Obama’s ‘Sweetheart’ Home Loan
The Manufactured Outrage of the Day comes to us from Joe Stephens and his page A3 piece for today's Washington Post, "Obama Got Discount on Home Loan." Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 2, 2008 15:15
McCains Pay Back Taxes on Aunt’s Condo
The latest mini-scandal in Campaign 2008 is that the McCains have apparently not done a good job keeping track of their finances. HuffPo has gotten 1420 Diggs at this writing with a story headlined "McCains Defaulted On Home Taxes For Last Four Years, Newsweek Reports." It promises "a highly embarrassing report." Newsweek has delivered with "Mrs. McCain, San Diego County ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 29, 2008 06:54
Subsidizing Home Ownership
Ezra Klein jumps on a growing meme the home ownership isn't all it's cracked up to be and that the government should stop subsidizing it. He points to Paul Krugman, who argues in today's NYT that it's time to rethink our decades-long bipartisan consensus that home ownership should be encouraged. While everyone stresses the advantages of owning ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2008 13:32
McCain Veepstakes: A Woman?
David Paul Kuhn argues that John McCain should strongly consider choosing a woman as his vice presidential running mate in order to woo angry Hillary Clinton supporters. That premise strikes me as absurd, in that no Republican woman is going to be a suitable substitute for Clinton in the minds of her supporters. Still, reaching out to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 23, 2008 09:04
U.S. Airstrikes Kill Pakistani Troops
Pakistan is condemning a U.S. air strike which allegedly killed 11 Pakistani paramilitaries as a "completely unprovoked and cowardly act." U.S.-led forces killed Pakistani troops in an airstrike along the volatile Afghan border that Pakistan's army condemned on Wednesday as "completely unprovoked and cowardly." U.S. officials confirmed that three aircraft launched about a dozen bombs following a clash between ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 11, 2008 13:49
Fulbright Scholarships Restored for Gaza Students
A bureaucratic SNAFU almost cost seven Palestinian students their ability to study abroad on prestigious Fulbright scholarships. The U.S. has reinstated the Fulbright scholarships of seven Gaza Strip students blocked by Israel from leaving the Hamas-ruled territory, the State Department said Monday. The students were informed Thursday that their scholarships for the upcoming academic year would be deferred because ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 2, 2008 14:35
Condi Rice School of International Studies?
I've just gotten this PR announcement from Denver University, with which I'm not affiliated: DU's Graduate School of International Studies will be renamed tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28. Renaming the school will honor one of the most notable and successful individuals in DU history, as well as mark an exciting time for the school. Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 27, 2008 13:12
Bush to Attack Iran Before Leaving Office?
A thinly-sourced report by the Jerusalem Post claiming that President Bush had told the Israeli government that he plans to attack Iran before leaving office has been flatly denied by the White House. The White House on Tuesday flatly denied an Army Radio report that claimed US President George W. Bush intends to attack Iran before the end of his term. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 20, 2008 13:47
Caption Contest Winners
The Eight Belles Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) ✰ THE WINNERS ✰ First: Elmo - The good news is .... it's good Hillary day. The bad news is, we flip the coin again tomorrow. Second: Deathlok - Hillary announces her running mate. Third: charles austin - One is a caricature full of hot air, and the other ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 6, 2008 07:16
Baghdad Luxury Hotels and Condos
The Pentagon is backing a massive development project financed by Marriott and others to gentrify Baghdad. Forget the rocket attacks, concrete blast walls and lack of a sewer system. Now try to imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad. That's all part of a five-year development "dream list" — or what some dub an ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 5, 2008 08:48
Not So Fast With That “Pentagon Study”
This morning the Miami Herald published a story quoting a “Pentagon study” that found the situation in Iraq “a major debacle” with the “outcome in doubt”. The story is also being carried by McClatchy, the Herald's parent company. Obviously, quite a few in the blogosphere have made substantial hay out of the piece. The excellent SWJ Blog contacted the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 18, 2008 15:42
McCain-Rice Beats Obama-Clinton in New York
A John McCain-Condolezza Rice ticket would beat the Democratic "Dream Ticket" of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in Clinton's "home" state of New York, a Marist College poll shows. A McCain/Rice ticket would edge out both a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton ticket for New York’s 31, usually true blue, electoral votes: 49% of registered voters in New York State support ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 10, 2008 16:24
Randi Rhodes Suspended For Calling Hillary ‘Big F-ing Whore’
The bitterness of the Democratic presidential race kicked up another notch yesterday, with the discovery that popular Air America radio host Randi Rhodes recently performed a profanity-laced standup routine in which both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton were repeatedly referred to as "big f-ing whores" (minus the sanitization, naturally). (She also called Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Dick Cheney racists ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 4, 2008 07:20
Keith Maupin’s Remains Identified
The body of Staff Sergeant Keith Maupin, the American soldier who was captured and murdered nearly four years ago, has finally been officially identified. Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin's parents vowed to never let the U.S. Army forget about finding their son. Their efforts included trips to the Pentagon and even meeting with President Bush, but they ended in disappointment Sunday: ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 31, 2008 13:07
Basra Tactics, Strategy, and Theory in Conflict
Ilan Goldenberg notes that, for all the United States has invested in Iraq -- and in propping up Maliki -- we've gotten very little in return in this particular episode. By most educated guesses (although by no means all) Maliki didn't bother to seek our input before launching this messy internecine fight with the Shiite forces of al-Sadr and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 28, 2008 14:03
