Category Archives: Current Events

Our chum Bob Elisberg has a lovely little story about an obscure song by two non-obscure songwriters.

Matt Taibbi demolishes the stupid argument that if you're against torture, it can only be because your heart is with the terrorists.

The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan has been ousted. Time to go to Fred Kaplan and find out what it all means.

Roger Ebert contemplates death. I'm not sure what I think of this column but I think it's worth your attention.

Paul Begala on how Dick Cheney's unpopularity helps the Democrats.

I think Cheney has achieved something truly amazing in politics. He's even lost the support of people who agree with him. There are a lot of them out there…folks who like torture, like shifting the tax burden from the rich to the poor, like his notions of a strong America and so on. They probably like everything Cheney stands for except his tolerance of gay rights, which goes largely unmentioned, but they don't like Cheney. He's just done too much damage to their cause. I feel the same way about a lot of folks who more or less support what I support but do it in a clumsy, offensive manner. Maybe it comes with being vice-president because Joe Biden is drifting in that direction for me.

Bruce Bartlett on what the U.S. has to do to get serious about the current budget crisis. He thinks someone oughta propose some real solutions.

Joe Conason previews the looming G.O.P. attacks on Obama's attempts to fix health care in this country. Back when Hillary Clinton was spearheading such a move in her hubby's administration, I actually read most of the proposals and came to the conclusion that while there might have been an honest case to make against them, her opponents weren't bothering to make it and had just taken to outright lying about what was in it. It was like, "We have to stop 'Hillarycare' because it would allow foreigners to come to your house and kill your puppies!" That kind of thing. And the press would report the attack without asking the speaker where in the proposal it said anything of the sort.

I think the health care situation in this country is at least as threatening to our lives as anything the terrorists have a chance of pulling off and it's a lot easier to fix. I dunno if what Obama and his crew will come up with will be the right solution…but if it isn't, I hope it gets defeated or reconfigured because of what's in it and not because of its spurious Killing Puppies provisions. Or even because, you know, it would be scary to have "Government" come between you and your doctor when it's so much more comforting to have Blue Shield in that role.

Matt Taibbi on populist anger…and how it never interferes with the filthy rich getting filthier and richer.

As I Twittered the other day, I think Bristol Palin should take an abstinence pledge…to abstain from lecturing people about abstinence pledges. Just about the only thing that woman is known for is that hers didn't work so well. Frankly, I don't think they accomplish much except to allow parents to put blinders on and pretend they've done something that will prevent their kids from having sex. It's so much easier than teaching them how to be responsible.

There are many articles out there about the utter silliness of Bristol's position but maybe the most interesting is one by Meghan McCain, daughter of You-Know-Who. I agree with most of it except for when, regarding abortion, she says, "That's the kind of trust my parents have always placed in their children — yet the GOP still needed to get involved and have a say in what I did with my body." Someone explain to this lady that her father is part of that group; its most recent leader, in fact.

And I still think that if it had been a Democratic candidate whose daughter had gotten pregnant out of wedlock, every single vocal Palin supporter would have been out insisting that it proved the candidate was an unfit parent and therefore unfit for public office. I don't think that but they would have.

Fred Kaplan thinks Barack Obama knows what's wrong with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, there's a difference between knowing what's wrong and being able to fix it.

Walter Pincus, who knows a thing or two about newspapers, gives his views on why so many of them are becoming financially and nationally irrelevant.

What do Americans consider the Necessities of Life?

Remember what I said about there being two Arlen Specters? We saw them both yesterday. One thought Norm Coleman should be the Senator from Minnesota. The other is loyal to Democrats and wants Franken.

Some people think it's all one guy…one guy who thinks he can be the Republican that Democrats don't mind or the Democrat that Republicans don't mind. As John McCain learned, that doesn't work anymore. If the other party doesn't hate you, we don't like you. I wish it didn't work that way…but it does.

Harry Shearer makes a good point here. The Obama administration has done away with all sorts of torture and torture-like programs, and we have Dick Cheney running around saying that this has made America less safe. But the Bush administration had less formally discontinued all those programs…so were they wrong to stop waterboarding and all those Stupid Lynndie England Tricks? The answer seems to be no; that Cheney's just trying to whip up conservative support for torture just in case someone decides to prosecute him or those close to him.

Robert Reich on why Obama is taking on tax havens. What I don't get it is why so many folks who aren't able to exploit loopholes and get out of paying anything resembling a fair share are already up in arms about seeing them closed off. Seems to me the lower and middle class pay more in taxes whenever a rich person doesn't pay any.