Comments

Thursday 7 August

Carte blanche for black gold - Goddamn, this is pissing me off. The LATimes has a good story highlighting this fairly recent Executive Order 13303, which basically voids all liability and rules that would apply to anyone taking oil out of Iraq. Voids ALL liability --... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 163 Comments

Tuesday 5 August

Society doesn't exist - Something I've been mulling over about libertarian-type thinking: "I don't care about the species, I care about individual people." -- Gregory Stock, futurist "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families."... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 163 Comments

Tuesday 29 July

Dean -- still my man - Haven't slobbered on Dean for a while. [Since June 24, if you're curious.] He's still the guy. Case in point: 'The early line isn't good. Word from the field is that the impetuous Dean makes Bob Dole look soft and... Posted in political currents | 14 Trackbacks | 148 Comments
Pay no attention to the slick man behind the curtain - Last month I wondered why SF Mayor Willie Brown hadn't waded into the California recall game -- powerful former state speaker, forced out of SF by term limits, big ambition... Turns out he is involved with the gubernatorial game --... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 85 Comments

Tuesday 22 July

Corporate globalization is fun for everyone! - Hey, I've been busy. Without further adoodoo: Corporate globalization is fun! I know, I should read a little further than the NYTimes. But I was struck today by what's going on: The Great Catfish War -- a great op-ed about... Posted in political currents | 14 Trackbacks | 78 Comments

Tuesday 15 July

Come-unity - The Nation came out with an interesting story on Amitai Etzioni, an influential promoter of communitarianism. [I've been talking about communitarianism a fair amount, most recently wrt Asscock being a moral-majority-type, conservative communitarian.]... Posted in political currents | 13 Trackbacks | 116 Comments
Black Thursday for that asshole acting like the president - For the past couple weeks, I've been talking about how this WMD thing might actually be serious. Over a month ago I posted that John Dean article about how this could be the biggest presidential scandal since [you guessed it]... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 100 Comments
Conan the governor - I have this creepy feeling that Ahnold is going to be the next governor of California. The NY Daily News seems to think so. This recall process is dumb, but fun. Sometimes I wish that the whole magic holding together... Posted in political currents | 3 Trackbacks | 111 Comments

Thursday 10 July

Poetic justice? - I was just thinking about these here USofA and how we are getting bogged down in Iraq. I thought of Vietnam. I thought of the American War for Independence. A ragtag bunch of militiamen, outgunned, overmatched, using guerilla tactics to... Posted in political currents | 13 Trackbacks | 95 Comments

Wednesday 2 July

Revelations abound - Yes, it's revelation day here at thinkness. Michael Savage, caustic conservative radio shithead, used to be gay. Or is gay. Or wants to be gay. Or has or had man-liking tendencies. In any case, he had a touching pen-pal relationship... Posted in political currents | 12 Trackbacks | 106 Comments

Tuesday 1 July

Redistricting, the hot topic = confuzhon - Redistricting is all over the place now. First there was the thing in Texas where the Republicans tried to redistrict again [only a couple years after the last redistricting in 2000, contrary to age-old tradition] and a bunch of Democrats... Posted in political currents | 6 Trackbacks | 105 Comments

Monday 30 June

Who wants some Vietnam? - Lots of people have been saying that maybe Iraq is a quagmire, a new Vietnam. Well, the US military's been spreading a little of that itself. Like when it uses Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries as its theme music... Posted in political currents | 23 Trackbacks | 131 Comments

Friday 27 June

Dowd kills Thomas - I guess I'll catch up on something that I was obsessing over that day Blogger died. [Is there a song about that? And we were singing, bye bye...] I usually find Maureen Dowd's columns in the NYTimes to be insipid,... Posted in political currents | 12 Trackbacks | 87 Comments

Tuesday 24 June

Like father, like son - Unbelievable. Speaking of getting in with Beltway Democrats, Dean said, "It is a bit of a club down there... The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 111 Comments
Will an honest man... - George Will -- whom I once liked because he wrote well about baseball and then came to dislike because he's a conservative tightass -- is the first conservative pundit I've seen to raise serious questions about the WMD bullshit [while... Posted in political currents | 8 Trackbacks | 96 Comments
Yes, I'm slobbering on Dean again - Slate says something I've tried to say for a long time now: Dean isn't really all that liberal. I think that image people got into had to do with the fact that he's from a liberal state and signed the... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 79 Comments
My brother says The Economist used the 'total recall' ... - My brother says The Economist used the 'total recall' joke before Safire did. Who knew.... Posted in political currents | 8 Trackbacks | 92 Comments

Friday 20 June

What would Orwell say? - Kinsley says there existence of WMD in Iraq has already been proven. Sorta. "Are there weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Sure there are—in every sense that matters, reality not being one of them." Gaahhhh. You may have to read... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 85 Comments

