Month: June 2007
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Obama smears Hillary as “D-Punjab”
In the Democratic primaries, even the slightest hint of ethnic insensitivity can be devastating to your chances (ask Joe Biden). So what are Barack Obama and his campaign doing? Today’s New York Times reports that the Obama campaign attacked Hillary Clinton’s investment in an Indian company and fundraising among Indian Americans by deriding her as
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Jin’s “Open Letter 2 Obama”
Via The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, the rapper Jin (best known for the song “Learn Chinese”) has released the song “Open Letter 2 Obama” (MP3 download): I bet you’ve never heard “higher fuel-efficiency standards” in a rap song before… Update 6/18 7:01 AM: Here’s some related news on the hip-hop primary — Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of
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The WMD myth in a video game
I’m not pleased to see that the upcoming Playstation 3/Xbox 360 game Cipher Complex is based on the (admittedly fictional) premise that Iraqi WMD were “stolen before the U.S. invasion.” Too many people already believe that! Here’s the relevant passage from the current issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly (p. 18): Cipher Complex is part [of]
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Bork: For tort reform before he was against it
The New York Times editorial board appropriately mocks Robert Bork for his lawsuit against the Yale Club: There are many versions of the cliché that “a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged,” and Robert Bork has just given rise to another. A tort plaintiff, it turns out, is a critic of tort lawsuits
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The Assault on Reason’s hidden endnotes
Where do they find these people? Weekly Standard senior editor Andrew Ferguson opened his Washington Post Outlook piece on Sunday by asserting there are no footnotes in Al Gore’s book The Assault on Reason: You can’t really blame Al Gore for not using footnotes in his new book, “The Assault on Reason.” It’s a sprawling,
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Supply-side “straight talk” from McCain
Factcheck.org caught John McCain again claiming that “the tax cuts have dramatically increased revenues” at the May 15 GOP debate. As I wrote in April, he and Rudy Giuliani have suddenly embraced the supply-side dogmas that even Bush administration economists reject. Not coincidentally, they’re running for the GOP presidential nomination. All aboard the Straight Talk
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Shrum, Balz, Sullivan hype third parties
The zombie-like third party hype just won’t die! Democratic consultant Bob Shrum is suggesting Mike Bloomberg has a chance of winning based on this dubious proposition: The second key question: Can Bloomberg win? Mike, a businessman, is not the type to launch a Quixotic quest. Well, believe it or not, there is a long-shot path
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Jon Chait bashes David Brooks
A great “yo mama” slam from Jon Chait, who is bashing David Brooks for misrepresenting the liberal agenda: Brooks writes, “Tax code changes to reduce outsourcing are symbolic.” Well, sure. That’s why it isn’t an important part of the liberal agenda. You know what is symbolic? Advocating a new governing ideology whose sole specific policy
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“Integrity” in local news
Here’s some amusing outrage over an upcoming Fox reality show in which a swimsuit model hosts a local newscast in Texas: “One of the last sacred grounds of integrity in local television is the local newsroom, so I guess I would say I’m disappointed to see a station, much less one in our own community,
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WSJ: Libby pardon “a two-day story”
While arguing for a pardon of Scooter Libby, the Wall Street Journal editorial page asserts that it would be “a two-day story”: General Pace’s fate is one more example of Mr. Bush’s recent habit of abandoning those most closely identified with his Iraq policy. Paul Wolfowitz received only tepid support from Treasury while he was