Month: May 2012
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House Republicans Back Indefinite Detention On U.S. Soil
House Republicans yesterday rejected an effort to limit the authority of the President, military, and law enforcement to indefinitely detain terror suspects captured on United States soil: In two votes Friday morning, the House backed the president’s powers to indefinitely detain terror suspects captured on U.S. soil. Lawmakers rejected an amendment that would have barred…
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Democratic Senators Unleash Tax Vendetta Against Eduardo Saverin
Eduardo Saverin has become a political whipping boy.
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Mitt Romney: “I Stand By What I Said, Whatever It Was
During yesterday’s controversy over the Fred Davis proposal to bring Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Mitt Romney was asked about comments that he himself had made about Wright on Sean Hannity’s show back in February: “Without question, the legal code in this country is based upon Judeo-Christian values and teachings, Biblical teachings, and for the president not…
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The Unsurprising Death Of Americans Elect
Americans Elect is dead. This should surprise nobody.
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Eduardo Saverin Denies Tax Dodger Charge
Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin denies that his motivation for renouncing his US citizenship was tax avoidance.
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How the Internet Has Evolved Since Facebook Launched
With Facebook’s huge IPO in the news, Megan Garber takes a look at how much the Internet has evolved since Thefacebook came on the scene.
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Let’s Get The Federal Goverment Out Of The Political Convention Business
Your tax dollars should not be paying for this.
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All You Can Eat: Right There in the Constitution
A man is picketing a Wisconsin restaurant for failure to live up to its “All You Can Eat” sign. The two sides offer wildly different accountings of the facts here. If, in fact, Whitt was sharing his food with a buddy, then he’s clearly violated the terms of the arrangement. If, on the other hand,…
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SuperPAC Funder Ricketts Repudiates Rev. Wright Ad Idea
Politico reports that Joe Ricketts has released the following statement: Joe Ricketts is a registered independent, a fiscal conservative, and an outspoken critic of the Obama Administration, but he is neither the author nor the funder of the so-called “Ricketts Plan” to defeat Mr. Obama that The New York Times wrote about this morning. Not…
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Donna Summer Dead At 63
One of the biggest stars of the Disco era, if not the biggest of them all, died today at the age of 63: Donna Summer died Thursday morning after a battle with lung cancer. Lovingly named the “Queen of Disco,” the 63-year-old was in Florida at the time of her death, according to TMZ. Born…
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Whites Now Minority of American Births: So What?
White babies now constitute slightly less than half of American births.
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Romney Campaign Repudiates SuperPAC Plan to Revive Rev. Wright Story
The Romney campaign is, not surprisingly, distancing itself from the purported SuperPAC plan to revive the Rev. Wright story in a series of ads: Mitt Romney’s campaign says it wants no part of a plan by Republican strategists to attack President Obama by highlighting his ties to pastor Jeremiah Wright. “It’s clear President Obama’s team…
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We Won’t Have Dennis Kucinich To Kick Around Anymore
After he lost the primary to hold on to his re-districted Ohio Congressional seat to fellow Democrat Marcy Kaptur, there was some speculation that Dennis Kucinich would move to Washington State and run for office there. As it turns out, we’ve seen the Last Hurrah of Dennis Kucinich: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) will not seek…
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More on Government and “the Marriage Business”
Thoughts on tradition, church, and state.
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Super PAC May Resurrect Reverend Wright In New Ad Campaign
A pro-Republican SuperPAC may be bringing the Jeremiah Wright story back. That would be bad news for the Romney campaign.
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Jake Tapper May Have Saved Jimmy Kimmel’s Career
Before last month’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner Jimmy Kimmel apparently ran a few of his jokes by regular attendees, one of them smartly advised him to skip a joke that likely would have caused some serious embarrassment: Jimmy Kimmel delivered a barrage of edgy jokes at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (WHCD) late last…
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Study: Coffee Drinkers Live Longer
A National Institutes of Health study appears to show that people who drink coffee live longer than people who don’t: Your morning cup of coffee may start to taste even better after a major government study found that frequent coffee drinkers have a lower risk of dying from a variety of diseases, compared with people…
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Larry Bird Is Awesome
Larry Bird has been named NBA Executive of the Year. Is there any basketball-related honor he hasn’t won?
