Category: Edgewise

  • Abu Whaa???

    How do you pronounce “Abu Ghraib”? I’ve heard a few different variations. I use a long “A,” as in the word “brake.” Regardless of what is most correct, anyone who has discussed the prison abuses there has by now settled on a way to say it. So why was the President still trying to figure…

  • Fabulous George

    On McLehrer today Zbigniew Brzezinksy (sp?) reported from the late water’s-edge consensus (cold war, new world order, remember?) to remind us all that our government has undermined the crediblity of the words “weapons of mass destruction” and that we should be careful not to debase “sovereignty” as well starting on June 30. He then referred…

  • Sheriff Woody Reaches Out to the Iraqi People

    “Iraqis will write their own history and find their own way. As they do, Iraqis can be certain a free Iraq will always have a friend in the United States of America.” – President Bush, May 25, 2004 I’m reminded of Robin Williams years ago describing doing an impersonation of then-President Bush, Sr., saying you…

  • This is my show, so shut up!

    Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN Richard Holbrook was on Hannity & Colmes Laugh-In last night, and provided for us a classic Hannity moment. I forget exactly what point was being made, but Holbrook was questioning something about Bush’s speech and policy and of course, midway through making a salient point, Sean tried to shut…

  • Exit strategy theory

    Here’s an interesting theory about how the Bush folks may be planning to cut and run extract our forces from Iraq. We hand over sovereignty, the new government asks us to leave, we say “You didn’t say ‘Simon Says’,” they say it, and we leave.

  • The O’Reilly Sphincter

    As my first post to this blog, I must go to the first in no doubt a series of observations about one of my favorite analysts – Bill O’Reilly. The Bill O’Reilly Sphincter is big and scary, and a place from which many comically distorted facts and shameless self-promotions are pulled. I love Bill O’Reilly.…

  • Rumsfeld is toast

    The other day we watched Rumsfeld struggle through a press conference, pointing to some weak press release (no doubt on a Friday evening amidst 100 other unrelated press releases, but still how come no one picked it up in January? or is he lying? who’s checking this?), floundering without successfully wielding hardly any of his…

  • Your Monkey Man one-liner of the day

    Here’s a quick one-liner from my good pal, the Monkey Man: “George Bush isn’t a big picture guy — (oooh oooh! aaaah aaaah!) — he’s more of a big picture book guy.” And there it is: Your Monkey Man one-liner of the day.

  • Please welcome

    Briggs Nisbet, cowriter of True Dirt, has joined the contributing staff of Edgewise, writing an occasional column called Hellmouth. (Two back entries have been imported from Briggs’ former standalone blog of the same name.) Please welcome Briggs to our family.

  • Howard Dean’s humanity

    When I read in the Times that Dean’s teenage son said to him (I can just imagine thte exact tone of voice) “I can’t believe you ran for president!” and Dean said that it made him laugh, I liked all the more, all over again. Last night the local DFA organizers in Berkeley and Oakland…

  • And it’s nuance by a nose

    I’ve boiled down the messages of the last three viable presidential candidates in this election. Eventually, I got it down to one word each, so here they are: Dean: Truth Kerry: Nuance Bush: Lies

  • Kerry the redeemer

    I think I’ve got the storyline that wins the election for Kerry. (Caveat: I’ve been out on limbs before.) Taegan Goddard notes that Kerry has thus far successfully targeted veterans. Here’s how I see it. Kerry served. He did his duty. Like all thinking people of his age group in that time, he had doubts…

  • This is the way the wheels come off

    Great comment from a reader of Kevin “CalPundit” Drum’s new Political Animal blog / column at The Washington Monthly: A lot of my family are conservatives and they are turning on W. Some are just upset about deficit spending, but most are learning that lying about your sex life is nothing when compared to lying…

  • Is it just me?

    Or has Jim Lehrer been kicking Bush’s ass all week?

  • Bush and Kerry blogs

    Cool/Lame has built a simple-brilliant website that compares the last five entries from the Bush and Kerry blogs side by side. It’s called Bush and Kerry Side by Side or Bush/Kerry for short. [via Scripting News]

  • Clark pumpkin templates

    update circa late 2004: with autumn upon us, a lot of people appear to be dropping by to read this entry on Clark Pumpkin Templates from late 2003. 1. Welcome! 2. Vote Kerry! 3. While you’re here, I thought I’d take this opportunity to suggest that for up-to-date political content, you might visit us at…

  • Bush Knockout Punch?

    This could be a Sleeper. Just guessing, but a decisive blow to Bush’s reelection may emerge, during the Spring and through the Summer, from devastating declines in reenlistment in the Guard, Reserves, and regular Army. This will be very hard for him to defend against: It is hard facts, not interpretation. It will be a…

  • Absence of proof

    Bad Attitudes journal reports on Rumsfeld’s triumphal tour and the search for deadly precursors of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq: “Listen,” said the threateningly affable defense secretary, “wouldn’t you expect a man like Saddam to hide his weapons of mass destruction? Last time I checked, hidden means you can’t find them. In fact if…

  • Toad Pride

    This just in from San Diego (North Baja or South California, depending): A federal appeals court has rejected a developer’s plans to build a large housing development in inland North County because it would likely jeopardize a small, endangered toad. Well, kinda. More like there is already a “housing development” there but nobody sees it…

  • The veil of invisibility

    So we’re walking back to the car parked along the frontage road when a coworker says, “there’s an Amber alert on the freeway” and I look up to read the lit up message on the huge billboard “….brown Datsun 200sx…” and the license plate number that harbors a fugitive kidnapper and abducted girl (probably). And…

  • Republicans trying to have it both ways on race

    Joshua Micah Marshall, whose Talking Points Memo is one of the best political blogs around, has a new column in The Hill. His first column takes on Republican tolerance of intolerance: Critics on the left often wrongly claim that the Republican Party is some hotbed of crypto-racism, when, in fact, most Republicans are nothing of…