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Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Clintons And The Press
01 Mar 2008 06:30 pm
Just two reasons why their attempt to argue that the media is biased against them is absurd. If Clinton had won ten primaries or caucuses in a row, do you think the MSM would have regarded Obama as still viable? And where are their fricking tax returns? Basic transparency on tax returns is a no-brainer for a presidential candidate. And yet she still hasn't done it and has absolutely no good reason for the delay, except to avoid scrutiny of her husband's post-presidential corporate whoring.
"NIG"
01 Mar 2008 05:55 pm
Ann Althouse deciphers some weird lettering on the pajamas of the kid in the Clinton "red phone" ad. If it's subliminal racism, it's very, very, very subliminal. But then that's what I thought about "RATS".
Why Clinton = Bush
01 Mar 2008 05:48 pm
She has run her campaign the way he ran his war: on the fly, propelled by arrogance, incompetently, inconsistently and surrounded by yes men and women. You want to re-elect a president as inept and cocooned as the current one? Vote Hillary.
Ahmadinejad In Iraq
01 Mar 2008 05:32 pm
One telling reflection of the Bush administration's handling of the region: the Islamo-fascist was able to announce his visit well in advance; the American president had to go in strict secrecy. There you have a small insight into the immense damage to American power that this administration has inflicted. And who really won the war against Saddam.
Does Jack Kingston Hate America?
01 Mar 2008 05:24 pm
Why else would he not be wearing an American flag lapel pin?
Jack Out Of The Box
01 Mar 2008 05:18 pm
Nicholson edits a strange YouTube backing Hillary. He thinks she'd be hot as commander-in-chief.
Educating The Already-Tolerant
01 Mar 2008 05:08 pm
We gays have work to do. A reader writes:
You wrote:
So many sympathetic straights just don't know the kind of inequality gays live with all the time. What does that say about the effectiveness of the leading gay rights groups?
Just this week, I attended a forum of candidates seeking the Democratic Party nomination to run for one of the seats to the California Assembly. The candidates were asked whether they would vote for the Marriage Equality bill when it is introduced yet again. (It has been approved twice, and twice been vetoed by Schwarzenegger.) Four of five said they will support the bill. Almost as troubling as the one candidate who said he will not support marriage, was the reasoning of one of the supporters.
The supporter said that if gays and lesbians feel more equal because they can get "that piece of paper," then that should be the law. The other comments he made demonstrated that he has no understanding of the very real legal and financial problems that have are created by the soup of varying partnership laws around the country and by DOMA's ban on federal recognition of state civil union, domestic partnership and same gender marriage laws.
LGBT political groups have worked hard to convince politicians that they can safely vote for LGBT legislation, but appear not to have worked to educate them about why they should support these laws. It's disturbing.
Face Of The Day
01 Mar 2008 05:00 pm
A supporter holds a photograph of Democratic presidential hopeful U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton as she greets supporters after she spoke at a caucus training summit at Fox Technical High School March 1, 2008 in San Antonio, Texas. With less than a week before the Texas and Ohio primaries, Hillary Clinton is campaigning through Texas. By Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.
The Cycle Of Violence
01 Mar 2008 04:14 pm
A reader writes:
I had to respond to the photo of the dead 5 month old Palestinian boy killed in the Israeli rocket attack. The photo was a gut punch to me.
I am hardly an Arab/Palestinian sympathizer. Indeed, I am a fairly strong supporter of Israel. But the tragedy of this innocent child's death evoked deep sadness for me.
Continue reading "The Cycle Of Violence" »
Have We Misread The World? II
01 Mar 2008 04:07 pm
A reader writes:
My friends and I have been talking about this, and we have another, perhaps more convoluted theory. That terrorist organizations and (more specifically) their leadership, are motivated by rational behavior more than religious zealotry. Zealotry is just the weapon, used by rational top-tier actors like Bin Laden. The biggest goal of leadership is to maintain their power and the influence of their organization. Thus, the organization benefits if it:1. Is seen as the underdog2. Has a seemingly invincible foe onto which it directs rhetoric and violence3. Carries the support of an indigenous population4. Can convince others that its mission is righteous
Continue reading "Have We Misread The World? II" »
Mondale's Red Phone Ad
01 Mar 2008 03:13 pm
Clinton always plagiarizes, doesn't she?