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Scott Walker Leads In Wisconsin Recall Poll
A new poll of the Wisconsin recall race shows Scott Walker and his Lt. Governor leading their Democratic opponents: A new Marquette Law School Poll shows that with three weeks to go until the recall election Governor Scott Walker has taken a six-percentage point lead over Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, 50-44 percent, among likely voters.…
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Braves, Barves, And Intellectual Property Law
An object lesson in the problems with our intellectual property laws
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James Lipton’s Advice for Mitt Romney
“Inside the Actors Studio” host James Lipton tells Mitt Romney to stop trying so hard to act like a regular guy. New York Magazine (“How to Act Human: Advice for Mitt Romney From Inside the Actors Studio“) A few months ago, Brian McFadden’s weekly comic strip in the Sunday Timesoffered ways for Mitt Romney to improve his image.…
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Common Cause Files Ridiculous Lawsuit Against The Filibuster
Common Cause has filed a specious lawsuit alleging that the filibuster is unconstitutional.
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Final Volume Of William Manchester’s Churchill Biography Coming In November
It’s been nearly twenty years now since I read The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874-1932 and The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Alone, 1932-1940, the first two volumes of what was supposed to have been historian William Manchester’s planned three-volume biography of England’s iconic war time Prime Minister. They remain among…
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George Zimmerman Medical Records Reveal Broken Nose, Lacerations
James Joyner has made note of the fact that the records of the autopsy of Trayvon Martin have been made public, so it seems relevant to note the other story in the news today, which is the release of the medical records of George Zimmerman: A medical report compiled by the family physician of Trayvon…
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Even if Christie is VP, Obama Wins New Jersey
A new poll finds that adding Chris Christie to the ticket would fail to deliver New Jersey to the Republicans.
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Deb Fischer Scores Upset Win in Nebraska GOP Senate Primary
There are still surprises in politics, and we saw one of them last night when Nebraska State Senator Deb Fischer came seemingly out of nowhere to win the Republican Party nomination for Senate despite the fact that the entire race had been a fight between two of her competitors: State Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska…
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Trayvon Martin Autopsy Shows Injuries to Knuckles
Trayvon Martin’s autopsy shows injuries to his knuckles, which bolsters George Zimmerman’s claim that there was a fight, a Florida television station reports.
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Get Ready For Another Debt Ceiling Showdown
The battle lines are being drawn for another showdown over the debt ceiling.
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Chris Christie And Cory Booker Star In The Best Political Comedy Video Ever
This video was created for the annual New Jersey Press Association Legislative Correspondents Club Show: The fact that Christie and Booker could possibly end up facing off together in an election in 2013 makes it amusing. The probability that national conservatives will call Christie a RINO for daring to make a joint appearance with a…
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There Is No Such Thing As “Traditional Marriage”
Marriage has always been an evolving institution.
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Romney: Unclear on the Concept of Separation of Powers
“By the way, when I get rid of Obamacare and I get rid of Dodd-Frank and I get rid of Sarbanes-Oxley, it doesn’t mean I don’t want to have any law or any regulation. It means I want to make sure it’s modern, it’s updated, it goes after the bad guys, but it also encourages…
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Henry Kissinger Gets TSA Pat-Down
It’s another round of security theater: Seems no one is immune from the tender mercies of the TSA pat-down. First, we learned that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was subjected to a handsy search. And now we learn of the latest high-profile search-ee: former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.…
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Thomas Friedman Is An Enormous Mustache
Thomas Friedman is like a goldfish who only sees China, jobs, and the Internet.
