Voting is now closed. The Debate Link finished in 2nd Place with nearly 23% of the vote. Thank you all so much for your support--I couldn't have done it without you. In theory, voting ends at the Weblog Awards on December 15th, which in Washington D.C. ended 30 minutes ago. Alas, I have no idea what time zone the polls close in. So, would someone be so kind to check if they … [Read more...] about Last Chance(?)

Does playing nice make politics more naughty? … [Read more...] about The Paradox of Non-Partisanship

At least the pennies and nickels. Confused? Don't be. You're literally not going to believe this... Because of the prevailing prices of metals, the cost of producing pennies and nickels exceeds the coins’ face value. A nickel is 25 percent nickel and 75 percent copper. The metal in one coin costs 6.99 cents for each 5-cent coin. Modern pennies have 2.5 percent copper … [Read more...] about Melt Down Your Money

Florida and California today suspended the death penalty due to problems with the lethal injection process. In Florida, the lethal injection took twice as long to execute convicted murderer Angel Nieves Diaz, and in California, a US Federal judge ruled that recent botched executions suggest that the state's lethal injection system violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition … [Read more...] about Beginning of the End of the Death Penalty in America?

Jimmy Carter has a very weird conception of how one starts a debate: Former President Carter turned down a request to debate Alan Dershowitz about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying the outspoken Harvard law professor "knows nothing about the situation." Carter, author of a new book advocating "peace not apartheid" in the region, said he will not visit Brandeis … [Read more...] about There’s No Debate

Is anybody else round these parts having trouble with Blogger today? It takes forever to load "blogspot" sites (and when they finally come up, the header bar doesn't load at all), and I can't get into the dashboard to create or modify posts at all (that's why I haven't written anything there today, FYI). Anyone have a clue what's going on? Normally it isn't down for this … [Read more...] about Blogger Ails

Congressman Tom Price of Georgia writes on The Hill Blog: ">Democrats Have a Difficult Time With the Truth Hypocrisy reigns in the legislative process. The 110th Congress has yet to begin, but Democrats are putting in place plans to deny Republicans the opportunity to fully participate in the legislative process. Their claims of having the “most open and honest government … [Read more...] about Hypocrisy

Condi Rice has rejected the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that the U.S. engage Iran and Syria in diplomatic talks. What else will Bush do with the ISG as he plans a new strategy for Iraq? ********** The Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group has gotten most of the attention as Bush and his warmongers prepare some newfangled course of action that is now likely to revealed in the … [Read more...] about A lost war: Pentagon planning and President Bush’s final push for victory in Iraq

John Hinderaker thinks he's got a fool-proof way to get the country behind George W. Bush again, and deal with the Iranian threat at the same time! So here is what you, President Bush, should do: take as a model the Cuban Missile Crisis. First John Kennedy, then Adlai Stevenson, laid before the world the evidence, in the form of aerial photographs, that the Soviet Union was … [Read more...] about Who Can Tell Me Why This Won’t Work?

The new daily routine: the literary quote of the day... For those who already read a lot, perhaps you recognize the quote and want to leave a comment about it / the author... or perhaps it makes you realize that you did not read the specific essay, article, book, story, poem, etc. it was taken from and you might want to read it now. For those who don't read a lot, hopefully … [Read more...] about Literary Quote of the Day: Frederick Douglass

Photo by (co-blogger) Paul Silver who visited Cuba twice: click on image in order to see it in its original size Karen DeYoung reports for the WaPo that Castro is "very ill and close to death" according to DNI John Negroponte:"Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years," Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and … [Read more...] about Castro Close to Death

A opinion columnist at The Cincinnati Enquirer honors James Madison:He was 5-feet-4, weighed 100 pounds, had a quiet voice that was often hard to hear, and was so shy he dreaded having to talk to a group larger than a few people. Yet he was a towering figure in American history. His name was James Madison, and every year on Dec. 15, the anniversary of the ratification of the … [Read more...] about Honoring Madison

Since the recent death of Augusto Pinochet, Chile's former dictator, the American right has gone to great and morally vacuous lengths to come to his defence, to excuse him, to apologize for him, even to praise him. He wasn't nearly as bad as Castro (or Allende, whom he overthrew — or any other socialist, for that matter), goes the right-is-always-better-than-left … [Read more...] about Pinochet, Goldberg, and moral degeneracy

Over at AMERICAblog, an interesting read regarding "the sudden resignation of Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S."In just the past few weeks, the Saudis have made constant headlines. First with a highly inflammatory WaPo op-ed by a consultant to the ambassador, which indicated that the Kingdom was planning to intervene in Iraq on the side of the Sunnis and … [Read more...] about Follow-up on Saudi ambassador’s resignation

">An independent commission yesterday proposed dramatic changes that would shake up American public education in an effort to make the nation more competitive globally. The recommendations include authorizing school districts to pay companies to run all their schools; enrolling many students in college after the 10th grade; and paying teachers about $100,000 annually. The … [Read more...] about Bipartisan Proposal on Education Reform

I do. Seriously. Both for personal reasons — I lived in Mendham for a few years and graduated from West Morris Mendham H.S. — and for political reasons. What political reasons, you ask? Consider: A) Same-sex marriage:A bill to allow gay couples to form civil unions with all the rights and responsibilities of married couples won final approval in the Legislature … [Read more...] about I love New Jersey

But how they do they react when it happens the other way around? … [Read more...] about Big Corporations Hate It When Someone Takes THEIR Brand Names

John McCain says that the Pentagon is considering sending up to 10 Army combat brigades to Iraq, or about 35,000 more troops at most, although he acknowledges that only a small minority of Americans now support such a move. The Army and Army Reserve are stretched so thin that some units are being rotated back to Iraq for a third time, although observers say that this state of … [Read more...] about The Iraqi War Conundrum: Version 3.8

Jib Jab's latest — a animated musical review of 2006: Nuckin' Futs! The JibJab Year in Review | Send To Friends | Funny Animations at JibJab … [Read more...] about “Nuckin’ Futs!”

I was raised in a home where, no matter what, you showed respect to the person who holds the title "President of the United States." You might not like that person, or agree with him, but you showed respect to him and to the office. Period. I have not always followed that rule with the current President, but I do think he deserves credit for what he said to People magazine … [Read more...] about Give Him Credit, But Expect More