Head to head

Clinton still beats Giuliani in the head to head matchup, but Mayor Nine-Eleven is closing the gap.

Sarkozy

Why is it that French President Nicholas Sarkozy always looks drunk?

Hillary solid in Iowa

The Hillary juggernaut continues, as she is now consistently polling in the 30% range. It's hard to imagine how she can be defeated unless she mis-steps severely.

Some photos from the campaign trail

Fred Dalton Thompson, in the doghouse.


John Edwards, regular guy

Convicted of terrorism but want to serve in the military? No problem!

The 53 senators who voted to table the Boxer amendment, which would have prohibited persons convicted of specific felonies within the past five years of being permitted to enlist in the armed services:

Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Nelson (D-NE)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Webb (D-VA)

Naomi Klein is an idiot

And her new book is worthless. IPEZone writes:

Needless to say, I would not hesitate to give any paper based on the idea that the Argentinian invasion of the Falklands was done in order to spur neoliberal reforms in Britain or one that suggested Tiananmen spurred China's turn to the market a failing mark. That such faulty logic could be extended to 500+ pages beggars belief.

Unfortunately, Joseph Stiglitz, writing in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, was far too gentle:

Klein is not an academic and cannot be judged as one. There are many places in her book where she oversimplifies. But Friedman and the other shock therapists were also guilty of oversimplification, basing their belief in the perfection of market economies on models that assumed perfect information, perfect competition, perfect risk markets. Indeed, the case against these policies is even stronger than the one Klein makes. They were never based on solid empirical and theoretical foundations, and even as many of these policies were being pushed, academic economists were explaining the limitations of markets — for instance, whenever information is imperfect, which is to say always.

So, what does this mean, that non-academics should be able to get basic facts wrong, and to spin absurd conspiracy theories, and get away scot free?

No, they (we) shouldn't.