Author: pete

  • That nuclear option: building a better House

    Xian beat me to it; I was going to post about the idea to stop electing Representatives from districts and have each state choose its electors as a bloc (thus, California would send 53 Democrats). Kleiman was talking about only amending California’s constitution, and thus producing a Democratic-controlled House. Such a change won’t happen, but…

  • Iran-Iraq: maybe, maybe not

    Take 2… Cecil was wondering whether we have just created “the perfect opening for an oil-rich anti-western Iran-Iraq alliance”. I happen to think the two countries will become very tight, and posted a line about the Anschluss of the Mullahs on my blog. My friend Mark Lew, who knows more about world politics and history…

  • The Yuck Factor

    A good example of why I don’t read Faux News’ website: I accidentally stumbled onto it today and saw a banner for Greta Van Susteren’s show tonight, with the headline “Newt Gingrich for President?” I think I speak for half of America when I say, Yikes! and, Eewwww!

  • There they go again

    Now that CBS has scaped a few goats to appease the Republicans, it’s worth dusting off the most appropriate summary of what 60 Minutes did to George Bush on the National Guard AWOL story: They framed a guilty man.

  • So-called conservatives don’t deserve civility

    A nonpublic mailing list I’m on is discussing politics, and the subject of maintaining civil political discourse came up. I invested enough time and emotion in my contribution that I want to log it in public view. It’s just preaching to the choir here on Edgewise, but it gives me a URL to point my…

  • The Mediocrity of Bush’s Campaign

    Xian called the election a “blowout”. I call it a poor performance by George W. Bush. This was no blowout. Bush and his minders will yell over and over through the so-called liberal media that he has a real mandate, that this was a landslide, that the middle of the country’s road is conservative. But…

  • Happy days are already here again

    [Cecil, if you don’t smile over this, please report to an ER.] Thursday evening, homeward commute time; corner of Treat Bl. and Clayton Rd. in Concord, California (medium-size intersection in a medium-size suburb): A dozen people scattered around all the sidewalks, waving Kerry/Edwards signs. Now, this is antithesis of a battleground state. And it’s in…

  • Best Analysis of a Politician Ever

    Digby deconstructs the “two faces of Bush” meme.

  • Handy Retort #3

    Another snappy answer for Cecil’s collection: “Wrong leadership is not strong leadership.” (TM Orcinus, which is having a helluva fine blogging week and where you should read the entire post, including the very long litany of “Just remember: It wasn’t Democrats who…”)

  • Beaming Republican faces

    I’m not watching the RNC convention. (“Why bother?” I thought, since I pretty much know the Repo script and it’s just as simplistic as Starlight Express, though with a plot that has far less contact with reality). But Cecil’s posts made me curious, so I poked around. From reading about the convention at Tacitus, Instapundit,…

  • Bush loses the 2012 Olympics?

    Following up on Boris Khadinov’s note about the pro-Bush ad that takes advantage of the Olympics: various blogs are now repeating a quote from the German magazine Der Spiegel (here translated by me). An unnamed IOC member says that because Bush won’t stop running the ad, “New York’s chances to host [the Olympics in 2012]…