The More Things Change…
America's greatest journalist, Radley Balko, has an excellent piece on why a Clinton II Presidency would differ very little from the Bush II Presidency.For seven years, the left has been up in arms about President Bush's aggressive foreign policy, his secrecy, his partisanship, and his expansive claims on executive power. It's odd, then, that they're prepared to nominate Hillary Clinton ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on October 23, 2007 00:52
France to Rejoin NATO Military Command
All signs point to France rejoining NATO's military structure more than forty years after declaring its independence and kicking the alliance headquarters out of Paris. Norman Polmar provides some background: France is expected to soon rejoin NATO's military command after a 40-year absence. The French government withdrew from the NATO military structure in 1966 (although remaining a member of NATO's political-policy ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 28, 2007 11:43
O’Reilly: Blacks Order Tea without Cursing!
Bill O'Reilly made some, um, interesting comments on his radio show Wednesday that have sparked some controversy in the blogosphere after being highlighted by Media Matters. Here, in context, is what he said. All emphases from the Media Matters transcript: O"REILLY: Now, how do we get to this point? Black people in this country understand that they've ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 22, 2007 09:03
Edwards Opposes Medical Choice
If John Edwards is elected president, Americans will have no choice but go to the doctor when told. Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care. "It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on September 3, 2007 11:07
Sarkozy: Bombing Iran an Option
French President Nicolas Sarkozy caused quite a stir by raising the specter of bombing Iran to prevent it becoming a nuclear weapon state. The biggest challenge to the world was the avoidance of conflict between Islam and the West, President Sarkozy told the annual gathering of French ambassadors. Iran was the crossroads of the Middle East’s troubles and its nuclear aims ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 29, 2007 10:50
Centripetal Force
Iraq is flying to pieces. The people of Iraq just can't get along with each other, they were only held together by authoritarian force, the country is fracturing along sectarian and ethnic lines, and it's inevitable that with its Shi'ite majority Iraq will become a Khomeinist theocracy, dominated by Iran. Right? Maybe not. Consider this study from sociologist ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on August 15, 2007 10:14
Eco-Terrorists Vandalize Hummer
The story about a man whose Hummer was vandalized by angry environmentalists, which fronted the Metro section of yesterday's Washington Post, has gotten quite a bit of attention in the blogosphere. On a narrow, leafy street in Northwest Washington, where Prius hybrid cars and Volvos are the norm, one man bought a flashy gray Hummer that was too massive to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on July 19, 2007 09:34
More Directions on Iraq
Back in December of last year I hosted something I referred to as a “blog colloquium”, “Directions on Iraq”. At that time I attempted to recruit contributors who could present practical alternatives other than slogging through for dealing with the situation in Iraq. I received several dozen polite refusals (and a good number of tacit refusals as well), ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on June 18, 2007 21:37
Administration Rebukes Putin
The Bush administration has called Putin out for his continuing slide into authoritarianism: A top Russia expert at the State Department issued an unusually sharp public criticism on Thursday of Moscow’s behavior under President Vladimir V. Putin, describing the Kremlin as bullying its neighbors while silencing political opponents and suppressing individual rights at home. That lede, written by NYT's Thom Shanker, struck ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 31, 2007 23:30
Chávez Attacks Globovision in National Address
Cross-posted from PoliBlog: Via the BBC: Venezuela head in new TV warningIn a national address shown by all TV stations, Mr Chavez defended his decision to close RCTV as a public service, denouncing the 53-year-old station - Venezuela's most popular - as a "permanent attack on public morals". He also called news network Globovision an enemy of the state, attacking its ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on May 30, 2007 10:24