Ready On Day One
01 Mar 2008 03:01 pm
On a campaign phone call yesterday, John Dickerson asked the Clinton campaign, "What foreign policy moment would you point to in Hillary's career where she's been tested by crisis?" Take a listen to the audio.
A Poem For Saturday
01 Mar 2008 02:51 pm
Today is Robert Lowell's birthday. From his classic "For the Union Dead:"
The old South Boston Aquarium stands
in a Sahara of snow now. Its broken windows are boarded.
The bronze weathervane cod has lost half its scales.
The airy tanks are dry.Once my nose crawled like a snail on the glass;
my hand tingled
to burst the bubbles,
drifting from the noses of the cowed, compliant fish.
More here.
The Politics Of Fear
01 Mar 2008 02:16 pm
It seems like Clinton took Bill Kristol's advice.
The Case For Iraq Optimism
01 Mar 2008 02:12 pm
My military reader in Iraq (who will remain anonymous) offers some more detailed independent evidence to back up his view that Sunni-Shia reconciliation is happening, and that partition or withdrawal would be mistaken:
Here are some independent sources you can consult if needed regarding Sunni-Shia cooperation. You can find all of these in the public domain (although to get the full import of what is going on it would help a great deal if you spoke Arabic or could have a reliable translator translate it).
- In May 2007, Sahawa al-Iraq (the Sunni militia which defeated AQI in Anbar) met with the Sadr Trend (Maqtada al-Sadr's guys). It was a big meeting which received widespread publicity.
- In Oct 2007, Sahawa al-Iraq had several major and well publicized meetings (in Anbar) with the ISCI/Badr to discuss cooperation between them.
Continue reading "The Case For Iraq Optimism" »
Thanks, Kofi
01 Mar 2008 01:32 pm
Kenyan bloggers respond to the power-sharing deal in Nairobi. One opinion:
It is my sincere hope that the International press the likes of Al Jazeera, CNN, BBC, SKY News will now feature this joyous news on a 15 minute basis to highlight that Kenyans are not just about machettes but co-existence , perseverance, resilience, agreement, peace, love and unity. Dont just sell the negative!
The View From Your Window
01 Mar 2008 12:41 pm
Eden, Wisconsin, 2 pm.
That List
01 Mar 2008 12:33 pm
Two fewer: Lamar Alexander and Amy Klobuchar had indeed held elective office before the Senate.
Another Cartoonist Nails It
01 Mar 2008 12:27 pm
This time: the Miami Herald's Jim Morin.
My Bi Problem
01 Mar 2008 12:12 pm
Sean Bugg explains:
There's a part of me that's always thinking that the bisexuals are getting the joys of homo transgression while reaping the benefits of hetero assimilation.
It's 3 am
01 Mar 2008 12:11 pm
The phone rings. Alex Massie thinks of the Duke of Wellington.
The Money Gap
01 Mar 2008 10:20 am
Even with the money he raised off the NYT article, McCain only brought in $12 million this month.
Bill Clinton Endorses Obama (Kinda)
01 Mar 2008 08:50 am
The video:
Friday, February 29, 2008
Senators And Nepotism
29 Feb 2008 07:01 pm
A reader writes:
For the record, the following current Senators have not held prior elected office:
Mel Martinez
Ted Kennedy
Amy Klobuchar
Chuck Hagel
Hillary Clinton
Elizabeth Dole
Lamar Alexander
Orin Hatch
Robert Bennett
John Warner
Jim Webb
Herb KohlThere are lots of reasons to dislike the way political power is acquired in America. But why are Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton subjected to a kind of skepticism that one never hears about, for example, Lincoln Chaffee or Evan Bayh? What is less reputable about nepotism-by-marriage than about nepotism-by-birth? I struggle to see how anything but gender plays the primary role in this dynamic.
There is, to my mind, no valid distinction between marital nepotism and other sorts. Glad to have this info on the table.
The Red Phone Ad
29 Feb 2008 05:52 pm
Some didn't buy it:
I had some extra time so I thought I'd do a quick survey of a blogpost at the NYTimes on the Clinton red phone ad. Of the 95 responses, I counted 19 positive responses for Clinton, 69 for Obama, and 7 that were too close to call.
A Texas Republican For Obama
29 Feb 2008 05:37 pm
Another former Reaganite shifts.
