FACT CHECK: Palin Goes Rogue on Some Details

Nov 13, 2009 - WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sarah Palin's new book reprises familiar claims from the 2008 presidential campaign that haven't become any truer over time. Ignoring substantial parts of her record if not the facts, she depicts herself as a frugal traveler on the taxpayer's dime, a reformer without ties to powerful interests and a politician roguishly indifferent to high ambition. Palin goes adrift, at times, on more contemporary issues, too. - 5 Comments

Health reformers prepare for Senate hurdle (Financial Times of London)

Nov 09, 2009 - Health reformers prepare for Senate hurdle By Edward Luce in Washington Published: November 8 2009 20:19 | Last updated: November 8 2009 20:19 The first thing Barack Obama did late on Saturday night following the passage of the healthcare bill in the House of Representatives was to phone the heads of three industry lobby groups to thank them for their support. Not included on the list was the largest insurance lobby group, American Health Insurance Plans, which doggedly continues to oppose Democratic reform efforts. Amid all the late night celebrations after the razor-thin 220-215 vote for the bill, Karen Ignagni, head of AHIP, warned that it would be a much tougher battle to push reform through the Senate in the weeks ahead. - 0 Comments

McChrystal Doesn’t Get It—Does Obama?

Oct 30, 2009 - Long, but worth the effort (I think) By Scott Ritter There is a curious phenomenon taking place in the American media at the moment: the lionization of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the American military commander in Afghanistan. Although he has taken a few lumps for playing politics with the White House, McChrystal has generally been sold to the American public as a “Zen warrior,” a counterinsurgency genius who, if simply left to his own devices, will be able to radically transform the ongoing debacle that is Afghanistan into a noble victory that will rank as one of the greatest political and military triumphs of modern history. - 0 Comments

The phrases President Obama can't do without

Oct 13, 2009 - WASHINGTON - For all his flourish, President Barack Obama sure falls back on a few familiar phrases. Make no mistake. Change isn't easy. - 48 Comments

Family Ties: The Other Bill Clinton

Sep 28, 2009 - Family Ties: The Other Bill Clinton Global VIP's Attend Clinton Global Initiative By NANCY GIBBS A daughter seeking her father's attention faces steep competition when he's also the leader of the free world. Teddy Roosevelt's daughter Alice smoked on the White House roof, buried a voodoo doll of the incoming First Lady under the White House lawn, jumped fully clothed into a cruise-ship pool — and persuaded a Congressman to follow. "I can either run the country or I can control Alice," Roosevelt once said. - 7 Comments

The Blue Dogs have a dilemma

Sep 14, 2009 - Blue Dogs Turn Red By W. James Antle, III BEFORE CONGRESS ADJOURNED for the summer recess, Republicans stood on the House floor, faced C-SPAN's cameras, and asked one by one: "Where are the jobs?" It was part of a sustained attack against the president's stimulus program, a $787 billion behemoth opposed by every Republican in the chamber, which had failed to meet its targets for job creation and unemployment. - 3 Comments

L.A. Times Issues Lengthy Correction to Carol Williams’s Article re Ashcroft

Sep 10, 2009 - L.A. Times Issues Lengthy Correction to Carol Williams’s Article re Ashcroft Filed under: Dog Trainer, General — Patterico @ 7:13 am The L.A. Times this morning has a lengthy and remarkable correction to Carol Williams’s recent article about a 9th Circuit ruling. - 1 Comment

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Aug 31, 2009 - Michael Yon Online Magazine  

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Home Michael's Dispatches Precision Voting Precision Voting Next > 31 August 2009Helmand Province, Afghanistan The historical Afghan elections scheduled for 20 August were days away.   While the west mostly continued to vote for Afghanistan, the big question was, “Will Afghanistan vote for itself?” The latest media wave splashed into the main voting centers in places like Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat and Lashkar Gah.  The larger cities only account for perhaps 20% of the Afghan population.  Whereas the easy and obvious stories are in the cities, a crucial and larger dimension—the other 80%—would unfold in the boonies.  Most Afghans would have no chance to vote. The election was to be run by Afghans.  In theory and in practice this would be a recipe for disaster.  The strategic thinkers cannot be faulted for this; after nearly eight years of war, if the west were still running the elections, the elections and government would be a failure to begin with.  By comparison, the Iraqi elections on 30 January 2005 (less than two years after invasion) were run mostly by Iraqis.  In the voting of October and December of that same year, Iraqis had two more runs at the ballots, which were increasingly successful.  Afghanistan, however, is different.  This would be only the second election in history. There are no good choices here.  Either we run the elections and the central government and in doing so undermine the same central government we are investing in, or we allow that central government to run the elections and probably watch it undermine itself.  But who knows? - 1 Comment