Over at my own blog this morning, I griped about what I saw as some off-topic distractions in the Senate’s version of the bail-out bill. At the time, the full breadth of the Senate’s madness hadn’t been revealed. But it has now. From Hot Air: New Tax earmarks in Bailout bill - Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) - Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503) - 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504) Tax earmark...

John McCain has an ad out already, using moments from the debate when Barack Obama segued into his rebuttals via agreement. (You can view the ad here.) But Obama wasn’t just acknowledging common ground, and he definitely wasn’t tacitly deferring to McCain’s mastery. Rather, he assured the rest of us that we’re all seeing the same thing. That we’re not crazy or stupid. I think McCain has completely miscued this shot, and in the doing, demonstrates a total misread of the public...

From my position on the fence, I’ve really been looking forward to tonight’s debate. In spite of having followed both Obama and McCain for months, there’s something clarifying about hearing their visions in a direct (and mostly polite) format, and there’s really no replacement for observing them side-by-side. So let me start by saying that while there were some odd moments, there were no major deal-breakers for me. There were a couple of things, though, that struck me about...

Sometimes, there really is a song for every occasion. Take Sarah Palin, for instance: While TMV co-blogger Jill Miller Zimon evidently hears nuns this morning, Polimom’s brain has been looping Janis Ian since last night. It all seems pretty appropriate to me, actually, considering the initial reactions to her ranged from Mitch Ryder & the Detroit, to Helen Reddy, to The Beatles. Any ideas for the next song on the track?

Parenting is a tough job. One has to find a balance between letting kids learn life’s lessons through painful experience (natural consequences), and keeping them safe. The parental path through the child-raising wilderness is not always well-marked. Fire is hot. Should we let little Janey touch a flame so she learns that it’s dangerous? Guns can kill people. Do we teach little Johnny how to handle them so he doesn’t make a fatal mistake through ignorance? Life’s perils...

As Jazz noted earlier, there’s a truly jaw-dropping amount of political game-playing going on right now around this bail-out. And I agree with him; Mr. Straight Talk Express is setting a whole new standard for the genre. But the bail-out shenanigans are starting to look like an elaborately staged play to my cynical eyes. Is it coincidence that the Republicans are balking just in time to be saved by their Mavericky Knight? You know what they say about coincidence…

I’m really saddened by my reaction to McCain’s maneuver statement that he’s suspending his campaign in favor of rushing off to lead the country into the sunrise. I’ve discovered a truly deep well of cynicism about all things political lately. And he wants the first debate postponed until the “crisis is over”? LOL! The elections could very well be over before we’re through this mess. No, I think now is an excellent time for these two aspirants, who have...

How did she end up in such a fix? A (very little) bit of commentary here.

When I wrote a couple of weeks ago that I was “back on the fence” about the presidential election, I came under some pretty heavy rhetorical fire. I didn’t care about “the issues”, I was told, and “I wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade”. Since that post, I’ve been doing my best to wade through the overheated rhetoric, spin, and flagrant lies coming out of both campaigns (and their supporters), trying to find something that will give me a sense that either...

For the last few days, I’ve been writing about risk and responsibility. Specifically, I’ve tried to point out that individual decision-making played at least some role in setting up this current financial crisis. Some seem to think I’m saying that the borrowers are the primary problem in all this — but that’s not it. What I am trying to point out is that although lenders certainly own a big chunk of the responsibility, one cannot place all the blame on them. There...

The term “social contract” gets thrown around a lot — but its use is generally limited to the relationship between government and citizens. I’d like to point out that there’s another dimension here that’s being ignored at the moment: the social contract between individual members of society. In terms of the current crisis, it goes like this: if you are financially irresponsible, you screw it all up for the rest of us. Now, being financially irresponsible is...

This morning, I wrote at my own blog that I’ve pulled the Obama sticker off of my truck; that although I’m not suddenly a McCain supporter, I can no longer be counted in the Obama column. In short, that I’m back on the fence. This is causing a bit of consternation, some of which appears to be driven by some rather offensive (to me) assumptions (I’m a woman, and therefore must subject to the Palin hype. Or I’m an independent and therefore must falling for McCain’s...

Since Tasers arrived on the law enforcement scene, there have been many problematic and troubling stories involving their use. Myself, I’m of the opinion that the Taser is just like any other tool: dangerous in the wrong hands. It’s bad enough when someone misuses power, but it’s downright appalling when a (now former) police officer could rampantly and repeatedly abuse it… and that the environment in which he lives and works allowed him to do so.

