The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and Dodd Harris (and possibly Alex Knapp and/or Steve Verdon) will be joining me tonight to talk about the AP “Fair Use” brouhaha, oil prices, candidate tax policies, and whatever else we meander into along [...]

Terrorist suspects detained at Guantánamo Bay (and presumably, anyplace else under American jurisdiction) have the right to file habeus corpus petitions in U.S. civilian courts the Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. Further, Congress could not pass a law waiving these protections absent rebellion or invasion. Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in [...]

Robert Samuelson notes that, the politics of winning and governing often collide. The first involves maximizing popularity. The second requires farsighted choices that ultimately benefit the country but may initially hurt a president’s approval ratings.” Not exactly a novel observation but a truism worth remembering. As to Barack Obama: [S]ymbolism can’t substitute for policy, and [...]

Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions group has mounted an online petition designed to persuade Congress to open up domestic sites that are currently closed to oil and natural gas exploration. That’s certainly an understandable sentiment, given the skyrocketing increases in the price of oil over the past couple of years. But opening up for exploration is [...]

That’s the central claim of David Ignatius’s column in the Washington Post this morning: So imagine that you are Qassem Soleimani, commander of a covert Iranian army deployed across the Middle East: You doubt the Bush administration would run the risk of a military strike against Iran, but you can’t be sure. You think America [...]

Prof. Hamilton has an interesting post that argues that we are now seeing another oil shock like we say in 1973-74 (oil embargo), 1978 (Iranian Revolution), 1980 (Iran-Iraq war), and 1990 (first Persian Gulf war). Prof. Hamilton notes that in all cases the run up in oil prices was followed by a recession. Now, using [...]

George Will joins the Blame America crowd on the issue of high oil prices. Responding to Chuck Schumer’s suggestion that we block arms sales to Saudi Arabia until it “increases its oil production by one million barrels per day,” which would cause the price of gasoline to fall “50 cents a gallon almost immediately,” Will [...]

AP’s Stephen Ohlemacher explains why Barack Obama, the young upstart, is going to be the Democratic Party nominee for president while Hillary Rodham Clinton, the hands-down favorite, is getting a set of steak knives. Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, rival Barack Obama planned for the long haul. Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout [...]

With the run up in oil prices, oil companies have seen their profits also run up. For many this is just wrong. That consumers have to pay more at the pump and oil companies see huge profits…why that is positively un-American! Never mind that there is an obvious and logical connection between profits for a [...]

Driving in to work this morning, I caught part of a discussion on The Diane Rehm Show between David Kreutzer, Senior Policy Analyst in Energy Economics and Climate Change at The Heritage Foundation and Peter Gosselin, national economics reporter for the Los Angeles Times about the recent spike in oil prices. Kreutzer asserted that drilling [...]

Former Representative Bob Barr has won the Libertarian Party nomination for President, narrowly defeating longtime Party activist Mary Ruwart. This is a rather welcome change for the LP, who have taken to nominating more radical, but relatively unknown candidates in past election cycles. As I’ve said before, Barr is their best candidate since Paul in [...]

I think it is safe to say that the use of things like corn and other crops to produce biofuels simply a stupid and wrongheaded philosophy. We were told that biofuels were supposed to help break our dependence on foreign oil. Yet here I sit having to pay, if I’m lucky, $4/gallon to fill up [...]

MSNBC reports on a growing number of thefts of used cooking oil from restaurant by “biodiesel pirates”, who convert the cooking oil into fuel. Now, restaurants from Berkeley, Calif., to Sedgwick, Kan., are reporting thefts of old cooking oil worth thousands of dollars by rustlers who are refining it into barrels of biofuel in backyard [...]

According to this article, Charles T. Maxwell is predicting that gasoline will eventually reach $12-$15/gallon. Why the pessimistic forecast? Many analysts believe that we are in a period where oil production is going to decline, and yet demand is increasing. The obvious result is higher prices of oil, and thus gasoline. “[T]he prices that we’re [...]

While much has been made of Barack Obama’s problems with white working class voters, especially in Appalachia, a more problematic trend may be signs of trouble with Jewish voters, a strong if relatively small part of the Democratic base. Today’s NYT features Jodi Kantor’s story, “Many Florida Jews Express Doubts on Obama.” On Thursday, Mr. [...]

