If European right wing politicians were in America they would, in fact, be right wingers. The policies they pursue are more mild, but that's not because they're temperamentally more liberal than American conservatives, just that they're operating from a baseline where there's a much bigger welfare state.

Posted at July 10, 2008 7:30 PM in response to Report: Bush Officials Not Happy About Possible Obama Speech At Brandenburg Gate

Hoo boy. I didn't realize Clinton was going to vote against the bill. There's going to be some gloating on the right side of the screen, I suspect.

She voted against the filibuster, which, given that there was obviously more than a majority for the bill, was the only vote that mattered, and in Obama's place (as presumptive nominee) almost certainly wouldn't have even gone as far as she did. If anyone gloats about that they're a total idiot.

Posted at July 9, 2008 3:20 PM in response to Senate OK's New Wiretapping Law

I do think that he will be disappointing fewer Democrats, Independents, and Libertarians than you realize. The vast majority of people don't care about this issue. Most of those who do care about this issue don't find it one with any real salience. Of the small number who really care and do want to base their vote on this issue, most will end up holding their noses and voting for Obama anyway, in the end.

I'm not thrilled about this, but don't fool yourself into thinking there will be some kind of popular groundswell against it. Most people don't care.

Posted at July 9, 2008 1:59 PM in response to Senate Defeats Effort To Strip Wiretapping Law Of Immunity For Telecoms

Actually, this is apparently innacurate.

The official Senate web page indicates that in addition to those Kozmik lists, Conrad, Kohl, and Webb also voted in favor of the amendment.

Posted at July 9, 2008 1:57 PM in response to Senate Defeats Effort To Strip Wiretapping Law Of Immunity For Telecoms

Dems who voted against the amendment, then, are -

1. Evan Bayh (Ind.)
2. Tom Carper (Del.)
3. Kent Conrad (N.D.)
4. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.)
5. Daniel Inouye (Hawaii)
6. Tim Johnson (S.D.)
7. Herb Kohl (Wis.)
8. Mary Landrieu (La.)
9. Blanche Lincoln (Ark.)
10. Claire McCaskill (Mo.)
11. Barbara Mikulski (Md.)
12. Ben Nelson (Neb.)
13. Bill Nelson (Fla.)
14. Mark Pryor (Ark.)
15. Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.)
16. Ken Salazar (Colo.)
17. Jim Webb (Va.)

These are mostly the ones you'd expect. Inouye is owned by the telecoms, and Rockefeller has known about this stuff from the beginning. The rest are the typical mix of red state types (Landrieu, the Arkansas senators, Nelson, Conrad) and the consistently shitty for not nearly as good reason, like Carper and Feinstein.

I'm most surprised by Herb Kohl and Barbara Mikulski, who are normally pretty good liberals, I'd thought.

Posted at July 9, 2008 1:52 PM in response to Senate Defeats Effort To Strip Wiretapping Law Of Immunity For Telecoms

Indeed, because putting a Republican in that seat will certainly make things better.

Posted at July 9, 2008 1:49 PM in response to Senate Defeats Effort To Strip Wiretapping Law Of Immunity For Telecoms

Greenwald has always been pretty terrible, it's just that before, you've usually agreed with him, so it was harder to notice.

He's completely humorless and completely and utterly convinced of his own righteousness. This is never a good combination, especially in politics.

Posted at July 1, 2008 9:19 PM in response to No Apologies From Obama For Wes Clark's Comments

Is Silly Season ever over? The media is always like this.

Posted at July 1, 2008 9:17 PM in response to No Apologies From Obama For Wes Clark's Comments

There have certainly been some instances of this, but I don't think that, overall, such things are particularly significant, nor is this particular incident of much significance.

The stuff about the Shia and Sunnis was kind of significant because he had repeated it several times, and because his basic point was kind of dubious, as well, and suggested that he possibly misunderstood the situation, rather than just messing up the names.

But this is nonsense.

Posted at July 1, 2008 1:49 PM in response to Now A McCain Surrogate Demeans Wes Clark's Service

Really? Am I really supposed to go after McCain for a slip of the tongue? So he said Somalia when he meant Sudan. Can anybody say they've never done something like that? This kind of thing is just ridiculous gotcha-ism. And it's not even effective - do you really think that anybody is going to have their vote influenced by the fact that McCain slipped and said "Somalia" when he meant "Sudan"?

Posted at July 1, 2008 12:54 PM in response to Now A McCain Surrogate Demeans Wes Clark's Service