After the election, I found myself musing about The South – my own beloved country (looking back [1860]…). I concluded: We think of politics in contemporary terms, but much of it is deeply embedded in our history. Those roots that fed the Civil War are still buried in this part of the country. I’ll end […]
Gallup Poll as of Dec 26, 2008 Sep 11, 2001 The attack on the Twin Towers in New York Mar 20, 2003 The American Invasion of Iraq Dec 13, 2003 Saddam Hussein captured in Iraq Gallup Poll as of Dec 26, 2008 It’s the top line on the bottom graph that holds my attention. It’s […]
Day after Christmas blogging is such fun. tid-bits everywhere… Did McCain/Palin Obstruct Justice in the Johnston Case? It seems that Sarah Palin has a newsworthy scandalette for every holiday. For Thanksgiving she was preening in front of a turkey slaughter; for Christmas, she is smack dab in the middle of a felony controlled substances investigation. […]
It’s about Dick Cheney’s response to Joe Wilson’s July 6th, 2003 op-ed suggesting that Bu$hCo distorted our Intelligence to send us into Iraq. Here’s a selected thread of events that are finally becoming a little clearer: July 6th, 2003: Joseph Wilson said in his NYT op-ed, "In February 2002, I was informed by officials at […]
Barack Be Good By PAUL KRUGMAN December 25, 2008 … How did F.D.R. manage to make big government so clean? A large part of the answer is that oversight was built into New Deal programs from the beginning. The Works Progress Administration, in particular, had a powerful, independent “division of progress investigation” devoted to investigating […]
Since the Stock Market fell on September 15th, I’ve been kind of obsessed with what happened. I knew about the Internet bubble back in the early Bush Years. I assumed that people were so excited about the possibilities of the Internet, that they just got carried away and ran the Market up. It reminded me […]
Southern Baptist Decline and God’s Bottom Line Times are tough, even in the salvation market. After decades of growth, the nation’s largest group of Protestants, the Southern Baptist Convention, is reporting losses (in church membership and recorded baptisms) for the third year in a row. Baptisms are at a 20-year low, a figure liable to […]
SEC Chief Defends His Restraint Cox Rebuffs Criticism of Leadership During Crisis Washington Post December 24, 2008 Christopher Cox, the embattled chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, is defending his restrained approach to the financial crisis, saying he has provided steady leadership as Wall Street’s main regulator at a time when other federal regulators […]
Back in the long gone days of Summer 2008, our gas prices were in the $4.00 range. Congress was looking in to the price of oil and why it had risen. A Wall Street Hedge Fund Manager named Michael Masters testified in Congress that it wasn’t because of the obvious – increased demand from China, […]
Bush’s Legacy May End Up Better Than You Think By Amanda Terkel on Radical Right Not only are Bush administration officials rushing out to rewrite President Bush’s legacy as a strong, capable leader, his conservative allies are beginning to jump to his defense as well. Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the American […]