I've been working on a project for several months now called Carson Now. It is a nonprofit news service that anyone can post news, photos, videos, whatever. I will have more details on just what this site will do, but until then, check out the newest news site for' [...]
Wow, it's been quite a week. First off, I "retired" from the newspaper business after having worked in this industry since age nine. I have created a company with my friend Steve Reynolds call Response Associates, and will be helping local businesses take advantage of the web to promote their [...]
Last night, I installed the free Kindle app on my iPhone, so I could download the free e-book by Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson, titled "Free: The Future of a Radical Price." I pretty much proved his point before I even read any of the book.
[...]Conservatives in this country have latched on to this attack that the Obama administration is pushing us toward socialism, often tinged with enough paranoia to qualify them for their own custom-fit tinfoil hats.
Most often the attacks contain no facts. So here are some facts for them. The U.S. [...]
I guess that Rush and his buddies are too stupid to read. They are taking a single sentence of a speech by Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor out of context and branding her a racist. Maybe they should read the entire passage:
… Whether born from experience or inherent [...]
As newspaper publishers get more desperate, they keep going back to this thing about charging for content.
Now Dean Singleton jumps all in. But he trots out this stupid justification:
First, we continue to do an injustice to our print subscribers and create perceptions that our content has no value by [...]
Do you remember the story about how the big bad government forced Wells Fargo to take TARP funds they didn't want? Take a look at who is second on the list of the most troubled banks. Perhaps the Wells Fargo execs were more worried about their own compensation packages' [...]
As a matter of fact, the recession that FDR had to deal with wasn't as bad as the recession Coolidge had to deal with in the' [...]
It's been 41 years since one of the greatest agents of change was gunned down by someone afraid of that change. I think back to those days when I was a child and realize I was born into a different world than the generation before. I was six days old' [...]
Headlines like this make it impossible not to respond.
Bad start? Let's review for a minute. Obama got almost exactly the stimulus bill he first proposed, and the polls show Americans approve of the job he's doing by almost 70 percent.
The GOP congress critters on the other hand have [...]
This account of a lead interrogator in Iraq on why torture doesn't work is really eye=opening:
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting [...]
With the many challenges facing the newspaper business, many different ideas on how to save the industry have been trotted out.
One that I had pretty much dismissed immediately was the non-profit model. Maybe it's the capitalist in me, but I thought the quest for profits to be a great [...]
Bob Herbert thinks this bailout plan is moving too fast:
Does anyone think it’s just a little weird to be stampeded into a $700 billion solution to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression by the very people who brought us the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression?
How [...]
This may be the best explanation for how we got in this financial mess. Here is just a sample:
It may come as a surprise to the champions of deregulation, but nobody likes regulation. The restrictions that were placed on banks, S&Ls, and other institutions in the 1930s weren't put [...]
Over the past few weeks, there has been some big changes happening in my life, in regards to my working situation. As many already know, newspapers in general are having a tough time, both with the sagging economy and changes in reader habits. And this newspaper company is no exception.
My [...]
Ron Paul throws an alternative GOP convention, yet there is little to no coverage of this party schism, like there was about the Hillary-Obama conflict. Why?
[...]Sarah Palin's teen daughter is pregnant. The only real problem I have here is the old Republican double standard. If Palin were a Democrat, we would be hearing endless moralizing conservatives talking about how she can't run the country if she can't keep her family from straying into sin. [...]
I've been on vacation for the last few days, so I missed John McCain's big gamble to derail the Obama Express. But his pick Sarah Palin has some Dick Cheney-type problems:
We rely on elected officials not to use the power of their office to pursue personal agendas or vendettas. [...]
Now that the Democratic disunity storyline has been blown to pieces, perhaps we can get some stories about how the Republicans are in far worse shape on this score. How about noticing that former GOP Congressman Bob Barr is running on the Libertarian ticket and siphoning away a significant amount [...]
If there are any PUMAs left after Hillary's speech last night, you can be sure they aren't Democrats:
[...]The Jed Report has done a little adjusting to the McCain/Hillary spot to make it more realistic:
McCain hits Obama for, of all things, NOT picking Hillary as his VP. I'm sure they were really downfallen that they wouldn't have Hillary to rally the conservative hoards to turn out the vote against her.
I have a little fun today with the presidential candidates repeating the same theme over and over. For most of the people who have already made up their minds, this repetition gets downright annoying. But we have to understand that we aren't the targets. It's the maybe 10 percent [...]
