In an Effort to Avoid Me Ranting Endlessly
ArchPundit
Just go donate ot Obama and the DCCC–ads at the right. AustinMayor made the point and given Clarke analysis could take a whole blog to itself–you can visit such a blog at the right as well.
2004
Bush Ballot Access
I was going to comment on the bill to give Bush access to the Illinois ballot, but Jeff Trigg seems to be on top of it quite well.
You know, if you are going to exploit 9-11 and push your convention back–don’t come asking for favors about ballot access unless you are going to reform the whole deal. What will be interesting is if Madigan decides to not give Bush a break, who will be at fault in the spinning–the people sticking to the law or the people trying to skirt the law to exploit a tragedy?
Obama On Tavis Smiley
I haven’t had a chance to listen in yet. Tavis has a voice for print.
Dembski/Lott Half Dozen the other
Via Tim Lambert
It appears that both pseudoscientific gun researchers and pseodoscientific intelligent design proponents tend to fake Amazon reviews.
Groan. Sigh. Why?
Open Thread With A Provocative Question
Let’s say that the administration would attempt a smear on a critics sexual orientation to defend itself against that critic’s charges. Would that strategy:
A) Be Preposterous
B) Be Beyond Ridiculous-no one would ever do it
C) Have the potential to boomerang
D) Cause everyone to drop their jaws and stare at their stupidity in wonder
E) Be A sign of the apocalypse as recounted in the most recent Left Behind Book
F) Be Business as usual for the current morons who keep lowering the level to which I think they’ll sink
G) All of the above
What Would Happen if Newsgroup Got A Blog?
We no longer have to ask as the best posters from talk.origins have joined the blogosphere in a fantastic undertaking: The Panda’s Thumb
Contributors to talk.origins who I recognize are:
Wesley R. Elsberry
PZ Myer (who owns his own blog)
Ian Musgrave
John Wilkins
Dave Thomas
I’m sure some of the others have spent some time in talk.origins, but I haven’t visited in a while. I hope Gans, Louann and Pat James play in comments.
Can Nyikos and the idiot Schlafly boys be far behind.
Has the Onion Switched Web Sites?
Via Josh Marshall
U.S. officials told NBC News that the full record of Clarke?s testimony two years ago would not be declassified. They said that at the request of the White House, however, the CIA was going through the transcript to see what could be declassified, with an eye toward pointing out contradictions.
Not to overstate this, but this is a gross and egregious misuse of the security apparatus. In other words, WRONG! I’m quickly becoming radicalized by the events of the last few days.
Turow on Obama
It helps to have an excellent writer profile you who happens to like you a lot.
I find the most interesting to be his ability to analyze legislation
In retrospect, that walk through the political shadows proved a turning point in Obama’s career. He recommitted himself to the Illinois Senate, where his intelligence and his growing savvy about the legislative process were combining to make him increasingly formidable. When Democrats took over the chamber in 2003, Obama won General Assembly approval of 26 bills, including legislation to expand healthcare benefits for uninsured children and adults, an earned income tax credit for low earners, and major criminal justice reforms.
The latter measures were of particular interest to me. In the summer of 2002, Obama had called me to get together to talk about death-penalty reform. For more than two years, I had sat as one of the 14 members of the Commission on Capital Punishment, a body that Gov. Ryan had appointed in 2000, after declaring a moratorium on executions in Illinois because of a growing record of mistakes in the capital process, most notably the death sentences of 13 individuals who were subsequently exonerated. In April 2002, the commission issued its report, including 85 recommendations for reform of Illinois’ laws.
Despite Ryan’s support for our recommendations, resistance to the measures ran deep in the General Assembly, due in large part to the barely tempered rage that had been been expressed by many Illinois prosecutors. After appearing at legislative hearings that spring, I grew skeptical that any of the proposals would become law. When I met Obama the following summer, he went through the recommendations with me, analyzing which proposed reforms had a chance of passing and which did not. I was impressed not only by the shrewdness of his analysis but also by his lack of rancor about those who disagreed with him and, most of all, by his refusal to bow to conventional wisdom about what was possible. There were a couple of provisions that had essentially been pronounced DOA, where I remember Obama saying, We might be able to do something there.
Oh, and no I haven’t seen any polls, but I check the Hotline every day so as soon as I see ’em, so will you.
A Tale of Two Web Sites
On the one hand we have a web site done by 1871 Media, a quite good on-line company that does sites such as Georgia’s Political Vine, The Illinois House Republicans, Jack Ryan for Senate, Chris Lauzen’s site, and the Illinois Leader. They produce the Illinois GOP site.
On the other, we have the Illinois Democratic Party.
Trending Demcratic or not, Illinois Dems need better than this. Feel free to send this to Steve Brown in Madigan’s office and see if the problem registers with him.
What Should They Have Done Differently?
OneMan is also running a good series on what Republican candidates should have done differently in the primary. The last is Jim Oberweis with the others linked from that entry. I hope he’ll continue to some of the others. I was thinking of the same for the Dems, but I think it is obvious so I’m leaning towards not ripping off his schtick. Any comments?