Those of us on the left have been indulging in our share of Schadenfreude since the reelection of Barack Obama–or, more specifically, the defeat of the Republican party and the associate shadow-money campaign newly authorized by Citizens United. The wailing and gnashing of teeth on conservative media, all looking for something to blame, seems to […]

Christine O’Donnell went on TV with her usual claptrap about how Obama is a Marxist and Soledad O’Brien (who is on a huge streak of calling Republicans out in exasperation lately) rolled her eyes. In the clip, we don’t see the subject get pressed too much further, but this has been annoying me for a […]

The Wall Street Journal’s most popular article today was an editorial by one Professor Michael J. Boskin entitled, “Get Ready for a 70% Marginal Tax Rate,” and it was a doozy. It hearkened back to bygone days at university, when we carelessly tossed haphazardly written bullshit under the professor’s door a minute after the deadline, […]

So the President unveiled his health plan(s) to what I thought was an incredible display of bravery on the Republicans’ part, and I’m jealous. I remember what it felt like to torture the substitute teacher from the back of class, yelling out “you lie!” and holding up signs and so forth. These people are really […]

Like you, I was very concerned about the well-being of crazy right-wingers this summer. Their favorite party out of office, a Democratic super-majority in the Senate, the stock market dragging its feet—how were we, as a nation, going to keep these people off the streets? By staging a gigantic nation-wide debate about healthcare, that’s how. […]

A modest proposal for extreme and Constitutional gun control: The right is losing a considerable amount of ground in the culture wars—every poll released in the last year shows America lurching to the left on traditional issues for conservatives from gay marriage to economic regulation to opening relations with Cuba. But there is one issue […]

Later this month in Geneva, the United Nations will be holding what it calls the Durban Review Conference (a.k.a. “Durban II”) to “evaluate progress towards the goals set by the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in 2001.” Part of the agenda at Durban II will be […]

The economic turmoil of the past year hasn’t just thrown Wall Street into disarray—it’s causing ideological havoc in Washington. The two major parties are just as confused by the crisis as the rest of America, and party lines are becoming blurred just at the point where the Democrats seem poised to steamroll the Republicans on […]

A few years ago, I bet a friend that the Dow Jones Industrial Average, an index of the leading American companies’ stock prices and one of the most celebrated economic indicators on Wall Street, would dip below 10,000 ‘points’ as a result of the oncoming credit crisis. Today I called him at work and said, […]

The component of the price of oil due to speculation was always kind of an unknown quantity. At the height of the oil bubble this summer, with prices at $150, someone suggested to Congress that up to a third of the price was actually due to market manipulation (a.k.a. “speculation”) by financial institutions, many of […]

Since I spent most of my last appearance on Sirius’ Blog Bunker and all of the previous post talking about oil without too much emphasis on the greenhouse gas part of the equation, I think it behooves us all on the left side of the political spectrum to deal with the fallacies of global warming […]

What drives oil prices? Everyone has a theory that suits their ideological niche—Democrats blame lack of regulation, Republicans blame too much regulation, and the rest of us wonder why prices aren’t higher than they are already. Earlier this month, Congress got an earful from a variety of oil experts on both sides of the ideological […]

In 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther, began a new era in Christianity by declaring his independence from what he saw as the excesses and iniquities of the Roman Catholic Church. Having kicked off the Reformation by nailing an itemized list of complaints to a church door, Luther challenged not only the orthodoxy of […]

It’s hard to watch the news lately, because it’s just an interminable vivisection and slow broil of the Democratic candidates, thanks to Hillary’s stalwart refusal to do the math. C’mon, folks, it’s all on CNN’s delegate counter game, which has helpfully added a feature which lets you see exactly why Clinton needs a 66% margin […]

Dear readers, exciting things are happening. Here’s a quick review of the past few months. That Book I’m Always Talking About For the last two years, I’ve been writing a non-fiction book—it’s what I’m doing when I’m not posting here. When people ask me what the book is about, I usualy say something like, “it’s […]

It’s time for me to tell you what’s good for you, besides the obvious—cod liver oil, plenty of sunshine, and switching to a ‘light’ cigarette. Start Snitching The greatest thing about the immigration debate today is that everyone involved in debating it in the media is totally full of shit. You have your Lou Dobbses, […]

I missed the anti-war rally last weekend. I’d call it a peace rally, but nobody’s really for ‘peace’ anymore; the majority of the country still thinks the war in Afghanistan was justified, and they’re even receptive to bombing Iran. Even the majority of the country who is now against the Iraq war isn’t really against […]

Dear readers, you may be wondering what I’ve been up to, since lately dispatches are few and I never call anymore. Well, I’ve been working on a book. If you want a copy of the proposal, e-mail me and I’ll send it to you. For the purposes of this website, the proposal is to be […]

Now that News Corp has all purchased the Wall Street Journal and late capitalism is experiencing yet another paroxysm—er, market correction—I think it behooves us all to consider the fate of the lowly Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. You see, way back in the 1920’s the market was booming—everybody was getting rich speculating in the market […]

Welcome to another edition of actual casual asides, seasoned as usual with gotchas and I-told-you-sos. Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls… The United States and our allies have no rational interest in disclosing how many people we’ve killed in Iraq and Afghanistan if that number is inclusive of civilians. “We don’t do body counts,” […]

The foreign policy spat between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton couldn’t have been scripted better for the mainstream media. It’s also the reason why watching politics in America drives me crazy. The great triangulation has begun. Lyndon Johnson had the Texas two-step, and the Clintons have the Sister Souljah moment. It’s one of their ways […]

Sometimes, it’s too easy. What kind of idiot protests that the surge is working? “AJStrata,” for one, who wrote this charming piece of tripe which I cannot help but “fisk.” So, let’s get into it: The signs abound that Iraq is stabilizing. The massacres of Muslims that al-Qaeda and the Mahdi Malitia [sic] inflict are […]

