Author Archive | David Kopel

The Kerry campaign pounced on a new round of charges about President Bush’s National Guard service. It even began playing John Fogerty’s classic Vietnam protest song, “Fortunate Son.” In hindsight, this may have been a questionable move. The song may remind some of Kerry’s own anti-Vietnam excesses, while others note John Fogerty himself served in […]

I don’t care much about Swift Vets, Winter Soldiers, Air National Guard stories or draft deferments. I am more concerned about what a prospective President will do over the next four years than what he may have done (or not done) decades ago. And I have no idea what to think about this new bombshell, […]

The Los Angeles Times ran an interesting story about organic food over the holiday weekend. The piece opens noting the explosive growth in the organic food industry over the past several years, but then asks (and answers) the money question about organic food: as organic products — and their claims to superiority — have grown […]

In response to this post on whether Kerry’s receipt of a shotgun at a campaign rally violated federal law, several readers asked about President Bush’s possession of a gun that formerly belonged to Saddam Hussein. The gun is kept in the White House, according to this report. Yet, according to the President’s remarks at a […]

Forget the flap over whether gun control legislation Kerry once supported would have banned the gun he brandished in West Virginia, Stop the Bleating suggests it was illegal for Kerry to accept the gun. In short: It is (with a few exceptions, none of which appear to apply in Kerry’s case) unlawful for a non-licensee […]

During the primary campaign, a prominent Democratic Senator challenged Howard Dean’s anti-war stance by proclaiming: those who doubted whether Iraq or the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, and those who believe today that we are not safer with his capture, don’t have the judgment to be president or the credibility to be […]

The Drudge Report often displays banner headlines trumpeting the latest political gaffe or mistep. These tidbits are often amusing, and sometimes telling. Today, however, Drudge misfired with the headline, “Kerry Cosponsored Bill Banning Gun He Waves.” According to Drudge (or at least the version of the story still up around noon EST), Kerry co-sponsored the […]

It’s hard to believe, but the summer’s just about over. Almost as unbelievable, but in eight months of posting song lyrics, I don’t think I’ve posted anything by George Gershwin. To remedy that, and give one last nod to summer, here’s one of Gershwin’s most famous songs, recorded by crooners and rockers, rappers and balladeers: […]

The Dead Kennedys were always an amusing and outrageous band. From the pointed humor of their lyrics and their raucous shows to Jello Biafra’s semi-serious run for mayor of San Francisco and the allegedly obscene H.R. Giger poster distributed with the Frankchrist album, the DKs were always worth some attention, even when their music was […]

Apparently Senator Kerry voted for the Helms-Burton Act, before he voted against it. Where have we heard this before? (Don’t worry, in this campaign you’re bound to hear it again.)

In 2000 Alan Keyes lambasted Hillary Clinton for carpetbagging when she moved to New York to run for the Senate. Suddenly Keyes had a change of heart when given the opportuinity to run for the Senate in Illiois. Yet this has hardly been Keyes’ only flip-flop, reports FoxNews. He once opposed slavgery reparations, now he […]

Alice Cooper apparently has little patience for all the rock bands touring the country to encourage their listeners to vote against President Bush. “To me, that’s treason. . . . I call it treason against rock ‘n’ roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics.” Cooper continues: […]

When President Bush signed the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, he made clear that he did not care all that much about legal protection for political speech. (Ditto the Supreme Court when it upheld the law.) So no one should be surprised that Bush is now calling for an end to independent political advertisements, such as […]

In 1996, Representative Jim McDermott obtained a tape of an illegally intercepted cellphone call between Representative John Boehner, then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, and other members of the House Republican leadership. McDermott turned the tape over to the New York Times, which published a story on the tape’s contents, and Rep. Boehner sued. The district court initially […]

With the Olympics still going on, it would make sense to keep the Olympic theme going with today’s Sunday Song Lyric. Believe it or not, there aren’t many Olympic-themed – or even sports themed – songs wit h lyrics worth posting. (I know, I know, that’s never stopped me before . . . ). In […]