Internal Monologue

It's not too early to start thinking about why McCain would be an awful president: He is even more wrong about Iraq than the Bush administration, if that's possible. He thinks that because our troop escalation has coincided with a reduction in violence (down to levels that were considered catastrophic a few years ago, but now seem better by comparison), that somehow means that our presence is solving long term issues like power sharing between Shia and Sunni. OK, McCain is really smoking crack about Iraq. So much so that it deserves another bullet point. Remember that time McCain walked through the Baghdad marketplace, guarded by massive amounts of firepower and wearing a bulletproof vest, and then commented how one could "walk freely" in some parts of Baghdad ? That is the level of reality denial he has about the situation. It's really scary. McCain took a good Beach Boys song and turned it into a joke about bombing Iran. The moral callousness of that aside, wha

Here's one that might be of interest to my Minnesota reader(s): Republican Senator Norm Coleman got caught astroturfing . (Don't know what astroturfing is? It was term of the day here at Internal Monologue almost two years ago.)

Obama's letter about gay equality . Personally, I'm in favor of full civil marriage for gay couples rather than just civil unions. But this is a pretty strong statement in favor of gay equality and inclusion. We found a witch (back in 1944 in Scotland), may we pardon her ? Isn't 1944 a little bit late to be convicting people of witchcraft? Egad. Marc Ambinder does some delegate math , and it looks like Clinton has a pretty uphill battle. He can't find any realistic scenario in which she can get the nomination unless the Florida and Michigan delegations are allowed to participate. (The rules exclude them because those states had primaries earlier than the party allowed. Since they were excluded, neither candidate campaigned there. Clinton got more votes there, so now she wants those delegations seated. They may be seated, but probably not until after the nomination.)

...with Google Trends ! This post on Open Left asks whether Google Trends can be used to spot political momentum. The conclusion: Conclusion: Google Trends probably does show momentum. If you find yourself hovering over the refresh button waiting for the next poll to come out, try visiting Google Trends while you wait. It looks like, for the Democratic primaries so far at least, search volumes are pretty good predictors of who is gaining and who is not.

These statistics hit me pretty hard: 87 : The percentage of Afghan women who report suffering physical abuse, half of which is sexual. - 60 : The percentage of marriages in Afghanistan that are forced. - 57 : The percentage of Afghan brides who are under the age of 16. - 88 : The illiteracy rate amongst Afghan women. - 5 : The percentage of Afghan girls attending secondary school. - 1 in 9: The number of women in Afghanistan who die in childbirth — that’s the highest in the world, alongside Sierra Leone. - 1 Million : The number of Afghan widows who have no rights, including no right to work — leaving them to beg on the street. - £800 to £2,000 : The price of a child bride if Afghanistan. Statistics were compiled on Feministe from this article at AlterNet .

Clarence Thomas' silent streak , which I blogged about last May , remains unbroken: WASHINGTON - Two years and 144 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court's unceasing inquiries. Hardly a case goes by, including two appeals that were argued Monday, without eight justices peppering lawyers with questions. Oral arguments offer justices the chance to resolve nagging doubts about a case, probe its weaknesses or make a point to their colleagues. Left, right and center, the justices ask and they ask and they ask. Sometimes they debate each other, leaving the lawyer at the podium helpless to jump in. "I think you're handling these questions very well," Chief Justice John Roberts quipped to a lawyer recently in the midst of one such exchange. Leaning back in his leather chair, often looking up at the ceiling, Thoma

This story on DailyKos , if true, is pretty devastating for McCain: If you follow the implications, since he entered the federal matching funds program, John McCain is now essentially at the spending limit, and is legally prohibited from spending any more money until September. To spend more money would be to break federal law. That law, by the way, is sometimes named after its Senate sponsors: McCain-Feingold. Now McCain claims to have withdrawn from the federal matching funds program. But since he gained benefits from joining it, it might not be possible for him to withdraw: McCain publicly declared that he would accept the matching funds (and therefore abide by the spending limits). But since he was broke, he had to go to a bank and secure a loan under dubious conditions . Since he appears to have secured the loan by using his eligibility to accept the federal matching funds, it seems fairly clear that he is committed to the federal matching funds system. The DNC's com