John McCain’s Houses
How rich and out of touch with ordinary American working stiffs is John McCain? Why, he doesn't even know how many houses he owns! This story, published by The Politico, is now the top story on Memeorandum. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own. "I think — I'll ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 21, 2008 12:59
John McCain: Shadow President?
John McCain is taking advantage of Barack Obama's "foreign vacation" in Hawaii and using the crisis in Georgia to showcase his foreign policy prowess. He's dispatched his minions, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, to Georgia. TPM's Greg Sargent figures, The idea is to showcase himself as a man of action during a time of international crisis and to remind people that the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 14, 2008 08:47
Munich Revisited: Is Putin Hitler?
Andrew Sullivan lambasts John McCain's bellicosity on Russia as displayed in his "Today We Are All Georgians" speech: Sully retorts: All of this is quite potty. Russia is no longer the Soviet Union. You'd think conservatives would understand this distinction. There is a difference between totalitarian states seeking world expansion and authoritarian petro-states in demographic collapse bullying neighboring states because of perceived ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 13, 2008 11:48
Attack Politics Nothing New
Andrew Sullivan posts some reader quotes from the election of 1800, pitting John Adams against his ostensible vice president, Thomas Jefferson. As those who have studied such things already knew, they aren't pretty. There are an alarming number that sound like they came straight from this election: Adams was mocked for being old. Jefferson was considered a man of the people ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 5, 2008 06:51
Judge Judy Republicans
Andrew Sullivan, who successfully coined the term "South Park Republicans," is trying out a new one: "Judge Judy Republicans." He does so in a persuasive response to a new book by his Atlantic colleagues Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam. I think that moniker is a little more fitting - if a little less marketable - for Ross' and Reihan's hoped-for constituency ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 14, 2008 16:01
Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama’s Cohones
Jesse Jackson's statement that Barack Obama's "talking down to black people" makes him so angry that he "wants to cut his nuts out" has caused quite the stir. Charles Hurt of the NY Post has the most concise report: In a vulgar tirade caught on tape by Fox News, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said he wanted to "cut his [Barack Obama's] nuts ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 10, 2008 07:14
Blog Linking Less Important?
Louis Gray believes the importance of blog linkage is declining, noting that, "I've seen traffic from other blogs to be driving an ever-declining percentage of visits to my site, swamped by social media tools, aggregation sites, and of course, Google search." He offers three likely explanations: 1. People are relying on aggregators to find them new sources of information, including ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 8, 2008 08:17
Al Qaeda in Iraq Defeated?
Al Qaeda in Iraq [AQI] is all but defeated, Marie Colvin reports for The Sunday Times. A huge operation to crush the 1,200 fighters who remained from a terrorist force once estimated at more than 12,000 began on May 10. Operation Lion’s Roar, in which the Iraqi army combined forces with the Americans’ 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment, has already resulted in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 6, 2008 07:56
Conservative Bloggers Silent On Torture?
Shaun Mullen wonders "Why Are Right-of-Center Bloggers So Silent On Torture?" He searched high and low and could find no right-of-center bloggers who made any mention at all, for example, of yesterday's NYT story "China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo." I'd note that Andrew Sullivan wrote roughly 600 posts on the subject yesterday, including this one, which pretty well covered our bases. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 3, 2008 11:28
Walmart’s New Logo
Wal-Mart is now Walmart and they've got a happy, shiny, new logo: The "Save Money. Live Better." branding is probably a step forward. I'm rather dubious about the non-hyphenated name change, although that was actually the store's original name. The logo is an improvement over its very dated predecessor but I share Armin's reaction of, "Really? This is the best Walmart ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 2, 2008 08:25
