Category: Politics (explicit)

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The Panamanchurian Candidate

John McCain: unnatural-born American?

McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

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Sofa, So Bad

NM Governor Bill Richardson may be a kingmaker in Democratic party presidential politics, but I hope the eventual winner doesn’t promise him a position in the Department of Interior Decorating:

credit: Rebecca Craig/The Santa Fe New Mexican, via Associated Press

Seriously: that’s some terrible upholstery (and I’m pretending not to see the “GOV” fur blanket behind him). Good thing Bill Clinton brought his chameleon sweater to this Super Bowl bash.

(Photo credit: Rebecca Craig/The Santa Fe New Mexican, via Associated Press) 

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New day

Made it into Belfast half an hour ahead of schedule, and cruised right out to my hotel. My driver told me that the story I heard about it is true; the Europa is the most bombed hotel in the world. Forty-seven different bombings, he said.

I napped (still can’t sleep on flights), and then meandered around town in the afternoon. I’ll post pix from that later. For now, click through this guy to see some of the gorgeous sunrise photos I took from the plane:

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Congress should pass the Patriots Act

Arlen Specter wants to get to the bottom of the Patriots’ spying scandal, which broke early this season. And he’s mad that the NFL erased the evidence that the Pats turned over:

“That requires an explanation,” Specter said. “The N.F.L. has a very preferred status in our country with their antitrust exemption. The American people are entitled to be sure about the integrity of the game. It’s analogous to the C.I.A. destruction of tapes. Or any time you have records destroyed.”

In a certain very literal respect, I suppose destroying those tapes does compare to the CIA’s destruction of tapes. But in most other respects, I don’t think we’re served well when a senator compares the outcome of football games to CIA torture of terror suspects who were shipped to secret prisons.