McCain On Hagee
29 Feb 2008 04:57 pm
Much, much milder than Obama on Farrakhan. And Farrakhan didn't hold a rally for BHO. Can you imagine the vapid outcry if such a thing happened? And yet the GOP parades its bigots in the open. Just like Huckabee and the Reconstructionists. There really are double standards for white fundamentalists, aren't there?
Early Voting In Texas
29 Feb 2008 04:56 pm
Paul Burka senses an earthquake of sorts.
Have We Misread The World? I
29 Feb 2008 04:43 pm
One reader response:
Why bother coming here (getting a visa, the travel, feeling out-of-place) to attack Americans, when one frustrated youth with jihadist tendencies from wherever can simply wander into Iraq or Afghanistan and do his best to take out US military personnel in uniform? There, you can at least blend into the local population, target not unarmed US civilians in shopping malls, -but uniformed, patriotic, heavily-armed Americans (who are light-years away from home and family, and all that's familiar) - and be regarded as a hero to millions ... all at the same time.
The flypaper theory works, in other words.
Defusing "Hussein"
29 Feb 2008 04:15 pm
A reader proposes:
Recall how football players shave their heads in solidarity with a teammate who's going through chemo? What the Democrats need to do, should Obama become the nominee, is to use Hussein as their adopted middle names. Ted Hussein Kennedy. Nancy Hussein Pelosi. Hillary Hussein Clinton. (Well, maybe not.) And his supporters, too. This is something that can easily go viral and backfire on the far right big-time.
Which Ad Campaign Is More Insensitive?
29 Feb 2008 04:01 pm
Urgent And Clear
29 Feb 2008 03:48 pm
Gay voters really need to reject the politics of Clintonism and see the opportunity in front of us. My take on gays and Obama here. These breakthrough moments do not come often in the history of civil rights movements. Gay Democrats, Independents and Republicans in Ohio and Texas need to get out and vote for Obama next Tuesday. This opportunity to defeat the politics of fear, cronyism and deception may not come again. A reader writes:
Previous candidates (Democratic, natch; Republicans are still in thrall to the so-called religious right elements that dominate their party processes) have shied away from open support of the GLBT community for fear of offending folks in the primary or general election. They fear that any support they offer will be used against them. This is not so with Obama. Why?
Does he recognize that his base considers this a non-issue? Is it generational? And why hasn't the loony right attacked him on this point?
Continue reading "Urgent And Clear" »
Obama, Obama
29 Feb 2008 03:28 pm
A generation reclaims its country.
A reader channels my own mixed feelings:
Those videos make me, an ardent Obama supporter, much LESS inclined to like him or his campaign. I am past needing cheesy songs and celebrities to confirm my political beliefs or philosophy. I don't think I'm the only one that finds them mildly offensive. "Oh Jessica Alba is a Barack supporter? The Fantastic Four was so good. I'm definitely going to vote for him."
Continue reading "Obama, Obama" »
A Good Question
29 Feb 2008 03:25 pm
Gets to the nub of Clinton's privilege, and inability to actually persuade anyone of anything:
Is there a single member of the U.S. Senate besides Hillary Clinton for whom it was the FIRST elected office?
Maybe Liddy Dole, another marital nepotist?
She's Always A Victim
29 Feb 2008 03:16 pm
Puke-worthy self-pity:
"Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there."
Is she fucking kidding me? You think it was a level playing field for Nita Lowey as she was bigfooted out of a New York Senate seat for the carpet-bagging former president's wife? You think it was a level playing field when Clinton bullied and cajoled and intimidated every Democrat to back her a year ago? You think it's a level playing field when you deploy a former president to tear down your opponent?
Clinton has more privilege, more clout, more intrinsic unearned advantages in this race than any non-incumbent Democrat in living memory. And still she failed. And still she whines. There are moments when you almost feel pity; and then you realize what a petty shameless narcissist she is.
Clinton Spin Latest
29 Feb 2008 03:08 pm
If Obama doesn't wipe the board Tuesday, she wins. Good grief.
Bill Clinton Endorses Obama
29 Feb 2008 02:59 pm
Well, kinda:
Now, one of Clinton's laws of politics is this. If one candidate is trying to scare you and the other one is try get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.
