Hilzoy

THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW … December 20, 2007: “1. Does the president have inherent powers under the Constitution to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without judicial warrants, regardless of federal statutes? McCain: There are some areas where the statutes don’t apply, such as in the surveillance of overseas communications. Where they do […]

TOM MAGUIRE’S WONDERFUL WORLD … Here’s part of a New York Times story called “Many Blacks Find Joy in Unexpected Breakthrough”: “In his remarks Tuesday, Mr. Obama did not mention becoming the first American of color with a real chance at being president of the United States, and, of course, most of the Democrats who […]

WALKING THE WALK … From the NYT: “Senator Barack Obama, as he becomes his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, is starting to exert his authority over the Democratic National Committee. A first step? New fund-raising guidelines. Mr. Obama announced today that the D.N.C. will no longer accept contributions from federal lobbyists or political action committees, which […]

FROM MY INBOX… From Senator Clinton: “I wanted you to be one of the first to know: on Saturday, I will hold an event in Washington D.C. to thank everyone who has supported my campaign. Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and […]

HISTORY… I didn’t support Barack Obama because of his race. I didn’t need to: I just thought he was the best candidate by far, mostly for wonky reasons. (I started down the road to supporting Obama when I read this sentence from a Washington Monthly article: “On the campaign trail in 2004, Obama spoke passionately […]

MCCAIN SAYS THE DARNDEST THINGS … That’s a clip of John McCain claiming that he has voted in favor of every investigation into the levee failures after Hurricane Katrina. The only trouble is, it’s not true. Here’s one investigation he voted against; here’s another. (H/t) McCain seems to be doing this a lot. Recently, McCain […]

A SMALL REQUEST… During the next Presidential campaign, could we please, please, skip the part, in the fall before the primaries, where we are subjected to a rash of stories about whether one candidate or another is inevitable? I would have thought that the media might have figured out the stupidity of this back in […]

BAD MOVIES… Over at Crooked Timber they’re having a discussion of Movies To Avoid Watching Before You Die. The discussion there leads me to three conclusions about the commenters: (1) They are, for the most part, young, as witness their focus on movies like Starship Troopers. If they were more antiquated, as I am, they […]

PHIL GRAMM: THERE’S MORE… Recently, two more articles about Phil Gramm, “McCain’s Economic Brain“, have appeared. MSNBC had reported a week ago that Gramm was a paid lobbyist for UBS, one of the banks most heavily involved in the subprime scandal, until six weeks ago. Now Newsweek adds this: “NEWSWEEK has learned that UBS is […]

UMMM….. I briefly considered driving down to DC to check out the protests at the DNC meeting, but thought better of it. But Eve Fairbanks was there: “Howard Dean may hope that the “healing will begin today,” but two blocks away from the northwest Washington Marriott where the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting […]