Marc Comtois

Fonz-bama

By Marc Comtois | July 25, 2008 |

Many in the press have recognized that the surge in Iraq has worked. USA Today (no right-wing paper), for instance: Why then can’t Obama bring himself to acknowledge the surge worked better than he and other skeptics, including this page, thought it would? What does that stubbornness say about the kind of president he’d be?…

There’s More to Life…

By Marc Comtois | July 25, 2008 |

Yes, politics, wonkery, ideology are part of the AR raison d’etre, but Peter Robinson lends some nice perspective: Opening my in box just now for the first time in some 30 hours, I found several emails asking if I’d like to comment on Barack Obama’s speech this afternoon. I missed it. When the senator rose…

Council 94: If We Ignore It, It’ll Go Away

By Marc Comtois | July 24, 2008 |

From 7to7: The largest state employees union has overwhelmingly rejected a four-year deal brokered by its own leaders and the Carcieri administration, by a vote of 2,870 to 196. Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, announced the election result this afternoon, after tabulating the votes of its 24 member local unions…

BerlinObama

By Marc Comtois | July 23, 2008 |

The Obama campaign’s worldwide campaign–er, fact-finding–tour continues. (h/t) For days, campaign advisers have attempted to present the trip as a listening tour with key leaders who Obama said he expects to forge relationships with for years to come. But the extent of the stagecraft and planning makes it hard to ignore that the campaign, long…

ProJo Offers Clarity on “Immigration”

By Marc Comtois | July 23, 2008 |

Golf clap to the ProJo for providing some clarity on the terminology games being played with the word “immigration” (emphasis mine): [F]ew Americans oppose immigration or immigrants per se. After all, every citizen is an immigrant or a descendent of one (Native Americans, by the way, came from Siberia) and is well aware of that…

Rasmussen: Presidential Race Tightens

By Marc Comtois | July 22, 2008 |

We haven’t done a lot of Presidential poll tracking around here, mostly because of the “meh” factor we feel for the two candidates, I suppose. But in case you’re wondering, it looks like Obama and McCain are neck and neck. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 43% of…

RE: Taxing Thoughts

By Marc Comtois | July 22, 2008 |

Along with the chart that Andrew mentioned, the related WSJ piece included some observations worth mentioning. But first, earlier this month, Stephen Moore previewed the same IRS data used for the chart: New data from the IRS will be out in a few weeks on who pays how much in taxes. My contacts at the…

Dear Ink-Stained Wretches: People Think You’re in the Bag

By Marc Comtois | July 21, 2008 |

Ian Donnis has been keeping tabs on the fall of the newspaper business, particularly the ProJo, for a while, most recently noting that “[t]he bottom line…is that the erosion of newspapers hurts us all.” That’s certainly true. And a couple recent Rasmussen polls point to some of the problems newspapers (as part of the larger…

Cleaning the Attic

By Marc Comtois | July 15, 2008 |

Time to clean out the “To do” link “attic” I keep handy. So, before they vanish into the ether, here are some that may be interesting to others. Part I: Politics and Economy Obama, Shaman by Michael Knox Beran: Obama-mania is bound in the end to disappoint. Not only does it teach us to despise…

Tollbooths on I-95? Good Luck

By Marc Comtois | July 14, 2008 |

I grew up in northern Maine (Bangor-area), where the Maine Turnpike Authority kicks in around Augusta and you pay on down the road until you hit New Hampshire. One of the things I like about Rhode Island is not paying tolls on the regular highway. But we may be headed that way, according to the…