Stuff like the Swift Boat attacks on John Kerry and McCain's Celeb/P Diddy assault on Obama aren't really about the attacks themselves. In themselves, they're often too cartoonish to be believed in any literal [...]
Here is a great visual representation of the differences between the Obama and McCain tax plans. Look who gets the biggest cuts.
[...]Here's an idea: Just like the GOP did with the purple bandaids at their 2004 convention, now we have an effort to get Democratic delegates to bring a bunch of key rings marked "John McCain house #(1-12)." Sounds like the kind of shallow crap that dominates convention coverage in [...]
Obama pounces as McCain stumbles on number of his homes. Now that's a headline that the Obama camp should have been getting all along. One gets the feeling they were being timid, trying to play prevent defense when they didn't have much of a lead to protect.
Now it's time [...]
ROMNEY: "Well, Hugh, my own view is as the Caucuses are a hot spot, and as Russians have shown their willingness to act militarily against a sovereign nation, that the International Olympic Committee ought to revisit locating the Games elsewhere."
Just stop talking. Go away. Shut [...]
So who is the out-of-touch elitist in this race:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own."I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where [...]
Keith Olbermann gives McCain a shot, and then some:
[...]John McCain claims Russia's actions in Georgia "the most serious crisis since the end of the Cold War." What the hell is Iraq then? Afghanistan? The first Persian Gulf War? McCain really loves this stuff. Can't wait until he can push the button himself.
McCain thinks he's already president:
Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.
Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If [...]
Like I said in last week's column, the amateurs are making great ads, and maybe the campaigns could save money by just having their supports make them ads.
[...]Who do the soldiers serving on the front lines want as their next commander in chief? If the amount of money they are donating to the candidates is any measure, they like Barack Obama six times more than John McCain. Yes, troops serving abroad have given Obama six times [...]
In the past, when Joe Biden's name was thrown out as a possible Obama VP pick, I just laughed. Biden has a reputation for speaking his mind in ways that might be seen to cause trouble. Secretary of State maybe, but not VP.
But the more I look at this, the [...]
I'm sure John McCain is totally lost on the irony of criticizing Obama for being presumptuous, while the Arizona senator is sending a delegation to Georgia to help sort out the crises there, as well as talking with the Georgian president every day.
Does John McCain realize that [...]
John McCain talks a good game one renewable energy, but as Tom Friedman points out, he sure doesn't vote that way. He has skipped every vote on the subject. This would make a great Obama ad.
[...]So John McCain doesn't think Barack Obama should visit his elderly grandmother? McCain is fast becoming that angry old man who yells at the kids to get off his lawn.
But worse, why hasn't McCain said anything negative about his buddy President Bush, who has set the record for [...]
Here's an ad hitting McCain on his "maverick" image. It's pretty good:
"Now Obama is starting to play by Karl Rove rules. Hit your opponent at their strength. McCain's strength has been his long-since-vanished reputation as a maverick. And it's about time. A lot of Dems are upset that [...]
McCain Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors:
Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And [...]
Sorry, but I don't believe Barack Obama is seriously considering Evan Bayh for VP. Bayh has one huge strike against him: Indiana has a Republican governor, who would pick his replacement should Obama win. Obama is putting a lot of effort into making sure he has a strong congressional [...]
Well, maybe. He did offer her up to be a contestant for the Miss Buffalo Chip contest at the big Sturgis biker rally today. For those of us who've been outside of Washington sometime these past 26 years would probably know that entering a biker beauty pageant in Sturgis isn't [...]
I was reading this piece about oil drilling and it occurred to me how this issue is fast become the GOP's last gambit to turn back the forces of change, and how Democrats seem to be falling for their trick.
I've argued this issue many times, and I've always tried [...]
John McCain has gotten such a free ride from the press all this time, but that looks to be coming to an end amid his myriad stumbles and gaffes. In today's Wall Street Journal, they kill his attack on Obama right in the lead:
Sen. John McCain continues to slam [...]
I agree. There is a danger here that Obama starts playing prevent defense, trying not to lose instead of trying to win.
Going on the attack would also help negate the McCain camp's narrative that he is aloof and gutless. Or as John Aravosis contends, they are doing a [...]
It was bad enough that John McCain blatantly lied about Obama's canceling of a visit to see wounded troops in Germany. But now we find out he was going to get hit with an attack even if he did visit the troops:
What the McCain campaign doesn’t want people to [...]
