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Archive for February, 2009

Sometimes, It Pays To Be A Legislator

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under History, Virginia

Members of the Virginia Senate found a surprise on their desks earlier this week:
How better to mark the birthday of George Washington than with a taste of All-American Whiskey?
Sunday was Washington’s 277th birthday.
Members of the Virginia Senate found green keepsake boxes containing a single 1.7-ounce bottle with a blend of 11 major brands of American [...]

D.C. Vote Bill Passes Senate Filibuster

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under D.C. Vote Bill, Politics, U.S. Constitution, Washington DC

Unlike two years ago when it was stopped by a cloture vote, the bill to give the District of Columbia a vote in Congress made a major advance in the Senate today:
For the first time in more than 30 years, a D.C. voting rights bill is headed to the Senate floor, after attracting enough votes [...]

Republicans For Creationism

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under 2012 Election, Evolution vs. ID, Mark Sanford, Politics, Sarah Palin, Science

Four of the top contenders for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination are all creationists.
First, Mark Sanford:
DS: What do you think about the idea of teaching alternatives to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in public schools* for instance Intelligent Design?
Gov. Sanford: I have no problem with it.
DS: Do you think it should be done that way? Rather [...]

Transparency We Can Believe In

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Politics

Once again, President Obama’s promise of transparency is less than meets the eye:
The $500 billion omnibus spending bill to fund the most of federal government for the rest of the year will be debated in the House this week. And it has now finally been posted online.
It’s a PDF of scanned pages, meaning it can’t [...]

Sarah The Whiner

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under 2008 Election, 2012 Election, Politics, Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is back, and she’s blaming the media for her abysmal performance during the Presidential Campaign:
Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) believes that the media deliberately tried to bring her down during her vice presidential run.
As part of an interview with conservative filmmaker John Ziegler for his new film out this week, Palin said she believes [...]

James T. Kirk, T.J. Hooker, Denny Crane, Prime Minister ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under Politics, Star Trek

William Shatner says he’s looking at new career options:
The ‘Star Trek’ actor, who played Captain Kirk in the hit sci-fi TV show, is planning to make a dramatic career change and help lead his native country.
The 77-year-old star said: “My intention is to be Prime Minister of Canada, not Governor General, which is mainly a [...]

Obama And The Polls One Month In

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under Barack Obama, Politics

Two new polls are out today that purport to show that President Obama continues to enjoy broad public support one month into his Presidency.
First, the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Obama continuing to maintain strong support among all groups except self-identified Republicans:
As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tonight, he [...]

Gmail Fail

by Doug Mataconis @ Tuesday, February 24th, 2009. Filed under Internet, Technology

This seems to be quite the topic of discussion this morning:
The email service went offline at around 10.25am GMT, and the outage appears to have affected users throughout the UK as well as across Europe, and even as far afield as Australia and India.
It appears that only web-based Gmail [...]

Time For Term Limits For The Supreme Court ?

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, February 23rd, 2009. Filed under History, Legal, Politics, Supreme Court, U.S. Constitution

A group of legal scholars is suggesting some rather radical changes to the third branch of government:
If we had it to do all over again, would we appoint Supreme Court justices for life? Allow the chief justice to keep the job forever? Let the court have the final word on which cases it hears and [...]

Tucker Carlson Joins The Cato Institute

by Doug Mataconis @ Monday, February 23rd, 2009. Filed under Libertarians, Media, Politics

A little inside libertarian baseball here……
Former MSNBC host and columnist Tucker Carlson has joined The Cato Institute:
Noted columnist and television commentator Tucker Carlson has joined the Cato Institute as a senior fellow.
“I’ve admired the Cato Institute since I first read its publications, passed around like samizdat on my college campus,” said Carlson of his new [...]

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