Month: July 2009
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“Porkulus” Was a Travesty, but “Cash for Clunkers” is Kosher
I wasn’t aware of the “Cash for Clunkers” program until today, when they started talking about ending it prematurely because it was running out of money. I’m not in a position to take advantage of the program personally, but I’m glad that it looks like Congress will add more money to it. I think the […]
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God Knows: An IED in Iraq Shows Who, How, and Why We Fight
My point here is not to advocate waterboarding, a practice I oppose. To paraphrase a recent American president, my point is that good and evil both exist in the world — and the God of my understanding is not neutral between them.
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Obama Pays for Gates-gate in the Rasmussen Poll
President Obama has slipped to the worst rating of his young presidency in the daily Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll, weighing in at -11 points. That’s based on likely voters with strong opinions. He fares better when you look at total approvers vs. total disapprovers — although for the first time, or at least the first […]
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Loading Up the Corruption Bus in New Jersey
(Welcome, New York Times readers. You might be interested in other posts about New Jersey and Maplewood.) My adopted home state of New Jersey has a long sordid history of political corruption. We’re not yet five years removed from Gov. Jim McGreevey’s resignation after the revelation that he had appointed his unqualified boyfriend to a […]
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Flash Reaction to Obama’s Walk-Back of “Stupid” Comment
Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> This will continue to be debated and analyzed for days, but my first thought was, “good for Obama.” If you go looking for things to criticize in his six-minute statement, you’ll no doubt find them, but he clearly intended to reduce tension, and I suspect he’ll succeed. I […]
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Plenty of Stupidity to Go Around in Arrest of Gates
It took President Obama five days to speak out critically about the brutal suppression in Iran. He said he didn’t want to be “seen as meddling.” Law enforcement officials around the country are no doubt wishing today that the president had shown the same courtesy to the Cambridge Police Department. Strictly on the basis of […]
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Mr. Maliki Goes to Washington, Standing Tall
For his first couple of years as Prime Minister of Iraq, the conventional wisdom held that Nouri al-Maliki was in over his head. Even people who supported the war tended to think that Maliki was the wrong person to lead the country. I can’t say I ever formed a firm opinion about Maliki’s suitability for […]
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Obama Wins Battle to Defund F-22 — and I’m Glad
Just hours after celebrating a decline in “the administration’s ability to steamroll Congress,” I find myself celebrating a successful Obama veto threat. With Senators crossing party lines in both directions, the Senate voted 50-48 today to strip $1.75 billion in funding for additional F-22 fighters from a military authorization bill. Hawk though I am, I’m […]
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Time May Have Expired for Obama’s “Crisis=Opportunity” Tactics
A few weeks after the November election, incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel famously said “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is, an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.” Things like ramming through a mammoth “stimulus” bill […]
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How “Blue” is New Jersey — and for How Long?
I market my blog as the musings of “a red-state voter in a deep blue state.” It’s a catchy line, and it lends itself to a jazzy 125×125 logo — created by the Web Goddess, naturally. But sometimes I’ve wondered if New Jersey really is as “deep blue” as, say, Massachusetts or Vermont. (I’m sure […]