I'm not certain if TPM moderates comments, but "A Monkey for Obama" is clearly a candidate for account deletion...and to state the obvious, the comment above is idiotic, trollish, racist and offensive and worst of all, not even mildly funny!

Posted at May 17, 2008 7:24 AM in response to Brutal House GOP Primary Getting Nastier Everyday

Dr. Baker,

Unfortunately, oil futures are only partly based on the instantaneous supply/demand curve; according to some estimates, up to 30% or more of the current bubble is due to speculation in the futures market. The rest, of course, is due to the demand from emerging markets such as China and India as well as the falling dollar. Speculative activity increases disproportionately on "news". For instance, the recent Texas refinery explosion, which theoretically should've had a virtually unnoticeable impact on the crude market, is cited as a cause of the spike back to > $100 levels after crude eased to the mid 90s. In that light, the increased political tension in the middle east due to the war, the resulting al qaeda activity and so on have probably contributed a significant amount to the rise in crude futures. So it's not just the lack of Iraq's crude...the futures market prices in, however inaccurately, the always volatile middle east geopolitical factors.

Posted at March 10, 2008 5:09 PM in response to The Recession: It's the Housing Bubble, Not the War

This is only vaguely apropos, but I thought it was interesting.
The current CNN.com headline, reporting on the felony provision in the Sensenbrenner bill, states that Sensenbrenner is a Democrat. While I'd ordinarily dismiss this as a simple error, the article pays more than lip service to the Republican doublespeak which attempts to shift the origin of said provision to the Democrats.

The entire article contains what I (an independent) would characterize as an undue amount of spin; I've noticed the quality and objectivity of the articles on CNN.com going down steadily especially when, as Josh pointed out once, the Netscape feed characterized the Republican chairman's usual demonizing of the Democrats as an "indictment".

Systemic Republican bias at the "liberal" CNN, or merely an individual with a campaign?

Oops...sorry I meant to reply to the article, not to Mr. DiRito. My apologies.

Posted at April 11, 2006 7:28 PM in response to Why Won't the Downtrodden Scapegoat the Immigrants?