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During the First World War, France fought on against the German invaders for four long years, despite having more of its soldiers killed than all the American soldiers killed in all the wars in the history of the United States, put together.
But during the Second World War, France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting […]
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Filed under: politics
Writing on libertarians, my Scene colleague Peter Suderman says:
The signal trait of most (semi-sane) libertarians (myself among them) I’ve met has been contrarianism. It’s a reflexive inability to let prevailing wisdom pass without critical comment. This is why libertarians are generally ineffectual as a political force: consensus is almost impossible when everyone refuses to engage […]
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Filed under: politics
Commenting on Patrick Ford’s post, Rod says:
It will be a good day when it becomes possible to criticize the excesses of American consumerism without being pilloried from the Right for being some kind of America-hating lib symp.
A good day, and also a distant one. Not to dwell too much on old controversies, but I am […]
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Filed under: politics, culture
Schieffer: You heard what Sen. Lieberman said. He said that Barack Obama is simply more ready to be President than Barack Obama.
Clark: Well, I think Joe has it exactly backwards.
In the midst of all of the to-do about Wesley Clark’s comments, the most entertaining part of the exchange has been lost. I have to say that I […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
There is something amusing about the fact that Obama gave his address on patriotism the same day that this argument came out, since whatever truth there is about Obama’s alleged foreign policy “particularism” he reminded everyone today that he is not interested in any other kind of particularism:
That is why, for me, patriotism is always more than […]
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Filed under: politics
The death penalty seems to worry Reihan.
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Filed under: miscellaneous
I don’t think Obama is really “moving to the center” on FISA, NAFTA, guns, or even taxes. He is, to the contrary, being the authentic Obama: cautious, fairly risk-averse, willing to change his mind as facts (and sometimes political currents) warrant. The broad expanse of his policies remain center-left — or left-center. ~Marc Ambinder
Ambinder is […]
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Filed under: politics
In response to such mockery, it is only right to offer this performance by Prabhu Deva and the inestimable Kajol from the Tamil film Minsaara Kanavu. Music is by the great composer A.R. Rahman.
P.S. Another version of the song from the same movie.
2 Comments »
Filed under: film, music, Bollywood
Apparently Limbaugh took aim at Ross and Reihan’s book yesterday, mostly complaining about Brooks’ references to their acknowledgement of conservative aspects of the New Deal. While constitutionally the New Deal was nothing but usurpation and what Garet Garrett called “revolution within the form,” institutionally it built the foundations of the postwar managerial state that conservatives find objectionable […]
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Filed under: politics
Toby Harnden is a smart politcal correspondent for the Telegraph, but like a lot of observers this week he has a mistaken interpretation of Obama’s response to the death penalty ruling that came down on Thursday:
Obama’s a Mid-western senator rather than a Southern governor so he won’t have the opportunity Clinton had to fly back […]
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Filed under: politics
Kimberly Aldinger, 45, of Seven Valleys, a dialysis technician who voted for Hillary Clinton in the primary, is open to Obama but “until I see what he wants to change and how he’s going to change it, I am totally undecided.”
Sheryl Randol, 51, a single mother of three who works for a pharmaceutical company, wants […]
8 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Responding to Michael Kazin and Julian Zelizer, James writes:
Well, they did have a clear strategy for ’solving’ the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But when Clinton offered it to Arafat, Arafat rejected it.
Up to a point, yes, but a strategy that is “clear” may also be clearly unacceptable to the other side for reasons that go beyond stubborn […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
There has been a fair amount of blog commentary already on Brooks’ column, some of which has focused on discussing the list of younger conservative bloggers and what it represents for the future of conservatism and/or the GOP.
Isaac Chotiner notes the lack of agreement among us, which is true, but that may at least be a welcome sign […]
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Filed under: politics, miscellaneous
Remember Clinton’s debate line about Obama’s ties to “slumlord” Tony Rezko? Since Rezko was mostly known for the corruption charges against him at the time, this line of attack didn’t really register with a lot of people and the use of the word slumlord was supposed to be seen as another example of some nefarious speaking in “code” about race. […]
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Filed under: politics
After all of the grief I have given him over the years, I am impressed and a bit humbled that David Brooks chose to mention me along with a Who’s Who of bloggers on the right. Thanks for this goes in no small part to the release of Ross and Reihan’s new book, Grand New Party, which […]
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Filed under: politics
As authorities have investigated a polygamist sect in Texas, Mormon church leaders in Salt Lake City have largely stayed on the sidelines, weighing a response.
Church officials knew the sect’s similar name and practice of polygamy — part of Mormon church life until it was banned more than a century ago — would cause people to […]
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Filed under: religion
Reihan:
The history of partitions in divided societies is long and ugly. That said, we don’t exactly think of Greece or Turkey, or even India or Pakistan, as failed states. We consider them troubled states that are fragile in many respects.
But if you were a British citizen c. 1922-23 seeing the utter devastation and forcible expulsion […]
3 Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
James Gibney eviscerates the much-touted deal that Charlie Crist and the State of Florida struck with U.S. Sugar over land adjacent to the Everglades. This jumped out at me today, since the public-private collusion that the deal represents is exactly the sort of thing that “reform” conservatives are supposed to deplore, yet it was being happily […]
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Filed under: politics
After weeks of criticism from Republicans about the leisurely pace at which they seemed to be preparing for the general election, McCain’s campaign has apparently settled on a highly personal campaign theme that aims to differentiate McCain and Obama on both character and issues. ~The Politico
This is very much in line with what I have been […]
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Filed under: politics
Ambinder:
Now — an Obama campaign spokesperson did not mention one area in Obama HAS gone outside of his comfort zone, and that’s with his support for the FISA compromise. Liberals are pissed off; Democrats in Congress are angry, and Obama went ahead and did what he thouht was right. So FISA’s a good talking point […]
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Filed under: politics
Bob Barr talks with Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake on bloggingheads about FISA, civil liberties and the presidential race.
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Filed under: politics
If this McCain spin is even close to being right and the L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll had something like 22% Republican party ID, there is something seriously wrong with it and it almost certainly underrepresents McCain’s strength. Republican party ID has declined, but there is no reason to think it has dropped by 14 points since 2006. That would help […]
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Filed under: politics
Contra Philip Klein, I don’t need a “Bat Signal” to find the latest attacks on critics of Israel or U.S. Israel policy–I just need to read his blog entries, which are disproportionately filled with such criticism. If I didn’t read AmSpec’s blog regularly, I might never have seen Joe Klein’s post, and were it not […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
The argument over who was for the “surge” first misses several important points. It’s true that there were doubts about the efficacy of deploying additional forces into Baghdad, since it seemed to be no different from previous increases in the number of soldiers there, but the more significant objections were to the proposal that the “surge” […]
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Filed under: politics, foreign policy
21% of Atheists believe in god. What this means is that Atheism has become a cultural designation, rather than a theological statement. Some are likely declaring themselves atheists as a statement of hostility to organized religion, rather than to God. ~Steven Waldman, on new Pew survey numbers
What it means is that one out of every five […]
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Filed under: religion