David Brooks invokes the late Mancur Olsen to explain why egregiously bad legislation like the recent farm and energy bills — pork laden monstrosities that pretty much everyone agrees are bad public policy — easily pass into law. He then shifts to the presumptive November contest between John McCain and Barack Obama. Barack Obama talks [...]

I just got off the phone on a blogger conference call with Peter Robertson, Vice Chairman of Chevron, hosted by the American Petroleum Institute in anticipation of Mr. Robertson’s testimony before Congress tomorrow. He made quite a number of very interesting points. First, practically all of the growth in oil consumption is in countries where [...]

It’s not exactly news that the Republican Party is in the doldrums at the moment. It lost control of both Houses of Congress in the 2006 elections, its president is at historic lows in the polls, it has lost a string of special elections and its incumbent Congressmen are retiring in droves, and the odds [...]

Blogospheric commentary on President Bush’s failure to persuade the Saudis to pump more oil in an attempt to lower prices has largely centered on glee at the president’s discomfiture or outrage at the temerity of the Saudis (depending on which side of the political fence you sit on) and, as John Burgess notes, Saudi-bashing. There [...]

Paul Krugman recently visited Berlin and had an epiphany: It’s different than Atlanta. To see what I’m talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping. It’s the kind of neighborhood [...]

The The Dupes of Hazard Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

While Democrats debate the likelihood of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton “Dream Ticket,” the latest word is that Mike Huckabee is currently at the top of the list to be John McCain’s running mate. James Pethokoukis attributes this information to “a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain’s inner circle.” The [...]

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry argues for abolishing the minimum voting age and letting kids vote “when they decide they want the vote.” Matt Yglesias seconds the emotion. Gobry’s argument is long and largely defies excerpting. It boils down to: Setting maturity at 18 is arbitrary. Kids will grow up and face the consequences of current policy decisions, [...]

MG Jay Hood’s appointment as the top U.S. military officer in Pakistan has been pulled owing to Pakistani complaints about a previous stop in his career as commander at Guantánamo. When the Pentagon announced in March that Maj. Gen. Jay W. Hood would become the senior American officer based in Pakistan, it reflected the military’s [...]

Martin Walker argues that, “despite repeated protestations that the EU does not seek to become a federal super-state,” the organization is steadily increasing its powers to the detriment of the interests of its constituent states. The Commission of the European Union is celebrating the forthcoming 10th anniversary of the euro with an ambitious new plan [...]

Both Matthew Yglesias and John Cole agree that the Obama/Clinton proposal to tax the “windfall profits” of the oil companies is a bad idea, and you’ll get no argument from me. However, one thing that I did notice when I was doing a little google-fu on the issue is that there appears to be approximately [...]

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” [...]

An amusing mock sign shows that gas prices are artificially inflated by our refusal to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore. Via E. Frank Stephenson, who suggests we also “carve out 50 cents or so for taxes and a dollar or so for Ben Bernanke’s debasing the dollar.” There’s not much doubt [...]

The Middle Class is disappearing, the NYT reports. In Europe. The European dream is under assault, as the wave of inflation sweeping the globe mixes with this continent’s long-stagnant wages. Families that once enjoyed Europe’s vaunted quality of life are pinching pennies to buy necessities, and cutting back on extras like movies and vacations abroad. [...]

I attended a briefing today at the National Press Club featuring some board members of the American Security Project promoting what they have dubbed “A New American Arsenal.” The bipartisan group, headed by Gary Hart and featuring the likes of John Kerry, Ken Duberstein, Richard Armitage, and several retired flag officers urges a return of [...]

Leonce Gaiter believes that ,”If Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his former disciple, Barack Obama were white, this would not be a story.” He contends that, “White pastors have been spewing hateful bile and filth for generations. But it’s white bile, and that makes all the difference.” Ezra Klein disagrees slightly, arguing, “Americans recoil from the [...]

The latest kerfuffle in the 2008 campaign is the shocking revelation that Hillary Clinton hasn’t pumped her own gas in years. And here I thought that, when the Secret Service pulled up to the pump, she got out and filled ‘er up. And probably washed the windows and checked the oil. And the tire pressure. [...]

Kevin Drum, upon learning that Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax as a campaign stunt: I’d say there’s approximately a zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton or John McCain actually believe this is good policy. It would increase oil company profits, it would make hardly [...]

