Month: February 2005
-
Time to start worrying about risk
The American Prospect’s Matthew Yglesias does a good job of covering some material I was planning to write up. Economic risk has become a hugely important policy issue: RISK AND REWARD. Kevin Drum alerts us to the fact that Peter Gosselin‘s superb series on economic risk in America is now available in a convenient package.
-
Playing on anti-Arab bigotry
Ann Coulter recently tried to include this sentence in her syndicated column: “Press passes can’t be that hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president.” And Rep. Sam Johnson recently advocated nuking Syria (though his staff denies it): “Syria is the problem.
-
What’s the matter with Dean in Kansas?
Howard Dean, fresh from stereotyping minorities as hotel workers, has weighed in recently with two more bits of wisdom during a visit to Kansas. As Mickey Kaus notes (by way of Polipundit), Dean ended a speech on Friday in Lawrence, Kansas with this statement: “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the
-
What is Matt Bai talking about?
Here’s a classic example of a bogus logical opposition from Matt Bai in the New York Times Magazine: So-called [Democratic] centrists, with precious few exceptions, have lined up with their party’s base against the idea of partly privatizing Social Security, even though those same Democrats used to argue that the program was gravely ill. How
-
What is Eric Boehlert talking about?
Salon’s Eric Boehlert is joining the left wing blogosphere in freaking out about the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert story: On Feb. 17, “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams introduced a report on controversial White House correspondent James Guckert by informing viewers that the saga was “the talk of Washington.” Nine days later the mysterious tale of
-
Go Togo
It received almost no media attention here in the US, but the cause of democracy won a major victory yesterday. Under pressure from other African countries, the ruler of Togo was forced to resign yesterday, aborting an unconstitutional takeover of power. And Hosni Mubarak is promising a multi-party presidential election in Egypt, though his regime
-
Realities collide on Social Security
Dueling press releases: Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee: “THE REVIEWS ARE IN: SANTORUM’S SOCIAL SECURITY ROADSHOW WAS A BUST!!! … Pennsylvanians – Young and Old – Reject Santorum’s Scheme to Privatize Social Security” National Republican Senatorial Committee: “Rather Than Offer Ideas or Solutions, Democrats Offer Doom and Gloom Attack Politics… Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-PA) Social Security
-
Fact-checking the Post’s fact-check on Social Security
The Washington Post has published a useful fact-check of misleading claims about Social Security, including two I’ve flagged before: Bush’s claim that Social Security going “bankrupt” and Democratic suggestions that Bush’s private accounts plan is intended to enrich Wall Street. But Jim VandeHei and Jonathan Weisman mess up the numbers pretty badly in the middle
-
MP3 audio of Cox’s CPAC speech
Courtesy of Robert Cox, the proprietor of TheNationalDebate.com and the driving force behind the Media Bloggers Association (of which I’m a member), here is MP3 audio of the relevant portion of Chris Cox’s highly misleading speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference. (For those who are interested, Bob has an interesting and thoughtful post up
-
Reforming the presidential nomination process
In the Washington Post today, E.J. Dionne gently mocks the Democrats’ Commission on Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling: When the going gets tough, Democrats form commissions. It’s an old habit: If an election is lost, there must be some fix in the party’s rules and procedures that will turn things around. The commission is co-chaired