Recently in Politics Category

"...nor, to be honest, has Palin herself apparently learned the first thing about successfully finessing questions she is not ready to handle. (Hint: the approach is not the one she has tried to apply with Katie Couric, that of repeating verbatim the answer that did not do the job the first time around.)"

James Fallows (September 26, 2008) - I've now seen much of the Katie Couric / Sarah Palin interview...

(Via Coudal on Twitter.)

This audio clip is just drop-dead funny. [Via Scott Simpson]

"Should the applicants decide to apply again, they must make appointments using our on-line appointment system."

- Debra Heien, chief of the consular section for the U.S. in Nigeria

Three West African bushmen recruited to build an authentic mud-hut village at the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia were denied visas because they are too poor and inarticulate. Consulate officials noted that the bushmen (who were recruited specifically for their knowledge of how to build traditional native mud housing) could not demonstrate a bank account and e-mail address, mortgage, or lease agreement that would demonstrate residence in Western terms, and they could reapply using the consulate's web page.

I'm guessing they're probably not heavy web users. But who knows.

Frustrated emergency-room doctor Paul Hochfeld explores why U.S. health care costs so much and argues that a single-payer system is a good solution.

"The majority of Americans want some form of a national health plan. Lobbyists continue to foster the political wisdom (myth?) that embracing anything that resembles a single payer system is political suicide. Reality check: our health care system will remain broken until the focus shifts from profits to health. That won't happen until somebody, other than insurance companies, takes control. This is now a political problem. Our citizens need to make enough noise and put enough pressure on our politicians to get them to listen to us, instead of the lobbyists."