July 29, 2005
'The "O'Reilly" Factor' - 02:04 PMRedstate.org, continuing the post-modernization of the American right-wing, deconstructs the state of right-wing idiocy into its base elements: DST was supposedly to benefit farmers, but farmers don't want it. It was supposed to cause more daylight, yet daylight is not...
July 28, 2005
'Doggypile of Liberty' - 04:15 PMI'm linking this partly because I've been on a jag lately, and partly because it's so damn well-said, but mostly because Everyone Else is Doing It: If they really do "hate us because we're free," the Bush Administration's approach to...
'The Voices of Opposition' - 01:29 PM
The New York Times reports today on the newly released memos against torture written by military lawyers: The documents include one written by the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, advising the task...
July 26, 2005
'Chronicles of Kidnapping and Torture' - 05:32 PMThis post reminded me that I'd been meaning to write up all the evidence of torture and kidnapping as official government policy that's piled up over the past couple years. This isn't all of it, but it's a start. If...
'Drudge Mining' - 01:44 PM
I read through the Drudge Report so you don't have to deal with horrible flashing pop-up ads: Sony pays a $10 million fine for payola in pushing JLO and others. The inquiry is expanding to include the industry at large....
'The Good News' - 07:47 AM
This guy seems to get around (via AmericaBlog, via Atrios): Sunday's news release said: "'The terrorists are attacking the infrastructure, the ISF and all of Iraq. They are enemies of humanity without religion or any sort of ethics. They have...
'Labor Splits' - 07:18 AM
I don't know a whole lot about the recent labor difficulties, but this seems promising: The last labor split, 70 years ago, led to a frenetic era of competitive organizing. When the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of...
July 25, 2005
'Lies and Lying Liars' - 12:10 PMKevin Drum is unimpressed by the latest revelations on John Roberts: Look, I'm always up for a spirited round of conservative scandal-mongering, but this is about the lamest excuse for a nano-scandal that I've seen in a long time. Remember,...
'Troubling Revelations' - 07:47 AM
I haven't had anything to say about John Roberts so far, largely because I don't think there's much point. He's strongly conservative, and we can fight his nomination, but we're not going to do any better than him without dragging...
July 24, 2005
'Club Gitmo' - 01:50 PM"The Administration understands that amendments may be offered to establish a national commission on the detainee operations or to regulate the detention, treatment or trial of terrorists captured in the war on terror. The Administration strongly opposes such amendments, which...
'Connections' - 12:48 PM
British authorities are now saying that the attempted bombings in London on July 21st may be directly related to the bombings on July 7th. A flier in a backpack found with undetonated explosives on a London bus was for a...
July 23, 2005
'Metastasis of Fear' - 10:26 AMRandom bag checks now on New Jersey Transit, Metro-North and LIRR railroads, PATH trains, the Port Authority bus terminal, and AirTrains to Newark and JFK airports....
July 22, 2005
'Deconstructing Bandar' - 06:11 PMReturning briefly to the matter of former Saudi Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan, even if we accept that Crown Prince 'Abdallah is behind his ouster, we are still left with the question of Why?...
'Remote Control Terrorism' - 07:52 AM
Mayor Bloomberg has announced New York City will begin random bag checks on the subway. This is "not a response to a specific threat against the city," but rather a response to the fizzled London 7/21 bombing. So now the...
July 21, 2005
'Aftershocks' - 11:18 AMMore bombings in London today. From the sound of it, my first take is that these guys were amateur militants. The execution was so shoddy, and the damage so minor, I'm betting they were entirely freelance - no Al Qaeda...
'Bitter Vindication, Round II' - 07:18 AM
I could have told you this (and did), but it's always comforting to hear it from the source, too: About half of Iraq's new police battalions are still being established and cannot conduct operations, while the other half of the...
'It Really Makes Me Sad, You See' - 06:43 AM
It seems that John Roberts will likely sail through his Supreme Court confirmation hearings, unless something really egregious pops up from the oppo-research going on now. And that's as it should be. George Bush is a conservative guy, and he's...
July 20, 2005
'Bye Bye Bandar Bush' - 08:12 PMVia Laura Rozen, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Ambassador to the United States since 1983, has resigned his post in favor of Prince Turki bin 'Abd-al-'Aziz, the former head of Saudi intelligence. Turki is the Saudi prince most closely associated...
'The Greatest City on Earth' - 07:17 AM
I spent last night on the Great Lawn in Central Park, chatting with friends over wine, cheese, and other assorted picnic fixings while the New York Philharmonic played Dvorak's Carnival, opus 92, Cello Concerto in B minor, opus 104, and...
July 19, 2005
'About Face' - 06:55 AMOver a month ago, I posted on the government's pulling its punch in the anti-racketeering suit against the Tobacco Industry. Instead of seeking $130 billion in damages, as everyone expected and their own expert analysis recommended, the Justice Dept. asked...
July 18, 2005
'Rational Grounds' - 09:29 PMThe Ethics of Belief is an essay by W.K. Clifford, English mathematician and philosopher, from his 1879 book Lectures and Essays. One of the more affecting readings I encountered in college, it was perhaps my first step away from religious...
'PlameGate Final Wrap-Up' - 07:48 AM
I'll do one more roundup on this, and then you're all on your own until the grand jury hands out indictments. Laura Rozen of War and Piece engages in a little Kremlinology over the never-declassified State Department memo (Source Zero...
