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Legislators Move to Cut Down Border Seizures of Travelers' Laptops
Tweet Share on Facebook September 30, 2008 Comment (3)When can the government search you and seize your belongings—like laptop computers and digital cameras—without any actual evidence to show that you're, you know, a criminal? When you're trying to re-enter the country (even if you're a U.S. citizen, by the way).
As my colleague Alex Kingsbury reports, though, some members of Congress are trying to tighten the laws to protect U.S. citizens from unwarranted government intrusion. Stay tuned.
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GOP Lawmakers Who Voted Against the Financial Crisis Bailout Because of Pelosi? Sounds Like a Myth
Tweet Share on Facebook September 30, 2008 Comment (36)Sam seems to buy into the GOP talking point that Nancy Pelosi was to blame for the Wall Street bailout flameout on the Hill yesterday. Sam should know better.
Yes, Pelosi's speech was dumb and unnecessary, but the notion that it so wounded GOP legislators' tender feelings that they reversed their vote is insulting to the House Republicans who voted "no." It implies that on an issue of enormous national importance they were willing to either follow their party leaders and vote "yes" on a bill they thought was a politically unpopular and substantively disastrous step down the path toward socialism—or were willing to take down a historic bill that they supported because Nancy Pelosi was mean.
Here's the rub: Maybe I've missed it, but I've yet to see the GOP legislator who says they switched their vote because of Pelosi. Help me out, readers—has any such House member come forward? (Or are they hanging out in the House cloak room with the Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Muslim Barack Obama?) Post your answers in the response section after the jump.
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President Ron Paul? President Ralph Nader? Americans Split on the Need for a Third Party
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2008 Comment (36)Do we need a third party? Americans are evenly split on the question, according to Gallup, with 47 percent saying yes and 47 percent saying no. What I find particularly striking is that in the middle of last year, 58 percent favored a third party and 33 percent thought the two parties were doing the job.
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Sarah Palin's Foreign Policy Goofs—Let's Hope the Russians Don't Take Her Seriously, Either
Tweet Share on Facebook September 26, 2008 Comment (94)It's so very easy to ridicule Sarah Palin's recent Katie Couric-induced pratfalls. Some might say it's cruel. But it would be even crueler to take her seriously, though, since she aspires to the vice presidency, we should.
Take her widely discussed, laugh- or tear-inducing explanation to Couric about why the mere fact of living in Alaska qualifies as foreign policy experience. Break out your Palin-to-English dictionary, cut through the mangled sentences, and try taking her assertions at face value.
At best, she's an absurd self-aggrandizer; at worst, her inability to speak clearly risks an international incident.
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Sarah Palin: Out of Control Talking Point Machine or Political Magnetic Poetry?
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 Comment (269)Sarah Palin's first interview, with Charles Gibson, was painful. Her latest rounds with Katie Couric build on that discomfort and add mystery. As in: What's she saying?
Here's Couric asking Palin about the bailout:
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John McCain and Barack Obama's Debates Probably Won't Be Game-Changers
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 Comment (6)If you watch the bloviators on the 24-hour news networks, you know that Friday night's debate (if it comes off) will be a game-changer—it's pretty well accepted conventional wisdom at this point.
But it's wrong, according to Gallup. Gallup looked at its polling numbers and found that only 1960 and 2000 were associated with meaningful shifts in public opinion.
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Iraq, the Surge, and the Sunni Awakening: Not So Fast, Jack
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 Comment (11)Jack wrote yesterday that it's time to admit that the surge has worked (and that John McCain should himself also admit some hard truths). I'm still not convinced.
To wit, I commend to your attention an interesting commentary by Wayne White, a former deputy director of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. White argues that the security gains in Iraq were rooted in the Sunni Awakening, not the surge—and that these gains are now in serious jeopardy.
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The Financial Crisis and Its Enron Roots
Tweet Share on Facebook September 25, 2008 Comment (4)What should we have known when? Robert Bryce, writing over in our op-ed column yesterday, made the good point that the current financial crisis has its roots in the lessons we failed to learn after the collapse of Enron. It's a point echoed by Ron Suskind on today's New York Times op-ed page.
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John McCain's Financial Crisis Gamble
Tweet Share on Facebook September 24, 2008 Comment (56)John McCain is making another big gamble, announcing today that he will suspend his campaign and return to Washington to work on a solution to the financial crisis.
The immediate-term politics here are smart, but in the longer term it's a hell of a gamble: McCain has to be a legislator, and legislators don't get elected president.
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'I AM MINISTRY OF THE TREASURY OF THE REPUBLIC OF AMERICA.'
Tweet Share on Facebook September 24, 2008 Comment (7)This satiric E-mail currently making the rounds is genius. I wish I knew who originated it (I cannot take credit). Enjoy:
