First, you are required to get over your initial disgust that such legislation is even necessary, that such clauses even exist and that the Pentagon is already doing business with such contractors (hi, Halliburton/KBR!), and that there has already been a truly horrible case validating it, wherein a 20-year-old female employee was allegedly gang-raped by contractors, locked in a shipping container, abused every way from Sunday, and found out later she was unable to sue. (full article…)

Nothing became John McCain’s campaign like the ending of it. In a graceful and even moving concession speech on election night, he urged all Republicans to put aside their partisan differences and support Barack Obama as he grapples with the many challenges facing America. His audience was less than equally gracious; but that is hardly his fault.

There have been a few reminders in the closing stages of his doomed campaign of why Americans once fell in love with the guy. Another was his appearance on “Saturday Night Live” on November 1st. Standing next to Tina Fey—the woman whose impersonation of Sarah Palin has done more than anything to turn his campaign into a punchline—Mr McCain made light of his predicament. He could not afford half-an-hour of airtime on the major channels, like his rival, he claimed; so he was appearing on the shopping channel, making his case as best he could while also trying to “sell you some stuff”, such as a limited edition of “Joe action figures”—Joe the Plumber, Joe Sixpack and Joe Biden (pull the cord and he talks for 45 minutes). He also brought the house down at the Al Smith memorial dinner on October 16th. (more…)

Prosecutor Brenda Morris, toward the end of her cross-examination of the senator yesterday, settled in for a long discussion about the chair, which Alaska restaurateur Bob Persons bought for Stevens as a gift seven years ago — but which Stevens never reported on his Senate disclosure forms.

“And the chair is still at your house?” Morris asked.

“Yes,” Stevens conceded.

“How is that not a gift?”

“He bought that chair as a gift, but I refused it as a gift,” Stevens explained. “He put it there and said it was my chair. I told him I would not accept it as a gift.”

“Where is that chair now?”

“In our house,” Stevens repeated. “We have lots of things in our house that don’t belong to us, ma’am.”