It's well known in the blogosphere that McCain moved to the right following the '00 primaries.  What isn't well-known -- and what has been the subject of increasing speculation -- is why McCain chose to abandon his maverick image in favor of increasingly right-wing rhetoric.

An article in the Washington Post this Sunday offers a possible motive.  It's not about the voters.  It's about the donors.

[A/N: I heard most of this -- including most of the analysis -- on Young Turks this morning.  As far as I can tell, it hasn't been diaried.  If this is a repeat -- or if it's not okay to borrow someone else's analysis -- I'll take it down.]

There have been a lot of good arguments made about why people should vote, most of them by people far more eloquent than me.
But to me, there's one reason alone why you should vote, and it's a reason I've been told my entire life:

Vote, because sometimes your vote can decide an election.

And my family has experience with this. In 1984, my parents' votes almost solely decided the outcome of a national election.

[A/N: I originally posted this last week, but it scrolled off the page really quickly, and nobody read it.  I've been advised to repost it, so I have.  If that's a violation of the rules, I'll take it down.]

There have been a lot of good arguments made about why people should vote, most of them by people far more eloquent than me.  But to me, there's one reason alone why you should vote, and it's a reason I've been told my entire life:

Vote, because sometimes your vote can decide an election.

And my family has experience with this.  In 1984, my parents' votes almost solely decided the outcome of a national election.

[Note: This is an update on an older story.  I did a search, but only found one diary on the subject.  If this is inappropriate, I'll remove it.]

After killing as many as 85 civilians in attacks on the Taliban in Afghanistan's Kandahar province last Tuesday, NATO has issued a lackluster apology today, saying in part:

"Sadly, in asymmetric warfare, when you're battling an insurgency, typically the insurgents do not play by the same rules that we would like to play by," [U.S. Gen. James L.] Jones said at a news conference at Bagram, the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

More beneath the fold.

As CNN reports today, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has released an annual report on the quality, availability and economic status of education in countries worldwide.  The report details both how the US spends money on education, and how education translates into economic status.

Much of CNN's article focuses on the latter.  What they don't mention, however, is as interesting as what they do.

More past the jump.

I've never felt the urge to write a diary before, but then I stumbled upon this bizarre story which no one seems to have commented on.

In a not so surprising move, the federal government has decided to fund programs designed to 'encourage' marriage.  This isn't news.  What it does contain, however, are some priceless 'explainations' for the Bush administration's insights.

More below the fold.