Can anyone explain to me . . .

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Wednesday August 20, 2008 · 4:22 PM PDT

2008/08/20 · 16:22

. . . why Obama isn't all over the fact that the Iraqi government has basically endorsed his pullout timetable plans? When this hit the news a couple months ago, I took a little baby step toward thinking the election was in the bag. After all, hadn't Maliki just taken the central plank of McCain's campaign away from him? And it could quite easily be argued that it was pressure from the Obama campaign that brought the withdrawal-timetable narrative to the fore. It didn't require "negative" campaigning to say that McCain's "if it takes 100 years" ideas ran counter to what the Iraqis themsevles wanted, which was quite close to what Obama has proposed. But it seems to me that by now this opportunity has pretty much been squandered.

Are you rooting for Giuliani on the GOP side?

texorama

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Wednesday October 17, 2007 · 7:00 AM PDT

2007/10/17 · 07:00

Setting aside the Dem candidate wars, it's hard to know whom to root for among the GOOPers, no?

I believe that there is a strong element of Christian end-times theology within the religious right, and that that element is present in the current administration. The Christian right scares me more than anything else, and to see that faction defeated would be a hopeful sign.

OTOH, I think the title of Ed Koch's book "Nasty Man" sums Giuliani up. And I think he might well be the toughest candidate to beat. He'd have strong appeal to white ethnics in swing states. He's a good talker and an experienced politician, and I'm sure if he got nominated he'd arrange some kind of summit meeting with Dobson et al., and emerge smelling like a rose in the eyes of the wingnuts.

What think you?

Poll

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Who do you hope wins the GOP nomination?

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Who do you hope wins the GOP nomination?

Giuliani

17 votes

Romney

12 votes

Sleepy Freddie

19 votes

McCain

6 votes

Huckabee

9 votes

Brownback

2 votes

Tancredo

3 votes

Keyes

27 votes

None of the above, thank you

14 votes

GWB was right about one thing

texorama

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Sunday July 30, 2006 · 7:55 AM PDT

2006/07/30 · 07:55

Just one, mind you. But he took some flak several years ago for bringing up the topic of illicit athletic drugs in the State of the Union address. The idea, I guess, was that this wasn't an affair of state with sufficient gravity to warrant space in that forum. But he (or whoever inserted it in the speech in front of his barely comprehending eyes) had the right idea. Read More

Is a retraction in order ... (w/poll)

texorama

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Tuesday April 11, 2006 · 7:26 PM PDT

2006/04/11 · 19:26

... for Kos's statement that protest marches are "useless, obsolete artifacts of a bygone era" in view of the GOP leadership's abandonment of felony penalties for illegal immigrants, and, indeed, in view of the way in which the Latino immigrant marches of the last few weeks have completely redefined the immigration debate.

These marches have been a great source of personal inspiration for me, for reasons that go beyond the immigration debate--although goodness knows that issue is important enough on its own. It's just extremely stirring to see hundreds of thousands of people in the street, standing up for ideals that go beyond the Republican moral dead end of self-interest. These marches tell me that whatever is coming, decent people aren't going down without a fight.

Moderate blog recommendations?

texorama

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Thursday March 02, 2006 · 8:00 AM PST

2006/03/02 · 08:00

There's always a lot of talk here about the crazies at Freeperville, and lots of mutual monitoring (and even occasional cooperation) between this site and Redstate. But how about moderate blogs? Are there any that readers here would recommend?

I ask for several reasons. The biggest is just that I like to read material from all persepctives, and I haven't found a centrist blog voice that does much for me. I've looked at some. The Moderate Voice seems to just link repeatedly among its various posts. Ann Althouse is a decent writer, but her blog is sort of scattershot in the topics it addresses. Instapundit is sometimes listed as a moderate, but he's really a snarky, somewhat libertarian conservative.

Beyond my personal reading habits, it might be worth paying attention to moderate blogs to see how left talking points are playing with those in the center. What's the biggest one? the best? I mean, we're not going to convince the Freepers of anything, but the moderates are the ones we have a shot at.

Tularemia on the Mall

texorama

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Monday October 17, 2005 · 7:31 PM PDT

2005/10/17 · 19:31

Hey, Salon has a fairly substantial story up questioning what happened last month when sensors around Washington detected airborne tularemia bacteria during the antiwar march on the Mall last month.