It’s become quite fashionable in some quarters to blame the oil companies for all ills — a position verging on hypocritical. Either they’re greedy for the big bucks, or they’re sitting on oil they could produce but won’t. (Can’t really make that argument work both ways.) Along those lines… last night, while flipping through the TV channels, I stumbled across C-Span, and a Democratic congress-critter droning on about offshore drilling, and current oil leases,...

Both Jazz Shaw and Damozel have written already about Barack Obama’s Op-Ed on Iraq in the NY Times today. I’m really glad they’ve covered the story so well, because it leaves me free to bring up a couple of things that are starting to bug me. First off, I’m getting frustrated with Barack Obama on the surge. While he doesn’t directly say so, my direct impression is that knowing what he knows now, he would still oppose it. How is that possible? Maybe Obama’s...

I’m watching the arguments unfurl around Barack Obama’s comments on foreign language study, and I’m amazed. (Memeorandum has several lead articles with commentary. Here and here should get you started.) People are fixating on various aspects of the statement, and totally missing the point. Foreign language study by Americans has nothing to do with illegal immigration. It’s unrelated to tourism. And while there’s an argument to be made about cultural knowledge gained...

Now this is truly interesting. From CNN: Billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens is putting his clout behind renewable energy sources like wind power. The legendary entrepreneur and philanthropist on Tuesday unveiled a new energy plan he says will decrease the United States’ dependency on foreign oil by more than one-third and help shift American energy production toward renewable natural resources. “The Pickens Plan” calls for investing in domestic renewable resources such as wind,...

Update: The anticipated overreaction is happening, but it seems to be most flagrant in the MSM. As a result, Barack Obama has given another press conference, and has issued an email confirming that he has, in fact, been very consistent. Some reaction from the blogosphere has been added after original post. A question: Why would the MSM be spinning this up so baldly? – For months now, I’ve been writing that Obama was not the hard-core liberal the far left wanted (and the far-right...

For the past week or so, Barack Obama has been accused nearly non-stop of “shifting positions”, “moving to the center” (or to the right, depending on the source), and/or “flip-flopping”. While there have indeed been a couple of shifts, there’s also a massive amount of disinformation coming out about Obama. He was not, for example, sweepingly against the death penalty. Furthermore, his position on NAFTA warped in Ohio; his recent statements are how I understood...

Yesterday, a graduating Senior from a high school in Richmond, TX filed suit against the University of Texas – Austin. Her complaint alleges that she, as a white person, was denied admission to UT due to race-based admission policies. Texas’ state university system — like many around the country — has been trying to improve minority representation on its campuses for a very long time, with varying (and imho, fairly minimal) success. Simultaneously, there’s been resistance...

This is outrageous: The torch was being carried by a wheelchair athlete when it was halted and extinguished for a second time due to demonstrators shouting, according to AP. Backup flames, also lit from the birthplace of the ancient games in Olympia, Greece, are with the relay at all times to relight the torch. Earlier protesters close to the River Seine forced authorities to put the torch out and take to a bus so they could continue the relay. Agencies report that the relay has now resumed but...

I wrote last week about the Houston Chronicle’s incomplete description of an at-large suspect. I’m still troubled by the implications there, but there have been further developments in the story itself. It turns out the boy made the story up. (I wrote more here.) Which of the following presents a bigger hazard to society, do you think? 1. PC-driven, incomplete descriptions of at-large suspects, or 2. Jaded cynicism that results when people cry “wolf”. Myself, I think it’s...

So… while folks have been fretting about whether Jane Fonda’s torpedoing Obama, or whether we’re all about to start eating one another, there’s been some grim global-economy news. The NY Times tells us there have been food riots in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen in recent months, and there are rising fears of civil unrest: HANOI — Rising prices and a growing fear of scarcity have prompted some of the world’s largest rice producers to...

Ah yes… the lovely sounds of spring. There are birds a-chirpin’, bees a-buzzin’, blossoms a-burstin’, and the biannual bonus display: Big Oil a-squirmin’. Executives from San Ramon’s Chevron Corp. and four other major oil companies defended their record profits Tuesday before a hostile Congress, led by Democrats who criticized the oil giants for doing little to cut gas prices or invest in renewable energy. It would be funny, if it were… well… funny....

On the north side of Houston yesterday, an 11-year-old boy was almost snatched. After being approached, slapped, and thrown to the ground, he somehow managed to escape and run home. Scary stuff. Luckily, the boy was able to give a description of both his attacker and his vehicle, and Houston police are trying to find the very dangerous would-be abductor. Here’s the online description from the local ABC affiliate: The suspect is described as an African American male wearing a black t-shirt...