Sometimes I wonder how many times I can restate essentially the same points about Iraq. I’ve been doing it for over four years now. I suppose I should derive some satisfaction from the fact that the majority of Americans are now against the war. Unfortunately, that’s like the majority of Americans being against the Big […]

When will Americans learn that prison just isn’t fit for rich people? Apparently, it was these last few weeks. First there’s the Paris Hilton in-and-out again with the overcrowded California correctional system. When asked why Hilton was being released a second time before her setnece had been served, an official mumbled somehing about ‘health concerns’ […]

There’s been so much stuff going on in the past month, both in the world and my own life, that I feel like I fell behind in the news somewhere around the beginning of June. Hence, no posts; I’ve been working on some other things. But There are some things I’d like to address, briefly: […]

The thrashing of Iraq continues. Today is Memorial Day, when America traditionally celebrates the deaths of its military men and women by going to the beach and wearing funereal shades of white and so forth. Speaking of symbolic dates, I propose a new slogan for the anti-war marchers for the summer season: “Out By September […]

I can’t quite put my finger on why I’ve singled Republican Presidential candidate Duncan Hunter out as my bête noire, but I have, so deal with it. Hunter isn’t as dangerous to civil rights as, say, Sam Brownback, or as connivingly amoral as Rudy Giuliani, but there’s something about him that just rubs me the […]

As I mentioned earlier, the Democrats don’t have enough backbone to do.. well, nothing, and let the Iraq war end in 180 days. So, they’re going to continue to fund the war in some fashion, likely by insisting on “benchmarks,” which is now the catchphrase du jour . As with everything else about the American […]

Today is this blog’s fourth birthday, and as you can see, I’ve done a bit of a redesign. The old design was intentionally cluttered, because that’s how my desk looks. But I figured that, as I say at the bottom of all my e-mails, “non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitam,” which means not to multiply […]

Yesterday as I was watching Fox News, I heard a small but sharp explosion and the clatter of plastic shrapnel. The batteries in my VCR remote, which I last remember replacing sometime in college, decided that they’d had enough. A cursory examination of the debris showed the batteries were supposed to expire in 2012, with […]

C-SPAN is getting better and better with the Democrats putting the investigations front and center. I have to say it’s thrilling to watch Republicans squirm after years of this bullshit going the other way. Kucinich, bless him, is even going after Dick Cheney with articles of impeachment. I am a big fan of this approach, […]

There are a few topics I try to avoid on this blog; Israel, monetary policy, cats. But I suppose the most glaring omissions are feminist concerns (closely followed by Darfur, a topic about which I have long struggled to write without much success). I’m not going to offer some lame excuse like “I just don’t […]

Four years into the occupation in Iraq and it's still going on, despite the mounting frustrations of all involved. My writing on the subject has begun to resemble a post-mortem on a still-living body. I felt like I was beating a dead horse in 2005

Being philosophically-self aware is a very special kind of hell. The simpler your thinking, the more complicated your life becomes. While other people have no problems with the inherently self-contradictory, people like me get stuck on little details like how the entire world has obviously gone totally batshit. I had this problem with the war […]

I know I’ve ragged on Pope Benedict before for being a Nazi, but I do feel compelled to quote his Easter speech yesterday morning: How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking. … I am thinking […]

Oh, Christopher Hitchens. I used to be your biggest fan. I hate Mother Theresa and Bill Clinton just like you. I even forgave your support of the war in the early days of the invasion, because I knew you sympathize with the plight of Kurdistan. But you don’t return my e-mails or call. And then […]

I'm in the middle of this really long, drawn out criticism of Christopher Hitchens' "I wasn't right, but I wasn't wrong" piece on Slate from last week, but it's taking way too long to pen and you, dear readers, are probably wondering what the hell is going on. So, I substitute a letter I wrote […]

I'm back from the valley of the shadow of blog death with an old favorite

Right off the bat, I'm going to make an embarrassing admission–several, actually. Earlier, I quoted Clausewitz as saying block|Clausewitz also said, the best way to attack a powerful enemy is to attack the weakness in their greatest strength.|block Clausewitz did not say this. Al Ries and Jack Trout said it. "Who?" I hear you cry. […]

So the President is planning a surge, is he? All the warning signs are there–Dad’s friends on the Iraq Study Group embarrassed him, and he knows he has to announce some kind of change, so why not go for broke and double down on America’s military future? So The SurgeTM gets floated in some neoconservative […]

I started this blog on May 6th, 2003. For the previous few months, basically since I left Montreal, I had been working on a book at a maddeningly slow pace. The title was to be, “The End of the American Century,” and the premise was that in a hundred years or so, history students would […]

So the Democrats have won back the Congress without a coherent plan to get us out of the war, and no wonder; Bush is still Commander-in-Chief and his lawyers have argued the President's position on Constitutional matters to the point that to call it a 'coup' would be stretching the truth only slightly. The Democrats, […]

Less than a week from the mid-term elections and I’m starting to get worried that either a) the Democrats will lose, and b) the Democrats will win. Don’t Count Your Chicken-hawks Before They Hatch Smart people have a problem. They’re outnumbered by idiots. This is not necessarily meant as a jibe against either party, you […]

When you watch a White House press conference (or that rarest of birds, a Presidential press conference), you'll notice that tough questions are increasingly being asked as journalists feel emboldened by Bush's low approval ratings. But there is still a line that many refuse to cross, a moratorium on real self-examination about our foregin policy.<br […]

Now that I'm working for the good folks at a{http://www.mediachannel.org”>MediaChannel}a, and trying to write a book about technology (ever so slowly), I find that I haven't been blogging very much. One of the reasons I started this blog in the first place was to help me keep writing every day. In fact, I started out […]

Since my last post, the Middle East broke out into yet another war between right-wing militarists and Islamist militias, and President Bush went on a rhetorical offensive to shore up support for the war in Iraq (he hardly seems to mention Afghanistan anymore). Even though I haven’t posted on my blog for a while, I […]

