Month: September 2012
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Turmoil On Team Romney
The Romney campaign infighting is becoming public.
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Majority Of Americans Oppose Attacking Iran
According to a new survey conducted for the Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey of public opinion on foreign policy (PDF), Americans oppose an attack on Iran: While nearly two-thirds of Americans see Iran as a threat (down a bit from two years ago), slightly more still want their government to talk to the Iranians. What…
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GOP Lawmakers Unhappy With Course Of Romney Campaign
Republican lawmakers are starting to express frustration with the course of the Romney campaign.
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Christine O’Donnell Says She Might Run For Senate Again
It looks like we might have Christine O’Donnell to kick around a little more: MILLSBORO — Tea party faithful in the First State didn’t have a lot to celebrate on primary election night, with a victory for one favored candidate, but loss after loss in other primary contests for state House and Senate seats. But at…
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Anti-Japanese Protests Continue In China
While China and Japan their rather open dispute about conflicting claims to a few islands in the East China Sea, China is witnessing its second day of supposedly spontaneous protests against the Japanese claims to the islands: BEIJING — Anti-Japan demonstrators took to the streets again Sunday in cities across China, with the government offering mixed signals…
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NATO Airstrikes Kill Eight Afghan Civilians
Well, this will certainly help with that whole “win their hearts and minds” thing: At least eight women have died in a Nato air strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Laghman, local officials say. Nato has conceded that between five and eight civilians died as it targeted insurgents, and offered condolences. The remote region in…
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Basketball With Obama
Michael Lewis has a long feature in Vanity Fair titled “Obama’s Way,” based on six months with the president.
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Six Coalition Troops Dead In Another Round Of “Green On Blue” Attacks
Another round of attacks by Afghans has lead to six dead NATO troops in Afghanistan: KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan security forces killed six service members from the American-led military coalition in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan this weekend, pushing the number of international troops killed by Afghan forces in a single year past…
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The Sorry State of Science Writing
Seth Mnookin laments a series of embarrassing failures in science writing in recent months but rejoices in the rich dialog that followed.
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Glenn Reynolds Calls for Obama to Resign
Apparently, questioning someone who may have violated their probation on the way to contributing to a series of international incidences is a major civil liberties violation.
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Obama Administration Abandons Freedom Of Speech In Wake Of Embassy Riots
Capitulating to a mob is never a good idea.
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Filmmaker Behind “Innocence Of Muslims” Questioned By Federal Officers
The man behind the film that has set off sometimes violent protests across the Muslim world was questioned for several hours yesterday by Federal law enforcement officials, but apparently not for the reason you might think: LOS ANGELES — A Southern California filmmaker linked to an anti-Islamic movie inflaming protests across the Middle East was…
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Jewish Voters Still Overwhelmingly Support Obama
For much of the past year, there has been a group of people on the right who have tried to maintain the idea that the Republican Party had a chance to cut into the President’s strong support among Jewish-Americans due to the President’s supposedly bad treatment of Israeli interests. Given the fact that the Jewish…
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Rick Santorum: “The Smart People Will Never Be On Our Side”
In Rick Santorum’s brand of conservatism, no smart people need apply.
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Wisconsin Judge Strikes Down Collective Bargaining Law
The battle over Wisconsin’s public sector union reform continues.
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Two Marines Die In Attack On Afghan Base, Prince Harry The Target?
An attack on a joint U.S.-British base in Afghanistan resulted in the death of two U.S. Marines and caused damage to several aircraft was, according to the BBC, aimed at one very specific target: Prince Harry was at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan during an assault by the Taliban which killed two US marines. American officials…
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Obligatory “Jennifer Granholm On The Dating Game In 1978” Post
Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was once a contestant on the 1970s dating show The Dating Game: The buzz surrounding former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm about her enthusiastic speech to the Democratic National Convention may shift this week as a long-lost copy of her 1978 appearance on “The Dating Game” surfaced on YouTube. “Let’s give a…
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Protests At Western Embassies Spread Across Muslim World
For the fourth day, American and other embassies became the focus of mass protests in many Muslim nations.
