Imagine you’re a State Department official charged with helping formulate our country’s policy toward a new government in Africa. As you review the files, you note something odd. Their Constitution grants everyone over the age of 18 the right to vote in national elections – which is good – but it also establishes guidelines for how much those votes count.
Read moreThe Honorable Terry M. Bellamy Mayor, Asheville NC P.O. Box 7148 Asheville NC, 28802 Dear Mayor Bellamy: As you no doubt realize by now, you have something of a PR nightmare on your hands. One of your police officers, Russell Crisp, recently arrested a resident named Jonas Phillips for obstructing a sidewalk. Since people were apparently having no trouble walking
Read moreJury finds Padilla guilty on terror charges MIAMI, Florida (CNN) — The jury in the Jose Padilla terror trial has found the American guilty of conspiracy to support Islamic terrorism overseas. art.jose.padilla.ap.jpgJose Padilla was originally accused of planning a “dirty bomb” attack in the U.S. Padilla’s two co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifan Jayyousi, were also found guilty on the three
Read moreThe mid-1970s were a wonderful time for music lovers. For starters, exciting and innovative new music was popping up all over the place. And when it did, it actually got played on the radio. The UK was especially fertile ground during this period, as scores of punk and New Wave acts emerged (many from the “pub rock” scene) in the
Read moreSay you’re running for President. And say that it’s a couple days before before a major primary season straw poll. In someplace semi-important, like, say, Iowa. Ask yourself, what kinds of headlines would you really, really just not want to see in places like, oh, I don’t know, the AP and Forbes.com? How about something like this: Major Romney Fundraiser
Read moreWe’ve seen some major historical moments in baseball in the last few days. First, Alex Rodriguez became the youngest man to hit the 500-homerun mark, doing so at 32 years and eight days old. There are no guarantees that he’ll break Hank Aaron’s all-time mark of 755 taters, but even if he never plays another game it’s a remarkable accomplishment.
Read moreWelcome back to another edition of Scholars & Rogues’ Saturday Video Roundup. Today we begin with television cooking shows, which are getting weirder with each passing day. (Thx to Wendie the C in the L to da A.) Next we take you for a ride on the wayback machine to a scene from high school. I mean, this is how
Read moreThey say that politics makes for strange bedfellows. But this is ridiculous. Kenneth Starr’s Law Firm Gives More Money to Clinton By Lindsay Fortado July 31 (Bloomberg) — Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that’s home to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and Bush administration official Jay Lefkowitz, have given more to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than to all
Read moreAccording to an article in today’s Washington Post: WASHINGTON — More than 70,000 bridges across the country are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion. One prominent blogger is appalled: This is the kind of disaster that just doesn’t
Read moreIn America, the Republicans are seen as the party of money and wealth. This perception is certainly accurate in one sense – the GOP is the favored party of the wealthy elite. Unfortunately, the party is also supported in large numbers by those who have no wealth, and thanks to the policies of the Republican party, no hope of ever
Read moreWake Forest University’s head basketball coach, Skip Prosser, died the other day of an apparent heart attack. He was only 56. Tributes are pouring in. The university community obviously grieves the tragic loss. The coaching fraternity is heartbroken. Dick Vitale, whose entire life seems to be college hoops, was stunned. And so on. As those around me know, I wasn’t
Read moreWe’ve seen a slow trickle of ship-jumping (or jump-related jibber-jabber) in recent days as a variety of GOP rats have come to understand that President George Walker Bush now stands as the biggest obstacle they face in Campaign 2008. But Sweet Fancy Moses, this morning’s news features a couple of Rodents of Unusual Size (RoUS) swashbuckling off the Black Pearl
Read moreAnd away we go! Sen. David Vitter, a conservative Louisiana Republican, has become the first major pol linked to “DC Madame” Deborah Jane Palfrey. [UPDATE: Won’t you please help save Sen. Vitter’s winky?] A bit of context is in order. Vitter is a no-compromises god-n-country anti-hanky-panky conservative who in 1998 said that Louisiana Rep. Bob Livingston’s resignation over marital infidelity
Read moreFirst the suggestion that Ron Paul had more money than McCain, and now this: McCain loses top advisers by Mike DorningRepublican presidential candidate John McCain’s two top campaign advisers departed today, a major shake-up for a presidential bid that has been struggling for much of the year.
Read moreEvery once in a while stray facts and rumors collide in a way that causes my antennae to twitch. Sometimes it’s nothing, but sometimes it’s not. In any case, I like to get it out there to see if anybody can flesh it out or explain why I’m just being paranoid. Such a case buzzed around this morning. Item: A
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lullaby pit 