she observed, scornfully. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday urged U.S. President Barack Obama to return the military base of Guantanamo to Cuba after applauding his decision to close the prison for terrorism suspects there. The anti-U.S. Cuba ally has tense relations with the United States and was been one of the most outspoken critics of former President George W. Bush, though he has kept open the possibility of improving

Zac Frank’s explosive essay in Slate details Dick Cheney’s elder daughter, Elizabeth’s, Colorado College thesis on special wartime powers granted to CinC’s, which terrifyingly presages the Shredding of the Constitution under the Eeeeeevil Zionist Booooooooosh Regime (EZBR). Frank also insinuates that she may have gotten help from her father in the preparation, contrary to College policy. Be that as it may (Rethuglican hypocrisy! She should be impeached!), it once again

Another grim milestone: Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Why, I wonder? Is there anything about military deployment that’s particularly dangerous, potentially traumatic? Don’t worry, though. I’m sure the stimulus package will prevent civilian deaths from rising to meet them.

the negro trooper. —Old Asshati saying

So, there’s still hope for Algore. Frankly, this is the sort of story PJM ought to send JTR to cover. Back in the day, we didn’t have to wait for Europeans to do this sort of thing. I think that the US could build a far superior doomsday machine to theirs that would make excellent use of some of this stimulus package. More disappointment: Blago omits playing race card Morenoneoversoever:

Faggotaboutit. It’s about why voters should never give their hearts over completely to politicians. As a class, they are inherently insecure — a character flaw at the base of all politicians, from Bill Clinton to Bob Packwood. And they lie, with rare exceptions — a hard thing to say at a time when the doors of possibility are open to leaders yet untarnished. Heh. Packwood. Something about Aldous Huxley and

Next, consider how the $604 billion of outlays would be spent. It’s easy to go through a huge proposal and find what seem like fairly ridiculous line items, so I’ll focus on as comprehensive a view as I can of the spending. The CBO reviews each Title (basically, spending area) of the bill, and calls out major items within each Title. Here are all the items that I saw them

The Dark Lord at WSJ: On the campaign trail, Barack Obama criticized Washington for being “obsessed with the perpetual campaign.” As president he is the first occupant of the Oval Office to give his director of political affairs — who coordinates the president’s involvement with his party and other campaign related activities — an office in the West Wing. Many Americans may assume that the president’s entire staff is in

Let’s not even go into the whole Oil-for-Food fiasco. Peter Wehner writes about the new old Hopeychangey realpolitik: The first is that for 60 years, we tolerated oppression for the sake of “stability” in the Middle East. While much of the rest of the world moved toward freedom, the Arab Middle East did not. It suffered from what Arab scholars call a “freedom deficit” that froze social and material progress.

Several months ago, I received an email from one of my Senators. In this case, it was Bernie Sanders, most recently seen screeching over the caption to the official portrait of George W. Bush at the National Gallery. An avowed socialist, Bernie is nevertheless somewhat less a partisan hack than my other Senator, the august Patrick Leahy. So, seizing the opportunity, as the tone he had assumed toward me was