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Speaking of Carterizing…
As if to help bolster my post from earlier today, I just received an e-mail: ForAmerica (www.ForAmerica.org) and our over 3 million members would like to invite you to check out our newest video “Carter 2.0“. With a Facebook talk about number of over 1.7 million people, this video is sure to be the next…
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An Update On U.S.-Egyptian Relations In Wake Of The Embassy Protests
After several days in which they seemed to be disturbingly quiescent in response to the attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, the Egyptian Government finally seems to be getting in line: CAIRO — Following a blunt phone call from President Obama, Egyptian leaders scrambled Thursday to try to repair the country’s alliance with Washington, tacitly acknowledging that…
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Libya Arrests Four Suspects In Consulate Attack
The Libyan Government says it has arrested four people believed to be connected to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi: TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libyan authorities have made four arrests in the investigation into the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi in which the U.S. ambassador and three embassy staff were killed, the…
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How to Guarantee that More People will See Photos you Don’t Want People to See
Via the BBC: Topless Kate pictures: Duke and duchess sue French magazine Closer The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have launched legal action against the French magazine Closer over its publication of topless pictures of the duchess, Clarence House has said. The celebrity gossip magazine printed pictures of the duchess taken during the couple’s private…
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Bomb Threat At North Dakota State University, “Unspecified Threat” At Valparaiso University
In addition to the evacuation at the University of Texas, the campus of North Dakota State University in Fargo has also been evacuated: FARGO, N.D. (AP) — Thousands of students and workers streamed out of North Dakota State University buildings Friday after officials said they had received a bomb threat and needed the campus clear within a…
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Romney Campaign: Embassy Protests Wouldn’t Be Happening If Mitt Was President
The Romney campaign is doubling down on bizarre foreign policy pronouncements.
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Bomb Threat at the University of Texas
Via the Daily Texan: Bomb threat evacuation continues, UT officials have found no weapons so far UT sent out an emergency alert at 9:50 this morning urging all students, faculty and staff to "get as far away from campus as possible." According to a statement, "At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a…
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Romney’s Response to the Embassy Attacks and the Media
I know I am a day or so late on this observation, but it remains on my mind as I keep seeing commentators, and especially friends and friends of friend on Facebook commenting upon it. To wit: the assertion that the media paid too much attention to Romney in the wake of the embassy attacks…
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Attempts to “Carterize” the Race
Romney supporters seem to want to paint Obama as Carter. This is unlikely to help.
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Rush Limbaugh: Maybe Al Qaeda Gave Up Osama To Help Obama Win Re-Election
Rush Limbaugh is suggesting that Al Qaeda may have let the U.S. take down Osama bin Laden to help the President get re-elected: Rush Limbaugh today finally offered a Unified Theory of Obama’s Radical Muslim Sympathies, with a clever workaround for the bin Laden thing: Al-Qaida intentionally “gave up Osama Bin Laden” in order to “mak[e] Obama look good.”…
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Chart Of The Day: Death Of Newspapers Edition
Mark Perry uses this chart to illustrate something quite astounding about the newspaper business: Perry comments: The blue line in the chart above displays total annual print newspaper advertising revenue(for the categories national, retail and classified) based on actual annual data from 1950 to 2011, and estimated annual revenue for 2012 using quarterly data through the second quarter of this year,…
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Kansas Goes Birther, May Keep Obama Off The Ballot
Barack Obama has about as much chance of winning Kansas as Mitt Romney has of winning the District of Columbia, but it would appear that some officials in Kansas think he doesn’t even belong on the ballot at all: Three of the state’s top elected Republicans on Thursday determined they lacked sufficient evidence of President…
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Debunking A Myth: Reagan Was Leading Carter Long Before That Final October Debate
Ronald Reagan was leading Jimmy Carter long before the two men met in Cleveland on October 28th, 1980.
