From The Wall Street Journal: A new Harris Interactive poll shows American sentiment about the situation in Iraq remains generally gloomy, with fewer than a quarter of Americans saying they are confident U.S. policies in Iraq will be successful. For the first time, a majority of Americans (53%) feels that military action in Iraq was the wrong thing to do, according to the … [Read more...] about Majority now thinks Iraq War was wrong

...this time in the Netherlands due to its appointment as Ambassador. … [Read more...] about The Bush Administration Is Under Fire Again….

A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll says a Democrat could beat President George Bush this year: A majority would vote for a Democrat over President Bush if an election were held this year, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday. In the latest poll, 55 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if Bush were again running … [Read more...] about Poll Says Bush Would Lose If He Ran This Year

This was posted late yesterday so we reposted it for today. Today the inevitable story on the Iraq war hit the wires — and this was the story, wasn't it?A U.S. Army sergeant died of wounds suffered in Iraq, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. The death _ along with two others announced Tuesday _ brought to 2,000 the number of U.S. military members who have died since the … [Read more...] about U.S. Military Deaths In Iraq Hit 2000 — But Another Part Of The Story Is This

It's now official: Iraq's constitution has been approved overwhelmingly by the newly-democratic country's voters. Now comes the hard part. The questions become: is the country ready to endure a long-predicted onslaught from "insurgents" who want to prove that the vote on the constitution isn't worth a hill of beans, will it stabilize the country, or lead to unforeseen — … [Read more...] about Iraq’s Constitution Is Passed — But What Comes Next?

...but instead a milestone where we should re-examine what prejudices we still hold as truths, and consider how they may be regarded 50 years from now, as we now regard the defiance of Rosa Parks 50 years ago. … [Read more...] about The death of Rosa Parks is not the end of an era…

Joe at AMERICAblog points to this from The Washington Note: An uber-insider source has just reported the following to TWN: 1. 1-5 indictments are being issued. The source feels that it will be towards the higher end. 2. The targets of indictment have already received their letters. 3. The indictments will be sealed indictments and "filed" tomorrow. 4. A … [Read more...] about Indictment Update

...regarding what may or may not happen this week in political matters, you can turn to my weblog, Random Fate, where I have posted some photos from Grenoble, France, and I have some ruminations on the technology of the cassette tape. … [Read more...] about For a break from breathless speculation…

For your edification and amusement, here's the third installment of my Miers Withdrawal Watch at The Reaction. Highlights include: More from leading Miers opponent Professor Bainbridge A new conservative website called WithdrawMiers.org David Frum's organization Americans for Better JusticeEnjoy. … [Read more...] about Miers Withdrawal Watch — Part 3

As promised, I have a round-up of reaction in the blogosphere to President Bush's nomination of Ben Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman. I include blogs from across the political spectrum. For my initial post on the nomination, see below. … [Read more...] about BEN BERNANKE update — reaction in the blogosphere

Great article in the Washington Post on gay rights in Africa (H/T: Hilzoy. For my part, some classic "blame the West" analysis here...with the twist that I go after the left too. … [Read more...] about African Gay Rights

E. J. Dionne Jr has some concerns about Ben Bernanke's nomination as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and expresses them in this Washington Post column: No Job for an Ideologue You'd hope that the new chairman of the Federal Reserve Board would learn not only from Alan Greenspan's successes but also from his failures. There is reason to worry that having a Fed chairman so … [Read more...] about E. J. Dionne on Ben Bernanke

See here for my update, along with new images. StormTrack: "Surface pressures of the Mid-Atlantic are dropping steadily as Hurricane Wilma continues to gain strength. The latest advisory lists Wilma as a strong Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph and a central pressure of 959 mb. Wilma is racing northeast at 47 mph. That is very very very fast for a … [Read more...] about Hurricane Wilma heads north

According to Zogby, President Bush's approval rating is back up to 45%: President Bush, his job approval rating beleaguered by poor marks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, rebounded from historic lows this summer to 45% in Zogby International’s latest poll, with job approval numbers bumping back up into the range where they have hovered for most of his second term. The … [Read more...] about Zogby on Bush’s “bounce”

More unsightly image problems for Vice President Dick Cheney...this time in the Plamegate scandal....but whether this is illegal or not remains to be seen:WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity … [Read more...] about Plamegate Discussions Went Up The Cheney Of Command

Here's the latest from Wall Street Poet Michael Silverstein:Supreme Court Angst When our votes got you elected, There were things that we expected, With the high court's new decisions, We were promised big revisions. For appointments we made clear, On the bench what we hold dear, Judges who with God are chummy, Not another lib'ral dummy. Justices who would deposit, All them … [Read more...] about Supreme Court Nomination Poetry

Is the other (elephantine-sized) shoe now slowly dropping in the ongoing saga of President George Bush's generally-panned nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court? With each passing day, the trend certainly seems to increasingly point towards a bleak or historically unenthusiastic endgame for GWB's lawyer, whose selection sparked howls of protests from many … [Read more...] about New Concrete Signs That Miers Nomination Is Doomed?

Yahoo! News has the story from Channel 4 in Detroit.Civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks has died, Local 4 has learned. Parks, 92, reportedly died around 7 p.m. Monday at St. John Hospital on Detroit's east side. Parks' refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955 landed her in jail and sparked a bus boycott that is considered the start of the … [Read more...] about Rosa Parks, 92, Passes Away

My thoughts on blogger influence, past, present, and future. It also includes a reprisal of my "blogger code of the ethics," which runs as follows: 1) I will not be a partisan hack, nor will I engage in hatchet jobs on my political opponents that are grounded weakly or not at all in facts. 2) I will focus predominantly on issues, not personal lives or other tangents. While … [Read more...] about Pumping the Blogger Ego

Latest set of polling has a lot of bad news for the GOP, and just as much good news for Democrats. 2006 could be 1994 all over again (except without a victory by the forces of darkness). … [Read more...] about Poll Watching