As the Senate geared up to vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage last week, derisive howls were heard throughout the country when Senate Majority Leader Frist declared it a legislative priority. Though it’s clear that this ultimately doomed gesture was nothing but the purest pandering to cultural conservatives, there is a hidden truth […]

Recently, David Asman of Fox News’ program “Forbes on Fox” asked the following question: “Bashing our military: seems like it’s a new sport for our media! But could all the negative headlines and lack of reporting about anything positive our brave men and women are doing there hurt America and our markets?” Naturally, Asman turns […]

Turn on cable news at any given moment and chances are good you'll be hearing about either immigration or record gas prices. It occurred to me that although you'd never know it from watching corporate media, these two issues have much more in common than you think, and their causal link goes back hundreds of […]

So, Saturday (May 6th) marked the third anniversary of Casual Asides. Faithful readers, I know you've been waiting breathlessly for the past month for me to update, and all I can tell you is that I've been working on a non-fiction book proposal instead of blogging. And don't worry, this week I'll break out that […]

<b>Abuse of Civil rights and Procedures</b> The lovely and always well-researched Ren has a really remarkable piece on the Nation website about the recent South Dakota Abortion Task Force, which was basically a front for a single State Rep's plan to challenge Roe v. Wade ASAP. The extended version of the piece is here, there's […]

With the third anniversary of the War in Iraq, our attentions have turned, naturally, to Iran. A while ago (before Iran’s nuclear program was making front-page news), I was talking to a friend about liberal interventionism, and of course, Iran came up. What did I ultimately propose to do, she asked, about the human rights […]

I exhort you, faithful readers, to vote for my blog in the Best Writing category of the Koufax Awards. I have this fantasy of winning out over 126 contenders. As the Mets say, You Gotta Believe. Please, vote here (it says the voting hasn’t opened yet, but it has): Wampum’s Koufax Award for Best Writing […]

It’s a busy week; there hasn’t been much time for blogging lately. I was considering posting something about it that read, “light posting ahead, sorry folks.” Then I remembered I don’t post that often in the first place, so I won’t be making any apologies. Ha! There’s a quality/quantity tradeoff, especially when it comes to […]

Just wanted to thank everyone who’s been coming to this humble little blog lately. My traffic has doubled, due in no small part to my fellow Koufax nominees linking to my recent post about the whole British-to-Emirate ports deal. Then there are all the people looking up either David Sanborn or Muhammad Sharaf, sometimes in […]

This weekend news came that the Bush Administration had approved the sale of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation (a.k.a. "P & O"), the fourth-largest port operations firm in the world, to DP World, the seventh-largest. P & O is a British company, and DP World is owned by the United Arab Emirates. P & O […]

Since my internet connection went down earlier this week, I’ve been sitting and stewing about various things: No Blogging on Yom Kippur A few days ago, I was lamenting the fact that my traffic had been flagging lately. It’s not like I don’t know why; I don’t post every day, like most blogs do. These […]

If you didn’t think the White House was bereft of shame or even a sense of irony before, all you need to do is witness the latest salvo in its attempts to whitewash its failures. Today, in the midst of the investigations of Bush’s illegal NSA spying program (Bush supporters might prefer “extralegal” or “supralegal”) […]

Recently, the Abramoff lobbying scandal has yielded a raft of proposals from both sides in an effort to combat the “Culture of Corruption” meme we’ve been hearing so much about. Before I (or anyone else) talk about these reform proposals, we need to understand what Abramoff is really charged with and how lobbying works in […]

I have a whiteboard, generously given as a birthday present by Elephant. For the last six-odd months, there has been a diagram on it which I had been working on for some time. As time passed and other stories became more pressing, I just left it up and began to cover it with other notes. […]

Posted this on the wikipedia site’s entry for the Abramoff scandal, figured you might like to hear it: “To say that this scandal is being ‘painted as Republican’ is dishonest and ignores facts about Abramoff which are certainly undisputable. He was chairman of the College Republican National Committee and worked for Reagan’s 1980 campaign. The […]

Since I seem to be contenting myself with rehashing old themes lately, let’s go with the only one that people consistently seem to enjoy, i.e., actual casual asides. The Bush-NSA Spying Scandal Let us consider, for a moment, the depths of what has been revealed here. To begin with, I entered the words “warrant courts […]

Dear Dr. Krauthammer, I came across your article in the Weekly Standard which argued for two hypothetical exceptions from a blanket ban on torturing prisoners by the U.S. government. I must tell you how strongly I disagree with your conclusions merely on practical grounds (to say nothing of the morality of torturing detainees, a complicated […]

Dear Senator Clinton,Recently I read with interest your comments regarding the proposed partial criminalization of flag burning law in USA Today, namely,"I support federal legislation that would outlaw flag desecration," which I assume refers to HR 1974 IH, otherwise known as the Flag Protection Act of 2005. As your constituent, I have a few questions […]

I've been working on proposals for the Democratic platform. House Democrats beat me to part of it a few days ago, so I figured I might as well share part of it with you today: environmental policy. Even if you don't have cancer or asthma or water damage or mercury poisoning, you probably know someone […]

Bush’s October 6th speech at the National Endowment for Democracy was so close to self-parody that for once, Bush’s smirks were actually humorous. It was like a Friar’s Club Speech, if the friars were experts on Middle East affairs. The theme of this speech is the comparison (more precisely, the equation) of Islamist terrorism to […]

Have you recently noticed, a whole bunch of GOP figures are being indicted, investigated or excoriated for various (alleged) wrongdoings? If you are the corporate media, the answer is yes, but if you're a conscientious, informed American citizen, the answer is no. Call it an amazing coincidence, but it seems that the recent rash of […]

When I saw that the President was going to hold a press conference on Fox News this morning, I got out my notepad and took some notes: Smirks Guffaws 9/26 Bush remarks re: energy supply Bush looks haggard, like he hasn’t slept or watched professional sports in days. The rumors that he’s started drinking again […]

