Rather Replaceable
By Mike Pechar11/29/2004
According to this report, speculation is high that CBS Chairman Les Moonves wants to dramatically retool his news operation with two prominent names being suggested as candidates for replacing Dan Rather, specifically, Matt Lauer and Tim Russert.
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After Arafat, Division
By Dennis Fox11/16/2004
Assessments of the impact of Yasser Arafat's death are as divided as earlier explanations of the Palestinian leader's motivations, intentions, and actions. What seems certain is this unhelpful conclusion: Things will change, for better or worse. More accurately, perhaps, things will change for better and worse. Whatever comes some will see as positive, others as negative.
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Democrats a Marginal Party Yet Still Kicking
By Edward E.J. Davis11/13/2004
Republicans truly are the majority party in America. They may hold it by a very slim margin, but as their current majorities in the House and Senate, the re-election of President George W Bush, and a slight conservative tilt in the Supreme Court that should tilt even more rightward with new appointments all point out, it's good to be a conservative in America right now.
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Law, Justice, and Data
By Dennis Fox11/11/2004
A lawyer friend emailed last week to say he has a new book coming out in January. James Doyle's True Witness: Cops, Courts, Science and The Battle Against Misidentification focuses on the history of the legal system's resistance to psychological research on memory in general and eyewitness memory in particular. Doyle is a national expert on the vagaries of eyewitness testimony, a subject most often in the news these days when DNA evidence proves the inaccuracy of all those eyewitnesses whose overconfident testimony helps send innocent people to Death Row.
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Who will Guard Us From the Guardians?
By Terry Turner11/10/2004
It's been a bad year for the FDA when it comes to Congress. Their latest bout with Capitol Hill has them defending how they handled the flu shot shortage. Congress demanded a lot of materials showing the FDA did their job overseeing the troubled flu vaccine factory the British shut down.
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What Happens When Mulder & Scully File an FOIA Request?
By Terry Turner11/09/2004
Psychics, spoon bending, and UFO abductions. Just more of your tax dollars at work.
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Hearts, Minds, and Bodies in Iraq
By Robert Adler11/08/2004
If you’re wondering why we don’t seem to be winning the war for the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq, or of the Islamic world in general, a study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health might provide a clue. Actually, 100,000 clues.
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50 Purple States
By Stephen Macklin11/05/2004
A lot of people are either very excited or very upset about this map. Conservatives look at it, noting how much of it is red. Liberals look at how much of it is red and bemoan the state of the union. I've got some shocking news for both sides. The country doesn't look that way. Essentially, it looks like this.
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Post-Election Musings
By Dennis Fox11/05/2004
I'm as appalled as the next leftist that we'll have George Bush around to terrorize the planet for the next four years. Unbound now by re-election worries, our lame-duck president can let his true inner Bush emerge. On my end of the political spectrum, that's pretty scary. But even if John Kerry had won last Tuesday, life wouldn't be perfect. The Iraq war would continue, corporations would still have too much power, and the rich and powerful would still dominate the rest of us.
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Time for Some Democratic Soul Searching
By Jeff Myhre11/03/2004
No Democrat has won a majority of the popular vote since 1976, when Jimmy Carter managed 50.1% against Gerald Ford. As “popular” as Bill Clinton was, he got elected by pluralities in three-way races. Some soul searching has been in order for years, and some needed reconsideration of basic beliefs was only delayed by the weirdness of the 2000 election. With George Bush's victory, the Democrats need to get on with reforming themselves.
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Forget Exit polls – The futures markets are betting on Kerry tonight
By Michael Hussey11/02/2004
Yesterday, President Bush held a small lead in the election predictions marketplace, where people are putting their money where their mouths are. This afternoon, possibly as a result of initial exit polling data, or possibly for reasons unknown, President Bush has lost 20 cents to Senator Kerry, making Kerry the new 70% favorite to take the election. It is still early, but as these election options near their expiration, how much stock do we put in the market versus polls? Perhaps we will know the answer tomorrow.
Ever Wonder Why Election Day is So Close to Halloween?
By Terry Turner11/01/2004
What a scary election. Speeches and commercials warning of terrorists planning new attacks, nuclear attacks on the heartland, ships taking out whole harbors. And those are just the campaign promises.
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