On the Death of Smurfs

The UN agency UNICEF has made a public service commerical in which Smurf village is carpet-bombed. See for yourself. From the article: The short film pulls no punches. It opens with the Smurfs dancing, hand-in-hand, around a campfire and singing the Smurf song. Bluebirds flutter past and rabbits gambol around their familiar village of mushroom-Continue reading “On the Death of Smurfs”

On Harriet Miers and Connections

On August 6th, 2001 President Bush received a Presidential Daily Briefing entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” This was the PDB that current Secretary of State Condi Rice was grilled about by the 9-11 Commission. Yesterday President Bush nominated Harriet Miers, his former staff secretary and current White House Counsel, to be theContinue reading “On Harriet Miers and Connections”

On Unintended Consequences

Over on TPMCafe Larry Johnson writes an article entitled Endangering America which looks at the unintended consequences of Bush’s Middle-East policies. His three main points are these: Instead of reducing terrorism, Islamic terrorism is spreading dramatically. Instead of winning new supporters for democracy, the war in Iraq is spurring the recruitment and training radical jihadists.Continue reading “On Unintended Consequences”

More Political Typology

Shamelessly snurched from my friend Todd: You are a Social Liberal (76% permissive) and an… Economic Liberal (28% permissive) You are best described as a: Strong Democrat You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (99, -82) modscore: (17, 46) raw: (2143) Link: The Politics Test onContinue reading “More Political Typology”

On the Real President Bush

I had to share this: Bush is in fact fidgety, cold and snappish in private. He yells at those who dare give him bad news and is therefore not surprisingly surrounded by an echo chamber of terrified sycophants. He is slow to comprehend concepts that don’t emerge from his gut. He is uncomprehending of theContinue reading “On the Real President Bush”

On Evaluating President Bush

It’s hard to look at what’s happening in Louisiana and not think that we’ve seen a massive failure of the federal, state, and local governments in responding to the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina. It’s hard to understand how someone like the Secretary of Homeland Security can be so blithely clueless about people stranded inContinue reading “On Evaluating President Bush”

On The American Spectator

A few years ago, completely by accident, I subscribed to The American Spectator. By accident I mean confusion, and I was confused–I thought I was re-upping my subscription to The American Prospect. Spectator is a right-wing magazine, Prospect falls to the left. So, for a year The American Spectator would come through the mailbox, I’dContinue reading “On The American Spectator”