Note: I’ve been busy and uninspired lately. Actually, I’ve been trying to pitch articles to magazines instead of working like a dog to fact-check stuff for a blog that relatively few people read. The market has wreaked its horrible toll on this blog, I’m afraid. But don’t despair, I found this draft from a while […]

I was working on a major piece about Katrina but have decided to pitch it to a magazine instead of publishing it here. Does this attempt at commodification make for a worse blog? Yes. So, this means there will be no sweeping socialist, environmentalist, civil libertarian broadsides this week; instead we have some odds and […]

As the pro-war contingent of American politics becomes increasingly desperate–oh, who am I kidding, it’s actually just standard operating procedure on both sides of the aisle–we have progressed to ad hominem attacks on prominent anti-war media figures. As with the Dixie Chicks, Michael Moore, Tim Robbins, and so forth, we now have hawks trying to […]

While talking to Elephant today, I repeated my assertion that what we need are better laws, not more of them. The simpler a law is, the harder it is to find loopholes in it; what we need are the right principles rather than approximately justifiable rules. Elephant said the only sort of "business restructuring" law […]

My friend Elephant sometimes says that he’s a pro-market liberal. But he often makes the excellent point that markets are always created by the state. It’s not just regulation which shapes and produces markets; there are the limits of enforcement as well as the means for chartering corporations. Now, I had been harboring some vestigial […]

Often, people think that when I argue with them about the war on terror, or the war in Iraq, or the war in Afghanistan, that I am somehow traitorous or ‘morally indistinguishable’ from a fifth-columnist or Al-Qaeda terrorists. Especially when I note that many of their political complaints are founded (though as I’m sure you […]

Question 1. Would people rather read policy and political critiques supported by careful research, <i>or</i> policy recommendations based on hypotheticals and moral philosophy? Question 2. Can you spot the bunny rabbit?<pre> /| __ / | ,-~ / Y 😐 // / | jj /( .^ >-"~"-v" / Y jo o | ( ~T~ j >._-' […]

Make no mistake, everyone who is involved in (American) politics, whether professionally or intellectually, wants to be the President (of the United States); even if only for a day. My problem is that I am, and always have been, totally unelectable–never won an election, probably never will. For one thing, Americans will vote for blacks […]

Brad, the newly repentant individual, has posted a reasoned, thoughtful account of his libertarian/natural rights philosophy here, and his argument sets out from an excellent starting point: block|…life, liberty, or property rights are quite easily discarded by an overbearing government. We can call them

Sometimes, when I talk about the foibles of our policies, people ask me, "well, what do you propose?" which is a good question. I prefer strategies which really look to the future, so here are some fun ways for us lefties to think two steps ahead: 1) Regardless of what Karl "The King of Plausible […]

With the third anniversary of the War in Iraq, our attentions have turned, naturally, to Iran. A while ago (before Iran’s nuclear program was making front-page news), I was talking to a friend about liberal interventionism, and of course, Iran came up. What did I ultimately propose to do, she asked, about the human rights […]

While I was busying myself with other pursuits, Eric’s post about Iraq and Al-Qaeda seems to have prompted a really good discussion with Matt of Cerulean Blue and Mike of No Angst Zone (as always, I’ve arrived stylishly late to the party). In the thick of all this, Mike comes up with an essentially flawed […]

Two recent posts on blogs I read regularly have been bothering me: most disturbing is Time for the West to Close its Borders to Muslim Immigrants over at The Kvetcher, and the other one is DadaHead's post linking to Prof. Brian Leiter's "This is how we shall preach to the converted" manifesto. I'll take on […]

When Lincoln freed the slaves (in Confederate territory only, of course), some of the most voracious opposition came not from slave owners, but from poor whites. To be sure, there was an economic aspect–freed blacks would now be competing for jobs–but there was a more important and deeper social logic behind their opposition. If you […]

Last week, I pitched a TV show to a certain famous filmmaker and TV producer, and I have yet to hear a response. So, I figure I might as well share it with you, dear readers, because based on the horrified responses I get from other people I tell about it, it’ll never get made. […]

Kelo v. New London seems to have created a political issue which unites extremists against the moderates, which is pretty interesting in and of itself. Contrary to what libertarians like Eric or Abu Gingy might believe, I don’t welcome this expanse of government power. This isn’t “quasi-socialism,” it’s quasi-fascism–how do we know? This isn’t even […]

More back-and-forth about torture and whether or not the Geneva Convention ought to apply to people suspected of terrorism (who do they think they are, Nazis?) prompted a little more research on my part, which is how I found the following excerpt from an AP report from June 17th 2005 entitled "Top U.S. attorney defends […]

It's official, Eric Grumbles Before the Grave is my new favorite site to troll for argument-picking. Yesterday Eric took a fine sentiment likeblock|Dean [Esmay] gives some good advice on how to make comparisons of things you find abhorrent, including this pearl: Here's a suggestion for serious-minded critics: why not stop with the invidious comparisons entirely, […]

Some of you, and here I’m referring to those who read lefty-type blogs regularly, may have heard the “peak oil” meme, which is rapidly gaining currency. Bascially, a man named Hubbard predicted in 1955 that the US oil production would peak in the 1970s (which it did) and that the rest of the world would […]

With the leaks of two classified documents from the British government showing, shall we say, "concern" within the British government for Bush's ersatz <i>causus belli</i> and the lack of post-war planning, even former war supporters like Rep. Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones are losing their faith. Although Congress voted down a measure demanding a withdrawal timetable […]

New York State Assemblyman Sheldon Silver, playing the role of <i>deus ex machina</i> in the political play known as the West Side Stadium project, descended from the heavens earlier this week to stop the incredibly ill-conceived stadium from being built. Thank goodness. Let's backtrack for a moment. Mayor Bloomberg has always had the 2012 Olympics […]

The Baffler, which I will go on record as saying is the best magazine in America (even though it is even more irregularly published than the magazine I work for), had a very interesting piece about the National Rifle Association several issues ago. It talked about a single NRA convention in the sixties when the […]