Testimony from various experts suggests that there's no way it was a natural occurrence, as the government is claiming. The writer also points out that the same line was put out in the early days of the anthrax scare.

Frankly, the article raises more questions than it answers. If this bacterium was detected, shouldn't there be a process in place to test it and identify the strain and its origins, as was eventually done with the anthrax? Oh yeah ... forgot ... we're dealing with total freaking incompetents.

They interview various people reporting symptoms similar to what we heard about here. Worth reading, anyhow.

More Roy Moore!

texorama

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Monday October 03, 2005 · 12:41 PM PDT

2005/10/03 · 12:41

Guess who's back? Roy Moore, of Ten Commandments fame, has just announced that he's running for governor of Alabama. This will set up a primary against incumbent Gov. Bob Riley, who has already riled the right for suggesting that taxes should be raised to fund vital state programs. I'm pleased to see a sudden chance for a gubernatorial pickup in a state that isn't strong for us, and to see the angry outlaw face of Roy Moore in Republican politics. Democratic candidates are former Gov. Don Siegelman, whom I remember as a rather uninspiring guy, and Lucy Baxley. Anyone down that way care to predict how this might shake out?

Y'all are worrying too much about ANSWER

texorama

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Monday September 26, 2005 · 5:13 AM PDT

2005/09/26 · 05:13

For the record, I think they're leeches, and potentially dangerous ones at that. But I keep reading here that if you turned on C-SPAN, what you saw were the ANSWER signs. The political-junkie qualities of this community have never been more abundantly on display. Trust me, most Americans were not sitting at home watching the march on C-SPAN.

The Associated Press story, which ran in most Sunday newspapers, did not mention ANSWER at all. Read More

Today's bird flu news

texorama

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Thursday September 22, 2005 · 11:07 AM PDT

2005/09/22 · 11:07

has sort of gotten lost in the Rita hullaballoo and the Roberts hoo-ha, but it's worth noting.

1) The flu vaccine doesn't work as well as we thought, and the antivirals don't either--resistance to the antivirals is developing as flu viruses rapidly evolve. Between 70 and 75 percent of influenza A viruses tested in Hong Kong in 2004 showed resistance to Amantadine; in South Korea it was only 15 percent, but these figures are all up from zero in 2000.

And 2), 115 people who visited a zoo in Jakarta have sought treatment at a hospital for flu symptoms. There are already rampant animal cases at the zoo and several confirmed human cases.

It's tough getting a clear picture of what's happening in Indonesia. The Jakarta Post (thejakartapost.com) is often unenlightening. There could be various reasons for the mass hospital visits Recombinomics describes; I'd bet the grapevine is really humming in Jakarta. But clearly both these situations bear watching.

Nuclear power plant in Rita's path?

texorama

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Tuesday September 20, 2005 · 3:17 PM PDT

2005/09/20 · 15:17

Say, there've been sighs of relief in Houston media that Rita is now aimed toward the sparsely populated Matagorda area on the central Texas coast. But I notice that Matagorda County is home to the 2,500-megawatt South Texas Project nuclear power plant. Any ideas on what would happen if that were hit by a Category 4 storm? Their FAQ does not address the issue (natch).

BREAKING: Pledge ruled unconstitutional again

texorama

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Wednesday September 14, 2005 · 11:27 AM PDT

2005/09/14 · 11:27

Heads up, y'all, the dungstorm from the right will be kicking up once more. I personally couldn't be happier, but I fear it will distract attention from King George and his many misdeeds. From the first stories, it's not clear what the appeals process will be and how this case will dovetail with the one that the SCOTUS punted a couple years back.

Another big Repub defector

texorama

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Sunday September 11, 2005 · 12:30 PM PDT

2005/09/11 · 12:30

Nolan Finley, Detroit News columnist and editorial page editor, in today's column on Hurricane Katrina.

"... the conservative movement's principles have given way to partisanship. The words 'conservative' and 'Republican' are now interchangeable, and it's more important to protect the party than to hew to core values."

"I don't see anything particularly conservative in the bumbling going on in Washington. If that's what conservative looks like, count me out."

Straight from the bastion of pure, reflexively antigovernment, antitax Midwestern Republicanism. He uses the idea that no private executive who did what Brown did would survive; maybe that's a good talking point to use against Bush himself.