Saturday, June 9, 200709 Jun 2007 09:55 pm Tagg On MySpace!The enthusiastic son of the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, Tagg Romney, has a MySpace page, complete with contributions from his friends, including "Brittney":
Who knows, Brittney, who knows? More Taggish shout-outs from his friends:
Or a simple series of gurgles from "Sam":
Tagg's favorite books:
There's "Battlefield Earth" again. Uh-oh. It seems to have made quite an impact on the Romney family. Here's a good question for Romney if any reporter has the balls to ask: "What is your view of Scientology? Is it a religion?" 09 Jun 2007 08:12 pm In Defense of RomneyA reader writes:
Maybe Bush is helping Romney, after all. 09 Jun 2007 07:11 pm Ending The Bush Detainee RegimeMercifully, the system envisaged by the founders seems gradually to be unraveling this president's ad hoc, arrogant and unconstitutional post-9/11 detainee policy. Here's a masterful post on the subject that sums up where we've come from and how. Money quote:
09 Jun 2007 06:35 pm The $5 Million Man?If the latest report pans out, Ron Paul has leaped out of the asterisk box in the GOP campaign. His largely online funding, if verified, would put him on a par with McCain. Money quote:
I'd credit the Internet, wouldn't you? Stay tuned for confirmation. If it holds up, it means he's in this race for a good while yet - which is good for philosophical diversity in the GOP. (Hat tip: Radley. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty.) 09 Jun 2007 06:29 pm Watching the Romney PivotNo sooner do I predict that Romney will alter his position on Iraq depending on - what else? - his political interest, than he goes and does exactly that. It's not much of a step, because he's still appealing to the base. But it's an early first distancing from the extreme positions of Giuliani and McCain on endless occupation of the Muslim Middle East:
He aims to please ... whoever he needs to. 09 Jun 2007 06:12 pm Face of the DayDarcy Bussell hugging her two daughters Zoe and Phoebe after her final curtain call for her last performance 'Song of the Earth' at the Royal Opera House on June 8, 2007 in London, England. By MJ Kim/Getty Images. 09 Jun 2007 04:59 pm This Is What A Martyr IsThe Islamists might want to take a look at the life of one Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean Catholic priest, in Iraq:
May he rest in peace. 09 Jun 2007 04:08 pm Quote for the Day"Anyone wishing to show respect for Jimmy and his family is asked to wear or display red, white and blue ribbons as he would not have wanted black." That's part of a statement issued by the family of Jimmy Summers, from Bourbon, Missouri, whose death in Iraq on a rescue mission was commemmorated in this poignant window view from a Dish reader last week. 09 Jun 2007 04:02 pm Hollywood For HillaryShe appears to have regained the initiative from Obama. (Cue theme-tune from Jaws.) 09 Jun 2007 03:36 pm There'll Always Be An EnglandEven in a small corner of Baghdad. 09 Jun 2007 02:21 pm Love, Rape, WhateverMichael Medved is always pleasant when I go on his show, and then every now and again, we get a glimpse of the raging homophobia simmering beneath the surface. 09 Jun 2007 01:19 pm "The Terror of a Romney Presidency."Jon Chait begs to differ with Josh Marshall, and I tend to side with Chait:
The drawback to Romney is also what he has going for him. The Christianists need to be careful. Once he's gotten out of them what he needs, why do we think Romney would pursue the Christianist position in office? If he wins, it will be despite evangelicals, not because of them. He's going nowhere in South Carolina. A chameleon can change color back, remember? (Think: the Clintons and the gays.) I'd also bet that if Romney gets through the primaries, and the question isn't moot by then, he could easily pivot against the war and the surge - much more easily than McCain or Giuliani. Remember: he aims to please. Whomever he needs to. 09 Jun 2007 12:17 pm Clinton at HarvardFor all of you who love the old rogue, a reader has edited his Harvard commencement speech in handy YouTube segments. The first one is here. 09 Jun 2007 12:09 pm A Blogger Or A Writer?An old media-new media dust-up. 09 Jun 2007 11:08 am Analyzing The PollsCharles Franklin: "Who lost the Iraq funding/veto fight? Both President and Congress." 09 Jun 2007 10:59 am The View From Your WindowCape Town, South Africa, 8.45 am. For an interactive gallery of Dish readers' window views across the world, click here. 09 Jun 2007 10:53 am Verschärfte Vernehmung In EuropeThe report by the the lead investigator for the Council of Europe, Dick Marty, into the secret interrogation and torture sites operated by the CIA these past few years makes for extremely grim reading. For decades, the KGB deployed the classic Gestapo techniques on prisoners; now, under the Bush administration, it is the United States that has adopted the same methods:
The defense of the Verschaerfte Vernehmung (which are all war crimes under international law and were subject to the death penalty fifty years ago) is the Giuliani defense:
