The most persistent falsehood about Senator Barack Obama’s background first hit in 2004 just two weeks after the Democratic convention speech that helped set him on the path to his presidential candidacy: “Obama is a Muslim who has concealed his religion.”
That statement, contained in a press release, spun a complex tale about the ancestry of [...]

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Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday.
“It’s been an extremely weird day, but weird in a positive way,” Mr. Krugman said in an interview on his way to a Washington meeting for the Group of [...]

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A story from Michael Kinsley about John McCain at the craps table seems to me a perfect allegory for John McCain’s current campaign:
“McCain immediately turned to the woman and said between clenched teeth: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME.’ The woman started to explain…McCain interrupted her: ‘DON’T TOUCH ME,’ he repeated viciously. The woman again tried to explain. [...]

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At Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) rally in Wisconsin today, one woman screamed “traitor!” when McCain criticized Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) tax record. Huffington Post notes that after the woman’s interruption, “both McCain and his wife Cindy appeared to look in her direction. The Arizona Senator continued with his stump speech without referencing her.” Watch it:

At [...]

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Barack Obama pronounces “Pakistan” correctly, with a soft “a,” just like a lot of people who know what they’re talking about, including Gen. David Petraeus. Apparently, having completely run out of compelling policy arguments to make, some high-profile conservatives have decided to make this their latest campaign hobbyhorse.
The National Review’s Mark Stein, for example, said [...]

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I like the fact that McCain’s best example of Obama’s wasteful spending basically comes down to “Barack Obama tried to teach your children SCIENCE!”
As if scientists weren’t having enough problems due to federal budget freezes, now they’re facing flak from Republican presidential candidate John McCain because of a $3 million planetarium projector. Which was never funded.
McCain has repeatedly taken his [...]

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Jon Stewart’s not taking sides, but…

“Neither of them is perfect, but if you, out of nowhere, are going to grab a woman out of the woods and make her your vice presidential candidate, what can I do?
“[Sarah Palin] is like Jodie Foster in the movie ‘Nell,’ ” Stewart continued. “They just found her, and she [...]

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Reports out on the web today say Apple has just sent out invites to a special media event on Apple’s campus for October 14. The invite reads, “The spotlight turns to notebooks,” and has a ray of light shining over the back of an unidentified Apple notebook.

he invite-only event will be taking place at Apple’s [...]

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This comic is a week or so old.
Randall Monroe, the creator of xkcd, suggested that if YouTube commenters had to listen to their comments read back to them aloud, it might lead to better discussion on YouTube. Some Googlers thought that was a pretty fun suggestion, so they did it. YouTube now has an audio [...]

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via the Associated Press
NEW YORK - Tens of thousands of eligible voters have been removed from rolls or blocked from registering in at least six swing states, and the voters’ exclusion appears to violate federal law, according to a published report.
The New York Times based its findings on reviews of state records and Social Security [...]

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