Dealing With Biphobia
29 Feb 2008 02:59 pm
A biphobic lesbian tries to explain the root of her prejudice against bisexual women and figure out how to deal with it:
Being a sociologist I know that smaller communities tend to be more policing of the boundaries of a collective sense of identity, and the performances thereof. Further, oppressed minorities tend to be defensive of anything perceived as 'other' inside their group as someone that could be working to undermine efforts, that doesn't really share the same oppressions.
Continue reading "Dealing With Biphobia " »
The NYT And Clinton
29 Feb 2008 02:38 pm
An endorsement that nearly wasn't.
McCain's Farrakhan
29 Feb 2008 02:18 pm
Here's a taste of the rhetoric from a man who just endorsed McCain in public and embraced him on stage:
"It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God's chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day."
Hagee is also a virulent anti-gay and anti-Catholic bigot. McCain is "very proud to have Pastor John Hagee's support." Is Kirchick awake?
Dissent Of The Day
29 Feb 2008 01:46 pm
A reader writes:
If the Obama campaign is allowed to frame the Iraq debate about the initial decision to go to war, then the campaign never has to deal with what actually matters to U.S. security today -- how best should the country handle the situation on the ground now? Just as McCain should be forced to answer what are the consequences of a prolonged US presence in Iraq, Obama should be forced to answer what are the consequences of rapid withdrawal. And both must justify to the public their rationale and forward planning well beyond "staying for 100 years" vs. "engage in regional diplomacy."
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" »
When Royals Go To War
29 Feb 2008 01:41 pm
Say what you like about the Windsors. They're not Romneys.
Primary Colors
29 Feb 2008 01:40 pm
Eugene Volokh has some cool optical illusions.
Can A Robot Commit A War Crime?
29 Feb 2008 01:21 pm
Answer here.
The View From Your Window
29 Feb 2008 12:57 pm
Shaftsbury, Vermont, 5.30 pm.
Who Said This?
29 Feb 2008 12:36 pm
"Everywhere we have met thousands of Democrats, independents and Republicans from all economic conditions and walks of life bound together in that community of shared values of family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. They are concerned, yes, but they are not frightened. They are disturbed but not dismayed. They are the kind of men and women Tom Paine had in mind when he wrote - during the darkest days of the American Revolution -- 'We have it in our power to begin the world over again.'"
I also recall from my misty memory another Reagan line: "We are the change."
The Red Phone Ad
29 Feb 2008 12:18 pm
Chait - who actually does have a kid at 3 am - thought it was ridiculous.
The Urgent, Clear Choice For Gay Voters: Obama
29 Feb 2008 12:12 pm
This is telling to me:
An interesting moment came when he was asked a question about LGBT rights and delivered an answer that seemed to suit the questioner, listing the various attributes — race, gender, etc. — that shouldn't trigger discrimination, to successive cheers. When he came to saying that gays and lesbians deserve equality, though, the crowd fell silent.
So he took a different tack: "Now I’m a Christian, and I praise Jesus every Sunday," he said, to a sudden wave of noisy applause and cheers.
"I hear people saying things that I don’t think are very Christian with respect to people who are gay and lesbian," he said, and the crowd seemed to come along with him this time.
To hear someone defend gay and lesbian dignity and equality from a Christian perspective and to do so in the context of a largely African-American crowd, is much, much more than any candidate for the presidency has ever done. It's a break through. If it were just words, it would be one thing. But he has now done this repeatedly in front of black crowds, when he didn't have to. And he has put his specific commitments in writing in an open letter.
It's time to be candid about this - because gay voters, in my judgment, could make the difference in Ohio and Texas and Vermont and Rhode Island. There are very large gay communities in Texas' cities, and Ohio has the sixth largest gay community in the country. A plea: Do not sleep-walk into that voting booth with vague good feelings about the Clintons. Walk into that booth with eyes open and see what gay people have in front of them.
Continue reading "The Urgent, Clear Choice For Gay Voters: Obama" »
The Red Phone
29 Feb 2008 11:39 am
Clinton deploys her smartest ad yet. It really advertizes her inner nerd and workaholic as virtues. In many ways, I think Clinton should have emphasized her frumpy, unglamorous, but diligent side more. She could appeal in a way that Queen Elizabeth II has eventually appealed: a familiar, hard-working, uninspiring grandma who knows what she's doing and will always be cautious but smart. Alas, Clinton's boomer narcissism and fathomless self-pity mess up the picture. But as a last minute gambit, it's smart:
By the way, I'm a little disturbed by how eerily close this image is to the one I posted last night. Yes, it's boogey-man time. But Clinton wants to let you know she'll protect you.