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Cell Phones Not Used As Phones So Much Anymore
Given the number of things one can do with a smartphone, this is perhaps not suprising: In 2009, the United States crossed a digital Rubicon: For the first time, the amount of data sent with mobile devices exceeded the sum of transmitted voice data. The shift was heralded in tech circles with prophetic fury: “The…
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Los Tocayos Carlos: Texas Killed The Wrong Carlos
A man named Carlos killed a woman named Wanda Lopez. Texas executed a different man named Carlos for the crime.
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Hollande Backtracks on Afghanistan Pullout Pledge
In office less than a day, Francois Hollande has already been forced to admit he can’t withdraw French forces from Afghanistan by the end of the year.
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Virginia Republicans Block Confirmation Of Openly Gay Judge
Ordinarily, a story about the confirmation of a trial court judge in Virginia wouldn’t get my attention unless it was happening in one of the jurisdictions I usually practice in, but yesterday’s developments in the Virginia House of Delegates are yet another example of what’s wrong with the Republican Party: Virginia’s General Assembly rejected a…
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History As Propaganda
Commentary’s Seth Mandel finds that the White House has done some odd things to the Presidential history entries on the White House web site: The Heritage Foundation’s Rory Cooper tweeted that Obama had casually dropped his own name into Ronald Reagan’s official biography on www.whitehouse.gov, claiming credit for taking up the mantle of Reagan’s tax…
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Ron Paul Concedes He Cannot Win, Asks Supporters To Be Respectful
Following up on the statement his campaign released yesterday that was ending an future campaigning, Ron Paul conceded today that he isn’t going to be the nominee, and appears to be asking his supporters to cease some of the disruptions they’ve been causing at state party conventions: Texas Rep. Ron Paul (R) has conceded that…
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Greece To Hold New Elections
Not surprisingly, the final efforts to form a workable coalition government in Greece have failed: ATHENS—Greece is heading to new elections after political party leaders failed to reach an agreement to form a coalition government following an inconclusive election May 6 that left the cash-strapped country deeply divided and put its fate in the euro…
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Cell Phones Banned From Obama Fundraisers
Buzzfeed’s Zeke Miller reports that many of President Obama’s recent big dollar fundraisers have included a requirement that attendees surrender their cell phones: In the latest attempt to crack down on potentially embarrassing digital leaks from presidential fundraisers, President Barack Obama’s campaign has begun asking donors attending small fundraisers with the president to turn over…
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Americans Elect Turns Out To Be A Failure
Not without surprise, Americans Elect has failed to select a nominee and looks destined to become little more than a footnote in the history books: Americans Elect, the deep-pocketed nonprofit group that set out to nominate a centrist third-party presidential ticket, admitted early Tuesday that its ballyhooed online nominating process had failed. The group had…
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The Beginning Of The End Of The Euro?
With the political situation in Greece becoming more unstable by the day and the Franco-German alliance on monetary issues likely at an end, it’s beginning to be hard to see how the Euro survives: Is there any hope for the euro dream? One potential way forward would be to create a European- level fiscal union…
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Ron Paul Basically Admits That It’s Over
Ron Paul announced today that he would not be engaging in any further campaigning in states where primaries are still going to be held: Texas Rep. Ron Paul said on Monday he will no longer be actively campaigning in the GOP presidential primaries but won’t formally suspend his campaign. Instead, the libertarian candidate’s organization will…
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Twitter Wars And The 2012 Election
Will Twitter impact the 2012 elections? The evidence seems thin that it will.
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Get Rid Of Recall Elections
Recall elections in a hyper-partisan atmosphere are not a good thing.
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Jacob, Sophia Most Popular Baby Names In 2011
The Social Security Administration is out with it’s list of the most popular baby names in 2011 and, once again, the list is full of names that would have been considered non-traditional just a couple decades ago: It’s official — we’re all keeping up with the Kardashians now. Even when it comes to baby names.…
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GOP Pollster Tells GOP It Must Change Its Position On Same-Sex Marriage
Some Republicans see the light on same-sex marriage. Whether the party will listen is another question.