OK, maybe I'm dense...I know all of you on the right are sure of it, but...That big unanswered question...But, when exactly will the war in Iraq be over? We keep being told it will be over when we win. Who is going to decide that we have? Or haven't? Why…
I didn't look to see how the op-ed pages tried to spin their own survey, but the data looks pretty bad for the gang in the White House. Nearly half of Americans don't trust President Bush to reform the nation's health-care system, a new Wall Street Journal Online/Harris health-care poll…
Jim Wright says it all right here... It would help immensely if the president can remember that every senator and representative considers him- and herself chosen and charged by the public and instructed by the Constitution to be a "decider," too. Source: Will the 'decider' branch out? | Chron.com -…
This was in the newsfeed from the Houston Chronicle today. In the new spirit of media disclosure, I should tell you that I own several Dixie Chicks CDs. But I'm not writing this as an adoring bluegrass fan. I'm writing this as a shame and empathy researcher. That was how Brene'…
The take away paragraph tells the story of this President's term in office. Bush has always supported a faith-based initiative, but his recitation of beliefs in the East Room yesterday -- he listed no fewer than 18 principles he holds to be true -- sounded less like a question-and-answer session than…
Tony Snow had this to say about his boss and his environmental policies... Mr. Bush had in fact been “keenly committed both to environmentalism and conservationism from the start.” Must be something in the Kool-Aide up there in the White House. As the NY Times points out in an editorial...…
Somehow, after four years, the debate on Iraq is still animated by wishful thinking. The White House talks as if a surge of 20,000 troops is going to stop a civil war. Democrats argue that when America withdraws its troops, Iraqis will finally take responsibility for their own security. But…
Charles Krauthammer takes us to task for those blaming America for the deaths in Iraq... We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots…
Another tribute to a life lived large... Remembering Molly Ivins Source: Remembering Molly Ivins
Molly Ivins, the liberal newspaper columnist who delighted in skewering politicians and interpreting, and mocking, her Texas culture, died today at her home in Austin. She was 62. Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press Molly Ivins in 2006. Her death, after a long fight with breast cancer, was confirmed by…
I don't know about you but to me it looks to me like Bush and Cheney have seen to many police shows on TV. I mean come on guys, good cop bad cop is so lame... We often wonder whether there is a limit to the Bush administration’s obsession with…
You have to wonder what they are putting in the Kool-Aid at the Cheney manse. Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that…
Some day we will be able to put the DeLay era behind us. I feel sorry for Virginia... AUSTIN — A part of the criminal case that helped drive former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay from public life is hanging on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which will…
All it took was for the ruling party to be kicked out of power. Now we have legislators actually legislating. Perish the thought, the Republican minority may have to prove that government can actually can work for the American people contrary to anything they may have espoused in the past.…
Today's papers are full of news of war and rumors of war, both real and political. There are a number of sites around the internet that will give you better coverage of this than I will. But the little, oft unremarked news stories are more problematic. This is just one small…
William F Buckley Jr has an article on the thought process behind a vote on "the Surge" that starts like this... You are a Republican legislator, retiring after this, your fifth term. Last night, into the midnight hours, you composed a questionnaire for yourself. You vowed to submit to it before…
Today's Washington Post Editorial by Richard Cohen goes a long way in making me understand the "inner" Bush that has seemed so out of touch with reality. Mr. Cohen gets your attention with the first sentence. George W. Bush has executed 153 people, 152 of them in Texas and one…
This Washington Post Editorial touches on a number of points about the Bush tax cuts, most of which are not in the President's favor. PRESIDENT BUSH wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that "it is also a fact that our tax cuts have fueled robust economic growth and…
Just don't "suggest" to the "decider" that he can't do what he wants...He may pick up his ball and go home... After an election in which war-weariness was a motivating force for the defeat of Republican candidates, the president has to face the reality that the only decision on Iraq that…
I read George Will's column last evening and couldn't wrap my mind around his argument. I revisited it this morning and find his bait and switch tactics perverse. A three-judge federal court recently tugged a thread that may begin the unraveling of the fabric of murky laws and regulations that traduce the…
Even in a holiday season, politics requires that politicians put in an appearance. Presidential funerals don't happen often, when they do, you go. Nothing shows the depth of a man like the way he shows respect to those who went before him. And a show of respect that requires nothing…
From the parallel universe of Robert Novak. "Environmentalists' well-financed propaganda operation"...Does the man live in this universe? Industry has been spending many times the amounts the environmentalists have but the truth is still coming thru their lies and distortions. Industry has controlled the conversation for 12 years in congress and…
Isn't this just so like the American cliche that the rest of the world sees...We don't like the results of this messy thing called democracy so lets change the government that resulted. Isn't Bush just repudiating his own policy by not working with the elected government he says he went…
After listening to some of the hearing on the radio, I am forced to agree with the Post. What does it say about America, that the ruling party for the last decade have placed the biggest obstructionists in positions of power and then blamed the opposition for being obstructionists. THE LAST hearing…
It's a bit disconcerting to have Peggy Noonan agree with me on anything. But she seems to have had the same gut reaction to the Bush/Web confrontation that I did. Sadly that was pretty much all we agreed on. Though I do find part of her theory on why there isn't…
I am sorry Ken, but it has nothing to do with Conservative or Liberal Principles and everything to do with Moral Principles. Mehlman acknowledged voter anger about the Iraq war and a spate of GOP corruption scandals, but he pointed to a broader culprit: the erosion of the core conservative principles…
George Will has decided he will hold a newly elected Senator to a higher standard that the President and Vice-President of the United States. Go figure. I agree if Jim Webb really wanted to make a statement he should have stayed away from the reception...He could have put out a press release…
I found the following paragraphs most telling. In an article in the latest issue of the conservative Weekly Standard, Yuval Levin, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, explains the tension between the market and the family as clearly as anyone has: "The market values risk-taking and creative…
It was pretty obvious even right after the elections that the president wasn't changing his approach. If anything he seemed to be rubbing the fact that he wasn't in the democrats face. President Bush's political fortunes have changed for the worse, but he himself is announcing that he hasn't changed…
Jim Hightower is one of the few Texas Progressive Politicians my generation has seen. He has a real talent for cutting through the BS that most politicians sling...Hey, how about indulging yourself with a hot new Maserati? Yeah, it's got a sticker price that'll make you go blind – but,…
