Given the silly hoo-ha about the Democratic party platform dropping references to god and re-instating them at the last minute, I was amused to read this news story about former British prime minister Tony Blair. [Read more…]
The Democratic convention ran into some problems yesterday when the Republicans noticed that the party platform did not mention their support for Jerusalem as the capital of Israel nor did it mention ‘god-given’ when describing people’s potential, both of which were changes from the 2008 platform. [Read more…]
The internet started buzzing yesterday with the news that someone had broken into the Franklin, Tennessee office of the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and obtained copies of Mitt Romney’s past tax returns for an unspecified number of years. They claim to have made digital copies of them and mailed flash drives containing encrypted versions to various organizations, saying that if they do not receive $1 million by September 28, they will release the public key that will enable people to unencrypt the files and read the documents. [Read more…]
Ron Paul has been a thorn in the side of the Republican party for some time. His criticisms of the Republican war, budgets, civil liberties violations, and his other libertarian stands, and his call for a return to the gold standard all deviate from party orthodoxy. But it is inescapable that he has a devoted and passionate cadre of supporters, especially among the young, a demographic that the Republicans sorely need. [Read more…]
Iran has not been in the news for some time, which is a good thing. Reports are coming out of Israel that suggest that the impetus for a military strike against that country is waning.
One reason given for this lessening of war rhetoric is that Israeli prime minister Netanyahu has overplayed his hand in trying to pressure Barack Obama to attack Iran by exploiting the election season, and since the re-election of Obama seems increasingly likely, now seeks to try and mend those fences by toning down the war rhetoric. [Read more…]
As I have said repeatedly, I don’t watch highly scripted events like party political conventions. But I do follow media reports on them. Political conventions are not aimed at informing the voters directly, they are aimed at influencing the media narrative in the days to come. [Read more…]
Probably everything that could be said about Clint Eastwood’s appearance at the Republican national convention has been said. As my last comment on it, here is Stephen Colbert’s take on the performance. [Read more…]
For those who did not watch the Republican convention, The Daily Show broadcast a sneak preview of the biopic of Mitt Romney titled Mitt Romney: A Human Being Who Built That, showing how he had to struggle against great odds all the way to become a successful businessman, doing it entirely on his own, starting from the time when he was a mere sperm. [Read more…]
Americans presidents often go through rocky periods and face withering criticisms. But you have to give their spouses credit that they have managed to avoid any public scandals. The first ladies have an excellent record of not doing anything to embarrass the country they represent, often being held in higher esteem than their husbands. [Read more…]
Stephen Colbert zeroes in on how Paul Ryan conveniently abandoned his enthusiastic promotion of Ayn Rand once her atheistic and political views became better known and uncomfortable for modern Republican orthodoxy and his own political ambitions. [Read more…]