Category: Edgewise

  • Of Thee I Sing

    We have just come back from the grand Grand Lake Theater after seeing Farenheit 911, the Michael Moore paen to America. Yes, it is. And perhaps also to mothers who weep when their children die in wars that are unnecessary. The people are flocking to see this movie because everyone is talking about it, not…

  • The Sweet Spot

    Fahrenheit 9/11 is a very big deal by any standard. “Steven Spielberg has said the film could reap $100 million.” (article) But the specific electoral impact is going to be enormously magnified, because it is soo perfectly aligned with the sweet-spot of Bush’s popular support. The Alignment This scene is already famous: NYT, 6/20/04 “[T]he…

  • More than a few bad apples

    Is Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page the first mainstream pundit to affix -gate to the word Iraq (No contest: Iraq-gate trumps Monica-gate)?

  • a modest proposal

    “Recalling Anguish in 2000, Kerry Is Mum on His No. 2” reads the NYTimes piece (Sat. June 19) by David M. Halbfinger. “I don’t think John went through life fantasizing about being on the ticket as vice president,” an associate comments. Why not? Because being vice president, according to one former incumbent of the job,…

  • If only…

    If only we could get some of Rove and Norquist’s sweet sweet money into our grubby little proletarian hands: Political Wire: Dirty Political Blog Tricks kos sez: Man, if we are working for Rove, I don’t think the guy is getting his money’s worth.

  • American Emperor

    Some call it the Left Coast and others dismiss it as a fantastical realm of gurus and gayness but today I want you to think of it as the birthplace of the Republican Emperor on this the officially declared day of mourning for Ronald Reagan, late president of the Empire and former governor of the…

  • But, Technically!

    In the face of George Bush’s “non-denial denials” (Woodward and Bernstein’s Watergate term) regarding torture, the British have so far bettered us in calling things by their right names. Bush sidesteps questions over prisoners’ torture, The Financial Times, 6/11/04 (article) …when asked whether he had authorised the use of aggressive interrogation techniques to fight the…

  • Zen and the art of Walker Bush

    link nipped from Mark A. R. Kleiman: The Zen of Bushism: The Zen of Bushism Evan Eisenberg explicates Bushido: The Way of the Armchair Warrior. Knowledge is not important. The armchair warrior strives to attain a state beyond knowledge, a state of deep, non-knowing connection to the universe: in particular, to that portion of the…

  • Reagan, Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War

    I feel that someone in this space needs to comment in some way on the Reagan legacy, so I guess I will. The two biggest things that will linger in memory are clearly the end of the cold war (good) and Iran-Contra (not good). The Cold War ended on his watch, and he certainly deserves…

  • Presidential popularity compared — I could lose myself in this chart for a week

    Kos linked over to this extraordinary chart that shows the ups and downs of presidential popularity for Bush I and II, Reagan, Carter, and Clinton. I’ve been hoping to find something like this for weeks, to draw my own side by side comparisons without, er, benefit of media interpretation. In that same spirit, I’ll let…

  • The two anti-parties

    Some believe that the Democratic party is united like it hasn’t been since Roosevelt, but note that Bush’s base seems to be holding steady around 45% as well, so is this unusual unity or just a core, a base, hanging together even when going off the cliff together? I ask this because I’m starting to…

  • I wasn’t kidding about the draft

    Even in my day (mid ’80s) they were taking away financial aid from any (poor) student who wouldn’t register for the (don’t worry there is no) draft (yet, anyway). Legislation just sitting there? Why haven’t I been reading this on the front page of the Times, or Salon even: He’s right. There is pending legislation…

  • Air Fair

    My buddy Sean Hannity loves to talk about John Kerry’s private plane and multiple SUVs as a way of blowing smoke over any sort of talk about environmental or oil issues. In fact, his smoke screens alone have probably added significantly to global warning, but I digress… In today’s Chronicle, there is an article I’ve…

  • McCain: A win-win for Democats?

    I’ve been open to the Kerry McCain ticket, but it struck me this week that McCain may actually be (even) more useful to the Kerry campaign right where he is — a Republican, and at least nominally part of the Bush campaign — someone who can’t be completely dismissed by the Right, much less independents…

  • McCain is Kerry’s Powell

    Political Wire: McCain Speculation Continues No, Kerry won’t nominate McCain (note: I am notoriously always wrong when I make predictions about McCain)… but the speculation lends him gravitas, what the folks in the early 19th century called “bottom.” Let the speculation continue. Make the convention suspenseful by keeping the veep nominee secret till the nominating…

  • Dolchstoss 2, Electric Boogaloo

    There’s being right and there’s winning the argument and they are two different things. Those of us who feared the worst of the (unpreventable, post 2000 election, I’m afraid) adventure in Iraq were right in 2002 but we weren’t winning the argument. The blame-Cassandra tack that the administration-policy apologist dead-enders are taking now, I’m afraid,…

  • Arab conspiracies theories about CIA given huge shot in the arm

    It looks like our [new] man in Iraq is publicly tied to the CIA, the US intelligence agency that many Arabs “on the street” reportedly believe secretly engineers all of their humiliations.

  • Right-wing pundits agree

    Al Gore is insane.

  • Evading Geneva

    Orcinus: Ted Olson and Abu Ghraib, a must-read: [Al Gore’s recent speech: “…] These policies were designed and insisted upon by the Bush White House. Indeed, the president’s own legal counsel advised him specifically on the subject. […”] Many others have zeroed in on this legal advice given to the president as being the real…

  • Navelgazing

    Index of Edgewise on ‘bush’

  • The 3-step exit plan

    George Saunders has a piece at Slate right now that is devastating in its brutal comedic factuality. This country is so far off track that just stating things plainly reads like near-dada absurdist poetic theatre. I recommend that you read the whole article, Exit Strategy, to get the full impact, but I will quote the…