Archive for August, 2006

Tom Delay to Step Aside for Write In Candidate

By Dyre42 | Related entries in Elections, General Politics, In The News

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intends to withdraw as a candidate for Congress

August 8th, 2006 | Permalink| 11 Comments »

Gunning for PBS

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in General Politics, Money, Partisan Hacks

The GOP is hoping to make PBS and NPR DOA as far as federal funding goes in FY2007. House Republicans yesterday revived their efforts to slash funding for public broadcasting, as a key committee approved a $115 million reduction in the budget for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting that could force the elimination of some [...]

August 8th, 2006 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Elliot Spitzer, The Next Governor of New York

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections

Polls often lie, but not these polls. From Political Wire: Says pollster Steven Greenberg: “Eliot Spitzer continues to expand his lead over John Faso to historic proportions. Spitzer has an 11 point lead over Faso among Republicans and is close to having the support of half of GOP voters. Faso’s support has fallen to 17 [...]

August 8th, 2006 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Maddox On 9/11 Conspiracies

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Smart Things Said By Smart People

If you’ve never visited “The Best Page In The Universe,” what can I say…you’re missing out on so much. As always, the author Maddox tears apart 9/11 conspiracy films like Loose Change with the greatest of ease. One note, his site isn’t safe for work, but really…who cares.

August 7th, 2006 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

Hillary Clinton: The Bane of New Hampshire?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Elections, Polls

Here are some of the words Democrats in N.H. are using to describe the former first lady: Criminal, megalomaniac, fraud, dangerous, devil incarnate, satanic, power freak, lying bitch, shrew, Machiavellian, evil, power-mad witch and, last but not least…the ultimate self-serving politician. Jeezus. I knew there was a lot of ill will towards Hillary, but this [...]

August 7th, 2006 | Permalink| 6 Comments »

Reuters Photographer Adnan Hajj Given the Heave-Ho

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Media, The World

Good call by Reuters to pull all of his pics. And as I suspected, he was given access to upload photos directly to the world without editorial oversight. That’s a mistake Reuters won’t be making again any time soon. From…well…Reuters: The two altered photographs were among 43 that Hajj filed directly to the Reuters Global [...]

August 7th, 2006 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Holy Photoshop Batman!

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism

Umm…yeah… I’m not expert at Photoshop, but this is a pretty blatant attempt to make this smoke from Lebanon seem like much more. Three times more in fact. Of course, the right wing blogosphere will indict the entire Reuters organization for this mess-up and will spend days dissecting this photo. Truth is, you’d need a [...]

August 6th, 2006 | Permalink| 16 Comments »

Progress In Hezbollah/Lebanon/Israel Conflict?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism, War

The U.S. and France have apparently agreed on a resolution that could end the fighting. And I certainly stress “could.” From Bloomberg: The U.S. and France agreed on a proposed United Nations Security Council resolution designed to end the fighting between Israel and the militant Islamic group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon and Qatar voiced reservations. [...]

August 5th, 2006 | Permalink| 5 Comments »

Forcing The Issue In Iraq May Have Made Things Worse

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, War

I think there are a couple things that are pretty obvious about the aftermath of the Iraq war. One being we didn’t have nearly enough troops to secure the peace. That’s obvious. Another being the fact that Iraqis aren’t ready to handle their own security. And we’ve been rushing it. And it’s now backfiring…big time. [...]

August 5th, 2006 | Permalink| 20 Comments »

9/11 Conspiracies In The News

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Polls, The War On Terrorism

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports some very disheartening news: More than a third of the American public suspects that federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East, according to a new Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll. And lest [...]

August 4th, 2006 | Permalink| 30 Comments »

Israel and Hezbollah

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in Foreign Policy, Israel, The World, United Nations

I’ve avoided writing about the Israel-Hezbollah conflict for weeks, because when I finally did tackle it I wanted to do it right. I didn’t want to simply assess blame — as with anything in the Middle East, there’s plenty to go around. I didn’t want simply to take sides — our interests are not fully [...]

August 3rd, 2006 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

The Hatfield’s & McCoys: Lieberman v. Lamont

By Daniel DiRito | Related entries in Bad Decisions, General Politics, Satire

I think it’s time for a little perspective and a reality check. Perhaps the most important midterm election in modern history is little more than three months away and as I watch the Lieberman vs. Lamont race, I have to shake my head at the energy being invested by Democrats to defeat another Democrat. With [...]

August 3rd, 2006 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Iraq Civil War More Likely?

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, War

It seems like it’s inevitable. From the BBC: Civil war is a more likely outcome in Iraq than democracy, Britain’s outgoing ambassador in Baghdad has warned Tony Blair in a confidential memo. William Patey, who left the Iraqi capital last week, also predicted the break-up of Iraq along ethnic lines. He did also say that [...]

August 3rd, 2006 | Permalink| 4 Comments »

NORAD on 9/11

By Sean Aqui | Related entries in History, Military, News, The War On Terrorism

If you can stand to relive that day one more time, Vanity Fair has a riveting read. It’s a reconstruction, built from recordings and interviews, of what went on at NORAD on 9/11. Simply amazing stuff.

August 2nd, 2006 | Permalink| No Comments »

Evolution Wins In Kansas

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Education, Religion, Science

A followup to my post yesterday, the creationists/intelligent designers/what-have-yous were largely voted out in favor of moderate candidates who’ll keep religion out of science classes. From USA Today: TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) â€â€? Conservative Republicans who brought international attention to Kansas by approving academic standards calling evolution into question lost control of the state school board [...]

August 2nd, 2006 | Permalink| 16 Comments »

On “Christian Zionism”

By Dennis Sanders | Related entries in Israel, Religion, The War On Terrorism, War

With the recent crisis going on in the Middle East, it might be important to talk about some Christians who are involved in the issues facing the region and how their views might be a detriment to finding a peaceful and just solution. This post is about a movement called “Christian Zionism.” What is Christian [...]

August 1st, 2006 | Permalink| 14 Comments »

A New Meeting Place for GOP Centrists

By Dennis Sanders | Related entries in General Politics, Good Decisions

There is a new site out there ala Red State for Centrist and “Goldwater Republicans.” It’s called GOP Progress and it launched today. The editor, Liz Mair, says this is a gathering place for mainstream Republicans: WWW.GOPPROGRESS.COM is an interactive blog site created to give moderate and small “lâ€Â? libertarian Republicans a forum for expressing [...]

August 1st, 2006 | Permalink| 1 Comment »

Science Fights Back In Kansas Evolution Debate

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Education, Religion, Science

Today’s the day in Kansas when voters go to the polls and vote on the State Board of Education members. Will they vote the creationists out? Well, the NY Times wrote today about how a bi-partisan group of evolutionists are mounting an offensive to the inclusion of creationism: Less than a year after a conservative [...]

August 1st, 2006 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

A Tale of Two Candidates …

By Denise Best | Related entries in Elections, In The News

Polls are showing Lieberman struggling to win his state’s upcoming primary. Two primaries next week will tell a lot about the strength of the hard-left wing of the Democratic party. In Connecticut, moderate Sen. Joe Lieberman faces a challenger whose single issue is opposition to the Iraq war. In Georgia, ultraliberal Rep. Cynthia McKinney faces [...]

August 1st, 2006 | Permalink| 7 Comments »