July 16, 2005
'The CIA Speaks' - 09:51 AMFormer and current CIA operatives speak out in a letter to George Bush: We joined the CIA to fight against foreign tyrants who used the threat of incarceration, torture, and murder to achieve their ends. They followed the rule of...
July 15, 2005
'The Circle of Trust Tightens' - 06:43 PMCatholics: good enough to donate to state sponsored anti-abortion drives, not good enough to adopt babies from the adoption centers that get the money: A local Christian adoption agency that receives funds from the sale of Mississippi's Choose Life specialty...
'Follow Up Questions' - 07:50 AM
A small round-up of late-breaking updates to my previous post on the Rove/Plame Scandal. The NY Times and Washington Post report that an anonymous source is now saying that Karl Rove found out about Valerie Plame from Robert Novak! Intriguing....
'Q & A With Redstate' - 12:12 AM
Redstate.org steps to the plate with an impressive post detailing the open and closed questions in the Rove/Plame scandal. Impressive not for its accuracy - they're still pretty clouded by the GOP spin machine - but for their willingness to...
July 14, 2005
'Headlines Suck' - 07:45 AMOne of the best reasons to read Slate's Today's Papers column each day is you get to compare and contrast the news coverage on a topic between all the major newsdailies. Take the reporting on the Gitmo investigations: Washington Post:...
'The Wedding Crashers' - 07:30 AM
I went to a pre-screening of the Wedding Crashers last night. Briefly: It was very good. Go see it. Vince Vaughn absolutely nailed his delivery the entire time, and Owen Wilson was able to be actually-sincere (as opposed to the...
July 13, 2005
'Rove Roundup' - 01:38 PMBuildling on my last post, several Rove/Plame Scandal twists have hit today. On TPMCafe, Larry Johnson, a former covert CIA officer, explains exactly what burning Plame means. If you didn't believe me when I said it's a serious, serious matter,...
'Why Plame is Important' - 07:45 AM
The big scandal in the news today is, of course, the burning of Valerie Plame. This is a complicated one, and the Fitzgerald investigations concern some pretty specific legal questions. Did Karl Rove (and Scooter Libby, and whoever else was...
July 12, 2005
'On The Origins of International Terrorism' - 08:50 PMI have been overtaken by the latest blogosphere craze, it seems. I spent the last day or so chopping up and pasting together a treatise-sized post on the origins of terrorism and their similarity to the causes of revolutionary movements...
July 11, 2005
'Liberals and Labor' - 06:45 PMI've been trying (here and there) to keep up with the new House of Labor blog started over at TPMCafe. I have a hunch that posts like this are really on to something: I've been writing a blog for over...
July 08, 2005
'On International Aid' - 10:41 PMFor information and thoughts on international aid, one of your first stops should be my good friend Matt at the appropriately named TheNeedful.org. Virtually all of the links in this post are via him, and he's got plenty more where...
'War on Terror: Getting Serious' - 08:06 AM
The Bush Administration has often been lambasted for making more political hay than progress in the War on Terror. They grabbed Jose Padilla and trumpeted the fact before he had a chance to do anything or lead them anywhere. They...
July 07, 2005
'London Bombing' - 12:19 PMThere's precious little clear about what's happening in London right now. These things take time to sort out, so I don't think we'll know with any certainty the exact nature or extent of the bombings in London for a few...
July 06, 2005
'Press Confidentiality' - 10:50 PMAt the beginning of the whole sordid Plame ordeal, I was firmly in the camp scoffing at Judith Miller and Matt Cooper for protecting their sources so religiously. Here was a prime journalistic coup - a national security scandal in...
'Democracy, Ready or Not' - 07:52 PM
I'm on a mailing list for incoming Columbia University students for the School of International and Public Affairs (I start this fall). The topic of African political and economic development came up today, and naturally the question of which element...
'Bitter Vindication' - 07:51 AM
Writing in the New Republic (free registration required), Spencer Ackerman backs me up: [CPA Official Terri Kelly] had arrived in Iraq that February with the unenviable assignment of dismantling the militias--a portfolio that no previous official had held despite nearly...
'What's It All Mean?' - 07:33 AM
In the middle of an excellent post on the decline of the labor movement, Matthew Yglesias writes this: What you see when you look at something like the Bankruptcy bill, however, is that on most subjects the influence of public...
July 04, 2005
'Happy 4th of July' - 12:40 PMIf there's any day of the year we spend remembering and celebrating the things that have made this country great, it's today. 231 years ago we began the long painful process of building a nation founded on lofty ideals and...
July 01, 2005
'Grab a Helmet' - 04:15 PMIt's about to get ugly. This was originally an update to the post below, but I figured it was important enough to warrant its own spot on the main page. Sandra Day O'Connor has resigned her post as Supreme Court...
'I Love the Smell of Astroturf in the Morning' - 10:20 AM
If you actual read the Washington Post article I linked in the last post, you may have noticed this throw-away paragraph at the top of the second page: Rhetoric was just as sharp at a gathering here of conservative activists...
'The System Works!' - 09:59 AM
Alright everybody, start stockpiling canned goods and holy water - I Agree With Tom Delay. DeLay called it [Kelo v. City of New London] "a horrible decision" and said lawmakers' intervention is part of an effort to "assert the responsibility...