Month: February 2008
-
Google to Store Patient Health Records
Google continues its quest to take over the world with a new program to store health records online. Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that’s likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search…
-
Barack Obama Protecting the Stupid People From Themselves
I was reading about Senator Obama’s economic policy and once again something jumped out at me. *Protecting Homeowners: Obama has proposed a fund to offer direct relief to victims of mortgage fraud and would ease the burden on struggling homeowners by offering a tax credit to low- and middle-income Americans that would cover ten percent…
-
NYT Hit Piece on McCain Alleges Adultery, Favoritism
The New York Times today fronts a long exposé on John McCain, which the campaign describes as a “hit-and-run smear campaign,” under the headline “For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk.” The piece alleges that McCain did favors for a female lobbyist nine or more years ago and insinuates that they were romantically…
-
OTB Radio – Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Alex Knapp and Dave Schuler will join me to talk about the latest twists and turns in Campaign 2008, Kosovo’s declaration of independence, the elections in dictatorial Pakistan, and whatever else comes to mind. Please join us.…
-
Hillary Clinton Says Democrats Must ‘Get Real’
Hillary Clinton says all those Democrats voting for Barack Obama should “get real.” Hillary Clinton, after suffering a 10th consecutive loss to rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race, said “it is time to get real” about how the party can win the November general election. The New York senator today sought to emphasize…
-
MI6 Denies Killing Princess Diana
British intelligence denies killing Princess Di. The former head of MI6 denied Wednesday that the British intelligence agency was responsible for the car accident that killed Princess Diana and her boyfriend, Dodi al Fayed, in 1997. Sir Richard Dearlove, who was the director of special operations for the agency at the time of Diana’s Paris…
-
Hillary’s Anti-Market Bias
Over at Reason Online Steve Chapman outlines the problems Senator Clinton has with markets. Obama, by contrast, acknowledges the bitter truth that when government regulators clamber into a carriage, it can easily turn into a pumpkin. Their approaches to the problem are not an aberration but a symptom of a larger difference. Obama is not…
-
NATO Troops Close Kosovo Border
NATO has intervened to prevent rioting along the Kosovo-Serbia border from getting out of hand. Nato troops have sealed the northern borders of Kosovo after Serbs angry at its weekend declaration of independence ransacked two crossings. Hundreds of protesters torched customs and police posts at Jarinje and Brnjak, manned by UN and Kosovo police. Closing…
-
Scientists Create Cloaking Device
Scientists funded by the United States military have created a working cloaking device that absorbs virtually all light. Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made — about 30 times…
-
Wisconsin Primary Postmortem
Both parties had primaries in Wisconsin yesterday to go along with a Democratic caucus in Hawaii and a Republican primary in Washington state. The front-runners, Barack Obama and John McCain, won handily. So far as I can tell, the various controversies that have so fascinated the blogosphere the last few days had little to no…
-
Bush Rules Out Quick Cuba Policy Change
Fidel Casto may have stepped down but the embargo aimed at his ouster is staying put. The Bush administration is ruling out any changes in its Cuba policy — including lifting a five-decade trade embargo — after Fidel Castro’s resignation, deriding his brother and heir apparent, Raul, as “dictator lite.” […] “They’re the ones who…
-
TPM Wins Journalism Prize
Whilst perusing Talking Points Memo earlier, I noted that Josh Marshall and company had won the George Polk award. Having never heard of said prize and casually presuming that it was in some sort of blog-specific category, I didn’t bother to click through. Will Bunch‘s post, “A landmark day for bloggers — and the future…
-
Military Strained Not Broken
A joint study of field grade officers by Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security finds that the toll of two wars has been a major strain on the American military but that it is not broken and morale remains high. These officers see a military apparatus severely strained by the grinding…
-
Working While Sick
Laura W. argues, in a manner reminiscent of a sailor, that people who are sick should stay home rather than contaminating the workplace with their disease. Joy McCann retorts that Laura must never has worked anywhere where she was actually necessary. Joy’s right that some jobs are so deadline-driven that skipping work is simply not…
-
Fool Me Once Shame On You, Fool Me 2,128 Times…
Over the last year or so the “Chinese brand” has been under quite a bit of stress. From pet food contaminated with melamine to toys painted with lead paint the visibility of products manufactured in China with serious defects has been increasing. Most recently we have reports of a Chinese chemical manufacturing plant, unlicensed by…
-
Indentured Service
I know this is a bit old, but one thing that struck me about Senator Obama’s victory speech in Wisconsin was this portion of the speech, It’s the dream of the teacher who works at Dunkin Donuts after school just to make ends meet. She needs better pay, and more support, and the freedom to…
-
Michelle Obama Finally Proud of USA
Michelle Obama spoke these words in Milwaukee yesterday: What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback and let me tell you something, For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done…
-
Fidel Castro Retires
Fidel Castro has finally resigned the presidency of Cuba. Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that he will not return to lead the country as president or commander-in-chief, retiring as head of state 49 years after he seized power in an armed revolution. Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public for almost…
-
Obama ‘Steals’ from King and Jefferson
Andy Towle (shared by Chris Abraham via Google Reader) thinks Barack Obama has a Joe Biden situation: Barack Obama has been lauded over the course of this campaign for his beautiful speeches. On Saturday, in Wisconsin, Obama made a speech with uncanny similarities to a speech given by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick when he was…
-
Russia Denounces Kosovo Independence Declaration, On Collision Course with West (Updated)
As expected, Russia is not pleased with Kosovo’s secession from Serbia. Russia denounced Kosovo’s independence declaration Sunday, warning that the move threatened to ignite a new conflict in the Balkans and calling on NATO and U.N. officials in the territory to nix the decision. Russia requested a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which held…
-
Kosovo Declares Independence From Serbia (Updated)
As has been anticipated for some time, Kosovo has declared its independence from Serbia.
