The prisoner in Alexandria: Jailed NYT reporter and Bush Admin stenographer Judith Miller receives more mail than the other prisoners in the Alexandria hoosegow, as well as celebrity guests like Tom Brokaw.
Poll: Approval of Bush in Iraq at 38%: An AP-Ipsos poll this week showed that just 38 percent of Americans approve of Bush’s handling of Iraq. A year ago, it was about even. Biggest drop is among younger suburban women and less-educated men. Since the latter are a key constituency of the President’s, that’s gotta hurt.
Murdoch to replace son Lachlan by adopting Roger Ailes: Rupert Murdoch’s son Lachlan famously quit his job as Daddy’s successor and returned to Australia. Now Defamer suggests that Rupert will adopt FNC head Roger Ailes and name him chairman of Fox TV group – but points out that “they might look funny in the three legged race” at the company picnic.
So Ron DeSantis skipped the CPAC wingnut confab,
Because he’s been so busy with his freedom grabs.
We can only hope his experiments
Are anything but permanent —
Dr. DeSantis has turned Florida into his own fascism lab.
“I don’t know what he’s trying to do or what the goal is. Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as Governor. So I’m not sure. I can’t speak to that. I can’t compare that to something else he did or said over the last few years because he doesn’t deal with it every day.”
— Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, distancing himself from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ apparent flip-flop on the war in Ukraine, on the Hugh Hewitt radio show.
“One of the things we learned post-Trump presidency is that he had ordered a bombing of a couple of fentanyl labs, crystal meth labs, in Mexico, just across the border and for whatever reason, the military didn’t do it. … I think that was a mistake.”
— House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Fox & Friends that it was too bad that Donald Trump didn’t launch a military attack on Mexico to try to stop drug traffickers.
“Trump, allies say, seems set on ‘Ron DeSanctimonious,’ even though others around him don’t think it’s a bullseye. Some of the new ideas the former president’s entertained: ‘Ron DisHonest.’ ‘Ron DeEstablishment.’ Or even, ‘Tiny D.’”
Twenty-one members of the South Carolina State House are considering a bill that would make a woman who has an abortion in the state eligible for the death penalty, Rolling Stone reports.
“The National Republican Congressional Committee is plotting a sprawling battlefield in 2024, naming 37 Democrat-held House districts to its initial list of targets,” Axios reports. “It’s an ambitious strategy in a presidential year, when House results are often closely correlated with top-of-the-ticket margins. The last three presidential elections — all close by historical standards — saw flips of six to 14 seats in the House.”
Hate crimes in the US surged 11.6% in 2021, with the largest number motivated by bias against Black people, followed by crimes targeting victims for ethnicity, sexuality and religion, the FBI said in a report. The FBI reported hate crime incidents rose to 9,065 in 2021 from 8,120 in 2020.
“The irony of all this ceaseless chatter about Trump’s electability is this: 80 percent of adult Americans would prefer that President Biden not seek re-election. Eighty percent. That is a staggering statistic. And there’s more: Roughly 60% of Democrats would prefer the party nominate someone other than Biden next year. … If 80% of the nation and 60% of Democrats prefer that Biden not seek re-election, a case could be made that Biden is unelectable.”
“U.S. hiring grew solidly but cooled some in February as employers added 311,000 jobs, while unemployment rose to 3.6%,” the Wall Street Journal reports.