Archive for April, 2006
Mary Had A Little Lamb, The CIA Had A Cow
(1) This whole Mary McCarthy firing is a little surreal, isn’t it? Dana Priest gets the Pulitzer Prize for the stories she wrote based on the information she received from McCarthy, and McCarthy gets fired for passing on the information. At one level, there’s no denying that the CIA is justified by its service rules, [...]
Time Shifting
If the Tien An Men Square massacre happened today: The lone man would still stand in the path of Chinese tanks; that kind of courage is timeless. Before the tanks could come to a halt, Yahoo and Google would have combined to identify the man and pass on his identity to Hu Jintao. Bush would [...]
Ethics
With Democrats calling for an end to the “Culture of Corruption” in this election year of 2006, the irony was brutal. How else could you describe the questions surrounding Alan Mollohan—the top Dem on the House’s ethics committee, no less—who recently vacated his post on the panel because of accusations of financial misconduct? As Nelson [...]
The Wars On Poverty And Corruption
Treasury Secretary John Snow, in a speech to the Development Committee of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund: The U.S. Treasury chief said global lenders must find ways to “unleash the power of the private sector” to help the poor while also fighting corruption in countries where they lend and increasing access to financial [...]
Forget Iran, Let’s Take On China Instead
Why is the basis of our economic relationship with China the apparently immutable assumption that we are, and always will be, China’s bitch? They have comprehensively had their way with us for longer than most of us care to remember. And all we do is keep on taking it. The reason why we have this [...]
Someone’s Missing the Point
Today that someone is new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten: A former White House official who had talked recently with Bolten said Wednesday’s moves resulted from Bolten’s view that he needed to address three serious problems facing Bush: deteriorating press coverage, souring relations with Congress, and increasing tensions between the White House and [...]
Midweek Miscellany
(1) Hu is he? Hu, Hu… Hu, Hu… The owner of the free world? We think we’re the head honchos of the free world, but China owns a large chunk of us. (And why did he come here, anyway? To inspect his holdings?) (2) Partial Lobotomy If Karl Rove is Bush’s brain, and he has [...]
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Scotty, we’ll miss you the most: White House press secretary Scott McClellan announced his resignation on Wednesday as part of a shake-up of President George W. Bush‘s senior aides. “I have given it my all, sir,” McClellan told Bush outside the White House before a group of reporters. He said he would stay on over [...]
Tolerance is the New Intolerance
It’s got to be rough being a conservative Christian. After all, there are attacks coming from all sides: Wars on Christmas. Wars on Easter. Unmarried people who don’t practice abstinence. Naughty words on television. Schools that dare to teach evolution. Gay people walking about in polite society without scarlet letters stitched over their sinful hearts. [...]
If Duke Were In Bushland
Here’s how the Duke lacrosse team rape allegation story has played out so far: At 1:22 am on March 14, the alleged victim reports the alleged rape to police. At 1:58 am on March 14, just a couple of hours after the alleged rape took place, Ryan McFadyen, 19, an alleged human being, sends a [...]