So, South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford had an affair.  With a woman in Argentina.  An affair that was apparently so all-consuming he felt the need to visit said Argentine in person, leaving his state government in a bit of limbo.  He felt the need to come clean about the affair aft… Read full post »

Dr. George Tiller, the well-known Kansas doctor, was shot to death today at his church in Wichita.  Tiller has been a fixture in Kansas my whole life.  I was in grade school during the Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy," 1991, when Randall Terry led daily protests and blockades out…

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I was wrong.

And no, not just about being able to play just one... more... game of Tower Defense.  No, I've been wrong a lot recently, and I feel that I need to confess.  So here it is, a List of Those to Whom I Owe an Apology… Read full post »

I am getting tired of the resentment I hear in so many voices when discussing the president's housing plan.  I'm tired of guys like Rick Santelli on CNBC getting outraged and claiming that they don't want their tax money going to shore up their neighbors' bad choices.  First, once you pay… Read full post »

One of the greatest obituaries I have ever read -- and I have read a surprising number for someone my age -- is still Hunter S. Thompson's obituary for Richard Nixon.  Titled "He Was a Crook," it begins:

The coverage of the President's budget announcement today is surprising for the amount of surprise it seems to contain. The Post's David Broder is leading this Charge of the Shocked Brigade:

The size of the gambles that President Obama is taking every day is simply staggering. What came… Read full post »

I haven't been getting enough salt in my diet or something, because throughout the banking crisis, the state secrets crisis, the Michelle Obama weird-looking cardigan crisis -- I've been perplexed, sometimes a bit despairing, but not often outraged.  My blood-pressure has remained pretty steady.… Read full post »

I'm about to say words that may surprise you:

I feel bad for Bobby Jindal.

Well, I'm not sure I feel bad for the man himself.  But I certainly feel for the position he was in tonight.  The entire idea of an immediate opposition response to… Read full post »

When did being entertaining become an insult?

Michael Steele was forced last week to apologize for calling Rush Limbaugh an entertainer, after Steele made that comment on an entertainment-news program.  Keith Olbermann, who regularly features Limbaugh as one of his "worst persons in the world… Read full post »

Hey hey!  Turns out one in ten Americans might be unemployed this year -- and I am one of those, uh, ones.  Let me bring the numbers first, then wander into the personal.

The minutes of last month's Federal Reserve meeting have been released, and there's a wee bit of unsurprising news… Read full post »

GMGaston has a post up for comments on the Press Conference, and I urge you (in the spirit of blog friendliness) to wander over and join the conversation of the performance in general there. 

I don't want to talk so much about President Obama -- I want to talk about… Read full post »

Until today, I saw two options for the Obama administration on the issue of prosecution of the past administration for torturing suspects in U.S. custody.  Option one: they continued with their "we're looking forward, not backward" line and worked swiftly to put into place safeguards to keep thi… Read full post »

Joe Biden, my favorite current vice-president, spoke¹ this weekend at a security conference in Munich.  Coverage of the event has mostly focused on Biden's assertion that the U.S. will continue to seek a strategic missile defense initiative, but will also work with Russia.  That summary mak… Read full post »

I got good advice from fellow OS'er Kent Pitman, when in late January I set a goal of daily (instead of twice weekly) blogging: throw in some posts about process, he said, and that seems like a worthwhile pursuit for today.  I won't write a "How To Blog" post, because a).… Read full post »

I love Jon Stewart as much as the next cable-news junkie blog-a-holic.  I re-watch and even embed clips of his show regularly; I'm prone to sending out links to his opening segment; and when I'm next in New York, I really hope to attend a taping.  I am, in other words,… Read full post »

I've been trying to come up with something cogent to say about the House's single-party passage of the stimulus bill.  I started with a list of valid reasons (I thought of three) that a member of congress might use to vote against a bill that's already going to pass, but that… Read full post »

I've been reading some terribly dorky stuff as of late, and among these readings I've stumbled back into the Federalist Papers¹.  This is in no order, mind you, but as topics interest me.  Right now, for some crazy reason, I'm pretty interested in finding out more about the presidency. … Read full post »

Welcome to the Government for Grown-Ups Kickoff!  I hope you weren't expecting guacamole.

To start any discussion of our government, we must first define our basic terms.  The first term that seems to cause significant snags is democracy.  I feel I hear this word used and abused all… Read full post »

Paul Krugman used a small quote from President Eisenhower today, and I found it worth looking up the whole bit.  In a letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower on November 8, 1954, Eisenhower wrote:

OK, everyone.  I'm going to collect my thoughts and come up with something more, ah, cogent to say, less piecemeal.  I have enjoyed greatly the company, the comments, most of the controversy, and I'll be checking in as the night goes on, too.

Hooray!  You know, I'm feeling happier afte… Read full post »

The big news is this fake campaign suspension.  I say fake because, well, McCain hasn't stopped meeting with campaign supporters and his ads are still running and none of his offices seem to be sending people home (at least I assume that's true, if the talking points about the suspension are… Read full post »

I've left the detainee abuse photo scandal alone this week, because my basic rule of blogging has been if you don't have anything new to say, don't say anything at all.  I've now reached a limit, though, of how many posts I can read that are taking this presidential decision as… Read full post »

I have an uncle Joe. He's a nurse, and he's good at what he does, and he votes in a swing state, and though he once made about the best joke I've ever heard about John Ashcroft I have no idea how he's voting this year.

I have a niece… Read full post »

Big Cheney news this weekend [NYT]:

 

I napped through the announcement of Judd Gregg's withdrawal today.  I think, even had I know it was coming, I might have napped, because a). it now seems so predictable to hear that a Republican has put party before promises, and b). I think I… Read full post »