A Rebel, Not A Heretic
29 Feb 2008 11:15 am
John B. Judis on Buckley. This rings very true:
When he was at officer's training school, Buckley, who was only 18 at the time, couldn't get by on his good grades and brilliance, and found himself not only disliked, but on the verge of being flunked out of officer candidates' school. In the letters he wrote, Buckley revealed a fear and anguish about his place in the world and how people thought of him. He got his commission, but he also learned that he had to leaven his own political and intellectual convictions with a tolerance for people who didn't share them. He would sometimes condemn their views, but he would not condemn them. By the time he arrived at Yale, he was pretty much the Buckley whom we've known for the last sixty years--witty, arrogant, but always with a certain restraint, even at times a gentleness and consideration. And I think that same sense of limits and boundaries--a sense of how far he could and couldn't go--affected the way he conducted himself politically.
The Electronic Tattoo
29 Feb 2008 11:08 am
A blood-fueled forearm display, with bluetooth.
Meep. Meep.
29 Feb 2008 10:43 am
Daryl Cagle nails it:
Buckley And The Surge
29 Feb 2008 10:38 am
John J Miller admirably concedes that, in fact, Buckley had been a skeptic:
It was four years ago that Mr. Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a “surge,” of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease?
It's amazing how today's right don't seem to realize that Buckley was, you know, a conservative. Once you remove the WMD issue and the threat to Western security, there is no conservative defense of the Iraq war, let alone a conservative defense of a permanent Iraq "nation"-building occupation. In fact, it is very hard to think of any foreign policy objective that is less conservative than permanently occupying, and re-making, a foreign country, whose subtleties we know nothing about, whose destiny we have no business directing, and whose people resent as a religious imperative the presence of any non-Muslims in their territory. To engage in this task for five years, propose it for fifty, and defend it by the kind of rhetoric used in the Second Inaugural is one of the biggest assaults on conservative principles in a very long while. It takes a Bush.
There's a reason NRO is now citing Angeline Jolie and not William F Buckley on this matter.
Re-Thinking The Terror War
29 Feb 2008 10:38 am
Fallows on Ignatius on Sageman. The great unanswered question of the last six and a half years is: why haven't we been attacked again? There are logically two - not necessarily exclusive - possibilities: our defense has been getting much better; their offense was over-rated. I suspect that technology, good police work, and plenty of heroic stories that neither you nor I know about have made a difference. But seven years is a long time. And Bush is not exactly Mr Competence, is he?
Have we misread the world - and over-estimated the threat - even more profoundly than we realize? That is the question.
We Are All Sodomites Now
29 Feb 2008 09:58 am
Maybe I should have been explicit. I wrote:
Homosexual sodomy was always subjected to more scrutiny and disparagement than heterosexual sodomy, even when sodomy became - as it did in the 1960s with the advent of the pill - the overwhelming sexual practice of the straight.
By sodomy, I mean the technical term of non-procreative intercourse. That includes the use of condoms, the pill, oral sex and butt-fuckery. That was what the church meant when it invented the entire category. We are all sodomites now. I wrote a review essay in 2003 for The New Republic with that very title on the history of sodomy. Check it out.
Steroids And Pro-Wrestling
29 Feb 2008 09:52 am
Many of you objected to my pooh-poohing of Congressional investigations into steroid use. You pointed to articles like this one about the unseemly and alarming death rate of pro-wrestlers, caused, almost certainly, by rampant steroid abuse:
USA TODAY's examination of medical documents, autopsies and police reports, along with interviews with family members and news accounts, shows that at least 65 wrestlers died in that time, 25 from heart attacks or other coronary problems — an extraordinarily high rate for people that young, medical officials say. Many had enlarged hearts.
That's awful, but why should it be any business of the government? These are grown men, aware of the risks, and taking them, and dying young. It's their choice, their lives, their bodies. Leave them alone.
Torture Doesn't Work
29 Feb 2008 09:30 am
A helpful historical analogy:
There is a perception that democracy makes us weak and only “real men” know how to do this stuff. People think torture worked for the Gestapo, for example. It didn’t. What made the Gestapo so scarily efficient was its dependence on public cooperation. Informers betrayed the resistance repeatedly in Europe, and everyone knew this, but it was more convenient to say the Gestapo got the truth by beating it out of us. Public cooperation is the best way to gather information. After the failed bomb attacks in London in 2005, the British police found every one of the gang within a week. One was caught after his parents turned him in. They would not have done that if they’d thought he’d be tortured.
