Online Journal of Politics and Foreign Affairs
Yesterday, I noted that now that Rand Paul has gone from a primary race to the general election that: “Paul is now facing a very different kind of campaign” because he is now going to be scrutinized in new ways and will have to explain himself to a different kind of electorate if he is [...]
Via the NYT: Specter Defeat Signals a Wave Against Incumbents: Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who left the Republican Party a year ago in hopes of salvaging a 30-year career, was rejected on Tuesday by Democratic primary voters, with Representative Joe Sestak winning the party’s nomination on an anti-incumbent wave that is defining the midterm [...]
Via the LAT: Iran agrees to exchange of nuclear material In what could be a stunning breakthrough in the years-long diplomatic deadlock over Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran has agreed to send the bulk of its nuclear material to Turkey as part of an exchange meant to ease international concerns about the Islamic Republic’s aims and [...]
Last month, French President Nicolas Sarkozy became the latest European leader to take the lead in an ongoing fight against Muslim women wearing Islamic garb, specifically the full-face veil, or niqba, and the burqa, in public when he promised to introduce a bill that would ban both items in France. But, it’s not just France [...]
After a brief hiatus, the next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 5:30-6:30 Eastern. Dave Schuler and be joined by special guest Arnold Kling of EconLog to talk about the Iceland volcano and its economic and regulatory fallout, financial reform, the value added tax (VAT) debate, and goodness [...]
Ezra Klein points us to this Gary Lauder TED Talk on making driving more efficient: He correctly points out that roundabouts are much more safe, efficient, and cost effective than stop signs or traffic signals. He acknowledges that sometimes they’re not practical and illustrates in amusing fashion why stop signs cost us a lot of [...]
Kay Bailey Hutchison’s bizarre campaign to beat incumbent Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Republican primary has ended in embarrassing defeat. Gov. Rick Perry won a decisive victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Texas GOP primary for governor Tuesday night, bringing a bruising fight between two of the state’s most popular Republicans to [...]
Glenn Reynolds, Stacy McCain, Jim Hoft, Lonely Conservative and others continue to point to rather thin evidence that UAH mass murderer Amy Bishop was a “socialist.” She went to Harvard after all. And one kid on a prof rating website called her one. QED! As I’ve previously noted, her politics seem rather irrelevant. Certainly, [...]
The 65 percentage-point gap between Democrats’ (88%) and Republicans’ (23%) average job approval ratings for Barack Obama is easily the largest for any president in his first year in office, greatly exceeding the prior high of 52 points for Bill Clinton. So begins Jeffrey Jones‘ introduction of a new Gallup poll. Here’s the graphic illustration: [...]
A recent Gallup poll shows that the American public agrees with the Supreme Court that campaign contributions are free speech but that most nonetheless want to limit said speech. Fifty-seven percent of Americans consider campaign donations to be a protected form of free speech, and 55% say corporate and union donations should be treated the [...]
There’s quite a bit of chatter this morning about the fact that two travel bloggers of whom I’d never previously heard have had their computers confiscated pursuant to subpoenas after publishing unclassified but sensitive TSA screening procedures. AP’s Eileen Sullivan has the rundown: As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring [...]
One of my commenters brought to my attention an issue that’s not receiving much attention: Residents of several U.S. states could have to show their passports for domestic travel — or to enter a federal government building — starting January 1 because of the REAL ID Act. Chris Strohm for Congress Daily: More than half [...]
My latest for Foreign Policy, “The Eurocrats Europe Needs,” is up. It attempts to bring some perspective to the negative reactions — my own included! — that accompanied the selection of Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton as president and high representative for foreign policy, respectively, of the EU. Many had hoped for a kind [...]
The L.A. Times has a fascinating article about the difficulties in accounting for estimated costs in a troop surge in Afghanistan. The calculations so far have produced a sweeping range. The Pentagon publicly estimates it will cost $500,000 a year for every additional service member sent to the war zone. Obama’s budget experts size it [...]
Barack Obama has been president for just under 10 months but he’s added two trillion to the national debt and will double it by the end of the decade. CBS’ Mark Knoller: This latest milestone in the ever-rising journey of the National Debt comes less than eight months after it hit $11 trillion for the [...]
The Supreme Court hears oral argument today in Pottawattamie County v McGee, wherein they will have to decide if prosecutors have immunity from lawsuits even if they frame someone for murder. On one side of the case being argued are Iowa prosecutors who contend “there is no freestanding right not to be framed.” They are [...]
I was reading the review of Capitalism over at Reason and at the end it had this, One final note: Just before the film started, Moore asked the audience to turn off any recording devices because the studio did not want bootleg versions of the film getting around. Apparently this socialism stuff has its limits. [...]
My first piece for ForeignPolicy.com, “Europe’s Obama Fatigue,” is online. Despite George W. Bush’s defiant “you’re with us or you’re against us” public stance, he actively solicited advice and input from his NATO partners. Obama, by contrast, is saying all the right things in public about transatlantic relations and NATO but adopting a high-handed policy and [...]
John Cole comments on Michelle Obama’s pledge to “take no prisoners” as she helps her husband fight to get the Olympics for Chicago: You know who else hosted an Olympics? Hitler. Just saying… QED.
Chris Battle is surprised how often he hears the question “How many terrorists has the Department of Homeland Security caught?” He argues that DHS’ job is prevention, not apprehension; that’s what the FBI does. The implication of the question — usually the questioner already knows the answer — is that the failure to catch members [...]