The Straight-Talk Express is caught in a tailspin. Pick a side, Senator. Will you raise taxes, or won't you?
"The study by the nonpartisan Rand Corp. also contends that the administration committed a fundamental error in portraying the conflict with al-Qaeda [...]
Trapper John makes a good case for Obama picking Tom Daschle.
I hadn't thought about Daschle being in the running for VP. But it does kind of make sense. I interviewed Daschle last summer, and he's a pretty good fit for Obama, a veteran politician who can drive Obama's agenda [...]
Turns out McCain isn't polling so well in his home state, and is being out-fundraised as well.
Could have something to do with the fact that he has basically abandoned his day job.
* 63% - How many votes in the Senate McCain has skipped during the 110th Congress [...]
McCain now seems to think Gen. Petraeus is chairman of the joint chiefs. You would hope that, as president, he would know who to call when a war breaks out.
Look, nobody is perfect, but war and foreign policy are McCain's best subjects, according to him, and he keeps [...]
They decided to stick with Sen. Tom Coburn, who has personally blocked 80 bills in the Senate using holds that prevent unanimous consent. So today, Sen. Harry Reid brought up [...]
This Cash for Clunkers idea is very intriguing. You take old, polluting cars off the road, put money in the hands of people who will spend it, and spur demand for new cars.
[...]John McCain's complaints about Barack Obama's tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, France and England (plus Afghanistan and Germany) -- meeting with leaders and acting presidential -- would go over a lot better if McCain hadn't taken his own tour of Iraq, Jordan, Israel, France and England -- and met [...]
If John McCain thinks that the president should always rubberstamp whatever his generals tell him, then maybe he should drop out and and have Gen. Petraeus run for president instead. If McCain's Iraq policy is going to be totally based on what Petraeus wants, then put the general on [...]
Even Texas Republicans are starting to grumble:
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to temporarily waive regulations requiring the oil industry to blend ever-increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline. A decision is expected in the next few weeks.
Mr. Perry says the billions of bushels [...]
"I got a suggestion from a very senior McCain aide late yesterday afternoon that he was going to announce it this week,'' Novak told Fox [...]
A few weeks ago I wrote a column about how the push by oil companies to obtain permission to drill in ANWR and offshore was about tying up leases for the future, not to increase production.
Here is a big piece of evidence to support that view. The Big [...]
Unfortunately, I think the press is missing the real scandal here.
The facts of the case are that Gibbons bought 40 acres for the [...]
With the Iraqis now calling for U.S. troops to leave, the Bush-McCain war effort is falling apart.
Even though both Bush and McCain said in the past that we would leave if the Iraqis want us to, they are now furiously trying to find a way out of this [...]
The same official who tried to walk back PM Maliki's endorsement of Obama's Iraq pullout plan now says that the government wants U.S. troops out by 2010.
That should put an end to the Bush/McCain spin that Maliki's comments were "misquoted." We now have it on record several times [...]
First we have Iraqi PM Maliki endorsing Obama's 16-month pullout plan. The the Bush administration muscled Maliki's people to issue a statement that the PM was "misquoted" or "mistranslated." The funny part was that this sort-of retraction didn't name any specific part of Maliki's interview that was wrong, and the [...]
In addition to the previous quotes, try these on for size:
"Whoever is thinking about the shorter term is closer to reality. Artificially extending the stay of U.S. troops [...]
Wonder what John "100 years in Iraq" McCain will say about this:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told a German magazine he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months.
In an interview with Der Spiegel released on Saturday, Maliki said [...]
The president now says that timetables, er, "time horizon" OK in Iraq:
In the area of security cooperation, the President and the Prime Minister agreed that improving conditions should allow for the agreements now under negotiation to include a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals -- such as the [...]
Congress has set two records this year: the lowest ever approval rating and number of filibusters by Republicans, which will likely double the old record.
Do you think these two records are related?
[...]John McCain is really going to regret daring Barack Obama to go to Iraq. All three broadcast network news anchors will be going along. They are eager to cover the candidate's rock star following in Europe and elsewhere.
I'm sure we will hear plenty of whining about bias from [...]
First you have John McCain copying Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy, now President Bush starting to use diplomacy with Iran. Is reality winning out over neocon fantasy?