A Sign Of The Times
29 Feb 2008 08:42 am
A reader writes:
I just heard a legitimate Obama ad on the Rush Limbaugh program out of WBAP in Dallas. I was astonished, but this kind of thing shows his genius and ability to think outside the box in reaching out to Rush’s very large audience in Texas.
The Jihadist Bunny
29 Feb 2008 08:28 am
Feel the hate.
Gay-Friendly Ignorance
29 Feb 2008 07:25 am
So many sympathetic straights just don't know the kind of inequality gays live with all the time. What does that say about the effectiveness of the leading gay rights groups?
Farrakhan, Obama, Chicago
29 Feb 2008 03:24 am
A reader from Chicago writes:
Farrakhan is very much a part of the Chicago political landscape. While the white population has no respect for him, black Chicagoan's are more ambivalent about the man. Many selectively denounce his worst statements while expressing admiration for his advancement of independence and personal responsibility among blacks.
Continue reading "Farrakhan, Obama, Chicago" »
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Children vs Happiness
28 Feb 2008 10:07 pm
Ron Bailey goes there. Matt dissents. Jonah Lehrer thinks it depends on what you mean by happy. But children are definitely not green:
Your net carbon impact depends far more on the number of children you will have than any other variable; remember good environmentalism uses a zero rate of discount. So people with no biological children should be allowed to fly a lot and people with lots of biological children should not get to fly so much at all.
Quiet Out There
28 Feb 2008 06:57 pm
We're at that moment in the campaign that reminds me of a horror movie. There's a kind of relief that the worst cannot happen, that the Clintons are politically dead, that our long national nightmare is over. The screen falls silent. We look at pleasant images: green grass, or a kitchen table scene, or a calm lovers' embrace. But you know they have something left. They could come suddenly screaming back, like that hand out of the grave in Carrie or Glenn Close in the bathtub in Fatal Attraction. An Edwards endorsement? A March surprise?
Like Freddy or Jason, they still lurk, ready to pounce again. And the credits are yet to roll. Gulp.
McCain and Hagee
28 Feb 2008 06:53 pm
Will he reject and denounce?
Face Of The Day
28 Feb 2008 06:47 pm
The body of five-month old Mohammad Naser Al-Buri lies in the morgue at the Al-shifa hospital before during his funeral February 28, 2008 in Gaza City, Gaza. Al-Buri, who is the son of the UNRWA of Al-shati primary school doorkeeper Naser Al-Buri, was killed while he was sleeping at his home following an Israeli aircraft strike on the home of his family's neighbor belonging to the Hamas Government's Interior Minister, Palestinian medical sources said. By Abid Katib/Getty Images.
Bush vs Obama
28 Feb 2008 06:27 pm
It can only help Obama. In fact, it's campaign gold. You can tell that Bush is really feeling the heat from this guy already. He senses that this movement is a massive indictment of him, his clumsiness in foreign affairs, and his rigidity. He's right. And the more Bush makes a vote for Obama a vote against Bush the more traction Obama will get.
That Dissent
28 Feb 2008 05:40 pm
I know, I know. There are almost no independent sources in the email. And it flies in the face of a lot of other reporting. But the emailer has been corresponding with me for a while and is in Iraq in the military. Yes, he may well be biased, as all soldiers are, in as much as he wants his mission to succeed. Which is a good thing. But we know so little for sure, and the signs and counter-signs are as complex as they are fluid, so I felt it worthwhile to air it. Surely our goal now must be to see things as clearly as we can. And put all perspectives on the table.
Best Of Buckley
28 Feb 2008 05:38 pm
Ross thinks it was in his short form:
His artfully recondite style worked best in small, explosive passages.
The smaller the better. I wonder if Buckley would have been a blogger in another era. I know we shouldn't speak ill of the dead - but am I the only person who found Buckley close to unreadable a lot of the time? I never read his fiction, but his nonfiction was packed the endless sentences, ridiculously long words, and meaning that sometimes took several reads to excavate. I don't know how many times I finished a Buckley column with the thought: what on earth was he trying to say? But then, my gold standard for prose style is Orwell. Never use a long word when a short one will do is not exactly advice Buckley followed.
