Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Hon. Sen. McCain oppose stripping current leaseholders of their leases if they did not utilize them? Assuming he would also oppose such a rule for the new OCS leases (and the fact that there is an I don't know how many year waiting lists for the rigs to drill offshore (and that we don't even know how much is where, or how much it would cost to get it), how, exactly would the so-called drill now position of Senator McCain produce more oil sooner than the give the current leases to someone who will use them policy of Hon. Sen Obama? Note that since the recent price rises, there has been a boomlet in small wildcatter operations that might like to get at some of the leases that the majors have got in their back pocket (maybe for a rainy day?).

Posted at August 7, 2008 7:09 AM in response to Which Candidate Is In More Of A Bind On Energy?

My concern is this administration's utter lack of shame suggests that President* Bush will have no compunction in issuing the most broad series of pardons that this country has known, for a welter of disparate malfeasances.

In particular, multiple questions of prosecutable war crimes would seem to be an obvious focus of possible pardons. The only good thing that could come from this, possibly, is that perhaps a grant of immunity would disallow any Fifth Amendment claims of refusing to testify (and maybe a de jure inability of the US government to address individuals given a pardon would enable international bodies to get a bite at the apple).

Posted at August 4, 2008 7:07 PM in response to Bush's Last Days

There really is a "Hail Mary" law school.

I hope that this wasn't "unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortious, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libelous, false or inaccurate, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable."

Posted at August 1, 2008 6:47 AM in response to Office Of Special Counsel Has The Same Political Problems As DOJ, Former Workers Say

While watching the CNN interview, I was thinking that someone should be making a comparison like this (I should have known that TPM would be in the ball). Now that I see this, I agree with you, PH. Hon. Sen. McCain has a boolean tactical mind: If things are going well (or in the absence of anyone calling on me for corroboration, I can make this claim) we have succeeded; else, we need more soldiers on the ground.

In order to fully explore his "I have the judgement..." mantra, we need to see what Senator McCain was saying in the run-up to the war; and a bill of particulars of what he thought were "mistakes" other than insufficient troop levels. How did he seem to be unaware that we had essentially no plan to occupy the country for years after we invaded? The few plans that were made (by State, for example) were ignored. What did he say at the time, or since, about the disaster that was L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer's proconsulship? How about the idea that almost every experienced officer, after making statements to the effect that we would be leaving soon after Baghdad fell, up and retired, leaving Gen. Sanchez, in an unprecedented position for his experience and rank, holding the bag? How about his successors? Make the Senator say something besides, "I wanted more troops."

Senator McCain had the same prescription in Bosnia. He thinks that we could have salvaged Viet Nam with more troops. It's his entire quiver, as far as tactics. Don't even get me started on his strategic thinking.

Posted at July 25, 2008 7:07 PM in response to Critic Or Cheerleader: The Definitive McCain Iraq Timeline

There were reports that SecDef Rumsfeld, after getting their private assessment that more resources were needed, would go out in front of the cameras and put them on the spot by asking them whether they had all they needed. Of course, they were reluctant to so publicly contradict their (so-called) superior. Apart from giving a false impression of what commanders thought, I would think that morale took a hit as well.

Posted at July 25, 2008 6:49 PM in response to Critic Or Cheerleader: The Definitive McCain Iraq Timeline

Sorry if I've asked this before, but how does waterboarding not "cause pain similar in intensity to that caused by [lung] failure?" Are the lungs not "organs" for the purposes of interigation?

Posted at July 18, 2008 12:16 PM in response to Ashcroft Testimony Brings CIA Interrogation Timeline Into Question

I wonder if you actually pronounce the infix as you wrote it here.

I would've thought (and say myself much more naturally): Unbefuckinglievable.

At any rate, I didn't expect much more than this from Hon. Sen. Clinton.

Posted at June 4, 2008 7:40 AM in response to Hillary: "I Will Be Making No Decisions Tonight"

Wasn't there a similar problem in 2004? I seem to recall that there was some last minute flurry of groveling before some CEOs which saved the day. Personally, I would hope that we could spend less on these affairs anyway.

Posted at May 28, 2008 10:05 AM in response to Dems Way Behind In Financing Convention

So.. one side denies the problem, the other offers governmental solutions (aka regulations); my, moderate solution is the acknowledgment of the problem, but the denial of any solutions. We might call this the half a loaf is better than nothing strategy. Too bad it leads to the same place as denial.

Posted at May 12, 2008 11:12 AM in response to New McCain Ad: He Cares About Global Warming, But Won't Increase Taxes And Regulation

I'm not sure it matter all that much in the final analysis, but when will it be accepted that Hon. Sen. Obama has taken the lead in superdelegates? when half of the networks' tallies show this? 3/4?

Posted at May 11, 2008 8:39 AM in response to Obama Gains More Super-Delegates, AP Says He Now Leads