Category: long story short

Toby’s Political Diary – ‘Let it Begin Here’ has a great dialogue imagining the scene as messaging is worked out: Dubya: Karl, we got to say something about some damn hostages in an embassy or something….?? Karl: Yessir. There is an evil way to attack Iraq and a good way. We’ll say these hostage takers…

Just when I think I’ve become too cynical or pessimistic, something comes along that makes me wonder if I’m not too accepting of the general drift (warning to sensitive readers: contains anti-American sentiments): Today, you excoriate, ridicule and ostracize the brave and true among you. Your best investigative journalists are fired from their jobs and…

Well, it’s not like the New York Times needs a pointer from me, but maybe this article will reduce intonations of “they gassed their own people” (at least without “and we helped” attached): A covert American program during the Reagan administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies…

What is it with Republicans and the end times? We had the scary apocalypsm of Reagan’s kitchen cabinet and now some evangelicals have bred a red heifer in Israel (wonder if it’s anywhere near Megiddo’s hill?) to immanentize the eschaton and bring on the last battle. Here a bona fide Republican breaks ranks to warn…

Fanatical Apathy does a brilliant job of

Stop the “bomb Iraq” railroad. She wants to get off: “Saddam is a very bad man” is not a reason for the United States to go to war. If we’re going to start tossing out every petty tyrant who abuses his people abysmally, the US is going to be busy for a long time. And…

Toby’s Political Diary — ‘Let it Begin Here’ has turned out a lot of thought-provoking prose in its just over two weeks of existence. Here’s the description: I am from Lexington, Massachusetts. I believe the “war on terror” is a threat to democracy both here and abroad. Over 200 years ago, John Parker, Captain of…

Michael Ledeen, writing in the National Review Online says that the major media are ignoring a revolution underway in Iran.

In The Fog of Newspapering in Slate, Jack Shafer examines the quandary a newspaper (in this case the New York Times) gets itself into when it must cover a questions such as “Who has been leaking Pentagon war planning for Iraq to the New York Times?” By the way, has anyone yet coined the term…

Just go read ’em.

Somerby is still exploring the way the press painted Gore into a corner two years ago. He made an interesting point about this on the 9th: But there?s one funny point you may have observed. Have you ever noticed that it?s only class warfare when practiced by Gore, not when it?s practiced against him? I…

Maverick journalist Greg Palast profiles former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz in the London Observer: Stiglitz greatest concern is that World Bank plans, devised in secrecy and driven by an absolutist ideology, are never open for discourse or dissent. Despite the West’s push for elections throughout the developing world, the so-called Poverty Reduction Programs…

WaPo says take care of our civil liberties: The government’s case against Mr. Hamdi may be solid. But if it is allowed to detain him without some procedure that requires a persuasive showing, it will create a rule that allows Americans to be exempted from the protections of the Bill of Rights on the strength…

think halal: the muslim group weblog has a provocative report of the attitude of an Indian Muslim who sees the Palestinian question sucking up all the media attention and aid while gujarat is largely ignored.

Adrian Hamilton turns Bush administration rhetoric on its head in The Independent (U.K.): It has a government in power without the legitimacy of a democratic majority, in the hands of a coterie from a single part of the country and clearly aiming at a dynasty of rule. Its rhetoric is one of violent aggression against…

GlobalSecurity.org is so sure about the impending invasion of Iraq that they’ve created a countdown clock. [via mz]

Critiques of Editorials just ran this item exposing the myths, er lies, about tax cuts that Republicans like to spread.

A new Salon Blog counters some of the herd mentality in editorial pages online and off: But Saletan really undermines his argument by viciously attacking Gore when no such attack is warranted. Gore wrote an Op Ed that said I told you that if Bush was president that the powerful would benefit and the average…

Take this quiz at the Bush Impeachment Countdown site.

Florida primary could be confusing, Democrats warn – August 4, 2002: The ballot instructs voters to “Vote for One Pair,” meaning a combined entry of governor and lieutenant governor, though none of the candidates has chosen a running mate. Voters who took the instruction literally would “overvote” and nullify their choice, Democrats said Saturday.

The full story on the Carlyle Group has yet to be told. The WaPo today adds another chapter, recounting