"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." - Quote attributed to H. L. Mencken

Rudy Awakening: Why Giuliani would be even worse than Bush

Seeded on Wed Oct 24, 2007 9:10 AM EDT (WashingtonMonthly.com)

Choosing the best presidential candidate among the 2008 contenders is a tough job. Picking the worst is easy.

politics, united-states, president, constitution, conservative, rudy-giuliani, election-2008, religious-right, arrogance

Tobacco Industry Efforts Undermining Evidence Linking Secondhand Smoke With Cardiovascular Disease

Seeded on Thu Oct 18, 2007 1:34 PM EDT ()

The scientific consensus that secondhand smoke (SHS) increases cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk by 30% is based on epidemiological and biological evidence.

science, tobacco, tobacco-industry, risk-factors, cardiovascular-disease-risk, tobacco-control-research

The buzz on Gore's Nobel Peace Prize: While it ruffles the feathers of his detractors, studies continue to support Gore's position.

Seeded on Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:08 PM EDT (Christian Science Monitor)

That sound of grinding teeth you hear this week is coming from global-warming skeptics and their fans in the blogosphere. The reason? Al Gore's Nobel Peace Prize, awarded for his work on climate change

science, national-review, nobel-prize, climate-change, gore, al-gore, peace-prize, global-warming

Contraception Foe Named to Contraception Post

Seeded on Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:01 PM EDT (Wall Street Journal)

The Department of Health and Human Services appointed Susan Orr — who has spoken out against contraception — to a post responsible for U.S. contraception programs.

politics, family-research-council, bush-adminisration, fundamentalism, contraception

Rightwing Political Correctness: Thou Shalt Not Admit that tax cuts increased deficits

Seeded on Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:52 PM EDT (WashingtonMonthly.com)

Kevin Drum takes a look a recent conservative pundits admission that her review of a book was spiked soley because it included the following factual statement: "the Laffer Curve didn't apply at American levels of taxation."

politics, laffer-curve, ronald-reagan, united-states, taxation, economics, ideology

Spokesman for GOP Senate Leader Admits Spreading Attacks on Frost, but recanted

Seeded on Tue Oct 16, 2007 11:16 AM EDT (The Louisville Courier-Journal)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's spokesman acknowledged yesterday that he alerted reporters last week to questions bloggers raised about the financial circumstances of a 12-year-old boy Democrats had used to urge passage of an expanded children's health insurance program.

politics, kentucky-republicans, conservative-michelle-malkin, state-childrens, mitch-mcconnells, don-stewart, smear, graeme-frost, schip, s-chip

Former Top General in Iraq Faults Bush Administration

Seeded on Mon Oct 15, 2007 9:46 AM EDT (The New York Times)

In a sweeping indictment of the four-year effort in Iraq, the former top American commander called the Bush administration's handling of the war incompetent and warned that the United States was "living a nightmare with no end in sight."

politics, iraq, iraq-war, general, bush-administration, incompetence, ricardo-s-sanchez, sanchez, general-sanchez, abu-ghraib

Ann Coulter's Disastrous Political Strategy: 'Take Away Women's Right To Vote'

Seeded on Fri Oct 5, 2007 8:30 AM EDT (Think Progress)

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen.

politics, ann-coulter, votes, democracy, white-men, coulter, inflamatory, polemics

Breaking: Larry Craig to remain in Senate.

Seeded on Thu Oct 4, 2007 4:36 PM EDT (craig.senate.gov)

"I will continue to serve Idaho in the United States Senate, and there are several reasons for that. As I continued to work for Idaho over the past three weeks here in the Senate, I have seen that it is possible for me to work here effectively.

politics, larry-craig, craig, gop, republican, united-states, sentate, reneg

Many soldiers get boot for 'pre-existing' mental illness

Seeded on Thu Oct 4, 2007 9:50 AM EDT (The St Louis Post Dispatch)

Thousands of U.S. soldiers in Iraq — as many as 10 a day — are being discharged by the military for mental health reasons. But the Pentagon isn't blaming the war. It says the soldiers had "pre-existing" conditions that disqualify them for treatment by the government.

us-news, veterans-administration, defense-department, iraq-war, mental-illness, soldiers, military, pentagon

Secret U.S. Expansive Endorsement of Harshest Interrogation Tactics

Seeded on Thu Oct 4, 2007 9:19 AM EDT (The New York Times)

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture "abhorrent" in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

us-news, torture, gonzales, attorney-gereral, cia, interrogation, bush-administration, war-on-terror, presidential-power, constitution

State Department: "Iraq is not capable of even rudimentary enforcement of anticorruption laws"

Seeded on Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:30 PM EDT (WashingtonMontlhy.com)

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED Not for distribution to personnel outside of the US Embassy in Baghdad Iraq Working Draft

world-news, state-department, iraq, corruption, law

VACLAV HAVEL: Our Moral Footprint

Seeded on Thu Sep 27, 2007 3:24 PM EDT (The New York Times)

OVER the past few years the questions have been asked ever more forcefully whether global climate changes occur in natural cycles or not, to what degree we humans contribute to them, what threats stem from them and what can be done to prevent them.

world-news, vaclav-havel, united-states, global-warming, morality

Iraq Among Worlds Most Corrupt Nations

Seeded on Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:53 AM EDT (US News & World Report)

In the perpetual evaluation of how much (or how little) progress Iraq is making these days, the government in Baghdad faces another unwanted superlative—third most corrupt country in the world.

world-news, transparency-international, corruption, iraq, world-report, burma

Democratic Party Maintains Solid Image Advantage Over GOP: Public Prefers Democratic Party to Republican for handling terrorism, military security