You may recall, from last November, the media talking about "values," which is the politically correct word for "Christian." Political correctness, by the way, is just another invention of the market in that political operative have become brand managers–they've carefully chosen the word "values" to mean something very specific. And yet, the word "values" is […]

When I was in Washington a few weeks ago, I had what amounted to a six-hour layover in downtown DC, which is a fancy way of saying I missed the morning bus and was stuck with nothing to do and lots to carry. So I walked over to the White House, where a group of […]

Last week, instead of posting here or, indeed, doing anything constructive during that time, I got into a debate with some people on Rightwingnews.com. They were getting into a huff because the Supreme Court has been mentioning foreign laws in some recent decisions. But the way the article was built was:<ol><li>To quote some ridiculous foreign […]

My new friend Dadahead seems to be under attack from right wing morons hyperventilating over his defense of pie-throwing (in this case, at ultra-conservative David Horowitz). Why, if you took your news through Right-wing News‘ filter, you’d be liable to believe that Yes, in the world according to Dadahead, people who disagree with him don’t […]

Within an hour of hearing about the attacks on Spetember 11th, I figured out that Ashcroft and company were going to use the attacks to curtail civil liberties, the same way the Reichstag fire was used by the NSDAP at the beginning of its reign of terror. And lo, Congress came to pass the "Uniting […]

Yesterday, the New York Times Op-Ed page published an unusually long (and very good) retrospective of Einstein's work. It commemmorated the hundredth anniversary of his banner year in physics publishing; not only was this the year of "E=mc2", but of the declaration that though light appears to be a wave, it is actually composed of […]

Today we're reviewing some points I raised earlier in the blog and their progress since I wrote about them. 1. Terry Schiavo: speaking of cheap political exploitation, the parents sold their mailing list to some GOP direct marketers, in case you were wondering where their principles are. 2. For close to two years, I've been […]

Normally, I wouldn't comment on something like the Terry Schiavo case, but the periphery surrounding the whole issue is so complex that it warrants a missive from yours truly in several parts: Just to be clear from the get-go, I think they should let the husband pull her plug. I'd like to remind everyone that […]

As I mentioned earlier, many people are now considering the latest positive evelopments in the Middle East as proof that our heavy-handed approach to foreign policy might not be pretty, but that it "gets results." (Didn't I hear Jon Stewart with a variation of this meme on the Daily Show a while ago?) Wars, when […]

I know posting has been sporadic lately, but I try not to post unless I have something to say. Because I have no grand pronouoncements ready for the moment, I figured I'd, well, troll Kinja's politics digest in search of something to comment on. I came across this question from The National Review's blog's Tim […]

Given recent events in the Middle East, many people are wondering if perhaps Bush and the neoconservatives aren’t right about our military ventures and the Bush foreign policy. Specifically, people are looking at: The successful elections in Iraq, the developments in Lebanon, municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, and the Mubarak’s promise of reform in Egypt. […]

While reading this article about Dame Stella Rimington, it occurs to me that the Republican platform isn't trying to take us back to the 1920s the way everyone seems to think it is. What they're actually trying to do is turn the clock back to the 1770s. Except this time, we're the colonial oppressors. It's […]

Speaking of religion and debunking mythology, I came across this article on “the Global Consciousness Project”, who claim the following: To have a “black box” which generates a random string of ones and zeroes; That “[a]gain and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the […]

Devotees of the President's foray into neoconservative flavored <i>realpolitik</i> must be scratching their heads at North Korea's recent pronouncements that a) they have nuclear weapons, and b) screw you, America. The United States, simultaneously the owner of the world's largest nuclear arsenal and leading proponent of nuclear disarmament, has demanded an end to nuclear programs […]

I'm not sure what to make of Bloomberg's appeal of the gay marriage decision. Hizzoner, in a single speech, mind you, said that he was personally for gay marriage, but then "block| In his remarks in Chinatown, the mayor said city lawyers had told him that the ruling "was incorrect, that the current state Constitution […]

Cheap “Iraqi solidarity” posturing or evidence of a terrorist plot to crazy glue $20 bills to the toilet bowls of the Republican Congressional offices? Some may be puzzled with the President’s choice of Laura Bush to head up his surprise anti-gangbanging initiative. Those people need only read Kitty Kelley’s account of Laura’s drug-dealing days at […]

One of the reasons I don’t like watching the President on television (other than the inevitable shards on the ground and stains on the wall behind the TV set) is that I despise the theatrical aspect of politics. Emotional appeals of the type we saw last night are great at obscuring the issues at hand. […]

Leave it to the Bush administration to help move America seamlessly from crisis to crisis. Remember when we had to <b>invade Iraq right now or "the smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud</b>?" Well, until we invade Iran, there's still the looming insolvency of the Social Security system. Oh, didn't you hear? According to our […]

I was just discussing this with a friend: Which do you think will happen first, the development of a real renewable energy source that can replace petroleum, or our withdrawal from Iraq and/or Afghanistan? I'd wager a guess, but I can't decide! Since I've been getting more comments recently, I thought I'd ask.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the failure of the flypaper theory, put forth by Andrew Sullivan and parroted by the administration. What we are doing in Iraq, dear readers, is running the world's foremost terrorist training camp. Lo and behold, a National Intelligence Committee report was just released saying the <b>exact […]

Have you been hearing about Bush's inaugural festivities? Why, it seems that 200 of the President's closest pals have thrown together a party replete with nine… well, balls, including:<ul><li>CONSTITUTION BALL (Washington Hilton), <li>FREEDOM BALL (Union Station), <li>INDEPENDENCE BALL,<li>TEXAS WYOMING BALL,<li>LIBERTY BALL,<li>DEMOCRACY BALL, <li>PATRIOT BALL,<li>STARS AND STRIPES BALL, all at the Convention Center, and of course, […]

Now that I get more and more of my news from the radio (thanks to Cablevision, Inc. for that and my lack of frequent posting), I've been hearing a lot about the tsunami's horrible death toll and the relief efforts. I've also noticed that many of the reports are coming from Banda Aceh, the capital […]

