Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Kevin Drum argues convincingly that during the debate Bush uttered “one of the great whoppers of all time” regarding the economy when he said that “Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it's less than 1 percent, because we're working together to try to bring this deficit under control.”

No such thing:

Outside of the personal fantasyland Bush seems to inhabit, the truth is simple: spending of all kinds has skyrocketed under his administration and the Republican Congress. They've increased spending twice as fast as Clinton, three times as fast as Bush 1, and four times as fast as Carter. And remember: this doesn't include defense spending, entitlement spending, or homeland security. 9/11 and Medicare have nothing to do with it.

See the whole post, and the great chart, for all the details.

One of GW Bush's odder remarks last night was that he would appoint Supreme Court Justices who opposed Dred Scott. At the time it seemed an unfortuanate attempt to pick an uncontroversial example (even the hard right is against slavery) but, no, it seems it may have been code to the base.

For details, see Paperwight's Fair Shot: Dred Scott = Roe v. Wade. (via Kevin Drum)

• Good Kerry-won poll numbers
• Hullabaloo sees America's ex-husband
• Balkin explains why Bush's reference to the Dred Scott case is incoherent
• Literary cautionary tale
• Criticism of Bush's wooden performance
• Matthew Yglesias tries on tin foil hat for size. Brad DeLong eyes one too
• MaxSpeak says Bush is as angry as Howard Dean — but of course won't get the same media treatment (running the anger clip 50 times a day for a week). First Draft says Somewhere, Howard Dean is laughing. Angry Bear sees an Angry Bush (takes one to know one?). Wolcott would like less yelling.
• Robert's thoughts are less random than the NYT editorial board

Bonus item:

• Get mad and get even!