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...

Late last week, Newt Gingrich delivered a curious, under-reported speech at the American Enterprise Institute. He called it, “Answering the Obama Challenge”, and it was framed as a response to Barack Obama’s historic speech about race. (Video and transcript available here. My emphasis.) Segregation was a horrible institution imposed by force by the state. It ruined the lives of people, it crippled their futures, it was a terrible injustice, and it is totally authentic to be...

Via memeorandum comes the first general election ad of the season. America, meet John McCain — war hero, former POW, and patriot extraordinaire: No doubt we will all know his Navy serial # (624787) by heart before this is all done… and why not? He was a hero indeed; I, for one, admire his service and courage enormously. And he’s gonna need all those laurels to support his position on the Iraq war. (Good luck with that.) And while he could have run this ad without subtly targeting...

Angela Winters’ earlier post on Barack Obama’s speech this morning has generated some wonderful discussion. I’m enormously grateful for those thoughtful comments, since I’m truly not an economy expert. (I’d describe it as barely literate…) But there was also a bit of buzz before the speech, centered up on Mayor Bloomberg’s introduction of Obama. Is an endorsement in the offing? Or (even more politically affecting) is there the possibility of an Obama-Bloomberg...

ABC is running a doozy of a story (with video) about now-retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright. There’s been quite a flurry of these in the last couple of days, but the kickback from this one, I think, is going to be massive. For instance: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people,” he said in a 2003...

My inbox this morning was full to the brim with notes from people sharing election results. The typical email started off with, “I’m so sorry, but it looks like Hillary won Texas…” I’m sorry, too. But sadness about the Texas primary results isn’t the overriding emotion this morning. What I feel, rather, is a tremendous and uplifting sense of community. I talked to hundreds of people in my precinct yesterday — so many that my voice is gone this morning....

As Joe wrote in a prior post, it looks as if Hillary Clinton’s embrace of negative campaigning is working. When tomorrow comes, if Hillary Clinton has taken Ohio (as I expect she will), and come close in Texas (which I also expect), then I’m certain she’ll declare her intention to continue her campaign to Pennsylvania and beyond. For her supporters, this is no doubt very exciting… but personally, I’m relieved that I’m not a partisan Democrat. If I were, I’d...

Iran’s president doesn’t appear to have had anything new to say during his visit to Iraq: BAGHDAD – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed U.S. accusations that his country is training extremists and demanded that the Americans withdraw from Iraq. My first reaction was that his opinion on the matter isn’t the one that counts. If it were the Iraqi government saying that the US should leave, though, that would be another situation entirely. However, I...

In response to an article today in the Times of London, blogger Jeralyn at TalkLeft writes that she doesn’t feel comfortable with what she knows about Barack Obama, and that if he wins the Democratic nomination, she’ll “be voting for him with [her] fingers crossed”. (My own response to the Times article is here.) Here on TMV, our own Holly has similarly given voice to concerns, and even gone so far as to write that if Obama is the nominee, she’ll be voting for McCain. I...

Barely a day after The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill put out an article about Barack Obama’s position on private military contractors, Hillary Clinton has signed onto a bill banning their use: “Washington, DC – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced today that she has cosponsored legislation to ban the use of Blackwater and other private mercenary firms in Iraq. Presumably she thinks she sees an exploitable opening in the Obama position. From The Nation: “If Barack Obama...

Continuing the unhelpful theme of “just stop saying this stuff”, the RNC has chastised its terrified Tennessee representatives: (CNN) – Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan formally denounced Thursday the Tennessee Republican Party’s use of Barack Obama’s full name in a recent press release questioning the Illinois senator’s commitment to Israel. “The RNC rejects these kinds of campaign tactics,” RNC Chairman Mike Duncan said in a statement....

One of the more disturbing moments in Tuesday night’s debate was when Tim Russert pinned the candidates down on NAFTA — specifically, on holding the “opt-out” hammer over the heads of Canada and Mexico to renegotiate terms. Here’s the “button-up” from Russert to Clinton: MR. RUSSERT: But let me button this up. Absent the change that you’re suggesting, you are willing to opt out of NAFTA in six months? SEN. CLINTON: I’m confident that...

During the debate last night, it was obvious that the moderators were focused (almost obsessively) on getting their questions answered. All by itself, that made the entire event much different from previous debates, and at the general level, they should be commended for it. It’s been frustrating in the extreme to hear candidates wander off on tangents, and never get called back to the initial point. Furthermore, I felt that the debate format, and most of the questions (yes, even the silly...

I showed up a few minutes early yesterday to pick up Adorable Child from a birthday party, and as has happened with nearly every adult encounter in the last week, another parent and I began talking about the primary election. While people eddied about us (including an entire family decked out in Obama t-shirts), our dialogue ran along now-familiar lines: he watched the Democratic debate in Austin last week; he still isn’t sure he’s fully informed; he’s leaning toward Obama. Having...