Month: November 2005
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The Wall Street Journal’s shifting position on “waterboarding”
Andrew Sullivan is furious about the way that the Wall Street Journal softpedals “waterboarding” in this editorial: As for “torture,” it is simply perverse to conflate the amputations and electrocutions Saddam once inflicted at Abu Ghraib with the lesser abuses committed by rogue American soldiers there, much less with any authorized U.S. interrogation techniques. No
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Bush returns to attacks on dissent
With more and more polls showing President Bush below 40 percent approval, the administration has launched its campaign-style offensive against critics of the war in Iraq, which started yesterday with a Bush speech that returned to the misleading claims and ugly attacks on dissent that were so prevalent from 2001-2004. Let’s consider the key passage
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How stupid is Windows?
The New York Times Magazine ran a story a few weeks ago (Times Select subscription required) about Microsoft research into managing attention and distractions. The idea is to create artificial intelligence programs for determining when computers should interrupt your work to bother you. Some prototypes have already been developed, and the article suggests Microsoft may
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What was Christine Todd Whitman talking about?
Mike Brady told us a hilarious story this morning about former New Jersey governor/EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman’s appearance on Jeopardy in 2004. The final Jeopardy question asked how many members of the Senate there were in 1958. Now, the only possible answers that make sense are 96, 98, and 100 given that the only
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Reading assignment: Chapter 8 of All the President’s Spin
This is going to be frustrating: Top White House officials say they’re developing a “campaign-style” strategy in response to increasing Democratic allegations that the Bush administration twisted intelligence to make its case for war. White House aides, who agreed to speak to CNN only on the condition of anonymity, said they hoped to increase what
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Scott McClellan smears the White House press corps
Scott McClellan has lashed out again at members of the press. A few weeks ago, when challenged by Helen Thomas, McClellan accused her of being “opposed to the broader war on terrorism.” During yesterday’s White House press briefing, he smeared Thomas and other members of the press, as WashingtonPost.com’s Dan Froomkin recounts: Press secretary Scott
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2005 election roundup
Back in June, I wrote this about Arnold’s slate of legislative initiatives: I have to say that [I] think Schwarzenegger is going to go down in flames. California Democrats are up in arms and looking to channel their anti-Bush rage. He’s going to be the fall guy. And that prediction, at least, came true: In
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The GOP’s penchant for reversing accusations
This tactic is all too predictable: Sources tell Drudge that early this afternoon House Speaker Hastert and Senate Majority Leader Frist will announce a bicameral investigation into the leak of classified information to the WASHINGTON POST regarding the “black sites” where high value al Qaeda terrorists are being held and interrogated. Said one Hill source:
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A disturbing AP lede
Anyone else hear Herman Melville turning in his grave? By the time R. Kelly is done with his “Trapped in the Closet” saga, it may have more chapters than “Moby Dick.”
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The influence of the president on midterm elections
David Rohde, a senior professor here at Duke, pointed out an interesting Roll Call article from Oct. 20 (subscription required). Titled “Fate of GOP in ’06 Depends on Bush,” it presents data showing the correlation between presidential approval and mid-term swings in House seats for the president’s party. As you can see from this graphic,