Cheryl Rofer

THANKS….I’ll be traveling this weekend, probably away from the intertubes, so this may be my last post. I’m bringing my laptop, but I won’t have a lot of time, and Kevin is supposed to be back this weekend. I want to thank Kevin for letting me blog here, and I want to thank everyone who’s […]

A QUESTION….I haven’t been following about that polygamist sect in Texas all that closely, so maybe I’m just not paying attention. But I thought polygamy was illegal in most states. The charges of child abuse, which seem to have been dropped for the moment, were what the state chose to use. But if polygamy is […]

THE HIGH GROUND….Hillary whipped out the gender card again last night. “What does Hillary want?” she asked, evoking Freud’s plaint. In hanging on, she fuels stereotypes of women: don’t know how to play the game, bitchy and ungracious. It’s the softer stereotypes she has eschewed. Those who need the stereotypes will find them, either way. […]

THE SUPERDELEGATES ARE FALLING INTO LINE….for Obama, even before the polls close in Montana and South Dakota. Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, U.S. Reps. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan and John W. Olver of Massachusetts, Los Angeles labor organizer John A. Perez, Michigan DNC members Debbie Dingell and Rick Wiener, along with Michigan superdelegate […]

THE END IS NEAR….for Hillary, or so says the New York Times. Adam Nagourney, Carl Hulse and Jeff Zeleny report more details than anyone else. Stay tuned tonight for confirmation. Or not.

GETTING THE WORD OUT ON CLIMATE CHANGE….The NASA Inspector General tells us that political appointees messed with public accounts of NASA’s scientific findings on global climate change. From the fall of 2004 through 2006, the report said, NASA’s public affairs office “managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized, or mischaracterized […]

EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION CONTINUED….Reprieve, a human rights organization (UK branch, US branch), claims that the United States is using prison ships to keep prisoners outside legal jurisdictions. They say that there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped. A US Navy spokesman […]

MARK PENN SPEAKS….but doesn’t say much. Does he wish he’d taken a sabbatical from lobbying? Penn’s answer is the closest he comes to expressing any regrets about his campaign work. “I think that we – you know, with the benefit of hindsight, we might have done things somewhat differently. I’ll spend some time analysing that.” […]

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL….A lot of people didn’t like the latest Indiana Jones movie. I did. Here’s a review that I think makes some fair points. Much of the less formal criticism (for example) revolves around believability, particularly of the computer-generated effects. I must admit that I’m not cognizant of […]

MARGIN OF ERROR….Another mini-uproar with (about?) North Korea ensues. Or perhaps more than one, if the media have their way. Helene Cooper, or rather the editor who wrote the headline on her article, leads the media faction. Looky looky, the numbers don’t match! American intelligence agencies estimated that North Korea had produced 40 to 50 […]