Krugman Weighs In

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 25, 2008 · 9:55 PM PDT

2008/09/25 · 21:55

Many people on both the right and the left are outraged at the idea of using taxpayer money to bail out America’s financial system. They’re right to be outraged, but doing nothing isn’t a serious option. Right now, players throughout the system are refusing to lend and hoarding cash — and this collapse of credit reminds many economists of the run on the banks that brought on the Great Depression.

Doing nothing isn’t a serious option

The theme of his piece is that it is time for the adults to take over. And that person isn't Paulson. And it isn't McCain:

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday June 28, 2008 · 3:10 PM PDT

2008/06/28 · 15:10

There is nothing more to be said. You either see it or you don't. You either believe that FISA undermines the Fourth Amendment and that it should be opposed or you are able to rationalize non-opposition as no big deal or, perhaps, as part of a secret plan.

But during the Fourth Amendment's short stay of execution I am doing my part for the Obama campaign.

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday May 31, 2008 · 10:02 PM PDT

2008/05/31 · 22:02

Earlier today Kagro X writes:

So Harold Ickes is right. This was a violation of the bedrock principle that a vote has to be counted as what it was, not what we wish, guess, or hope it was.

Kagro analogized to the distinction between courts of equity and courts at law:

What the RBC did today, it did sitting as a court of equity. But the RBC does not, ordinarily, have jurisdiction to sit as a court of equity. It sits, to complete the analogy, as a court of law.

Why that analogy and the argument fail, below.

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday March 16, 2007 · 5:16 PM PDT

2007/03/16 · 17:16

The fraud posing as a straight talker fielded a few questions on his bus in Iowa today:

Reporter: "Should U.S. taxpayer money go to places like Africa to fund contraception to prevent AIDS?"

Mr. McCain: "Well I think it’s a combination. The guy I really respect on this is Dr. Coburn. He believes – and I was just reading the thing he wrote– that you should do what you can to encourage abstinence where there is going to be sexual activity. Where that doesn’t succeed, than he thinks that we should employ contraceptives as well. But I agree with him that the first priority is on abstinence. I look to people like Dr. Coburn. I’m not very wise on it."

Q: "What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy."

Q: "So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?"

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) "You’ve stumped me."

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 02, 2006 · 10:02 PM PST

2006/11/02 · 22:02

Thomas Friedman. The name is synonymous with a special kind of arrogance. A man who thought he was smarter than everyone else. Maybe the complete and utter failure of his vision has given him new insight:

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld think you're stupid. Yes, they do.
They think they can take a mangled quip about President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry -- a man who is not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service -- and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.
Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, "They must think I'm stupid." Because they surely do.

More below. Read More

American Casualties In Iraq Spike; Iraqi Soldiers Not Standing Up

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday October 07, 2006 · 8:54 PM PDT

2006/10/07 · 20:54

Fighting a Civil War

The number of U.S troops wounded in Iraq has surged to its highest level in nearly two years as American GIs fight block-by-block in Baghdad to try to check a spiral of sectarian violence that U.S. commanders warn could lead to civil war.
Last month, 776 U.S. troops were wounded in action in Iraq, the highest number since the military assault to retake the insurgent-held city of Fallujah in November 2004, according to Defense Department data. It was the fourth-highest monthly total since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

October to be worse.... Read More

Five Easy Pieces (to Diary) About Iraq

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday September 28, 2006 · 10:39 PM PDT

2006/09/28 · 22:39

Five New York Times Pieces Describe Iraq Today

As Many as 60 Bodies Are Found in Baghdad

Congress Is Told of Failures of Rebuilding in Iraq

Iraqi Journalists Add Laws to List of Dangers

Iraqi Violence Is Growing, Author Says

Poll Says Most Iraqis Want U.S. Out

More below. Read More

NYT: Republican Runs Horse-Racing Operation from Office

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 29, 2006 · 9:46 PM PDT

2006/08/29 · 21:46

You couldn't make this up if you were a staff-writer for the Daily Show:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 -- State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a "horse racing operation" and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.
The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.

It gets worse, below the fold. Read More

Iraq Tipping Point

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday August 22, 2006 · 10:31 PM PDT

2006/08/22 · 22:31

Thomas Friedman, until recently the New York Times Senior Iraq War Booster, used to always talk about the "tipping point" in Iraq, e.g.

Iraq at the Tipping Point
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN (NYT)
Published: November 18, 2004
CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq - Every time I visit Iraq, I leave asking myself the same question: If you total up all the positives and negatives, where does the balance come out? I'd say the score is still 4 to 4. We can still emerge with a decent outcome. And the whole thing could still end very badly. There's only one thing one can say for sure today: you won't need to wait much longer for the tipping point.

Of course, it never tipped -- it just fell backward into a puddle of blood. But we may have reached another Iraq tipping point back home. Read More

"Slick Willie has morphed into Slick Hilly"

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday August 06, 2006 · 9:45 PM PDT

2006/08/06 · 21:45

Ouch

So there was Hillary Rodham Clinton grandstanding for the television cameras last week, giving Donald Rumsfeld a carefully scripted chewing out for his role in the Bush administration's lunatic war in Iraq.
...
Slick Willie has morphed into Slick Hilly, as the carnival of death in Iraq goes on.

Bob Herbert's complaint, below Read More

Meanwhile, Back In Iraq

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday July 31, 2006 · 12:17 PM PDT

2006/07/31 · 12:17

Gunman Abduct 21 in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, July 31--Gunmen wearing what appeared to be the camouflaged uniforms of Iraqi soldiers descended on two commercial offices in downtown Baghdad Monday and abducted at least 21 people, including the director of an Iraqi-American trade group, according to police and witnesses.
...
The attack on Monday began after 10:00 a.m. Gunmen arrived in a convoy of SUVs at a popular shopping district of Karradah and stormed the headquarters of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They captured the chamber director Raad Omar; the head of the sales department, Majid Hameed; and the director of the maintenance department, Noman Munthir Al-Khatib, among others, according to Dowaa Mohammed, the organization's head of human resources.
In total, at least seven people, including three security guards, were kidnapped at the office, said Sarmed Saif, a Baghdad police officer who witnessed the abduction.

More mayhem, below Read More

Listen to the Soldiers

muledriver

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday July 26, 2006 · 10:41 PM PDT

2006/07/26 · 22:41

From Washpo:

"It sucks. Honestly, it just feels like we're driving around waiting to get blown up. That's the most honest answer I could give you," said Spec. Tim Ivey, 28, of San Antonio, a muscular former backup fullback for Baylor University. "You lose a couple friends and it gets hard."

Army Staff Sgt. Jose Sixtos:

"Think of what you hate most about your job. Then think of doing what you hate most for five straight hours, every single day, sometimes twice a day, in 120-degree heat," he said. "Then ask how morale is."

More, below. Read More

Newer
Older

RSS

Krugman Weighs In

Obama's Empty Envelope

Kagro X, I respectfully disagree

Straight Talk Express Gets a Flat

Friedman Finds His Conscience

American Casualties In Iraq Spike; Iraqi Soldiers Not Standing Up

Five Easy Pieces (to Diary) About Iraq

NYT: Republican Runs Horse-Racing Operation from Office

Iraq Tipping Point

"Slick Willie has morphed into Slick Hilly"

Meanwhile, Back In Iraq

Listen to the Soldiers