Politics

Clinton Skirted Questions in Philly Debate

I caught the last 90 minutes of the Democratic presidential debate at Drexel University Tuesday night, which told me that Hillary Clinton thinks she can win the nomination without telling anyone what she'll do if elected. Clinton had a commanding demeanor throughout the night, despite taking shots from every other candidate except for Bill Richardson, who appeared to be running for vice president with one of his answers. "I'm hearing this holier than thou attitude towards Senator Clinton, and ... (read more)

2007/10/31

Running for President, One Spam at a Time

I don't know who I'm going to vote for in the 2008 presidential election, but I've given small donations to both John Edwards and Barack Obama in response to specific initiatives I thought worthy of support, so I'm on their mailing lists. They both send personalized emails frequently, like the one I just got from Obama: Rogers, I'm leaving the Tonight Show studio and I wanted to share something. Jay Leno just asked if it bothers me that some of the Washington pundits are declaring Hillary ... (read more)

2007/10/18

'Kid Nation' Contestants Rip Into President Bush

You know things are going bad for the president when he can't escape his problems on reality TV. The CBS series Kid Nation gave each of its 40 contestants, children aged 8 to 14, a chance to answer the question "Who are some of the worst presidents and why?" Here's the response that Sophia, a 14-year-old Florida teen, posted on the CBS web site: I think George W. Bush takes the cake. The planet is disintegrating, we’re fighting an unnecessary war, millions are without health care, the school ... (read more)

2007/09/20

Men's Restroom Etiquette for Dummies (and Senators)

I like Alex Dering's take on Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's clumsy attempt to form a rump caucus in the men's restroom at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport: For all the men in the audience. Does the description of Larry Craig's actions sound like anything you would do in a public bathroom? I'm pretty sure the gay, the straight, the bi-curious, the hetero-transmetro-vanilla, the unsure, are all gonna answer the same way: "When I use a public bathroom I make no eye contact with anyone. I ... (read more)

2007/08/29

Republicans Made a Bad Bet Against Online Poker

The British online gambling firm PartyPoker is taking it in the shorts after the U.S. cracked down on online gambling last fall. The company lost $47 million in the past six months and saw a 70 percent drop in profits. I have an crazy theory about the 2006 mid-term elections, and I am going to share it on the principle that every American is entitled to one off-the-wall explanation for an election's outcome, per election. Forget Rush Limbaugh's cruel pantomime of Michael J. Fox, the quagmire in ... (read more)

2007/08/29

Radio Interview with Peter Boyles

I got a chance to discuss Philip Atkinson's Bush should be president for life commentary Wednesday on the Peter Boyles Show, a talk radio program that's huge in Colorado. As a former Denver resident, I had to fight the urge to do shoutouts to my old coworkers at Zing Systems (failed interactive TV company) and DiveIn (failed city portal site). To get it out of my system, word to Jonathan Bourne, Phil Weinstock, Don Wrege, Lev Lawrence, Stefanie Lerner, Meg Cardamone, Andrew Borakove and Jeff ... (read more)

2007/08/25

Big Encyclopedia is Watching You

On July 11, Wikipedia accused me of censoring right-wingers on the Drudge Retort: Cadenhead actively supports liberal causes by removing rightwing commentary he disapproves of, and bans some posters to his sites because they are too effective in discrediting liberal correspondents. Naturally these efforts are rationalized as necessary for political correctness. Wikipedia changed its mind four hours later, but the claim has found its way to the all-seeing Eye on Winer, where McD makes this ... (read more)

2007/08/21

Conservative Calls for Bush to Name Himself 'President for Life'

On Aug. 3, a writer for Family Security Matters, a national security group associated with a conservative think tank, argued that President Bush should appoint himself "president for life" and "empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans." He wasn't kidding. I fished out the full commentary from the Google cache for Watching the Watchers. Before you dismiss the piece as a rant of a fringe group, Family Security Matters has a board that includes a former CIA director, talk show ... (read more)

2007/08/20

Jerome Armstrong Settles SEC Stock-Tout Suit

I filed a story this morning on Watching the Watchers about blogger Jerome Armstrong settling his stock-tout suit with the SEC: Influential liberal blogger Jerome Armstrong, the founder of MyDD and an originator of the netroots movement, has agreed to pay $29,000 in fines and penalties to settle a 2003 SEC suit accusing him of touting a stock on Internet message boards without disclosing his financial interest in the company. Some of my fellow liberals threw me under the bus for digging into ... (read more)

2007/08/09

Blogger Files FEC Complaint Calling Daily Kos a PAC

I wrote a story for Watching the Watchers this afternoon about an FEC complaint that's been filed against Daily Kos -- a conservative blogger alleges that the liberal site functions as a political action committee and therefore should disclose its sources of income and expenditures. Conservative blogger John Bambenek's complaint doesn't seem like it will get far, given a 2005 FEC advisory opinion that supports the "media exemption" for political activist blogs. Daily Kos functions like a media ... (read more)

2007/07/24