Of course, there is no due process to determine who is or who is not a terrorist, and thereby subject to torture. Many detainees aren't even captured by U.S. soldiers or agents. Only 19 percent of the captives in Gitmo, for example, were actually captured by U.S. forces. Americans' system of justice has been outsourced to Pakistani bounty-hunters. And then the Gestapo-process takes over. But, hey, if they're terrorists, they get what's coming to them, no? That's exactly the system of justice and warfare the Founders had in mind, isn't it? 09 Jun 2007 09:54 am "Illegals"A reader writes:
09 Jun 2007 07:31 am "I am pro-life. He is not."Brownback slams Romney. 09 Jun 2007 07:15 am "The Right to Keep and Bear Alcohol"Iain Murray explains part of the unwritten British constitution. Friday, June 8, 200708 Jun 2007 08:38 pm Face of the DayA competitor plays a video game during the Major League Gaming Pro Circuit event June 8, 2007 at the Meadowlands Expo Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Over 2,500 pro and amateur gamers from across North America have converged onto the Meadowlands Expo Center to compete in the games Halo 2, Rainbow Six Vegas, and Gears of War. The gamers will compete over three days for up to $20,000 in prizes. By Spencer Platt/Getty Images. 08 Jun 2007 08:29 pm Dissent of the DayA reader writes:
08 Jun 2007 07:35 pm From Hanoi To ParisA reader writes:
First time: tragedy. Second time: farce. 08 Jun 2007 07:26 pm Unfortunate LogosIt's very hard to beat the Brazilian Institute For Oriental Studies. 08 Jun 2007 05:38 pm In Paris Hilton's LimoAs one might expect, man's best friend has the appropriate response to being stuck in a limo with the stupid spoiled whore who just got sent back to jail: More SSW action here. 08 Jun 2007 05:31 pm Powdered BoozeI really must go back to Holland soon. They've now invented Booz2Go. 08 Jun 2007 05:28 pm Maybe Al Has A PointA reader notices something telling: the photographer responsible for the weeping Paris Hilton photographs today, Nick Ut, has a slightly different journalistic pedigree. He took the Pulitzer-winning napalmed Vietnamese girl photograph. And the beat goes on. 08 Jun 2007 05:10 pm Stem Cell ResearchWhy Pelosi's rhetoric is dumber and more insulting than Bush's. I take the point. Can you believe she said something as moronic as this:
Gag. 08 Jun 2007 05:02 pm A Uniter, Not A DividerLet's take a moment to assault reason, shall we? The latest, glorious twist in the Paris Hilton story is something that can surely bring us all together, red or blue, male or female, rich or poor. Whoever doesn't feel an ounce of pleasure at the sight of this mega-rich non-entity finally being treated with a modicum of justice has surely lost the capacity to feel anything. Sorry, Al, I know I should be studying carbon offsets. But far from undermining democracy, this little story about this pathetic, pampered wretch can only restore a little faith in the criminal justice system. It's almost enough to make up for O.J. By the way, here's a site especially for Al Gore. It's called The Superficial. And it's currently going cable on Hilton. Bonus points: TMZ says her lawyer is filing a habeas corpus suit! That's some corpus. 08 Jun 2007 04:26 pm The Immigration Bill's DeathGood for McCain? Plus: the inside story of the GOP revolt. 08 Jun 2007 04:05 pm The Black Family and The Black ChurchThey need each other:
I guess religion doesn't poison everything, does it? 08 Jun 2007 03:37 pm A Second Cultural Revolution?There are serious signs of student unrest in the Iranian theocracy. Above is a video of a student activist recently being detained and roughed up by Islamist government thugs at Amir Kabir University in Tehran. He's not alone:
Check out the best English-language blog covering the Iranian opposition:
Know hope. 08 Jun 2007 03:18 pm Bed-BloggingIt's here! It's completely insane! Get over it! Tips for doing it yourself can be found here. 08 Jun 2007 02:49 pm The Imprisonment of ChildrenOne of the eeriest aspects of the Bush administration's conduct of the war on terror has been the inversion of previously held assumptions about the meaning of the West. We fought a war to end torture; we then occupied Saddam's own torture prison and tortured people there. We fought a war to bring democracy to the Middle East and to show Arabs and Muslims how superior it is as a system; we then spawned chaos, civil war and genocide to brand democracy as a nightmare for an entire generation of Muslims and Arabs. But I recall one moment when I felt most secure about our rationale for the war: we liberated a prison full of children who had been targeted by the monster, Saddam. If ending a regime that jailed children was not right, what was? Except now we know that the U.S. has itself detained, imprisoned and interrogated children. The young sons of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed were detained, and used as a lever in the torturing him. We don't know what was done to them, but one fellow prisoner has claimed that they were mistreated. We do know that KSM was told they were detained, a flagrant violation of international and domestic law. The CIA reassured us four years ago that it would not harm the kids (who were nine and seven when captured):
But, of course, we don't know what happened to them if they were released, what they said, if anything, and how their detention was used against KSM. Ron Suskind did some reporting:
The CIA conceded:
We do know that, in principle, the Bush administration is prepared to torture the children of terrorists, because the chief architect of their detention policy, AEI's resident war-criminal John Yoo, was quite explicit:
Michael van der Galien is trying to find out what happened to them. I tend to think that even Bush's CIA would not abuse children, apart from imprisoning them for the crimes of their father. But I have learned the bad way that Bush and Cheney cannot be trusted with the humane tradition of American warfare. These children belong, like many others, in the black hole of the Bush-Cheney torture and detention regime, beyond the reach of the law, treaties or civilization. Just as Cheney likes it. 08 Jun 2007 02:29 pm An Ethanol Breakthrough?Good news from the green front:
Details here. 08 Jun 2007 02:10 pm Most. Awkward. Interview. Ever.An instant classic from CNN, in which a pubescent boy behaves exactly as a pubescent boy should - except he's on cable. Spelling Bee WinnerPosted Jun 05, 2007 08 Jun 2007 01:31 pm Clinton At HarvardA reader comments:
Picky, picky. My reader needs to be sent to HRC re-education camp, in order to erase something called memory of the 1990s. 08 Jun 2007 01:07 pm Fear and Loathing On The RightA reader writes:
If you don't see this, you need to think for one second how this stuff sounds to someone who isn't a member of the majority in this country. (Photo: David McNew/Getty.) 08 Jun 2007 12:26 pm A Date With Tagg!Gosh, I swear it will be fabulous. Promise. Swell, even. He's celebrating his dad's super leads in New Hampshire and Iowa after his amazing successes in the debates. Aren't you excited? Gee-willikers, I know I am. 08 Jun 2007 12:17 pm Romney In New HampshireA 08 Jun 2007 11:29 am The View From Your WindowKuwait City, Kuwait, 1 pm. 08 Jun 2007 11:19 am Obama and ResponsibilityA reader writes:
08 Jun 2007 11:02 am Challenging The Christianist LeftThe attempt to dragoon the Democrats into Christianist politics is celebrated here by Jim Wallis. But check out the comments. Most are mad as hell. I don't think the religious left has appreciated how much of the current Democratic popularity is bound up with a secular revolt against Christianism (and that secular revolt includes many people of faith). Re-tooling Christianism for the left is not an answer. It compounds the problem. If the Democratic leadership continues to pander to the religious left, I suspect their party will split more deeply than the GOP. 08 Jun 2007 11:00 am Mickey ExplainsHis explanation of the collapse of the immigration bill:
Maybe it is. And maybe it's all about the collapse of the Republican coalition. My feeling is that this kind of bill requires a president to corral it through the Congress, a president who is able to persuade his own supporters and explain to the public why this kind of compromise is the best available. We don't have such a president right now. He is despised by the entire middle and left, and he has alienated the base of the right. As a lukewarm supporter of the bill - I can't see any other feasible rubric to deal with border security and the 12 million people who are already here, won't leave, and have jobs to do - I was nonetheless never persuaded that this bill was essential. The president's arrogant condescension toward his critics didn't help. And the passion was almost all on the extremes. So no tears. In general, I'm happy to see laws not being passed. I'm not convinced that this bill or any bill would dramatically increase national security, and so fail to see the urgency. If this means that we can concentrate on border enforcement in the near future, so be it. Politically, I tend to think this will hurt the GOP badly in the long term. The reason is not the cogency of many of the arguments; it's the patent cultural and social panic that animates the Republican gut. This fear of the other and need to demonize and objectify it is obviously the emotional core of the opposition. You can see it in their faces. If these immigrants were Poles or Italians or Irish, I can't see the Mickey-Dobbs-Limbaugh coalition getting so upset. I say that not from the basis of their arguments (which are largely respectable) but from the hysterical tone of their remarks. I guess as a gay man, I have come to recognize that tone. More and more members of minorities hear it coming from the GOP. It will come back to haunt them. 08 Jun 2007 10:55 am Blogging The BibleDavid Plotz finishes an online odyssey. I have to say it has read at times like the best of web journalism: a simple idea, followed through persistently, egged on and informed by thousands of reader emails. All to bring ancient texts to new life. Mazel Tov, David. And check out the final entry. 08 Jun 2007 10:28 am Swear JarFor casual Fridays in the office: 08 Jun 2007 08:38 am The U.S., Turkey and IraqA helpful primer on "the great underreported story" of the war so far. 08 Jun 2007 07:58 am Hannity and HitchensA match made in heaven, so to speak. Another clip: 08 Jun 2007 07:54 am The French LeftAfter Sarkozy, what's a socialist to do? 08 Jun 2007 07:53 am "Almost Fascist"Chris Matthews gets Rudy right. Giuliani has no understanding of what it is we're fighting for in this war. Given his crude 9/12 analysis of the terror war, I don't even think he understands what we're fighting against. His candidacy speaks to the worst part of us: fear, loathing, and an instinctual belief that freedom is a threat to us, rather than the core of us. |









