Category Archives: Current Events

Bob Crandall used to be the CEO of American Airlines. He was one of the biggest supporters of the idea that Airline Deregulation would be good for the industry, good for the consumer and good for the country. He recently gave this speech in which he says, essentially, "Well, that didn't work the way we planned. We need to get some of that regulation back."

Fred Kaplan on what a mess Afghanistan has become. Apparently, we don't care about the place as much as we once thought we did.

Here's another piece about the Supreme Court decision that restored habeas corpus rights to prisoners being detained indefinitely at Guantanamo. It's by George F. Will and in it, he takes the position that I think Conservatives should take on this issue…and would have, if it had been a Clinton administration doing all this reckless imprisonment.

Should Barack Obama pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate? I have the feeling he won't. If that were even a solid possibility, I would think we'd currently be seeing photo-ops of the twosome, trying to expunge the image of them as fierce rivals.

But would it be a good idea? I dunno. Here's an article by Ed Kilgore who says yes and another by Thomas F. Schaller who says no. Neither is wholly convincing but each makes some good points. I think if I had a say — and you just know how often they consult comedy writers in this kind of decision — I'd suggest the "unity" factor is not going be as necessary as it might now seem and Obama can pick someone who better stands for change and a reversal of policy for Iraq.

If you're interested in the Guantanamo case and the rights of the people imprisoned down there, make sure you read this article which says, basically, that an awful lot of those folks are innocent…and what's more, our government knows it.

Peter J. Boyer has a profile of Keith Olbermann which asks the question, "Is he changing TV news?" I don't think Olbermann is but his ratings, which are still on the rise, probably are.

Jeffrey Toobin on a master of political dirty tricks.

Dahlia Lithwick on the meaning of yesterday's Supreme Court decision regarding the rights of those imprisoned at Gitmo. The whole argument against this decision reminds me of a similar argument that fails to persuade me with regard to the Death Penalty. It's that mindset of "If they were arrested, they must be guilty…and we have to make sure they don't have the opportunity to prove otherwise." I don't have a lot of faith that trials always convict the guilty and let the innocent go free…but I have even less faith that those who do the arresting and detaining can tell the difference.

Glenn Greenwald explains why today's Supreme Court Decision, which declared Section 7 of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 unconstitutional, is a triumph of justice and the American way. He also explains why it's frightening that it only passed 5-4…and wouldn't have if George W. Bush had had the chance to replace John Paul Stevens or Ruth Bader Ginsburg with another Justice in the Scalia/Roberts mold. Which is just what John McCain says he'd do.

This morning on the Today Show, John McCain said the words "that's not too important" in response to a question about when we might be bringing troops home from Iraq. Click here to see a video of the question and answer or just turn on CNN, MSNBC, Fox or any one of those channels where it seems to be running on endless loop.

It was a clumsy thing to say, and I'm sure he regrets uttering those words…but there are more innocent interpretations than the ones being offered today by his political opponents. I didn't like it when Republicans were studying every utterance of Al Gore or John Kerry, trying to find some sound bite which could be spun as a lie…or an unintended revelation of the candidate's true sentiment. I don't like it when Democrats do it to McCain.

I've listened to a lot of McCain speeches. I think he's wrong about Iraq but I don't think he believes the matter of when our soldiers can come home is "not too important." Just as no fair-minded person thought Al Gore really was claiming to have invented the Internet.

Once upon a time, back when Barry Goldwater was running for the White House, he made a speech in which he accidentally left the word "not" out of a sentence and said something about how we should allow the Soviet Union to rule America. Everyone, including those campaigning against him, knew that he didn't really mean that, so they just reported the story as if the "not" had been in its proper place. Today, that Goldwater clip would be the number one hit on YouTube within an hour and you'd have thirty e-mails from politicos telling you that Barry's true, dangerous sentiments had accidentally leaked out.

It's time to go read another Fred Kaplan column. This one's about the recent Senate Intelligence Committee report on how information was ignored, misrepresented or simply wrong in the run up to the Iraq War. Kaplan asks what can be done to prevent this from happening again and I have a suggestion he omits: Elect better leaders.

Michael Kinsley on excessive verbosity in newspapers. And he oughta know.

Frank Rich discusses the historic moment of Barack Obama's nomination…and how his competitors didn't get what it was all about.

On June 7, 2005, I posted the following item on this weblog…

George W. Bush's approval rating is now a full twenty points lower than Bill Clinton's was on the day he was impeached.

At the time, many e-mailers found that stunning and unlikely and wrote to ask how I figured that because it couldn't possibly be so. I replied to all with citations that Bush's approval rating was then at 48%. Clinton's, on the day he was impeached, varied between 68% and 73%.

On March 24, 2006, I noted that the gap was now thirty points. Bush was at 38%.

On April 27, 2007, I noted that the gap was at forty points. Bush was at 28%.

I thought he couldn't go much lower than that; that we wouldn't see forty-five. There are people in this world — Democrats and Republicans — who wouldn't change their minds about the guy they backed if he confessed to masterminding 9/11. You also have a lot of people, I suspect, who think Bush has been a terrible prez but aren't going to say that to a pollster. They still believe in an agenda they think or thought he represented — banning abortions, slashing taxes, being "tough" with our enemies, etc. — and they're afraid that to not support Bush now is to give a leg up to those with the opposing wishlist.

Still, Bush is at 25% in the latest CBS poll (with 67% disapproval) and today, we have the release of a couple of Senate reports that prompt the headline, "Senate committee: Bush knew Iraq claims weren't true." True, it's largely the Democrats on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee saying that with the G.O.P. members dissenting…but that oughta be good for another point off Bush's score. And then at some point, McCain's going to have to ratchet up his criticisms of Bush to try and convince voters he's not running for George's third term…

So I'm thinking we will get to 45 points below Clinton's impeachment numbers in at least a couple of the major polls. Heck, we might even see fifty.

Fred Kaplan on what Barack Obama said about meeting with countries we consider hostile or dangerous to us.