Thursday 19 June

Put me in coach -- I'm ready to kick ass - On day 91 for the search for WMDs, I just figured out how the stupidass Democrats can really push the WMD scandal further. A lot of people have been saying Yeah, they pumped up and twisted the reports on WMDs,... Posted in political currents | 8 Trackbacks | 122 Comments

Wednesday 18 June

Goooooooo community! - A little while ago I highlighted the communitarian/libertarian axis that can be used as a lens to view political views, and how hard-core conservatives and liberals often end up nearby in the communitarian camp. In that vein, damn-conservative Senator Sam... Posted in political currents | 15 Trackbacks | 169 Comments

Tuesday 17 June

Look in the dictionary under 'clusterfuck' - Add this to the enormous list of stuff that's gone wrong in the aftermath of the US' recent wars: Iran is now gaining sway over western Afghanistan by providing electricity. Yes, the same Iran that has started beating reformist student... Posted in political currents | 4 Trackbacks | 293 Comments

Thursday 12 June

Anarchy! Woohoo! - So it seems that Cali Governor Gray Davis might actually get recalled next year: one poll says 48 percent of voters would vote to recall today while 41 percent would vote against. This has precipitated something of a free-for-all in... Posted in political currents | 8 Trackbacks | 185 Comments
Here comes my man - His name is Dean. Howard Dean. For a few years now I have been wondering why Democrats can't seem to deliver fairly simple, straightforward, convincing messages about how badly the Republican Party sucks. Dean says: "When Ronald Reagan came into... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 179 Comments

Wednesday 11 June

The BS attack on affirmative action - I thought about this Jayson Blair thing for a while and what it means about affirmative action. A post from Mickey Kaus just helped me figure out where I really stand on it. He says, "I'd say Blair did about... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 149 Comments

Tuesday 10 June

More on WMD - The Christian Science Monitor is really good. They're the only paper I see today looking further into the WMD bidness. Interesting points: maybe this WMD inquiry will never go far because the war went so well. So even if Bush... Posted in political currents | 5 Trackbacks | 138 Comments
The truth is out there - ...And it's not really that hard to find. Tapped points out that conservative activists are pretty up-front about what they are trying to do with their tax-cut strategies of phase-ins and sunset provisions -- make it politically infeasible for Democrats... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 190 Comments

Monday 9 June

Feelin' peachy? - Former Nixon legal advisor John Dean says the WMD debacle may be an impeachable offense: "This is the first potential scandal I have seen that could make Watergate pale by comparison." I think he may be breathing a little too... Posted in political currents | 6 Trackbacks | 185 Comments

Friday 6 June

Two-way street - I know I post a lot of stuff from Slate. I know. Truth be told, I really like Slate. Kinsley might be my favorite political columnist. Now Slate has started ganking my stuff, too, so I'm starting to feel better... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 190 Comments

Thursday 5 June

Get ready for 'bulls---' - This is what I think is going to happen with the WMD hunt in Iraq: The US will eventually find a little bit of something that is almost definitely part of a no-no weapon system. They'll say See, there are... Posted in political currents | 11 Trackbacks | 201 Comments

Wednesday 4 June

A shocking display of self-awareness - '"I'm the master of low expectations" and "we accomplished what I hoped we'd accomplish."' -Dubya in the NYTimes on Middle East peace process... Posted in political currents | 23 Trackbacks | 181 Comments

Tuesday 3 June

Best story ever - Oh, this is just too cool. Salam Pax is real, and Slate has a dope story on the guy. If you weren't obsessing over the news, Salam Pax [I would call it a nom de plume de guerre] runs a... Posted in political currents | 19 Trackbacks | 213 Comments

Monday 2 June

All the bases - There is bad news afoot. The FCC voted to scrap some of the rules limiting concentration of media ownership. This story has lots of interesting points. Point the first -- Color -- he's back already After the US hit its... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 168 Comments

Friday 30 May

Maybe Taranto has SARS - Tapped, thankfully, put the bitchsmack down on James Taranto, the editor of the idiotic OpinionJournal.com. Taranto said that liberals have cooked up some delusion about conservatives wanting to starve the government way down by cutting taxes and precipitating a fiscal... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 210 Comments

Friday 23 May

Could Santorum be [gasp] right?? - That reminds me about something I meant to post a while ago. Santorum said that homosexuality is depraved, basically, on the level of lots of other kinds of sexual practices that are generally frowned upon. "If the Supreme Court says... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 382 Comments
Onion or nonion -- It comes out [the truth, that is] - I'm beginning a new chronic. Right now. It's called onion or nonion. News stories that could just as well be in the Onion. Today's entry: Poll: Gay remarks don't hurt Santorum. 'Gay' as an insult having nothing to do with... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 157 Comments

Thursday 22 May

Speak softly and cut secret deals, pt ii - Another prime example of combining secret deals with a bluff of unassailable power is the Iran-Contra deal, in which the Reagan adminstration sold missiles to Iran in exchange for the release of American hostages, and then gave some of the... Posted in political currents | 7 Trackbacks | 184 Comments
Speak softly and cut secret deals - This Slate piece is an interesting look at whether Kennedy would've gone full-bore into Vietnam had he been president for two full terms. Some of the central themes discussed in this would seem to have a pretty universal quality about... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 252 Comments

