You know, you stop reading the news for a week to help your mother move, and the world goes to heck in a hand-basket. I saw in the paper this morning that the government was seizing WaMu (with a name like that it’s no wonder they are having problems), that the Bush Administration has [...]

Probably the two biggest scandals of the Bush Administration have been the politicization of the Justice Department (which led to the dismissal of Alberto Gonzalez) and the Valerie Plame scandal (which led to the prosecution of the Vice President’s Chief of Staff for perjury). In both cases, the Bush Administration consciously ruined the careers [...]

I apologize for not posting much lately. I’m in the middle of what will be a crazy couple of weeks here, so I might be writing much more sporadically on leftfielder than I normally do. I ask for your patience, and I promise I’ll be back to normal by mid-June.
In any case, as [...]

From a McCain Speech that he is expected to give today, as quoted by the New York Times:
“By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom,’’ Mr. McCain is to say, according to excerpts of his speech provided [...]

It’s always dangerous to tell a chatty cab driver that you study Political Science. I learned that one the hard way when I was an undergraduate. The driver in question proceeded to spend most of my thirty minute ride from the airport explaining to me how the country has gotten away from the [...]

Number one rule of politics: always accuse your opponents of your own faults. Want to cater to the upper class? Accuse your opponents of fueling class warfare. Want to pursue policies that ignore the concerns of minorities? Accuse your opponents of “playing the race card”.

President Bush sent his proposed 2008 budget to Congress.  I haven’t gone through it thoroughly yet (sorry, I’ve had the flu), but I’m unimpressed by the reviews.  In any case, the budget projects a $400 billion deficit, and that’s before we account for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the proposed $120 billion stimulus package, [...]

At last night’s State of the Union, the biggest news was about earmark reform. The President took on earmark reform with two proposals. First, he told Congress that “if you send me an appropriations bill that does not cut the number and cost of earmarks in half, I’ll send it back to you [...]

One of my biggest problems with the Bush presidency is his style. Once you get beyond the bad policies and the incompetent, politically motivated administration, he has the fundamental belief that the president ought to have the right to interpret the laws for himself; to charge forward with his policies and then to maybe [...]

I’ve bee hearing these kinds of reports for years, but they just keep coming: the Department of Homeland Security backed down off of regulations about the storage and use of industrial chemicals.  We’re told that, for our own safety, we need to have our phones tapped, have guards see us almost nude at airport x-ray [...]