-
Primaries Mirror Parties
There’s an entertaining column from John Broder in the New York Times this morning on how the methods for selecting nominating delegates differs between the Democrats and Republicans and how this reflects the parties themselves. The two parties’ nominating systems reflect the philosophical differences between them. Or, as a prominent Republican strategist, Mike Murphy, suggested,…
-
Watching Watching America (Updated)
Are you aware of Watching America? It’s a site that provides a wonderful service, publishing translations of articles on the U. S. from newspapers, magazines, and online sources all over the world. They are mostly articles about the U. S. written by foreign authors for a foreign audience and provide an interesting counterpoint to what…
-
Rotten Way to Pick a President
Sean Wilentz and Julian Zelizer argue that the current system of primaries and caucuses is “A Rotten Way to Pick a President.” Something is seriously wrong with the way we pick our presidential candidates. But experts and pundits, caught up in the horse races, have been slow to point out the obvious — or have…
-
Usury Laws, the Christian Right, and Bad Statistics
A study (or, rather, a report on said study) by two law professors on the relationship between the availability of high-interest payday loans and representation by Christian conservative legislators is generating some blogospheric commentary. The study’s abstract: The culture war has become a national moniker describing a variety of policy debates between social conservatives and…
-
12 Year Old Taliban Boy Beheads Man on Video
A few years back, the horrific videos of Islamic terrorists sawing off the heads of kidnapped hostages on video had the Internet abuzz. Eventually, though, the tactic lost its shock value and it seemed to backfire, causing disgust among the Muslim populations who had otherwise been sympathetic to the Islamist cause. Indeed, there were so…
-
25 Million Visits
OTB hit the 25 million unique visitor mark as measured by Sitemeter sometime shortly after midnight. I installed the counter on February 4, 2003 (five days into OTB’s run) so it took a little over five years to reach that total. Thanks as always to those who visit, link, and comment.
-
Porkbusters Oust Green Over Flake Flap
Porkbusters has ejected Rep. Bill Greene from its mailing list for passing over group favorite Rep. Jeff Flake for a seat on the Appropriations Committee in favor of Rep. Joe Bonner. Rob Bluey has details: Just when it appeared House Republicans had turned the corner on earmark reform, party leaders did the unthinkable. They picked…
-
Congressional Investigations of Sports Scandals
As if Congress didn’t have enough work to do in handing out tax rebates to people who don’t pay taxes, building bridges to nowhere, censoring the perverts within its ranks, and the like, our esteemed legislators have been devoting an inordinate amount of time lately investigating the internal operation of professional sports leagues. Henry Waxman,…
-
Privacy in the Information Age
Catherine Price took extraordinary steps to live anonymously for a week without becoming a hermit. It was, she found, impossible. The degree to which modern technological conveniences make it possible to track our every move is often talked about but probably nonetheless underestimated. But the idea of a golden age of privacy lost is almost…
-
Mending the Economy (Updated)
Well, the income tax rebate has been signed into law WASHINGTON — The stimulus law signed by President Bush on Wednesday provides what he called a “booster shot” to the economy, but the medicine might not be strong enough to ward off a recession. The $168 billion package of personal tax rebates and business tax…
-
Republican Diaz-Balart Disrupts Lantos Memorial
Silliness in Congress has morphed into ugliness, including a disruption of the memorial service for recently passed colleague Tom Lantos, NBC’s Mike Viqueira reports. Republicans are outraged. Democrats are putting forward a resolution holding White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress. House GOP rank-and-file…
-
Romney Endorses McCain
Mitt Romney is formally endorsing John McCain this afternoon, releasing his delegates to him. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., is planning on endorsing his former Republican rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. A source familiar with the decision said the endorsement will take place this afternoon at Romney for President headquarters in Boston at 3:30pmET. Romney…
-
Was There a Housing Bubble?
Alex Tabarrok has generated quite a buzz over his suggestion that the “housing bubble” might be a myth. He begins with this graph of housing prices from Robert Shiller published in the NYT: The clear implication of the chart is that normal prices are around an index value of 110, the value that reigned for…
-
Obama Personality Cult Redux
Sara Robinson has an interesting examination of the question of Barack Obama’s cult of personality. She begins by a look at the literature on actual cults and shows why the Obama campaign doesn’t qualify. While worthwhile from a technical standpoint, though, that’s not really what the debate is about. Perhaps “cult” is a poor word…
-
Clinton ‘Interested in Acquiring Delegates, Period’
Dave Schuler, Alex Knapp and I had a long discussion about a possible fight for delegates at the Democratic convention on last night’s edition of OTB Radio. Unless Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton suddenly break away — which is exceedingly unlikely given the way their party allocates delegates — the superdelegates and the fate of…
-
U.S. Senate Narrowly Bans Torture by CIA (Updated)
In a 51 – 45 vote, the U.S. Senate passed this year’s authorization for intelligence activities. One of the most important provisions of the law this year was Section 327, which states: SEC. 327. LIMITATION ON INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES. (a) Limitation- No individual in the custody or under the effective control of an element of the…
-
OTB Radio – Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Alex Knapp and Dave Schuler will join me to talk about the Potomac Primaries and what it means for the campaign, the Barack Obama flag flap, and whatever other topics our stream of consciousness flows into. Please…
-
Newspapers Reprint Danish Muslim Cartoon
The Danish Muslim cartoons that sparked worldwide rioting, mayhem, and murder two years ago are back. Newspapers across Europe Wednesday reprinted the controversial cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked worldwide protests two years ago. The move came one day after Danish authorities arrested three people allegedly plotting a “terror-related assassination” of Kurt Westergaard, the…