[...]Remember that Afghanistan base where nine Americans were killed recently in a bold frontal attack by Taliban militants? Instead of beefing up our presence, the base is being abandoned. Might as well leave a white flag flying when they leave. That's a big win for the Taliban, and another [...]
I guess George W. Bush is feeling unloved these days, so he's taken to doing some very odd things, like vetoing a bipartisan Medicare bill that would restore cut to Medicare providers. These cuts would have forced many providers to stop taking Medicare patients, causing a lot of grief for [...]
John McCain seems to think Czechoslovakia is still a country. Sorry, but that country split up and changed names 15 years ago.
Now, I don't think the next president should have to keep track of every name change of every little nation on the planet. But if you are going [...]
People are starting to realize that Jimmy Carter was right all along, though maybe he was ahead of his time:
He was right in seeking to raise the fleet auto mileage standard to 48 miles per gallon by 1995. (Even U.S. automakers admitted at the time that they could easily [...]
McCain surrogate South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford can't think of any differences between McCain and Bush's economic policies:
Meanwhile, Washington Post says McCain's economic plan isn't credible.
[...]I've often heard in the past that if you didn't bother to vote, then you have no right to complain. And I generally agree with that statement.
Too bad John McCain doesn't. Here he complains about "partisanship" in the Medicare bill that he didn't bother to show up to [...]
I wrote a column a few years ago about how the Nevada desert could produce a huge amount of solar power. Now you have solar firms and investors snatching up swaths of desert for big money. When you start seeing dollars flow like this, you know it's going to [...]
"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," Gramm tells the Washington Times, adding that despite all the bad news out there US economic growth continues at a rate [...]
George W. Bush is still president, and he's out there still making a fool of himself and his country. We won't miss his stupid sense of humor:
President George Bush signed off with a defiant farewell over his refusal to accept global climate change targets at his last G8 summit.
As [...]
They say you can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. First, Hillary Clinton's spokesperson Howard Wolfson took a job working for Fox News (where 88 percent of viewers voted for Bush in 2004), and now her former chief strategist Mark Penn is teaming up [...]
I knew there were a lot of McCain flip-flops, but I didn't think it was this many. Here's a few:
39. McCain supported the moratorium on coastal drilling ; now he’s against it.
40. McCain recently announced his strong opposition to a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he [...]
Does this sound the like the kind of guy who can manage a country?
Senator John McCain’s campaigns have long been defined by internal squabbling and power plays, zigzagging lines of command and a penchant by the candidate for consulting with former advisers without alerting current ones, always a recipe [...]
Sounds like our puppet leader in Iraq wants to fly solo:
"Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty," [Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al] Maliki told Arab ambassadors in blunt remarks during an official visit to Abu Dhabi, capital [...]
Yes, you heard it here. John McCain now plans for a four-year timetable to bring troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan/ It's all part of his promise to balance budget in his first term:
“The McCain administration would reserve all savings from victory in the Iraq and Afghanistan operations in [...]
I saw this story last night, and couldn't get my head around it. Obama wants to increase ground forces by 65,000 soldiers and 27,000 Marines. And he wants to pull our people out of Iraq.
Excuse me, Senator, but what the hell are you going to do with all those [...]
Let's see, John McCain's wife is worth $100 million, and the couple own so many houses and condos that they forgot to pay the taxes on one of them for four years. Cindy McCain runs up half-million dollar credit card bills (that she swears she pays off each month) [...]
After a commenter suggested that a McCain flip-flop isn't a flip-flop unless he goes back to his original position, this popped up on TV:
To summarize, McCain was quoted last year that he didn't know much about the economy, and that he "need to be schooled" on it. When confronted [...]
The New GI Bill was signed into law yesterday by President Bush. Of course, he and his good buddy John McCain were against the bill before it got attached to a bill funding their war in Iraq. Bush even threatened a veto. Now they are both busy claiming credit [...]
Keith Olbermann details part of McCain's long string of flip flops:
Former Chrysler chairman asks an important question:
"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've [...]
My, the McCain camp is getting so testy that their brains are frying:
"If Barack Obama wants to question John McCain's service to his country, he should have the guts to do it himself and not hide behind his campaign surrogates."
That quote is from McCain surrogate "Snuffy" Smith. Perhaps we [...]
It's the buzz of DC, that Wesley Clark is trying to "swift boat" John McCain, questioning his war record.
Maybe all those talking heads were drunk yesterday, because when you look at the video, it's clear that Clark isn't questioning his war record. The question that Clark brings up [...]
