Current developments
Best Line of the Week
Often, the ultra-snarky columnist of the Washington Post, Dana Milbank, just gives me a cramp. On Wednesday, though, he nailed it. He was writing about a group interview of Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO of the steadily shrinking and endangered General Motors, by a group of reporters from the steadily shrinking and endangered Traditional Media. …
Read MoreWhat to do with the judges?
Just put a piece on Huffington Post on this question, which was prompted (for me), by having two potential impeachments against federal trial judges: Judge Thomas Porteous of New Orleans, who has been under investigation for a long time for a variety of peccadilloes over the years, including bankruptcy fraud and some very shaky dealings…
Read MoreMonster Mao
Mao: The Untold Story, by Jung Chang and Jon Holliday, has a spectacular first sentence: Mao Tse-tung, who for decades held absolute power over the lives of one quarter of the world’s population, was responsible for well over 70 million deaths in peacetime, more than any other twentieth-century leader. The book is wicked long (don’t…
Read MoreGovernor Scoundrels, Part II
One impeached-and-removed state governor stands out from the pack for sheer vitality and no-holds-barred assaults on his political adversaries. Governor John Walton of Oklahoma lasted only ten months in office in 1923, but they were action-packed. Sticking with the highlights: A “radical” Democrat with Socialist allies, Walton made his inauguration a people’s celerbration. More than…
Read MoreSlow-Motion Showdown
Has Congress forgotten how to stick up for itself? The face-off over the firing of United States Attorneys in 2006 was explosive at first. Was the Bush Administration injecting crude political criteria into law enforcement? High-level officials, including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, resigned in the blowback. Sensing that the trail of wrongdoing led to the…
Read MoreEl Presidente McCain?
With the Republican presidential nomination locked up, John McCain is facing spirited inquiry into a very basic question — is he eligible under the Constitution to be president? The sweaty man-hug with President Bush — who could resist this shot? The problem for McCain is that he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, at…
Read MoreWhen A Signature Doesn't Mean Much
The leading presidential candidates have taken contrasting positions on the constitutionally dubious practice of presidential “signing statements” — when a president signs a bill into law, but issues a separate statement explaining that this or that provision is unconstitutional, wrong, or fattening. John McCain says . . . Never! He won’t do it. Hillary Clinton…
Read MoreWhither the Book?
A recent item in the Washington Post describes a new product called “BookSnap,” which allows the digitization of books at a rate of 500 pages per hour. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/12/AR2008021202754.html?sub=AR The cost? $2,600 for the equipment, more (presumably) to operate it. Though the reviewer found BookSnap clunky and not very effective, the technology will only improve. The…
Read MoreMake My Brown Eyes Blue
History often seems to me like some vast, overgrown garden, chock full of important wisdom and irrelevant factoids. Thanks to a recent post at townhall.com by Michael Medved, I can share with you some information that is both. How many U.S. presidents have had brown eyes, you wonder? Well, at least five, and maybe six,…
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