For those of you who don't read The Economist , it's about as solidly old-style freemarket capitalist as you can get. It favors low taxes, disciplined budgets, minimal regulation, and free trade. They polled economists -- not exactly a group known for being left wing on economic policy -- and got these results : In an informal poll of 100 academics, conducted by The Economist, Mr Bush's policies win low marks. More than 70% of the 56 professors who responded to our survey rate Mr Bush's f...

Here's the beginning of the LAT's analysis of the second presidential debate . WASHINGTON — In President Bush's aggressive attack on Sen. John F. Kerry's 20-year Senate record during their debate Friday, the facts may have taken the worst beating of all. If you read the analysis, you'll see that while Kerry gets knocked on some stuff, Bush appears to have been much less honest. Here's the Slate summary of the analysis : [W]hile that headline emphasizes both the candidates' inaccuracies...

It's no secret that the Libertarian Cato Institute has been fairly unhappy with Bush. Cato reports have strongly criticized Bush's handling of civil liberties -- especially as reflected in the Patriot Act -- and Bush's expansion of the Federal deficit -- caused by Bush's insistence on cutting taxes and increasing spending. Still, after a 1990s in which the Cato Institute was generally supportive of Republicans, it says something when the Chairman of the Institute -- ex-Reagan official Wi...

It turns out the the Duelfer Report -- Charles Duelfer is the CIA's chief weapons investigator in Iraq -- warns that a 'devastating' attack is actually more likely now that it was before the Iraq War . According to the report , Iraqi insurgest groups are seeking chemical weapon supplies. These insurgent groups expanded during the U.S. occupating of Iraq. Bush continues to insist that his handling of the Iraq War -- and more important, his handling of the Reconstruction of Iraq -- has ...

The Bush administration has been filming and distributing fake news stories to promote Bush's educational policies. These spots are narrated by a "reporter" -- in fact, some one hired for the promotional spot -- who closes with "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." The ad doesn't identify the government as the creator of the spot, nor does it reveal that the reporter isn't a reporter. In other words, the text of this government promotion hides the fact that it's a government prom...

I have no idea if I'll get any responses to this post. Bush supporters sometimes respond to my concerns about Bush with heated comments about how one sided I am, but less often acknowledge my posts arguing that both major candidates lie, and it's the voters' fault , that left wingers and right wingers are more similar than either side wants to admit and my exhaustive coverage of MemoGate . The title is from an insightful -- no sarcasm intended -- Rumsfeld quote : As we know, Th...

Last night Mrs. blogic and I managed to combine going to a new movie theater (the relatively new Loews on Second Avenue -- not so far from the United Nations) and catching a zombie movie. All in all, that's a great night for me, and it was topped off by Indian food afterwards. Shaun of the Dead is a comedy, if sometimes a dark one. Of course, zombie movies have a proud history of dark comic moments, dating back to at least the original Dawn of the Dead , but Shaun is as much a com...

Those of you who watched last night's debate know what I'm talking about. Bush was asked to list three mistakes, and basically insisted that he'd made none. None. You may remember that he gave the same answer some months ago, when asked at one of his few press conferences. None? Anyone who's interviewed for a job knows that saying "none" means you're appallingly arrogant or frighteningly out of touch with reality. Bush should be at least half way competent enough to bullshit a bette...

ABC's poll shows that among registered voters who watched the debate, 44% thought Kerry won, 41% thought Bush did. That's within the margin of error, but is consistent with a Gallup poll that showed a Kerry win, and showed Independents overwhelmingly favored Kerry .

It seemed strange last night when Bush referred to the "internets", but he was enough better than the twitchy scowling face he showed the week before that I kind of forgot about it. Well, it turns out that he didn't misspeak. Bush has access to a separate better internet, one that reveals the truth about Iraq .

Independents overwhelming favored Kerry's performance in the second presidential debate , according to Gallup . While overall polling show a near tie, with Kerry having a two point advantage, Independents preferred Kerry 53% to 37%. Also, the so called security mom vote appears to have returned to Kerry. Kerry led Bush among women 50% to 41%. These are great numbers for Kerry.

If you had asked me last night what conversation I least expected this morning, it would have been learning about Mrs. blogic's secret admiration for Tony Danza. Huh? That was really out of the blue. Flipping through Star magazine, on the way to New Jersey to babysit our nephew, she suddenly started gushing about his new show. The weird thing is, I don't even think she's seen it. She started talking his charm, and topped it off by dropping the bomb: "Tony Danza is very engaging". Hu...

Why was Bush beating up on poor Charlie Gibson? There Charlie was, glasses perched on his nose like some small town librarian, looking as harmless as he does every morning on Good Morning America . Bush was getting in his face, interrupting, and just generally bullying Charlie. That can't look good. America is not reassured, Mr. President. Is all the pressure getting to Bush? He seemed a little unhinged.

Mrs. blogic and I just got back from a cavernous nightclub where the debate was projected onto an enormous screen. Air America Radio was broadcasting from there, so I got to see some C grade celebrities. In my life, that passes for a major happening. That's a long way of saying that the crowd was biased, and it's really hard to get a good feel for a debate when everyone's really charged up and the whole place is intensely emtional. I'm also burning out on all these debates. Mrs. blogic...

I think it's basically true that all candidates tell lies, and frankly, the fault isn't theirs, it's ours. The American people are inconsistent, but they expect their leaders to be consistent; which means that politicians have to change their views but always claim they haven't. For example, while I think it's simplistic to say that Kerry was for the War before he was against it, that's a pretty accurate description of American voters. At various times, a majority have said that the War ...