Politics

Word to the wise: If you’re flying over DC, make sure your transponder is working. The top general at the North American Aerospace Defense Command was on the telephone and prepared to order an F-16 fighter to shoot down an unidentified plane that turned out to be carrying the governor of Kentucky to former president Ronald Reagan’s funeral last month, according to two federal security officials briefed separately about the incident. The tense incident June 9 ended after the twin-engine…

From the GOP’s site: (I wish I was making this up.) Edwards Has ÒNever Done Any Serious Farming.Ó Edwards DoesnÕt Follow Weekly NASCAR Races, Adds He ÒDoesnÕt Follow Anything Except Politicking.Ó Edwards HasnÕt Hunted Or Fished ÒIn Years.Ó Edwards Has ÒIn The Past Been A Country Music Fan.Ó (Tim Funk, ÒQ&A With John Edwards,Ó The Charlotte Observer, 5/26/03) Edwards CanÕt Even Remember Make Or Model Of His Own Truck. . . . Edwards Thought ÒItÕs An Enormous Mistake To Fly…

Says Knight Ridder: WASHINGTON – Ignore all those Internet rumors: Despite the U.S. military’s desperate need for more troops, there’s no chance that the Bush administration or Congress will resurrect the draft, short of a new Pearl Harbor. It’s too unpopular politically. Moreover, military experts say that conscription would hurt the quality and morale of the armed forces. Instead, the Pentagon is examining options such as calling up more members of the National Guard and reserves, extending tours of active…

So for those of you who missed it last week, check out this link for a hysterical clip (DivX) of Jon Stewart talking about how Ashcroft wouldn’t release a 2002 memo to Congress about the use of torture. Oh, and the Post released the memo today.

A neat article in today’s Times talking about unorthodox protest tactics. My favorite is this group called Axis of Eve, which sells underwear with slogans like: Expose Bush Lick Bush Down on Bush Lick Bush not Oil Ballot Box Axis of Eve Fire Bush Give Bush the Finger Weapon of Mass Seduction My Cherry for Kerry Cream Bush Alright, at the risk of sounding way too perverted, I will buy three pairs to the first three women (or men, too)…

Remembering Reagan

Alexandra Polier says that all that nonsense about her having an affair with John Kerry is wrong in today’s Guardian. I met Kerry for the first time in January 2001, in Davos, Switzerland. I was living in Manhattan, stop-gapping at a public-relations firm and wondering if my application to the Columbia University graduate school of journalism was going to be accepted. At heart, I was a politics junkie. I would scour the Economist, cutting out articles for my “current affairs”…

Now this is a tax that I could really get behind. We would adopt a 50-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax, the Patriot Tax (along with my wife’s proposal: free public parking anywhere in America for any hybrid or other car getting more than 35 m.p.g.). A Patriot Tax would help pay for the Afghan and Iraq wars and help finance a Manhattan project to speed the development of a hydrogen economy, enabling the public to make a contribution to the war effort…

The Bush campaign has repeatedly accused the senator of “politicizing” Iraq. Bush-Cheney chairman Marc Racicot told reporters Wednesday that Kerry is relentlessly “playing politics” and exploiting tragedy for political gain. Racicot, for instance, told reporters that Kerry suggested that 150,000 or so U.S. troops are “somehow universally responsible” for the misdeeds of a small number of American soldiers and contractors. Racicot made several variations of this charge. But Kerry never said this, or anything like it. As evidence, Racicot pointed…

Ok, I know that the fad with Richard Clarke came and went a few weeks ago, but I’m reading his book now. This part (pg. 83-84) is genius. Clarke is writing about the retaliation against Saddam Hussein for the 1993 foiled assassination attempt on former President Bush in Kuwait. Clinton ordered retaliatory missile strikes on Baghdad. Gore urged the President [Clinton] to tell us something that the two highest leaders in the land clearly found funny. “Okay, okay,” Clinton agreed.…