Politics:
The anticipation of reading is almost always wonderful, but the actual reading is often frustrating. You can spend hours enjoying the wonderful indecision of the bookstore before you walk away with the comforting weight of a new release hardcover...
Read on »
Posted on April 7, 2008 1:23 PM • 16 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
There were three more Presidential primaries yesterday - Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC. Turnout in all three of them was high yesterday, at least on the Democratic side. The numbers for all three areas are good, but I'm most...
Posted on February 13, 2008 1:52 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It looks like there's definitely going to be a little bit of good political news for everyone tonight - a statement released by leading theocon James Dobson:...
Read on »
Posted on February 5, 2008 5:45 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's Super Tuesday, but the primaries aren't the only political action in town. My kids came up with an election of their own. They created, and are both running for, the position of "President of the House." Both of...
Posted on February 5, 2008 9:59 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's been a couple of days since I posted on the New Hampshire recount. At the time, I fully expected that I wouldn't do another post on the topic, but a couple of things that have happened since then...
Read on »
Posted on January 18, 2008 10:59 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The Bush Administration has once again managed to reach new levels of self-parody. This time, the subject is stem cell research, and they've taken a position on funding new research that incorporates the classic Catch-22 problem. Sadly, though, the Catch-22 lacks anything that bears the faintest resemblance to humor when it's used to block funding for potentially lifesaving research.
Read on »
Posted on January 11, 2008 9:45 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
As the dust settles in New Hampshire, people are starting to talk about the winners and losers, and what it all means in the grand scheme of the election. Some are looking for excuses reasons why Obama didn't actually...
Read on »
Posted on January 9, 2008 11:02 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Today's Wall Street Journal has a page A1 article (and accompanying blog post) about John Edward's decision to invoke the Nataline Sarkisyan case in his campaign-trail discussions of health care. Sarkisyan, you may remember, was the 17-year-old California girl...
Read on »
Posted on January 7, 2008 11:56 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the first pieces of legislation on the United States Senate's agenda for today will be the revision of the FISA wiretapping bill. The Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, is planning to move forward a bill that would...
Posted on December 17, 2007 10:03 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Last night, in Oslo, Al Gore delivered a simple, powerful message. It's a familiar message to anyone who has watched him speak since 2000, or watched his movie, or read his books. It's simply a call for nothing more...
Read on »
Posted on December 11, 2007 12:22 PM • 7 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In all of the fuss about the imminent confirmation of a man who says he can't judge whether or not strapping someone down and pouring water over them until they think they're drowning is torture, there's an important question...
Posted on November 6, 2007 10:25 AM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's not often that I start a post with an apology (that usually comes later) but I think I have to this time. Dr. Watson, I'm sorry that I've got your name in the same title as Westboro Baptist....
Read on »
Posted on November 1, 2007 10:52 AM • 19 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Seriously, though, Peake certainly has the qualifications to run the VA. He's a West Pointer, he is a combat veteran who served in the infantry and was wounded twice in Vietnam, he's a medical doctor, and he was the Surgeon General of the United States Army. As a nominee for VA Secretary, he's an absolute slam dunk. Or would be, anyway, if it wasn't for one very small problem: his old address.
Posted on October 30, 2007 9:42 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Several days ago, Senator (and longshot Presidential candidate) Christopher Dodd (D-CT) made some news by promising to do whatever he could to block any legislation that would retroactively grant immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with President Bush's warrentless...
Read on »
Posted on October 24, 2007 2:04 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Here are a few numbers from the latest Reuters-Zogby poll. See if you can find the one that's not like the others: Rated President Bush's performance as excellent or good: 25% Rated Congress' performance as excellent or good: 11%...
Read on »
Posted on October 22, 2007 8:53 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Google news is currently featuring a comment by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on the House of Representatives' failed attempt to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP expansion. The comment reads in part: "I remain committed to working with...
Posted on October 20, 2007 11:53 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
(He didn't do it on purpose, of course.) According to Bill-O, the world would be a scary, scary, scary place if Edwards is elected president: Remember, no coerced interrogation, civilian lawyers in courts for captured overseas terrorists, no branding...
Posted on October 12, 2007 1:19 PM • 2 Comments •
As you are undoubtedly aware, this year's Nobel Peace Prize is being split between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore, in recognition of "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change,...
Read on »
Posted on October 12, 2007 12:20 PM • 17 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It looks like Nancy Pelosi might be getting just a wee bit frustrated with the Democratic base. It also looks like she's got a lack of understanding of the proper relationship between politicians and the people that sorely needs...
Posted on October 11, 2007 9:49 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the alleged facts that President Bush loves to point at when he's trying to justify his veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) expansion is that the new bill would have allowed New York to...
Read on »
Posted on October 8, 2007 11:24 AM • 26 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've spent part of this morning doing some fairly serious research on health insurance in the United States, and who doesn't have it. My curiosity on the subject was stirred up by a couple of things: after looking at...
Read on »
Posted on October 5, 2007 10:47 AM • 16 Comments •
These kids don't have pencils and paper. If that doesn't make you mad, I don't know what would. Pencils and bloody paper. What the hell are we doing as a nation when we've got public school teachers who have to rely on the generosity of strangers to get pencils and paper for their students. What does that say about us. The White House has an annual budget of $300 million. The legislative branch spends $3,700 million of our dollars on itself every year. But teachers have to write proposals and hope that individual Americans will be generous enough to help them make sure that their students have pencils and paper???
Read on »
Posted on October 4, 2007 1:19 PM • 2 Comments •
There are times when I wish I was a right-wing hack. If I was, I could let the title of this post stand just as it is, and attack the President for his lack of support for military families....
Read on »
Posted on October 3, 2007 6:51 PM • 2 Comments •
Several Democrats in the House of Representatives unveiled a revolutionary plan today that would radically change the way we are paying for the war in Iraq. Their shocking plan has been strongly condemned by Republicans around the country, and...
Read on »
Posted on October 2, 2007 9:24 PM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Gotta love it. The Senate today took a break from being paralyzed by Republican "No Up-Or-Down-Vote For You" obstructionists. They had to. You see, it's important for people to understand that the Senate isn't going to stand still when...
Read on »
Posted on September 20, 2007 5:43 PM • 9 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Every time I read articles (like this one, this one, this one or this one) that talk about how the Democrats are having problems getting the 60 votes in the Senate that they need to move Iraq legislation forward, or how they won't be able to get the 2/3rds of both houses that they need to beat a veto, I get angrier. And not with the Republicans who are standing in the way.
Posted on September 19, 2007 11:12 AM • 12 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Once again, John "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" McCain went and said something stupid at a campaign stop. And, once again, he got caught on video doing it. This time, he went just slightly overboard in his criticism...
Posted on September 17, 2007 10:34 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Mike Dunford is a graduate student in the Department of Zoology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, where he studies evolution. He's also a contributer to The Pandas Thumb. As is the case with everyone else here, his opinions are his own, and do not necessarily represent those of any organization he is affiliated with. 
