¶ The Paragraph

On the cold, rainy inauguration day of 2001, angry crowds lined the parade route to jeer the new president, who had gained the office by the Supreme Court quashing a vote count. “Hail to the thief!” yelled the crowd, and, “Oh, no! Gore’s ahead, better call my brother Jeb.” But the parade ended quickly when [...]

In Cleveland yesterday, 80,000 persons packed in and around Mall C for a rally for Barack Obama where Bruce Springsteen played and sang some songs. After the sing-along “This Land is Your Land”, Springsteen did a monologue, which led into “The Rising”, after which he welcomed Obama and his family to the stage. [...]

The investigator into the firing of Alaska’s Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan by Governor (and Republican vice presidential candidate) Sarah Palin issued his report Friday last week.x1 The firing came after Monegan had stood up to pressure from the governor to fire her ex-brother-in-law, a state trooper. The investigator was appointed by unanimous [...]

(Voter info below.) Some Ohio citizens may find it easier to vote this election thanks to recent rulings that blocked two Republican tries at vote suppression. In one case, Republicans challenged same day registration and voting, claiming that a newly-registered voter must wait 30 days (the amount of time between the registration deadline and [...]

McCain delivers a howler
with a straight face.
Lately, John McCain has been serving up some real howlers—claims ridiculously out of kilter with his record—all delivered with a straight face. Here is one of the howlers from his acceptance speech at the Republican Convention: “[I]nstead of freeing ourselves from a dangerous dependence on foreign oil, both [...]