Exactly at what point might Bush supporters agree to an empirical test, to say that X fact really does show that the Iraq war was miserably, incompetently executed, that this is not all a figment of the liberal mainstream media’s imagination?
You’d think the al QaQaa missing explosives would be it. For if Bush is […]
His international policies have been based on the hopelessly naïve belief that foreign peoples are eager to be liberated by American armies—a notion more grounded in Leon Trotsky’s concept of global revolution than any sort of conservative statecraft.
Harsh words from…. The American Conservative! Politics make strange bedfellows.
Hat tip: Laura Rozen
The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis reminds me why he’s one of my favorite music critics. This month he’s decided to take every CD released — or at least every on the record labels will send him — to get the pulsebeat of popular music today. The idea is to cut through the glib generalizations about pop […]
[Bush] has failed the challenge of these momentous times. John Kerry deserves a chance to do better.
That’s the conclusion of the New Republic’s powerful endorsement of John Kerry. Actually, it’s the endorsement the New York Times should have written but didn’t. Go read.
And with a couple of weeks before the election, it seemed fitting to […]
Via Defamer, I’ve been reading the newly founded Query Letters I Love blog and can’t stop laughing. If you think some screenplays that get fleshed out into actual theatrical releases are bad, you should see the ideas that don’t make it.
My favorite:
“An introverted history major at Brown University is romantically involved with another history […]
Daily Kos has up an incredible video clip of an address from President Bush. Unlike the folks at Kos, I’m actually not all that concerned about the cause of his inarticulateness and suspect that it’s simply that Bush is in over his head.
But wow, you can’t get more Face in the Crowd than this. […]
A friend emails me to take me to task for my comments on trade unionism.
I thought you were a little harsh on trade unionism. Maybe I’m confusing levels here or misunderstanding your argument, but do you think it’s one thing to talk about “not of their own making,” and another to say things like […]
One of the difficulty assessing policy discussions in the presidential debates or even in media discussion is that often there are a series of numbers tossed around that leave viewers more confused and ignorant of the problems policymakers face than when the candidates started. Or, else, the candidate eschews bureaucratspeak and talks instead in humanizing […]
Posting will be sparse the next couple of weeks as I try to power through this dissertation chapter. For those wondering what it is exactly I’m writing on, the diss is an analytical history of Hollywood’s social problem films from the 1940s and 50s… Gentleman’s Agreement, The Men, The Snake Pit, Defiant Ones, etc. This […]
I should clarify that I have nothing against the Fair Trade movement per se. In fact, I’m drinking fair trade coffee as I write. Equal Exchange Coffee does a great job in finding a market niche for superior product and in turn supporting Third World farmers in smaller-scale agriculture. In fact, their approach - of […]
I know that increasingly my political views don’t seem to be all that leftist - at least they don’t correspond to actually mobilized leftism in the U.S., Europe, or anywhere I can think really. If I’m for some mitigated, Third-Way socialist-capitalist hybrid, and if I’m only using Marx as a tool to understand class markers, […]
The Phoenix this week has an interview interview with Errol Morris, wherein he discusses the Republicans for Kerry ads he made for MoveOn.org. The ads are great, not so much for any deeper truth they hold (presumably one could find a bunch of Democrats who are voting Republican), but for their rhetorical force and visual […]
Looks like Kerry is passing the Dr. Phil test.
Another baldfaced lie:
My opponent says he has a plan for Iraq. Parts of it should sound pretty familiar — it’s already known as the Bush plan. (Laughter and applause.) Senator Kerry suggests we train Iraqi troops, which we’ve been doing for months. Just this week, Iraqi forces backed by coalition troops fought bravely to take […]
No, not mine. Everyone seems to have poured over the vice-Presidential debate with a fine-tooth comb. Dan Kennedy’s summary I think is the most on-the-mark.
Last night was potentially dangerous territory for the Kerry campaign. Four years ago, Joe Lieberman was thought to have a huge advantage over Cheney - and got his clock cleaned. By […]