Category Archives: Current Events

Based on his studies of the Bush administration, Bob Woodward offers a list of ten things that future presidents should do. I'd add in an eleventh…something about doing a better job of keeping Bob Woodward snowed into not reporting the truth about what you're doing.

Dahlia Lithwick and Phillipe Sands on the admission by Susan J. Crawford, convening authority of the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, that the U.S. tortured Mohammed al-Qahtani. I would like to think that the authors of this piece are correct when they say that this will force Barack Obama to address the issue and do something about it. But I'm skeptical.

Harry Shearer asks a good question.

How poorly has the economy done under the regime of George W. Bush? About this poorly. If the United States of America was a nightclub, Barack Obama would probably consider burning it down for the insurance money.

In the interest of occasionally presenting viewpoints with which I don't agree — something few blogs do, let's note — here's an article by Fred Barnes making the case that the presidency of George W. Bush has been a rousing success. I don't think it's much of a case, and I think some of the "achievements" Barnes lists are deeds for which Bush and/or his staffers ought to go to prison, but there you are.

Frank Rich on the national apathy about some of the more sordid scandals of the Bush administration. A lot of us apparently don't care if billions of our tax dollars just wound up in someone's pocket.

Dick Cavett on the art of the insult. I always liked the famous line attributed to George S. Kaufman from back when he was a drama critic. A playwright who disliked Kaufman had a new play opening and was obligated to invite G.S.K. to Opening Night. He sent two tickets with a note that said, "You can bring a friend if you have one." Kaufman sent back the tix with a polite note that he was busy that evening but "I shall attend the second performance if there is one."

Fred Kaplan likes Barack Obama's Pentagon hires.

Joe Conason takes on folks who are claiming Al Franken "stole" his Senate seat in Minnesota and challenges them to put up or shut up. I've gotten quite a few copies of a chain e-mail that insists that the whole process was gamed by a solidly-Democratic election board. And of course, that's a flat-out lie.

Jeffrey Toobin writes a lot of interesting stuff about Barney Frank.

Fred Kaplan on Obama's reported selection of Leon Panetta to head up the C.I.A. My feeling is that whoever they pick, he should be referred to only as "The Chief" and he should have to conduct all confidential briefings under the Cone of Silence.

Earlier this year, Leon Panetta wrote an article about the ineffectiveness and immorality of torture as a means of interrogation. It's worth re-reading in light of Mr. Panetta being announced today as Barack Obama's pick to run the Central Intelligence Agency.

One of the last interviews (if not the last) conducted with Studs Terkel. Thanks, Jim Amash.

Michael Kinsley on what George W. Bush has accomplished in eight years.

Charlie Cook on what the Republican party might do to get itself back in the winning column. I think all the criticisms and suggestions are valid to some extent but I think an analysis of this kind always misses one key factor. Voters care greatly about parties and agendas but they also care a lot about people, personal charisma, whether someone seems reliable or unstable, etc. The wrong guy or gal with the right platform doesn't help his or her party. A lot of Americans looked at Obama and McCain and decided they trusted Obama more to be smart, honest and steady. Also, some people just thought that even if they liked where McCain would take the country, they weren't willing to gamble that he wouldn't die and stick us with a woman from Alaska who didn't seem to understand her job description.