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Obama Leads In Three Crucial Swing States
Three new state polls show that Mitt Romney’s path to victory continues to narrow.
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Putin Admits Many Of His Wildlife Stunts Are Staged
Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that the photo ops we’ve seen of his wildlife adventures over the years are staged for the press: (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that some of his most famous media adventures with wildlife have been carefully staged but has said they were worthwhile because they drew…
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Trailer For Steven Spielberg’s `Lincoln’ Released
In a little over two months, the much-anticipated Steven Spielberg biopic on the life of Abraham Lincoln, called, approrpriately enough, Lincoln, will be released. Here’s the first trailer: You can’t always judge a movie by its trailer, but I’ve got a good feeling about this one. Spielberg has always excelled when taking on serious history…
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Federal Reserve Announces Another Round Of
StimulusCreating Money Out Of Thin AirBen Bernanke thinks doing more of the same is just what the economy needs.
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‘Most Interesting Man in the World’ Endorses Obama
The Dos Equis guy is fundraising for Obama.
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Are “Hearts and Minds” Campaigns Obsolete?
I have a question I’d like to put on the floor. Doesn’t a “hearts and minds campaign” require some level of control over the message? In the modern day when just about any bozo with an Internet connection can put just about anything that he or she cares to up for all the world to…
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Obama Walks Back Egypt ‘Not Ally’ Answer
President Obama gave an honest, nuanced answer to a complex question. So, of course, he’s taking it back.
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University Of Pennsylvania Professor: Arrest The Makers Of That Anti-Muslim Movie
One Professor suggests we sacrifice yet more of our freedom in the wake of the embassy protests in the Middle East.
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Dutch Elections: Loss for Anti-Europe, Anti-Islam Wilders’ Freedom Party, Win for Pro-Europe Faction
Via the BBC: Dutch election: Pro-Europe VVD and Labour parties win Voters in the Netherlands have backed two pro-European centrist parties, while the anti-immigrant Geert Wilders’ Eurosceptic party took heavy losses. Prime Minister Mark Rutte claimed victory for his liberal VVD party. Centre-left Labour came a close second. Both parties performed better than predicted, seeking…
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Gulf Cartel Capo Arrested in Mexico
Via the BBC: Mexico ‘Gulf cartel boss’ Jorge Eduardo Costilla caught Mexican officials say marines have captured a man believed to be one of the country’s most wanted drug lords, Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez. Mr Costilla, a suspected Gulf cartel leader, was detained in the northern state of Tamaulipas, they said. His capture follows the…
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Curiosity about Ready to Roll
Via the BBC: Curiosity Mars rover to ‘drive, drive, drive’ The Mars Curiosity rover has all but completed its commissioning phase and is ready to begin its detailed investigation of the Red Planet. The six-wheeled vehicle touched down in Gale Crater on 6 August (GMT). Since then, daily activities have been dominated by system checkouts…
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Benghazi Consulate Lacks Marine Protection
According to a report the Benghazi Consulate where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others were killed on Tuesday was an “interim” facility that did not have the same permanent Marine protection that permanent embassies receive: The consulate where the American ambassador to Libya was killed on Tuesday is an “interim facility” not protected by the…
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Embassy Protests Spread To Yemen
A third American Embassy in the Middle East has become the focus of violent protests: SANA, Yemen — Turmoil in the Arab world linked to a contentious video denigrating the Prophet Muhammad spread on Thursday to Yemen, where hundreds of protesters stormed the United States Embassy, two days after assailants killed the American ambassador in…
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Counterintuitive Study Of The Day
According to a new study, men prefer smart women to pretty women: NEXT time a man throws you an admiring glance, he’s probably just heard the intelligent things you’ve been saying. Many women will find it hard to believe, but new research suggests men increasingly value intellect and character in a partner over a shapely figure.…