Christi Hardin Smith posted a transcript of a “great” speech that Christopher Dodd gave on the floor of the Senate today here. Dodd spoke passionately about a sweeping array of war-related topics, bouncing around from between FISA, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay, Alberto Gonzales, and even Nuremberg, but that didn’t make the speech great or…
Month: October 2007
Genarlow Wilson to be Freed
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, a uniquely stupid chapter in the story of the American legal system is drawing nearer to a close. The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, the Douglas County man who has been serving a controversial 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old…
School Vouchers: Solution or Problem?
Megan McArdle says she doesn’t get angry about politics often. But fail to mention the V-word when discussing education reform and you might get on her list pretty quick! every time I see some middle class parent prattling about vouchers "destroying" the public schools by "cherry picking" the best students, when they’ve made damn sure…
Hillary Would Restore Checks and Balances
Various publications are saying that Hillary Clinton has gone on the record as saying that she would reduce presidential powers back to the pre-W levels if she is elected president. “I think you have to restore the checks and balances and the separation of powers, which means reining in the presidency,” Clinton told the Boston…
Hitchens: Islamofascism a Valid Term
At Slate, Christopher Hitchens defends the use of the term “Islamofascism” to good effect. Hitchens first takes on the faux-intellectuals who refuse to make the obvious connection between modern, radical Islam and manner of life that imposes on those unlucky enough to fall under its sway: It’s quite the done thing, in liberal academic circles,…
Womb-theft Killer Guilty, Death Penalty Next?
The Houston Chronicle reports: Jurors convicted Lisa Montgomery, 39, of kidnapping resulting in death in the 2004 attack on 23-year-old Bobbie Jo Stinnett in the northwest Missouri town of Skidmore. The jury deliberated for about four hours before rejecting Montgomery’s insanity defense. … Defense attorneys claimed Montgomery was suffering from pseudocyesis, which causes a woman…
Huckabee: Abortion is the American Holocaust
Jamie Crawford at CNN’s Political Ticker blog reports this about Mike Huckabee: “Sometimes we talk about why we’re importing so many people in our workforce,” the former Arkansas governor said. “It might be for the last 35 years, we have aborted more than a million people who would have been in our workforce had we…
Ron Paul Tops for Military Donations
My hometown paper, the Houston Chronicle, got this write-up placed on memeorandum this afternoon: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, the congressman from the Houston area who opposes the Iraq war, has gotten more contributions than any other White House contender from donors identified as affiliated with the military. According to a Houston Chronicle analysis of…
Kurdistan and Self-Rule
From the NY Times – fifteen years ago – but still highly relevant given recent events: The Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Iran and Syria condemned the creation of a de facto Kurdish state in northern Iraq today and warned Kurdish leaders that they would not allow it to lead to the partition of the country. “We…
Speaking of Cartoons…
…why is this rather odd-looking chap receiving a barrage of death threats? Meet artist Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoonist whose drawing depicting the head of Prophet Mohammed on the body of a dog, caused a firestorm of controversy and, according to CNN, prompted Al Qaeda to offer $150,000 to the person who slits Lars’ throat. …