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,…
The election may be over but the battle to protect the American Constitution has just begun. Do not think that if these rulings are allowed to stand that they will only be used against non-citizens. It will only be a matter of time before someone born in this country is spirited…
Why can't papa Bush just slap him up side his head? Where will this country be after two more years? Hell, everyone reading these posts know how I feel about the decider-in-chief, so forgive my whining...please? Good lord, if even Henry Kissinger now says that military victory in Iraq is…
I find myself intrigued... I'd like to try this idea in Elizabeth, New Jersey Tyler Cowen How about cities without any traffic signs or lights?: European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way,…
This morning's OP-ED from David Broder makes some interesting points. He has divided the Bush Presidency into four phases. I think he should have added a fifth. In trying to gauge where things stand in our government after the political upheaval that has taken place, it helps to think back through the…
Excuses sound hollow when you’re trapped in a flimsy trailer. For Gulf Coast residents waiting for long-promised government housing assistance, patience has given way to anger, and anguish. What is clear more than a year after Hurricane Katrina is that their needs — and the demand for action from the…
It is nice to read something on the Op-Ed pages at the WSJ that I can agree with for a change. Looks like the new Senator from Virginia has a way with telling it like it is... The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a…
She was the last of the Blue Governors from the Great State of Texas. Bush and Rove lied her out of office. Now the whole country knows what it's like to live in Texas. AUSTIN — A downtown bridge famous for political marches, parades and a bat colony will soon…
Today's emails brought the following: On their journey through the stages of grief, conservatives don't yet seem to have gotten past denial. Republicans may have lost, conservatives argue, but only because they misplaced their ideology. "[T]hey were punished not for pursuing but for forgetting conservatism," George F. Will, conservatism's most…
It really does my heart good to see the "l" word starting to be used in regards to the administration. Maybe if we quit dodging the truth, it will set us free..."Washington's easy acceptance of lying, especially presidential lying, is beyond lamentable. It has cost the country plenty, including, of…
"When Democratic committee chairmen issue subpoenas and conduct oversight hearings, will news accounts portray them as harassing the White House? Or will journalists recognize that aggressive congressional inquiries were a normal practice until the GOP Congress, which loved to investigate the Clinton White House, essentially stopped scrutinizing the Bush administration?…
It would be funny if it wasn't so sad.After arguing during the campaign that Democrats would undermine national security, President Bush changed course today and said America's enemies should not read this week's ground-shaking election results as a sign of U.S. weakness.Bush radio: Elections do not reflect a loss of…
"Journalists by nature shy from pinning the "liar" label on any political leader, but President Bush's acknowledgments that he had not been forthcoming about his plans to dump Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have kicked up a fuss at the White House and sparked a debate about the limits of…
I guess the reason I have been quiet in regards to the resounding change in the political climate is I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Congratulation to all of the winners across the country. In particular, congratulation to us, the American people. We have begun the…
This story caught my interest today because the company I work for changed our insurance to United last year. Now I wonder who it is that is being insured.How William McGuire earned that fat paycheck | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Moral hazard theory, which has governed health insurance since the…