Tuesday 20 May

Expendable Muslims? - One point my brother makes about Islamic terrorists is that you can really see their depravity in how they kill so many people who have nothing to do with their goals. In the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, all... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 149 Comments

Thursday 15 May

My second-biggest-wigged reader: Fred Kaplan - In a recent Slate War Stories column, Kaplan referred obliquely [ahem] to my apparently now-famous parable of the hostage, and says Bush has flipped the script [almost literally]: "Now, though, Bush is telling Kim: You want to build nukes? Fine.... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 164 Comments

Wednesday 14 May

Call in the pros - It seems that Saudi security forces suck -- they conducted a raid to try to catch the terrorists who eventually launched this latest attack in Riyadh, but all 19 of them escaped. Perhaps they will ask Mossad for some help?... Posted in political currents | 11 Trackbacks | 180 Comments

Tuesday 13 May

Bush indeed - I woke up really early this morning. I think it may have been due to an unquenchable desire to read about how hot George W Bush is. I must have been dreaming about him in that flight suit after he... Posted in political currents | 12 Trackbacks | 192 Comments

Monday 12 May

My biggest-wig reader: Karl Rove - Bush said during the 2000 campaign that he would extend the ban on assault weapons which is set to expire soon. Now, the president says he maintains that position. And he feels confident in doing so because he's read the... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 113 Comments
Blind in the USA - Aha! I'm glad to see someone comment on this after I'd noticed it a while ago. I was ticked off when I read the lyrics to Born in the USA a couple months ago. I suddenly realized that it's not... Posted in political currents | 9 Trackbacks | 92 Comments
Guns v torts, pt ii - One other thought on the gun control/tort issue from yesterday: what the situation needs is a clearheaded, fairly concrete, fairly permanent compromise. There is a very reasonable middle position that one can find in the gun-control debate that basically centers... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 104 Comments
Guns v torts - Haven't posted longtime. Oops. Will return to more frequent postings now that I'm back home. Seems Congress is about to pass a bill granting gun owners immunity from lawsuits. This is an interesting big societal issue where a couple of... Posted in political currents | 5 Trackbacks | 82 Comments

Tuesday 22 April

Cut the cuts - Okay, I've not posted in a while. Gurp. I'm in New York, out of my element. Without further ado: A recent Globe editorial is a good little nugget that's helping me catch up with some of the domestic political goings-on.... Posted in political currents | 4 Trackbacks | 118 Comments

Friday 11 April

Cad cards - The US military is distributing playing decks to soldiers that bear the likenesses of 55 Iraqis than should be captured or killed on sight. I've got a Saddam Hussein flush. What about you?... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 208 Comments

Monday 7 April

YFUV? - Slate posted a story highlighting the current ad campaign for the new Hummer. Key point: "But to think that either Hummer dealers or potential buyers would be somehow embarrassed is to misunderstand the brand. People who drive enormous, angry, military-style... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 189 Comments

Wednesday 2 April

So sure are you - Every once in a while, when I think I'm beginning to feel like I really understand what's going on, I come across an article like this, from a liberal guy at a liberal paper telling me how terrible a man... Posted in political currents | 7 Trackbacks | 160 Comments

Monday 31 March

Enron Smackdown - FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee, released a study last week showing that Enron and other energy traders really did manipulate the energy market during Cali's 2001 energy crisis. Apparently, some municipal power companies also got into the act. Barbara... Posted in political currents | 16 Trackbacks | 468 Comments

Friday 28 March

Old lessons should die hard - Remember that part of Die Hard when our hero Sgt John McClane -- beaten nearly to a pulp, feet shredded by glass shards -- finally gets face-to-face with international man of terrorism Hans Gruber? McClane is perfectly ready to shoot... Posted in political currents | 0 Trackbacks | 155 Comments

Thursday 27 March

TNR scores - TNR's good post on the dynamic scoring thing. I'm ordinarily too bored by financial/economic news to really care too much, and this isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it's just another part of federal policy that's becoming increasingly... Posted in political currents | 1 Trackbacks | 247 Comments
Air Force One is now, like the House, serving ... - Air Force One is now, like the House, serving freedom toast. I find it more funny than scary but, then again, my home's not getting bombed by the US...... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 229 Comments

Wednesday 26 March

What's a budget? - I don't know why I just made a long, involved post about some economic hoonanny and I doubly don't know why I'd do it again. Actually, this one's short. I'm just annoyed at the humongous budget deficit [yeah, that again]... Posted in political currents | 16 Trackbacks | 230 Comments
A big, steaming pile of mendacity - A big, steaming pile of mendacity has been coming down the pike for the past couple of months and is just now spilling out of the congressional sewer pipe. The Congressional Budget Office is now using "dynamic scoring" to estimate... Posted in political currents | 2 Trackbacks | 205 Comments