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Palin revisited
So despite promising myself a long break from all things related to Sarah Palin, I broke down and read Todd Purdum’s lengthy article about the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential...
View ArticleThe Declaration
Every year, my neighborhood has a Fourth of July parade. The kids decorate their bikes and we walk around the block waving flags and blasting patriotic music on a boombox. And every year I’m tempted to...
View ArticleJudicial politics
“The Supreme Court is meant to be a legal institution, not a political one,” Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said Monday during the bloviation phase of Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings — which...
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One giant footnote
I was 8 years old and besotted by the exploits of astronauts and the promise of space travel when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon and famously declared his and NASA’s accomplishment...
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The Great War's last Tommy
Britain buried Harry Patch today. He died July 25, aged 111, and was the last surviving British soldier of World War I. The man with the quintessentially English name lived through the horrors of the...
View ArticleHealth care's fear factor
“I’m afraid of Obama,” a woman tells Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Inglis during a town hall meeting last week in Inglis’ South Carolina district. “Why are you afraid?” Inglis asks. Off screen, a man...
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Health care and the Constitution
It’s become a common question at health care forums around the country. A speaker wants to know where in the Constitution does Congress have the power to mandate health care. A couple of examples from...
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Health care's Gang of Six
This morning, the members of the so-called Gang of Six — three Democrats and three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee who have been trying to find a bipartisan compromise on health care reform...
View ArticleHealth care: Money flows
Money will flow. This simple fact is sometimes forgotten amid the partisan rancor, distortions, and fearmongering that plague the health care debate — or it is willfully ignored, given our national...
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David Byrne's view from a bike
David Byrne is best known as the former frontman of Talking Heads, the article-free art band that emerged from New York’s punk and new wave scene in the mid- and late 1970s. Byrne’s repressed, wry...
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Health care and the filibuster
Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, voted Tuesday against attempts by fellow Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Charles Schumer to add a government-run...
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Of flutes, golf and same-sex marriage
This past weekend’s Texas Book Festival had downtown in and near the Capitol buzzing with talk about all things literary — fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, authors, ideas, themes, you name...
View ArticleWhere 41 is greater than 59
President Barack Obama met with Senate Democrats Wednesday to try to stiffen their spines and boost their morale two weeks after Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts put an end to their...
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Charlie did it all right
Two books released last summer about Afghanistan make it hard to be optimistic that America’s experience there will be any different from the British experience in the 19th century or the Russian in...
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Sarah Vowell's 'Wordy Shipmates'
Sarah Vowell is a great humorist and if you don’t immediately know her name, then you surely would recognize her uniquely gifted voice, heard on public radio’s “This American Life” and as Violet, the...
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'Game Change' authors discuss their book
John Heilemann and Mark Halperin talked about their best-selling book, “Game Change,” last night at the LBJ Library, at a discussion and book signing co-sponsored by the library, the LBJ School of...
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The evolution of Texas speaker
“Both literally and metaphorically, Texas House Speakers live at the center of the state’s political universe.” So begins “The House Will Come to Order: How the Texas Speaker Became a Power in State...
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Jesus in Islam: An interview with author Stephanie Saldana
Earlier this month, I met Stephanie Saldana to talk about her recently published memoir, “The Bread of Angels.” Part of my interview with Saldana, who grew up in San Antonio but now lives in Jerusalem,...
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Army officer discusses documentary 'Restrepo,' Afghanistan
“Restrepo” is a new documentary that tightly focuses on a platoon of American soldiers defending a forward operating base in the remote Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan. Co-directed by...
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Q&A with Lawrence Wright, author of 'The Looming Tower' and 'My Trip to...
I recently interviewed Austin author Lawrence Wright about the excellent and thought-provoking film version of his one-man play “My Trip to Al-Qaeda,” which airs at 8 p.m. tomorrow on HBO. Part of my...
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