Things had gotten so bad I was actually looking forward to former NYC Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik being appointed chief of Homeland Security by President Bush. If we have to have this stupid sounding position, we might as well have a reliable technocrat to lead it. But of course, it is not to be. Even […]

Dear readers– Things are finally settling down a bit. With 95% of my belongings safely transported to my new apartment (less than a third of which are unpacked), and my latest film project completed, I can now focus my attention on… shit, I have to find some work for this month. If anyone needs an […]

In previous posts, I talked about some of the reasons I fear the second-term Bush presidency. But prognostication is a tricky business. When I first left the States in '98, I had definitely not forseen that we would have had a major (and preventable) terrorist strike on my hometown, much less three ensuing, simultaneous wars. […]

In my haste to describe my dilemma, I neglected to explain why I want to leave the country in the first place (although it is a sobering revelation to realize that I haven't lived in this country for an entire year at a stretch since my junior year of high school). Bush is only going […]

You know how sometimes you get that feeling like something bad is going to happen? I'd been having that feeling for a while before the election, I think my regular readers know that. So while I wasn't exactly surprised about the outcome of the recent election, I was, obviously, disappointed. And not just because Bush […]

I didn't know for whom I would vote for president until I got in the election booth. I did not vote for John Kerry. Calm down, I live in New York State. I am very excited about the write-in candidacy of Susan Metz, who is running against State Assemblyman Roger Green. Green had recently resigned […]

How fucked up does this country have to be when even neo-Nazis like the National Alliance are saying "anybody but Bush?" I've been doing some research about white supremacist groups (some prefer to be called "racialists" or "nationalists"), so I've been reading their analyses with keen interest. Don't you think it's funny (funny, tragic, whatever) […]

With precious hours left until Election Day, I've been going crazy worrying about what will happen. In 2000, I didn't even consider that Bush could win (lo and behold, he didn't really), and now I have to say his chances of being reelected are fairly good. And readers, I am not kidding when I say […]

I was walking down the street in the Village a few weeks ago and the two women walking behind me were having a conversation about gay marriage. "I don't mind if they're gay," said one, "but when they want those special rights it gets me so angry." What the hell are these people talking about? […]

I'm watching CNN and they're talking about Rehnquist's upcoming tracheotomy (which will be great for dramatic effect during his often sinister decisions). A commentator called it an "October surprise." Oh, shit! I considered our options here. Rehnquist could die and then Bush would get to replace him… ugh. Then again, he's really quite conservative, so […]

We’re watching CNN just now, Kerry and Clinton campaign in Philly. Clinton just closed with an brilliant line about one candidate wanting you to fear and one candidate wanting you to think. Kerry: “Isn’t it great to have President Clinton back on the trail?” D. J.: “Yeah, what the hell took him so long?” Roommate: […]

I have a confession to make: I still haven't decided for whom to cast my vote. Not that it matters, because New York State voters are effectively disenfranchised; I'd have to live in Ohio or Missouri for my (presidential) vote to really have any meaning. I'm glad that people are more aware of the phenomenon […]

I was going to say something about the whole Bill O’Reilly lawsuit and pursuant scandal, but more sober reflections reminded me that I ought to respect O’Reilly’s innocence until proven guilty. What’s indelibly funny, whether the allegations are true or not, are the things O’Reilly allegedly said as per the defendant. The Smoking Gun has […]

I know, why don't I just tackle the debate one point at a time? Here's the transcript I will be quoting from–I watched the second half of the debate from a bar in DUMBO, and then I watched it again at home on when CNN re-ran it at 1am. Some quick swipes:block|BUSH: My opponent said […]

You know, it occurs to me that all of those who supported the war at first but are now against it (I'm looking at you, Mr. Kerry) have this credibility problem when it comes to honestly assessing our rush to war. At this point, Bush's only defense, the only rational defense, is to say that […]

I know I'm going to get in trouble with the English majors who read me, but I have to air a gripe about political fiction. This particular rant was prompted by seeing the new WB drama "Jack and Bobby" the other night. First of all, who the hell approved this show? Jack and Bobby "McCloskey" […]

I was walking in and out of the vice presidential debates at work last night, and I heard Edwards say (and presumably Cheney agree) that “the best defense is a good offense” with regard to terrorism. Let’s block that sports metaphor, shall we? One of the problems the Bush administration (and, sounds like possibly the […]

After my friend Liliana linked to me earlier this week, I thought I would a) reciprocate and b) take the opportunity to do some web shouting out of my own. My old school friend Michelle Chen just returned from China ; she wrote a travel diary with photos. She also writes excellent political commentary. Another […]

Permit me to further explore the point about how we ought not draw an artificial distinction between the U. S. invasion pre- and post-Saddam. This is the kind of thing that really gets me steamed–when people say that the point of the war was to make America safer by removing Saddam from power. I know […]

I know you're all waiting for me to say something about the debates last night, but I'm not ready to give a full analysis yet. I mean, I can just come out and say Kerry won, but what I find interesting about US politics is how the propaganda machine will spin it. So I caught […]

Ever since the whole "preventing the use of WMD" rationale for the war in Iraq fell apart, hawks have been pretending we did it because the Bush Administration is so concerned with human rights, particularly for those poor Iraqis who we "liberated" but whose land we do not "occupy." You, dear readers, cannot let people […]

I was talking with a friend about patriotism today. I maintained that there are different kinds of patriotism; there’s the jingoistic kind and the civic kind. The most succinct way I can state the difference is that civic patriots support their government by voting and paying (all) their taxes, while jingoistic patriots support the American […]

When I hear a meme twice in one day, I feel compelled to address it. Today, that meme is the "you break it, you bought it" with regard to Iraq. The idea is that because we are to blame for creating the mess in Iraq, we bear the responsibility for fixing it, which means we […]

For the past few years, we’ve been hearing a lot about so-called “dirty bombs,’ that is, regular explosives combined with radioactive material. The idea of the dirty bomb is so appealing to guerrillas and terrorists because it maximizes destructive payoff with little added complexity–all you have to do is cover the bomb with anything radioactive […]

