On a program on MSNBC’s Morning Joe following Monday’s debate, co-host Joe Scarborough was musing uneasily about the significant new developments in warfare that the current drone program has created, where someone in America operating a joystick can blow up people half a world away, with widespread death inflicted upon people who just happen to be near the target. This was a topic that was passed over without discussion in the debate. [Read more…]

As I wrote before, there are four state referenda on same-sex marriage. Here’s an update on those ballot initiatives. [Read more…]

On the ballot in November in Ohio is Issue #2 that seeks to take the drawing of electoral boundaries in the state out of the hands of elected officials who have a vested interest in drawing lines that favor incumbents and the majority party. [Read more…]

I did not watch the debate, preferring to spend a quiet evening reading, but did read the transcript this morning to see what was said and how it compared with my predictions from yesterday. In general, it seemed to have gone pretty much according to that script. You can also read The Guardian‘s entertaining live-blog by Richard Adams. [Read more…]

I am a great admirer of polite and urbane but devastating put-downs of bullies and blowhards. Bill Moyers delivered a beautiful one to Bill O’Reilly for something the latter said in his recent debate with Jon Stewart. [Read more…]

Please do not expect a review tomorrow morning of tonight’s third and last debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the way I did for the other three debates. I will likely not watch it. Even if I start watching I am fairly certain that I will not stay until the finish, and even if sheer inertia causes me to stick it through to the end, I will be too annoyed to care to comment even about the debating tactics that each person uses. [Read more…]

Evan Osnos of the New Yorker watched the last debate in China and filed this report on the reactions of the Chinese media to the China-bashing that has become a feature of the campaign. [Read more…]