February 2008
“This is a greater number of people than the combined populations of Washington,...”
– Blog Critics on the new Pew study… let’s send ‘em to prison - with no work - and forget rehabilitation.
“Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to...”
– The New York Times on Pew’s Newest Study on American Prisons
“Monterey, California — Psychologist Philip Zimbardo has seen good people...”
– Wired.com has the disturbing new story out of Abu Ghraib — we’re waiting for presidential candidates’ responses. If McCain wants to stay in it for 100 years, how is he going to handle this kind of treatment? And for Obama and Clinton who want out, how are they going to handle the...
“Clinton and her aides, three weeks ago, were, in turn, adamant in defending...”
– Tom Edsall on HuffPo
“He’s the fashion plate of the moment,” an editorial page editor...”
– If Obama wins Texas, will McCain pick up Clinton dems? [Is that even something the DNC is willing to risk?] More from Froma Harrop at the Houston Chronicle.
Monday Morning Must-Reads
The McCain Article [NYT] Feedback + explanation: A recent New York Times article examined a number of decisions by Senator John McCain that raised questions about his judgment over potential conflicts of interest. The article included reporting on Mr. McCain’s relationship with a female lobbyist whose clients often had business before the Senate committee led by Mr. McCain. Since...
NYT Proves "Gray Lady" More than Adoring Title,...
or: The NYT Successfully Unites GOP, Lights up Airwaves, and Makes Me Skip the Paper this Morning. It’s still sitting on our front stoop. Unfortunately, no one else has taken it either. It’s not every day I find myself defending conservative candidates and lambasting the Gray Lady, but for once, I find myself agreeing not only with the good folks at Red State - this is all much ado...
Clean Up, Johnny!
John McCain (whom I seriously underestimated; lament away ye hopeful followers of family values!) has got himself a mess of trouble, it seems. His press conference today was a joke – and I’m still surprised no one asked if his denial of this sordid lobbyist affair is just a matter of words – did he, or did he not have sexual relations with that woman! But we know the GOP must be disappointed. ...
“The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for...”
– Mark Twain
Hola, Raul!
Paving the way for his youthful brother Raul, 76, to take the reigns officially, Castro resigned this morning. And with those reigns, he’s passing along his iron hand and his iron fist. “My wishes have always been to discharge my duties to my last breath,” Castro wrote in an online letter to the Communist Party daily Granma. But, he wrote, “it would be a betrayal to my...
“When in the course of political events it becomes necessary for one people to...”
– Conservative independence!
O, the mess of the Democrats. If we don’t seat Michigan and Florida, we risk alienating Democratic voters in a state we already know can swing an election. If we do seat them, we’ve got all-out-mayhem in the ranks: Julian Bond, the head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, called for the delegates to be seated, saying failure to do so would amount to...
“With every delegate precious, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers also made it clear that...”
– Clinton pulling for a popular vote [NYTimes]
NPR: Correctional Officers Protest Inmate Work... →
A great listen from Morning Edition: Federal correctional officers are gathering outside the Justice Department on Wednesday to protest budget cuts and cutbacks to the federal inmate work program. The officers say it’s the only program they have left to keep inmates out of trouble. I’m not sure how I feel about inmates handling the more sensitive information relating to my 401k, but as...
The Bank on the Road to the White House
Where Donations Go When Presidential Candidates Drop Out With a primary or caucus nearly every week, the presidential field is thinning – but the candidates’ penny banks are nowhere near empty. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group, by the end of September, the 2008 presidential candidates set aside over $33.6 million for the general...
Presenting... The Golden Dots!
Politics Online Conference 2008 Voting now for… Online Politician of the Year Ron Paul Bobby Jindal Barack Obama John Edwards Mike Huckabee Fred Thompson Fred Thompson knows how to turn on a computer? Really though, this is one place Ron Paul should get his due. Check the recent GOP money numbers at opensecrets - he’s far and away in the lead of those still in the race. ...
McCain, Obama Sweep Potomac Primaries →
As if there’s any surprise news value here, Obama and McCain have taken the Potomac primaries by storm. Meanwhile, Clinton’s going to be whistlin Dixie to Texas and hoping it sings back: who would have thought W’s cowboy country would end up being a Clinton lynch pin. Yippy-yi-ki-yo.
Monday Morning Must-Reads
Everything you need to know. The Chicken Doves [Rolling Stone] Quietly, while Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been inspiring Democrats everywhere with their rolling bitchfest, congressional superduo Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have completed one of the most awesome political collapses since Neville Chamberlain. At long last, the Democratic leaders of Congress have publicly surrendered...
dilettante charm.