Mike Huckabee brought his low-budget campaign to College Station, Texas today and wowed an overflowing auditorium filled primarily with Texas A&M University college students with his populist conservative message. I certainly expect Texas’ young conservatives to be out in force Tuesday if their response to today’s speech is any indication of their support for him….
Month: February 2008
Hillary Rocks in Houston
Facing a do-or-die primary in Texas, Hillary Clinton delivered a great speech at the Houston Presidential Energy Summit tonight. I was there and thought she did a terrific job even though the audience was probably smaller than she’d hoped to see in the 4th largest city in America. From the 4th row, Hillary – who…
Harvard Muslims Don’t Need to Assimilate
Harvard University has accepted a Muslim group’s petition to close the school’s Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center to me for an hour a day so that Muslim women can work out without the presence of men in the gym. Men have not been allowed to enter the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center during certain times since Jan….
Personal Ethics and Islamophobia
ABC recently placed actors "undercover" in a Waco, Texas bakery to observe Texans’ reactions to public anti-Islamic discrimination. Not surprisingly, the outcomes ran the gamut from Islamophobic to outstanding personal behavior. Our actor, Sabina, walked into the bakery in search of apple strudel. When she reached the counter, an actor posing as a sales clerk…
Clinton Scores, but Not Enough
Barack Obama closed tonight’s Democratic debate saying that he’d participated in 20 debates with Hillary Clinton and that he had no doubt that Hillary Clinton is a capable, competent candidate for the office they are both seeking. Obama’s tone said that he’s tired of the debate process and has had enough of it. As well…
Ethanol, More of a Problem Than a Cure
Paul Krugman points us to this Bloomberg article that makes the case against the Bush administrations ethanol mandate fairly well. Some highlights: About 33 percent of U.S. corn will be used for fuel during the next decade, up from 11 percent in 2002 Farmers will have to increase planting of corn for ethanol by 43…
Housing Density Unnatural
Ezra Klein gets his response to this article by Alex Steffen about as wrong as he possibly could. the amount of density the study’s authors call for is extremely modest. They encourage building new projects at a density of 13 homes per acre, raising the average national density from 7.6 units per acre to 9…
A New Kind of Political Media
Dave Winer, who’s well known for his work in the technology field, particularly as a pioneer with the RSS and XML-RPC tools that underlay many current web tools, including blogging software, asks an excellent, pertinent question about political conference calls: I’ve been asking around, where can I get MP3s of all the conference calls, the…
SCOTUS Refuses Wiretapping Case
I don’t often agree with the aims of the ACLU, but I think that filing a suit against the Bush administration’s use of "unapproved", to put it gently, wiretapping was a good thing. Today the U.S. Supreme Court declined the opportunity to hear the case. Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director of the ACLU: “Although we…
The Obamas’ Pride
Michael writes: Seldom have I heard a politician (or his or her partner) speak in such an incredible arrogant manner. Here’s the quote: “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”…