Have you noticed the meme in the conservative media where some right-wing talking head will decry Kerry's complaints lodged with the FEC against the Swift Boat ads? They'll say something about how Kerry is–gasp!–using <b>lawyers</b> to <b>stifle free speech</b>. What do they expect him to do, go over to Swift Boat Veterans For Truth headquarters […]

Let's be serious here–the single greatest political problem in this country is the legalized corruption we call campaign contributions. Ever since the Buckley v. Valeo decision by the Supreme Court which said that MONEY = SPEECH, campaign finance reform has been totally lame, in the traditional sense of the word. Any serious attempts at reform […]

I've read somewhere that some liberal groups are pressuring the reporters in question to give up their sources. I think this is a bad idea. There's a reason this is against journalistic ethics–you need to know that you will be protected if you go to a journalist, any journalist. It would be very unprofessional of […]

It's like somebody pricked the White House and it can't stop leaking. Why can't they control themselves from compromising vital operations in the War on Terror? First it was Plame, and then they ruined a one-in-a-million chance at infiltrating Al-Qaeda by announcing that we had flipped one Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, thereby ending his career […]

OK, I just have to add about the last post: There's another problem with interrogating three young Muslim men praying before they get on the flight. Assuming that an al-Qaeda operative wouldn't be stupid enough to do something like that after they'd already cleared 90% of airport security (read that one first), what happens to […]

I was watching Bill Maher's "Real Time" just now and they were talking about racial profiling with D. L. Hughley (who was awesome and very funny and right), Emmanuel Rahm, and evil conservative Michelle Malkin. She and Maher agreed on the necessity of racial profiling. They started talking about the CBS interview of Transportation Secretary […]

I turned on CNN today and was greeted by footage of U.S. Marines raiding the home of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric and warlord Moqtada al-Sadr (either he wasn't home or he thought they were selling magazine subscriptions). Also, it seems that some of al-Sadr's men holed up in Shia's most holy mosque in Najaf, which has […]

If you're like me and would rather read the Democratic convention speeches than listen to them, here's the transcript roundup from the New York Times. Now that I've done you all a favor, could someone please tell me why everyone is suddenly Googling "Alabama Sex Toy Laws" and the like? That story is over a […]

My first Political Science teacher once said, "Political Science is the study of power" (except he said it with this really comical Quebecois accent). I've been thinking a lot about power and the nature thereof. My theory is that power, or at least the larger part of political power, is the ability to control the […]

Yesterday I talked about the inneffectiveness of torture and racial profiling. To sum up, torture increases the likelihood of false positives while turning innocents against the government. Racial profiling works similarly, except that it allows more terrorists who don't fit the racial profile to pass through our fingers. One of the other problems with racial […]

A few days ago, I was engaged in a conversation about the use of torture with a colleague. It started when he asked me my opinion about Israel–I said that I don't like it when countries violate human rights, and I don't play favorites. Besides, torture is ineffective in gathering information. "That might be a […]

I've been wanting to post a really long essay about Iraq, but I'm just going to give you a little morsel of it for the sake of expediency and to keep this page fresh. Today's topic: the June 30th handover of Iraq. In assessing our war plans from the beginning, the White House often fails […]

One of the things I need to do is update my links. I am very, very remiss; first of all, I need to link to my friend Kid Twist's site, Teleolgical Non-Sequitur, because he links to me and I ought to link to him anyway. Also, another blog called Corpus Callosum links to me, so […]

This evening, I got a phone call from my cousin, who used to work at the Heritage Foundation. Needless to say, we often disagree about politics, and we all know how much I enjoy a good debate. The following is a condensed account of our conversation. “The first amendment says that Congress shall make no […]

I knew it. The Supreme Court threw out Newdow's case on a technicality. Arguing that Newdow does not have standing to file the case because he is a non-custodial parent, the Supreme Court weaseled their way out of making the most important church-state ruling this session. It's not like the Supreme Court has a problem […]

Now that he's presumably dead and buried, three thoughts about Reagan are constantly recurring in my mind: <ol type=a><li>Did you know that Ronald "Ketchup Is A Vegetable" Reagan was the only president of the United States to have been president of (or, for that matter, been a member of) a labor union? Worse than that, […]

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, and its implications for the U.S. and the rest of the world. Here’s my short list of implications: Irreparable damage to our “hearts and minds” campaign Proves that if you tell the army they can do anything they want, they won’t disappoint you This […]

Have I ever told you readers how great I think Google News is? I love the idea of an algorithmically edited news service. Anyway, this afternoon’s edition randomly places two stories on top of each other: Major Figures from Watergate Scandal Die, and Senior Pro-Taliban Cleric Killed in Pakistani Port City . The second story […]

Recently, I was hanging around midtown with nothing specific to do for three hours, so I went to Barnes and Noble. While I was there, I read Peter Singer's new book, entitled "The President of Good and Evil." Peter Singer is the guy who is often credited with starting the animal rights movement with his […]

Another Congressman has floated the idea of another draft–this time it's Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel. The San Jose Mercury News has a good article about the growing anxiety about the Pentagon instituting another draft. Previously, Rep. Chuck Rangel (D-NY) and Sen. Fritz Holling (D-SC) had introduced a bill reinstating the draft, arguing that the poor […]

Last week's edition of the Weekly World News (you know, the one with "TWELVE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ARE SPACE ALIENS! on the cover) contains a very interesting article entitled, "SADDAM WON IRAQ WAR … then CIA time travelers reversed his victory!" Yes, according to America's most widely read newspaper, <blockquote>Madman Saddam Hussein really did have […]

I think this sums up what I feel about the upcoming George W. Bush vs. John F. Kerry contest. Presidential Election 2004 Complete Moron Fooled by a Complete Moron

