Rep. Charles Rangel is the latest politico who wins The Foot In Mouth Award PLUS our Get A Life Award for one of the most extreme and fatuous comments uttered outside of any Rush Limbaugh broadcast:WASHINGTON - Comparing President Bush to the Birmingham, Ala., police commissioner whose resistance to the civil rights movement became synonymous with Southern racism, Rep. Charles … [Read more...] about A Democrat Hurls A Verbal Atomic Bomb

As a diminished but still deadly Hurricane Rita slams into Texas, the Washington Post notes another wind is blowing strong....a political wind....and one that suggests there may be a significant learning curve underway at the White House:The president said he wanted to see the emergency response system from the ground floor at U.S. Northern Command headquarters. "I need to … [Read more...] about Signs The Bush Team Is Learning From Katrina Errors

Michigan's Democratic Senator Carl Levin, ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, has pledged to block President Bush's immigration nominee Julie Myers, who is viewed by many to be underqualified for the position. Now a high ranking Senate Republican is joining his side. The New York Times' David E. Rosenbaum and Steven Labaton have the story. Faced with accusations … [Read more...] about GOP Chair in Senate to Block Bush Immigration Nominee

New Orleans's Times-Picayune provided excellent coverage of Hurricane Katrina (and it continues to cover Hurricane Rita), and I thought it might be useful to have a look at some other Gulf Coast newspapers for good local news. Here's a preliminary list: The Galveston County Daily News The Beaumont Enterprise The Port Arthur News The Lafayette Daily Advertiser In … [Read more...] about Hurricane Rita: In search of local news

Or amaze me anyway. TMVers may not know it, but I am a giant Barack Obama fan. He is just an amazing man in every respect. Those who have not done so should read his autobiography, "Dreams from my Father". Far from a typical self-serving political pump fest (indeed, Obama wrote it well before he entered the political sphere), it is a both readable and insightful tale that … [Read more...] about Obama Continues to Amaze

I've previously written about the rise of avian flu in Asia -- both the WHO warning and the outbreak in Indonesia. But now a new and deadly dog virus has turned up the United States, and it may turn out to be an extremely serious problem. Not good for our canine friends. … [Read more...] about The new dog flu virus

If you'll allow a pause in our coverage of Hurricane Rita, here's some non-Rita-related news: A couple of days ago, I called Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist a "crook" for profiting from an ethically-dubious and perhaps illegal sale of HCA stock just before the share price tumbled following a disappointing earnings report. That is, for insider trading. Dr. Frist, of course, … [Read more...] about The investigation of Bill Frist

Click here for CNN's hurricane tracker. Click here for the latest bulletin from the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane Rita is about 12 hours away from making landfall along the coast of Texas and Louisiana. It's turned slightly to the north, away from Galveston, and now it's taking aim at Beaumont and Port Arthur, a fairly low-lying, marshy area of Texas. Beaumont, in fact … [Read more...] about Hurricane Rita set to slam into Texas and Louisiana

I woke up to the pictures of this horrible tragedy early this morning, and, as details have emerged throughout the day, I simply can't get them out of my mind: The flight from the danger posed by Hurricane Rita turned deadly early Friday as a bus filled with elderly evacuees from the Houston area burst into flames on traffic-packed Interstate 45, leaving as many as 24 people … [Read more...] about Hurricane Rita: 24 die in bus fire on evacuation route

In New Orleans, the worst-hit areas from Hurricane Katrina, including the Lower Ninth Ward, are again under water: Hurricane Rita's steady rains sent water pouring through breaches in a patched levee Friday, cascading into one of the city's lowest-lying neighborhoods in a devastating repeat of New Orleans' flooding nightmare. "Our worst fears came true," said Maj. Barry Guidry … [Read more...] about Hurricane Rita: New Orleans flooded again as levee breaks

Frequently, small changes in initial conditions can result in large differences in the final result. An example can be found here. … [Read more...] about Doing the math

So are there some things that could be done about it? … [Read more...] about Katrina + Rita= Still Higher Gas Prices?

Reason's Hit & Run blog has the strange story of how WorldNetDaily, that early bastion of populist conservatism, managed to pressure a publisher to drop a book on ancient same-sex relationships, based on the abstract of a single chapter:WND apparently regarded the chapter in question as propaganda for pedophiles because it suggested that hybrid lover/mentor relationships … [Read more...] about Conservative website scares publisher into dropping same-sex history book

Hurricane Rita is storming towards Texas — and Louisiana — and everyone is trying to learn the lessons and avoid the mistakes of Hurricane Katrina....a storm now considered one of the worst natural (and political) disasters in U.S. history: (1)Texans are getting out of the Houston/Galveston areas en mass, not making mistakes of New Orleans residents who stayed … [Read more...] about Millions Flee Rita Which Could Also Decimate Refineries

As Rita prepares to bash the Gulf Coast, her eye expected to come ashore somewhere between Galveston and Lake Charles, Texas, coastal residents are fleeing for the interior, causing massive traffic problems in and around Houston as fuel supplies dwindle: Heeding days of dire warnings about Hurricane Rita, as many as 2.5 million people jammed evacuation routes on Thursday, … [Read more...] about Hurricane Rita and the Texas Exodus

TMV will be out of pocket almost the entire day. He will have a few posts but he will be doing light blogging. Check back often, though, since our always independent co-bloggers should have some interesting things to say. Stay tuned (and check back often)! Scroll down because some new good reading is already on this site. … [Read more...] about Light Bloging By TMV Himself Today

From The Washington Post: President Bush today warned Americans to "be prepared for more violence" in Iraq as insurgents seek to disrupt an upcoming referendum on a new constitution, and he declared that there is "no middle ground" in the U.S. war on terrorism. Speaking to reporters after receiving a briefing at the Pentagon on the U.S. war effort, Bush also ruled out any … [Read more...] about President Bush: No pullout from Iraq

To resurrect Roberts's now-famous baseball metaphor from the first day of hearings last week, the Democrats on the SJC struck out. Without even so much as swinging, let alone swinging for the fences. The hearings began with senatorial "self-congratulation", as Dahlia Lithwick put it at Slate, and didn't really go anywhere from there. All we got from Roberts was a declaration … [Read more...] about John G. Roberts 1, Senate Judiciary Committee 0

I suppose I take it for granted that Washington insiders and the various powers-that-be watch, or are at least familiar with, The Daily Show. Jon Stewart is, after all, one of the funniest people in the world (and lately he's been particularly hilarious), and, as John McCain has put it, "the majority of young people say they get their news from the Jon Stewart show". He's … [Read more...] about Jon who? — The Daily Show on Capitol Hill

A protest for piece? … [Read more...] about Tit For Tat On War Policy