Fareed Zakaria argues that John McCain’s foreign policy would be bellicose whereas Barack Obama’s would be conciliatiatory but, as Dave Schuler notes, both are “confrontational” and “interventionist,” just with slightly different priorities. Zakaria points to a recent McCain speech: Not only does it declare war on Russia and China, it places the United States in [...]

Ronald Bailey points to an interesting survey by the Statistical Assesment Service (STATS) on global warming. It is a survey of the views of climate scientists. Here are some of the findings: Ninety-seven percent of the climate scientists surveyed believe “global average temperatures have increased” during the past century. Eighty-four percent say they personally believe [...]

The proprietor of the FiveCentNickel blog quantifies in a way I haven’t seen previously just how enormous the challenge of ending our dependence on oil — a favorite canard of politicians on both sides of the aisle — really is. Drawing on a piece by CNET’s Michael Kanellos, he lays out the numbers. Essentially, world [...]

Some stores are now implementing limits on how much of a given product that people can buy at a single time. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports that [...]

I received a chain email last night from a friend who’s a very smart guy (a music professor at a prestigious local university) and frustrated, like most of us, with the high cost of gasoline. Here’s the plan for fighting back: The only way we are going to see the price of gas come down [...]

U.S. Representative Geoff Davis has started a huge blogospheric outcry for allegedly using a racial slur directed at Barack Obama. Oliver Willis, among others, has described this as a “bigot eruption”. Here’s the offending remark: Congressman Geoff Davis, took the criticisms of Mr. Obama a few steps further, likening the change slogan to the pitch [...]

The drastic rise in prices for corn, rice, and other staples that is wreaking havoc in parts of the developing world is due in large part to Western investment in biofuels, according to a recent report of the World Bank. The rising trend in international food prices continued, and even accelerated, in 2008. U.S. wheat [...]

The Whack-A-Superdelegate Edition OTB Caption ContestTM is now over.

A Media Matters report of remarks made by Christopher Hitchens in a weekend television debate with Andrew Sullivan is getting some blogospheric attention. On the April 5 edition of MSNBC’s Tim Russert, Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens debated the significance for Sen. Barack Obama of comments made by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright about a [...]

Blackfive’s Uncle Jimbo has what purports to be an advanced text of the “opening statement Gen. Petraeus will make tomorrow to Congress.” [UPDATE: It turns out that I've been had and this is just a wishful thinking piece on the part of Jimbo.] As to the progress report itself, he is naturally touting the success [...]

When I read this post by one of the associate bloggers at Joe Gandelman’s The Moderate Voice, it piqued my interest. The post quotes briefly from this New York Times article about possible unrest from the sharp rise in the price of rice that’s gone on recently: HANOI — Rising prices and a growing fear [...]

Today’s NYT features a rather bizarre feature entitled, “In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop.” A growing work force of home-office laborers and entrepreneurs, armed with computers and smartphones and wired to the hilt, are toiling under great physical and emotional stress created by the around-the-clock Internet economy that demands a [...]

Hollywood legend and longtime NRA spokesman Charlton Heston had died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Robert W. Welkos and Susan King for the LAT: Charlton Heston, the Oscar-winning actor who achieved stardom playing larger-than-life figures including Moses, Michelangelo and Andrew Jackson and went on to become an unapologetic gun advocate and darling of [...]

Despite — or perhaps partly because of — backing from the United States, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has denied membership to Macedonia and rejected a bid to grant Membership Action Plans to put Georgia and Ukraine on a one-year path to membership in the Alliance. BBC: Nato has confirmed it will not yet offer [...]

James Poulos contemplates Hillary Clinton’s hysteria and Hillary Clinton Hysteria. Christopher Hitchens and then Stanley Crouch summing up M(r)s. Clinton. There is no way around the uncomfortable fact that both men use the world ‘hysterical’ to pin the tail on a complex of emotional pathologies that’s inseparable from Hillary Clinton’s womanhood. As mannish as she [...]

There’s no doubt that the U.S. economy is in a downturn. The cost of petroleum has skyrocketed, creating all manner of ripple effects throughout the economy. The “housing bubble” has burst in several cities and the sub-prime mortgage industry has gone bust, leaving many people upside down in their houses or facing — or experiencing [...]

Representative William J. Jefferson won his ‘Debate Clause’ case against the FBI but the incriminating evidence against him is still admissible. The Supreme Court on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that the F.B.I. went too far in searching the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, a Louisiana Democrat accused of using his position [...]