Blog: TAPPED

BUT WITHOUT DST IT’S ACTUALLY ONLY 12:02. Someone’s been smoking something over at the AP, and now treats us to this funky little story about a slightly jerry-rigged number set: Call it a coincidental sign of our digital times or a reason to stay up late and stare at the clock. Either way, early Wednesday […]

HOW A PRINCIPLE BECOMES INCONVENIENT. Interesting: Supporters of a guest worker program that would let illegal immigrants stay in the United States said Tuesday they don’t have enough Senate votes to overcome objections from conservatives who oppose the measure on grounds it amounts to amnesty. As negotiators worked on a compromise to let those who […]

TO MARS? Another possible casualty of Tom DeLay‘s fall: The Bush administration’s baroque moon-then-Mars space exploration program. The mission to Mars, of course, became a fast joke after George W. Bush first unveiled it weeks prior to the 2004 State of the Union address and then failed to mention it in the actual speech, but […]

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH CALABRIA? Strange to see that some things are the same, even in Italian politics: “It’s because they hate private property,” Mr. Berlusconi, 69, said, “because they see savings as something that should be taxed.” The prime minister also warned that the center-left alliance, which includes Communists, would reintroduce inheritance taxes, which […]

INCOMPETENCE ATOP INCOMPETENCE. Kate Steadman has a good catch today, finding that even when the Bush administration tries to fix Medicare Part D’s problems, they still misdiagnose the ailment and prescribe a useless cure. The occasion is the first official fix to one of Part D’s structural issues: the overabundance of “choice” in drug plans, […]

TRIANGULATION 2.0. Chris Smith aptly sums up the problem with Hillary: Millions of hardworking immigrants, thousands of small businesses, and the country�s economic prospects are going to be affected by the outcome of the nasty debate taking place in Congress. Which is what makes the substance of what Clinton has been saying, and the circumstances […]

ABRAMOFF AND SUDAN. And the hits just keep on coming. In the L.A. Times today, Tom Hamburger and Ken Silverstein reveal that Jack Abramoff approached the government of Sudan to offer his, er, services. While the rest of the world worried about al Qaeda, Abramoff took the ambassador of a country that once harbored bin […]

DELAY’S PALS. It’s worth reading through Mike Allen‘s extended interview with Tom DeLay. The Hammer’s explicit plea, “I’m not whining,” is especially amusing, coming as it does amidst thousands of words worth of burning resentments, bathetic self-pity, and paranoia. This passage, describing the process that led to his decision, caught my eye: I made a […]

AND KEEP ALL HANDS IN THE HUMVEE. Fred Kaplan on the Democrats’ clich�-filled, but nevertheless sound, “Real Security” strategy: The list may seem obvious, like those “Do not use in water” tags that come with electrical appliances�except that Bush & Co. have been spinning fan blades in bathtubs around the world the past four years. […]

THE LIBERTARIAN WEST. I see I’ve earned a mention in this David Sirota blog item/blast e-mail and want to respond because he actually makes a very good point about the politics of the Patriot Act. When I said that Chuck Schumer “knows what he’s doing,” I meant that listening to his “marginals” and following their […]