This just in from the Department of Credit Where Credit Is Due, it’s nice to see the presidential candidates maintain a sense of humor during hard times, and John McCain seems to be keeping hold of his. The image to the left is a fake press pass that the McCain team was handing out to reporters who were “left behind to report in America” and referring to them as the junior varsity squad of reporters. The treatment Obama has received during his trip has, of course, been non-stop...

Ever want to reach through your computer screen and either throttle or shake the hand of any of the writers here at TMV? Well, we can’t quite deliver that, but you can listen to and even have a word with some of us. Today, on Mid Stream Radio, at 1 pm Eastern, 10 am pacific, you can tune in and catch up with myself and my co-host Cindy as we talk during the first half with TMV’s own columnist, Shaun Mullen. To balance things off between progressives and conservatives, in the second half...

Richard Cohen waxes philosophical today, declaring that Americans with ink in their skin are – if I’m following him correctly – delusional losers. The tattoo is the battle flag of today in its war with tomorrow. It is carried by sure losers. I asked a college professor what she thought of tattoos, and she said that for young people, they represent permanence in an ever-changing world. But how is that possible? Anyone old enough and smart enough to get into college knows that only...

In a previous column which touched on energy policy in general and domestic oil drilling in particular, a point was brought up in comments. Since the oil companies have failed to develop the oil and gas leases they already hold, and because many of those are easier than offshore drilling, and because oil companies lost dozens of oil platforms in the last few hurricanes, and because those losses polluted the Gulf coastline causing ugly, toxic and expensive problems, pushing for offshore drilling is...

While the media continues to swarm over the Obama trip to “points beyond,” John McCain is hitting some key swing states to talk about more pressing domestic issues, including energy policy. As the New York Times points out, these are key battlegrounds and it’s a message which may resonate with the hurting pocketbooks of voters more than the opinions of foreign leaders. “McCain’s message adding domestic oil production to a policy of alternative energy investment and conservation...

No, I’m not talking about replacing John McCain for this year’s election. While almost all of the political news from the weekend for McCain looked better suited to an M. Night Shymalan film, I don’t expect anyone to be rushing the Senator toward the door. But for the moment, let’s assume that Shaun Mullen was correct in his earlier column and Barack Obama wins in November. (By the way, Shaun, I get nervous whenever anyone starts counting chickens before beaks are visible.)...

If you’re an old (14 years) hound who naps 18 hours a day and not prone to moving around a lot, cruel people will occasionally dress you up and take pictures of you. Oh… the indignity.

The conference on Global Catastrophic Risks is meeting in the U.K. this week, and Reason Magazine provides a rundown of the major threats we face from outside the planet, and more to the point, what industrialized nations like ours are doing about it. In 1998, Congress charged NASA with surveying the skies to detect 90 percent of near earth asteroids (NEAs) greater than 1 kilometer in size in 10 years. An impact by a kilometer-sized asteroid could end civilization. Besides the blast, such an asteroid...

Following the remarkable comments regarding America’s future in Iraq by Prime Minister Maliki, I found myself (along with many others) wondering how long it would be before somebody reminded Maliki that he had wandered a bit too far off leash (which didn’t take long) and how the McCain team would try to spin this body blow to their campaign. (Again, we weren’t kept waiting.) No matter how we slice, dice, spin or puree this, I have to agree with a few other observers that it isn’t...

From the beginning, Bob Barr’s campaign admitted that it would be a serious challenge to get on the ballot in all or even most of the fifty states. According to a recent communication from Barr’s people, they feel they are on track to be on the ballot everywhere except West Virginia and Oklahoma. There are campaign representatives on the ground in West Virginia, but it seems that there is no organized Libertarian Party presence in the state. This is causing them to bring in volunteers...

Bob Barr has penned a promising piece in the Wall Street Journal on the prospect of Supreme Court nominations under the two major party candidates. The idea of a “living Constitution” long has been popular on the political left. Conservatives routinely dismiss such result-oriented justice, denouncing “judicial activism” and proclaiming their fidelity to “original intent.” However, many Republicans, like Mr. McCain, are just as result-oriented as their Democratic...

You didn’t have to be paying terribly close attention in order to see a bit of a double reverse volley from the McCain campaign this week re: Obama’s overseas trip. For some time now, Senator McCain and his surrogates have been hectoring Barack Obama for failing to visit Afghanistan and taking too long between trips to Iraq. As I pointed out in a previous column, I find the original argument faulty, as almost all of these trips by any candidate are junkets of questionable value, and the...

I was skimming through this litany of complaints over the revised FISA legislation in The Indypendent and giving fresh thought to some of the major privacy concerns which occupy our national debate on the subject. We live in an era where advancements in technology give rise to fears that our government can now track our movements through our cell phones and, increasingly, the GPS compatible devices in our automobiles. Our conversations can be monitored, not only through voice communications, but...

Having been raised in New York I’m familiar with the way politicians coming out of some big city environments can have a few skeletons in their closet, either large or small. But when you run for President, it seems that every last bone will eventually come sliding out onto the dinner table. (Which can really ruin the appeal of your centerpiece, according to Martha.) It seems the same holds true for Chicago, so Senator Obama is probably getting tired of seeing things like this getting dug up...

Several of us got the chance to talk to Bob Barr today on a conference call. I found the candidate to be highly engaging and ready to reach out to bloggers and the new media in any way that he can. Below are a few of the topics covered and the answers given. Q. What does it mean to you to run as a 3rd party candidate? Barr hopes to accomplish three things. He feels that the political climate is sour, people are sour on government and their choices in candidates and that the two party system is not...

The Pope is in the midst of a world tour, currently in Australia, and gave a speech this week where he criticized moral relativism. This took place at one of the world’s largest youth gatherings. “Relativism, by indiscriminately giving value to practically everything, has made ‘experience’ all-important. Yet experiences, detached from any consideration of what is good or true, can lead not to genuine freedom, but to moral or intellectual confusion, to a lowering of standards, to a loss...

Every conceivable metaphor – the prevailing winds, the political tide, the conventional wisdom – has been thrown at the presidential race for months now, explaining why this November would be the death knell of the GOP and how you should already begin practicing saying “President Obama.” Still, for some reason, the most recent polls from Rasmussen seem to show the race drifting into a statistical tie. What happened? Dick Morris has a guess. Part of the slippage is Obama’s...

The Bob Barr campaign has finally put up an issues page where you can read policy statements from Barr across most of the issues, with links to detailed explanations for each. Lots of things for Libertarians to love, no doubt, and not very far off from Ron Paul’s positions. For John McCain, just go to the Senator’s home page and scroll over the “Issues” button. You’ll get a java driven drop-down menu for each issue and can click striaght through from there. (By the way,...

Today, John McCain addressed the NAACP, and given that a large portion of his speech centered on education issues, this is as good a time as any to visit the education proposals of the candidates. In preparation for this, I spoke today with Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior policy advisor on domestic issues for John McCain’s campaign, and I’ll include a portion of that interview here. We were unable to reach a DNC representative thus far. With all the attention currently centering on the economy,...

Why? Because if you go there and so much as step outside (at least barefoot) … you’ll probably die.