A conservative radio talk-show host said that “he’s had it up to here” with Sen. John McCain after the GOP presidential candidate repudiated the commentator’s remarks about Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama at a campaign event.   John McCain threw me under a bus — under the ‘Straight Talk Express,’ ” Bill Cunningham told CNN on Tuesday, referring to McCain’s campaign bus. You know, I’m not a big McCain fan, but
February 2008
Election 2008: The Shape of the Campaign (at the moment) [Karl]
Fresh material from OpenLeft’s Chris Bowers and the L.A. Times point toward the likely starting point for the general election campaign. Bowers makes some pretty educated guesses about the remainder of the Democratic primaries and caucuses to conclude that “that the Democratic nomination campaign is pretty much over.” Even with assumptions favorable to Hillary Clinton: Overall, it is extremely unlikely that Clinton will be able to reduce Obama’s pledged delegate advantage
If we criminalize fissile material, only fissile material will be criminals. Or some such.
Moe Lane, on Barack Obama’s plans to push for a worldwide ban on all fissile material: In other words, Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) just informed at least four of our allies, one friendly neutral power, one of our rivals, and not incidentally, us, that he wants to turn off the lights: and he’s also told a future strategic rival that the round-eyes are still dedicated to holding down the Middle
Ethical Killbot Forum [Dan Collins]
Governments around the world are rushing to develop military robots capable of killing autonomously without considering the legal and moral implications, warns a leading roboticist. But another robotics expert argues that robotic soldiers could perhaps be made more ethical than human ones. Let the nishi-bashing begin.
Feat Camp 2008 (CraigC)
Some videos of our little party put together by Chris Cafiero, the band archivist, are out on YouTube. Here’s Good Night To Boogie, featuring favorite guest Vince Herman. It illustrates the often, um, ad hoc nature of the proceedings in Jamaica. But then, the boys never were afraid to jump in the pool feat first. Did I actually say that? A little Cajun Rage, into High Roller (at Bill’s request),
Buckley Dead [Dan Collins]
h/t A.Pendragon Yes, it’s a shock. And I’ll miss trying to figure out how one speaks that way. Still, he departed before he could decide to do something desperately changey and vote for Obama, so that’s some consolation. NYT delivers a nice eulogy.
Muslim Reformation? [Dan Collins]
Casus belli? Turkey is preparing to publish a document that represents a revolutionary reinterpretation of Islam – and a controversial and radical modernisation of the religion. The country’s powerful Department of Religious Affairs has commissioned a team of theologians at Ankara University to carry out a fundamental revision of the Hadith, the second most sacred text in Islam after the Koran. The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings
Dems 2008: Obama’s surprisingly non-ideological policy shop? [Karl]
At TNR, Noam Scheiber casts Barack Obama’s policy advisors as non-ideological: Despite Obama’s reputation for grandiose rhetoric and utopian hope-mongering, the Obamanauts aren’t radicals–far from it. They’re pragmatists–people who, when an existing paradigm clashes with reality, opt to tweak that paradigm rather than replace it wholesale. But Scheiber’s claim does not hold up very well under scrutiny.
Apocryphal Obamolies, 1
“If elected President, my first order of business will be to do away with the prefix anti-. Because to me, in order to think positively, you have to surround yourself with the trappings of positivityness, in all of its forms. And to surround yourself with the trappings of positivityness — to immerse yourself in its warmth, to feel its reassurance along the finer hairs of your thighs, to really live
Election 2008: Two cents on Wargaming the Electoral College [Karl]
Vodkapundit Stephen Green has done a two–part early look at the general election map, assuming John McCain and Barack Obama are the nominees. Green colors 41 states as solidly Red or Blue, for a virtual tie of 229-227. he then lays out a best-case scenario for McCain of 311-227 electoral votes and a best-case scenario for Obama of a 309-229 win. I think Green’s general observations are sound, although data-free. Granted, polling data this early