So, Michael Newdow argued his case before the Supreme Court yesterday. Having already written a lengthy article on why Newdow should win, I think the most efficient way to approach this topic is ‘fisking’ the New York Times’ excerpts: CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST: What — what you say is, I pledge allegiance to the flag of […]

I was reading Slashdot and I noticed a story about the new RFID chip they're putting into all the new currency these days. (Slashdot is really a great site for looking at the nitty gritty concerning government programs–they've been covering government-sponsored scams like the Diebold voting machine and TIA for a long time now.) To […]

I was just watching a special on PBS about the religious <i>kulturkampf</i> in America today; this, I must admit, is my favorite issue in American politics. Lots of ground was covered, but I wanted to make a point about the gay marriage debate. Bryant Gumbel got Rev. Dr. Bob Wenz (VP of "National Ministries" for […]

As some of you may be aware, Bruce Ratner (who is probably the most well-connected realestate developer in New York State) just bought the New Jersey Nets basketball team with the intention of moving them to Brooklyn. This will require the second new stadium to be built in Kings county since 2000. Ratner has decided […]

I've been ignoring the Democratic primary race here for several reasons. First of all, I'm not a registered Democrat, I'm an independent. That being said, I was raised in a Democratic household, and watching the debates makes me cringe. Why are they sniping at each other? Don't they realize that infighting doesn't help the party? […]

I was doing a search on Thomas today, looking for a random National Day of This or That. I came across a proposal for the National Day of Prayer And Fasting. Actually, it’s stump speech given by Senator Nickles in favor of S.Res.91 which was proposed by Senators Santorum and Brownback. Here’s a sample: March, […]

Forgive me, but I have a small rant about the Administration’s spin on the War on Terrorism. We really need to stop talking (but more importantly, thinking) about the terrorist opposition to the U.S. as if it were a centrally directed opposing army. It’s not. It’s a movement, and it is a new breed of […]

There is an excellent article in the Washington Post today about retired General Anthony Zinni. Zinni is a centrist Republican, a Vietnam vet (Marines), and former head of CentCom. He is also very critical of the war on Iraq and for all the right reasons. Small excerpt: Zinni long has worried that there are worse […]

So, I was awakened to the news that the U. S. Army has captured Saddam Hussein alive. First thing I thought was, that’s great for Iraq. The second thing I thought was, big problem for the Americans. Two main points here: Now Hussein can no longer be blamed for the Iraqi resistance, which will doubtless […]

Congressional negotiators have shot down (additional link) the Senate proposal to turn aid into loans attached to Iraq’s oil profits! The Democrats should be using this vote as leverage to demand a rollback of the tax cut package gift-wrapped for the upper income levels, but I have a feeling they’re too spineless to do it. […]

Update to the previous post: Whisky Bar has a great post with all the numbers involved in the “loans for reconstruction” action–everybody wants a piece of the new colony of Iraq. More countries are heeding Bush’s call to attach Iraq’s oil revenues, turning it into the newest member of the club of “developing nations” who […]

I am completely in agreement with the Senate majority’s point that we cannot afford the latest bill from the occupation of Iraq. But talk about the worst possible way to make that point–the Senate is going to try to turn $20 billion of the reconstruction/occupation funds into loans. We are going to attach their oil […]

Not that I’m a California resident, but I think the California governor’s race is greatly fascinating. My candidate, of course, is Gary Coleman. Just think of it! Each of California’s problems could be solved in a half-hour, or in extreme cases, a two-episode story arc (although I suspect Coleman might suggest that these problems would […]

A while ago, I noticed a very interesting story on the AP’s “Strange News” page, entitled, “Alabama Votes Against Legalizing Sex Toys.” From the headline, one would assume that the Alabama state legislature was a bunch of tight-assed, Bible-thumping reactionaries. After all, this whole sex-toys flap started in 1998, when the Alabama legislature passed a […]

Today, I was watching NBC, and for some reason, Chris Matthews (isn’t he on MSNBC?) was on after Meet the Press. Under discussion was the economy; more specifically, Bush’s electoral vulnerability on the subject. David Brooks, Weekly Standard and New York Times writer, took exception–we’re not in a recession, he said, and we haven’t been […]

I was reading this Salon article about the chaos in Iraq and how the terrible planning of the neocons in the White House made this quagmire possible. Then my mind wandered back to that O’Reilly-Franken-Ivins forum (which you can download here in mp3 format). What, I hear you cry, could the connection possibly be? Here, […]

Much is being made of the claims based on forged evidence cited in George Bush’s State of the Union speech. Although the documents supporting the story that Iraq tried to procure yellowcake uranium from Niger were known to be false before the invasion, the story is only now becoming a scandal. At issue are the […]

I finally got around to listening to that Bill O’Reilly-Al Franken-Molly Ivins forum where O’Reilly got petulant, etc. It’s pretty funny. I especially like where Bill lies (apologists might merely say “exaggerates”) during the actual forum: Al Franken: I’ll finish for now, I could go on all day… Bill O’Reilly: I know you could. AF: […]

Know the following: I am a political junkie, and I am also prone to reading jags. Sometimes, I fixate on a subject and exhaust many hours reading as much as I possibly can about it. When I was a kid, for example, I took out every book I could find about astronomy in the space […]

Dear Mr. Powell, Last night, I had a dream that I was working in your office. You, of course, were genial but serious. Then, you made a crack about a co-worker wearing Army boots to the office. “Yeah,” I agreed, “she doesn’t really have that pummeling sensibility.” (I know, I know, “pummeling sensibility?” It’s a […]

Rent-a-Negro. Fucking hilarious, and I can’t even tell if they’re serious or not. Imagine if they are serious–we will have reached a new frontier in commodification! Now, you can buy some validity to the “some of my best friends are black” claim you make while making some otherwise racist assertion. Of course, bottom-line-minded tokenists would […]

The mainstream media reaction to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court’s decision to overturn the 1954 addition of “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance reveals precisely why the decision was right. And no matter how many talking heads get upset about it, Newdow v. U.S. Congress, et al. is neither a theological nor social debate; […]