Buckley A "Neocon"?
28 Feb 2008 05:06 pm
The term is now officially meaningless.
Dissent Of The Day
28 Feb 2008 04:53 pm
A reader in Iraq writes:
You couldn't be more wrong with the partition thing or your view that there is no hope for sectarian reconciliation in Iraq. The partitioning of Iraq is the single biggest threat to its future. I'll explain that in a second. First, the Sunnis and Shias are well on their way reconciling. Here are some points:
(1) Sunnis political and militia type groups of every type have been engaging extensively with Shia political groups and militias. It has been going on at all level for some time. It is already extensive and is increasing. To take just one example, the Awakening group (Sahawa al-Iraq: the people who did more than anything else to clear AQI out of Anbar) has been meeting and cooperating extensively with the largest Shia party in Iraq (ISCI which also controls the Badr militia and is strongly associated with Iran) for about six months now. There are plenty of other examples.
Continue reading "Dissent Of The Day" »
"The Snark Class"
28 Feb 2008 04:50 pm
Poulos reflects on life after Buckley.
She Needs Florida And Michigan
28 Feb 2008 04:31 pm
Ambers does the math.
Obama's Open Letter To Gay Americans
28 Feb 2008 04:27 pm
Money quote:
As your President, I will use the bully pulpit to urge states to treat same-sex couples with full equality in their family and adoption laws. I personally believe that civil unions represent the best way to secure that equal treatment. But I also believe that the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide on their own how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples — whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union, or a civil marriage.
The full thing after the jump:
Continue reading "Obama's Open Letter To Gay Americans" »
Slapping Penn Around
28 Feb 2008 04:14 pm
Cool Ad Watch
28 Feb 2008 04:13 pm
This is lovely. Maybe there's hope for Ford yet:
Countering Wilentz
28 Feb 2008 04:10 pm
One of the sharpest African-American blogs - or any blogs - out there.
The Awakening On Snooze?
28 Feb 2008 04:07 pm
By far the most important development in Iraq for our side this past year has been the decision of the Sunni tribes to tilt provisionally with the US against al Qaeda. It doesn't move the ball forward much - because it doesn't address the basic problem, which is Sunni-Shiite suspicion. But it definitely helped restore some semblance of order, and kept some pressure on the al Qaeda menace that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney brought to Iraq. Now, though, the deeper reality seems to be resurfacing. The Sunnis are pissed at inevitable clashes with US troops, there is more worry about the Jihadists infiltrating the Awakening, and the refusal of the central "government" to integrate the Sunni forces in more than a nominal fashion is prompting some defections and the usual anti-American grumbling.
It doesn't mercifully seem like a huge problem yet. But the band-aid may be coming off. The wound continues to fester. As it has for, er, centuries.
Obama Self-Parody Alert
28 Feb 2008 04:02 pm
Those wacky liberals have an organization called "Obamacycle" to make sure all campaign materials are environmentally recycled.
[Update: I garbled this. A reader corrects:
Actually, the organization is to get signs and other campaign materials, which are not available otherwise due to a huge back-order, into the hands of people facing upcoming primaries...we'll save the actual recycling until after November...]
Pardoning Witches
28 Feb 2008 03:56 pm
The time has come.
Mental Health Break
28 Feb 2008 03:51 pm
A public service announcement that you need to speak to your kids about (not that most of you have any in your home):
The Current!
28 Feb 2008 03:48 pm
The Atlantic's new web feature - created and written by Reihan Salam and Graeme Wood - has now launched. Check it out.
"It'll Be Over By February Fifth"
28 Feb 2008 03:38 pm
Clinton in December 2007. She never saw it coming, did she? But, of course, she says she did. She lies as reflexively as most people breathe.
The $3 Trillion War
28 Feb 2008 03:37 pm
Joseph Stiglitz calculates the cost of Iraq.
"We Are The Ones We've Been Waiting For" Ctd.
28 Feb 2008 03:31 pm
A reader writes:
I was taken by your Feb. 27, 6:45 pm, blog post. Your compare-and-contrast among the Clinton model of politics, Reagan's, and Obama's was spot on. I hadn't thought of the parallel to competing approaches to gay rights until you mentioned it. But I think your point is much broader. I think the "core message" as you've stated it applies to the entire public policy agenda of this moment in history.
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