Seeded on Tue Sep 25, 2007 3:31 PM EDT (Galluppoll.com)

Public attitudes toward the two major political parties have not changed much in recent months. That's good news for the Democratic Party, which moved into a superior image position when compared to the Republican Party more than a year ago.

politics, national-security, democratic-party, republican-party, poll, survey, united-states, terrorism, gallup

NY Legislator Threatens Columbia University for allowing President of Iran to Speak

Seeded on Mon Sep 24, 2007 3:52 PM EDT (The New York Sun)

As the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, prepares to address Columbia University today amid a storm of student protest, state and city lawmakers say they are considering withholding public funds from the school to protest its decision to invite the leader to campus.

politics, first-amendment, government-repression, free-speech, market-place-of-ideas, united-states, iran, ahmadinejad

Americans Deeply Dissatisfied With Nation's Governance: But Most Republicans Still Satisfied

Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:39 PM EDT

According to Gallup the public is more dissatisfied with the national government than they have been for decades with the most recent levels exceeding the recorded level of dissatisfaction during the middle of Watergate during the Nixon Administration.

Continue reading this entry ...

politics, united-states, polls, federal-goveernment, national, public-sattisfaction, bush-administration, nixon-adminisration, partisan, polarized

Bush Pulls Switcheroo and Slips Surprise Acting AG Switch into Mukasey Announcement

Seeded on Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:27 PM EDT (TPMuckraker.com)

Bush threw an unexpected change-up in his announcement this morning.

politics, peter-keisler, acting-assistant, attorney-general, gonzales, resignation, michael-mukasey, mukasey, keisler, bush

Bush to Name Ex-Judge as Successor to Gonzales

Seeded on Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:17 AM EDT (The New York Times)

President Bush has decided to nominate Michael B.

us-news, bush, united-states, attorney-general, gonzales, michael-b-mukasey, mukasey, confirmation, senate, michael-mukasey

Greenspan Attacks Bush on Fiscal Policy and Lauds Clinton

Seeded on Sat Sep 15, 2007 1:02 PM EDT (The New York Times)

Alan Greenspan, who was chairman of the Federal Reserve for nearly two decades, in a long-awaited memoir, is harshly critical of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and the Republican-controlled Congress, as abandoning their party's principles on spending and deficits.

us-news, alan-greenspan, bush, clinton, fiscal-policy, elections, united-states, republicans, greenspan, federal-reserve

Senate Intelligence Panel Seeks CIA Nominee's Withdrawal

Seeded on Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:54 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

Members of the Senate intelligence committee have requested the withdrawal of the Bush administration's choice for CIA general counsel, acknowledging that John Rizzo's nomination has stalled because of concerns about his views on the treatment of terrorism suspects....

us-news, torture-memo, torture, war-on-terror, united-states, senate, intelligence-committee, cia, general-counsel, human-rights

Iraq government near collapse, CRS report says

Seeded on Thu Sep 6, 2007 3:34 PM EDT (NY Daily News)

Lawmakers returning here this week got hit with more bad news about Iraq in a confidential report that says the fragile democracy is "collapsing," the Daily News has learned.

world-news, iraq, government, iraq-war, crs, collapse

GAO: Homeland Security Agency Failing to Meet Security Benchmarks

Seeded on Thu Sep 6, 2007 9:55 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

Hobbled by inadequate funding, unclear priorities, continuing reorganizations and the absence of an overarching strategy, the Department of Homeland Security is failing to achieve its mission of preventing and responding to terrorist attacks or natural disasters, according to a c …

us-news, homeland-security, republican-white-house, michael-chertoff, gao, government, failure, leadership

Up is Down and Down is Up: Troop Deaths Actually Up Despite Bush Claims

Seeded on Fri Aug 31, 2007 3:27 PM EDT (WashingtonMontly.com)

I saw on CNN this smarmy Bush administration official come and and say that US troop deaths had fallen because of the surge, which is why we should support it. Just read the following chart bottom to top and compare 2006 month by month to 2007. US troop deaths haven't fallen.

world-news, iraq, propagnada, troops, troop-deats, statistics, bush-administration, surge, iraq-war

Bush tax cuts make balancing the budget, funding benefits an impossibility

Seeded on Wed Aug 29, 2007 4:32 PM EDT ()

New projections from the Congressional Budget Office provide the ingredients for two important stories about the nation's fiscal condition if the Bush tax cuts are extended rather than allowed to expire.

us-news, congressional-budget-office, alternative-minimum-tax, social-security, tax-cuts, deficits, debt, fiscal-responsibility, united-states, taxes

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Rudy Awakening: Why Giuliani would be even worse than Bush
Source: WashingtonMonthly.com
Choosing the best presidential candidate among the 2008 contenders is a tough job. Picking the worst is easy.
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NASA Withholding Troubling Airline Safety Results
Source: ABC News
Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.
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Why does Newsvine Allow Political PR Organizations to Seed "Astroturf" Content?
As you may know I have voiced my concern in the past as to how Newsvine can be the target of inflammatory or inaccurate views, and hopefully Newsvine can make progress in promoting better content.
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Divorce of Right-Winger Richard Mellon Scaife Is Full of Tawdry Details Including No Pre-Nup
Source: The Washington Post
excerpt: "Looking for a perfect little weekend vacation this fall? Here's a travel tip you don't hear very often: Head to Pittsburgh. Right away.
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NASA won't disclose air safety survey - Yahoo! News
Source: Yahoo! News
NASA apparently thinks protecting airline profits is more important than passengers' right to know how safe or unsafe they are when flying. They will not disclose the results of their recent survey on airline safety.
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