Mmmmm... Donuts....

Posted at May 15, 2008 8:09 PM in response to DoD Emails Show Why Josh Marshall Denied Access To DoJ Press Releases

BrookD,

I just looked at my cell phone bill. "Taxes, Governmental Surcharges & Fees" are slightly less than 3.8% of the total.

Here in California I pay more than twice that in sales tax on other stuff -- but not on cell phone usage.

Posted at April 28, 2008 11:44 AM in response to The Real McCain (Tech Version)

Step back a moment, and it's all of a piece. According to Yoo, just as long as the president asserts there is a military threat to the US he is effectively an absolute monarch.

Posted at April 3, 2008 3:15 PM in response to Yoo: Warrant Schmarrant

Just a minor nit; RAND has a number of divisions devoted to defense and civil policy analysis. Some of these are FFRDC's (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers), and among these is the Arroyo Center responsible for this report. Although The Arroyo Center claims to be the only FFRDC for policy analysis belonging to the US Army, it's just a small part of RAND, whose other divisions receive funding from a variety of (mostly government) sources.

A tidbit of history: the "Pentagon Papers" of the Vietnam era was also a RAND study.

Posted at February 11, 2008 12:16 PM in response to Today's Must Read

I note that Kevin Drum reports a similar journey over to the Obama side.

As do I. And I think the impetus was the same for all of us: far from being the asset I'd have expected him to be, Bill was simply an embarrassment. Given Hillary's reluctance (or inability) to get him to shut up -- or perhaps (we may never know) her approval of his actions -- started my personal reappraisal and movement to the Obama camp. We need an inspiring candidate, not merely an effective one (with a tremendous load of baggage, deserved or not).

A president who wants to change the rules has to be an inspiring figure. And though he may not have done anything we like, Reagan was pretty successful in laying the groundwork for Republican ascendancy -- and this despite a second-rate (and failing) intellect. Obama was right about Reagan's importance (and it took weeks for me to finally admit to myself that he was).

Hillary will take what we have, and try to make it better. And I think she is by far the best candidate to do just that. But only an inspirational figure can make an actual change in direction. And that figure, whatever his other strengths or flaws, is Obama.

Posted at February 4, 2008 5:03 PM in response to Jumping the Fence to Obama

And now college professor Bérubé exerts the ultimate affectation of academic snobbery by using Latin -- a desperate move on his part and one that fools no one. David Horowitz (or his masseuse) will now summon his private security force, and we will no longer have to listen to such affectations.

Posted at January 29, 2008 12:29 PM in response to Teddy Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Toni Morrison -- and me!

There are studies which suggest that cell-phone use can impair driving as much as drunk driving at the legal limit. But I'm not aware of any studies showing impairment on the level of someone so drunk as to be barely able to stand. Such details matter.

As for people being so wound up in their cell conversations as to treat them as "portals to someone standing just behind it:" how would this be any different than someone wound up in an conversation with a passenger? Are we to outlaw live conversations in cars as distractions?

Posted at January 17, 2008 1:03 PM in response to When the jury summons arrives---go and serve!

I think a reality show called "heart attack" would get decent ratings. And, yes, this is a sideways reference to perhaps the biggest force damaging America: the pursuit of profit to the exclusion of any moral criteria. "These guys" are hired for what they bring to the bottom line, nothing more, nothing less.

Posted at November 21, 2007 3:38 PM in response to Why is Obama in Bed with Karl Rove?

The beltway crowd never really left high school. They've never grown up, never stopped polishing their "game." Dowd is an archetype of this phenomenon.

Posted at November 1, 2007 11:30 PM in response to Dowd, the Demonic Dominatrix, and a Feline

Good point. And it also helps us to remember just how long the press has worn that ring in its nose the Republicans have led it by.

Posted at September 26, 2007 12:06 AM in response to Are We in "Opinions on Shape of Earth Differ" Territory?