Uncategorized
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What are Tom Curry and Bob Brigham talking about?
The Internet politics bubble continues. Tom Curry has a story on MSNBC.com that opens with this lead: Democratic bloggers say they are beginning to transform the way political campaigns are run, pointing to their recent success in raising more than $550,000 for Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war, who
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Steve Forbes spouts supply side nonsense
The politically convenient but intellectually unsupportable claim that tax cuts increase revenue will not go away. Today, Steve Forbes follows President Bush’s example in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required): How would a flat tax do this? What so many “experts” can’t grasp is that taxes are not only a means of raising revenue for
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Democracy vs. spending restraint
The New York Times reports on the division over spending among conservatives, who are in the process of eating their young in Colorado and elsewhere for not cutting spending enough. The solution they’re proposing? Constitutional limits at the state level: Conservative frustration with government growth increased with President Bush’s first term, which added more than
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Lowered expectations in Iraq
Is the Bush administration rejoining the reality-based community? The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States will have to settle for far less progress than originally envisioned during the transition due to end in four months, according to U.S. officials in Washington and Baghdad.
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Wry reporter humor
From a New York Times story on the deluxe accomodations in some military bases in Iraq: “We had no idea conditions were going to be this great!” said Lieutenant Deaton, 25, the public affairs officer of the 256th Brigade Combat Team and an ambassador of the exclamation mark. “My first thought was, oh my God!
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Misleading ads can backfire
One more comment on the NARAL ad against John Roberts that was pulled down this week. To me, this seems like a classic example of a pathology of the political ad business — the desire to use paid advertisements to generate media attention. Consultants intentionally overstate their case in ads so that they will create
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The AP scorches GOP over Tobin
Here’s a justifiably scathing piece from the AP over the GOP’s payment of James Tobin’s legal bills even as it denounces voter fraud and suppression: The Republican Party says it still has a zero-tolerance policy for tampering with voters even as it pays the legal bills for a former Bush campaign official charged with conspiring
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Correlation vs. causation: Family dining edition
The New York Times makes a classic error, portraying the correlation between eating together as a family and various positive outcomes as a causal relationship: The family dinner table, meanwhile, has mostly managed to retain something of a sanctified aura – the last meeting ground left in a world of working parents, relentless afterschool activities
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Down in the polls, Bush brings back 9/11
Ever since the march toward war in Iraq began, 9/11 has always been the administration’s hole card. They pull it out every time they get in trouble. It makes sense politically given that Bush’s approval rating was boosted to ridiculous levels by 9/11, and has been rapidly declining ever since. But it’s offensive given that
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NARAL pulls Roberts ad
According to the Associated Press, NARAL is withdrawing its misleading and controversial ad attacking John Roberts — hallelujah: After a week of protests by conservatives, an abortion-rights group said Thursday night it is withdrawing a television advertisement linking Supreme Court nominee John Roberts to violent anti-abortion activists. “We regret that many people have misconstrued our