Month: January 2006
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Oprah’s shaming of James Frey and Random House
One of the reasons we started Spinsanity, frankly, was to embarrass those in politics who would try to deceive the public. Even though we knew that we could never catch all the spin, we figured we could at least strengthen the norm against deception, which had atrophied in recent years. Oprah Winfrey’s belated public shaming
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Retracted Reid document hit Allen
Last week, Harry Reid’s office released a document that attacked a number of Republican senators. Although Reid later apologized, it’s noteworthy that the document included early criticism of Senator George Allen’s ugly racial history, which is likely to become an issue in Allen’s 2008 presidential run: [T]he document reached back into GOP Sen. George Allen’s
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The Georgetown protest against Alberto Gonzales
This picture, from a New York Times article on Alberto Gonzales’ speech at Georgetown, is a case study in effective protest: Amen.
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When will the left disavow Cindy Sheehan?
The left made Cindy Sheehan the face of anti-war protest in this country. And they must – must – disavow her after this comment in Venezuela: Anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, joined more than 10,000 anti-globalization activists in Caracas, where she hailed Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez. “I
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More idle talk about McCain going independent
US News & World Report’s Washington Whispers column carries more speculation about an independent presidential run by John McCain: Sen. John McCain’ s white-hot public approval ratings–59 percent in the new Diageo/Hotline poll–are fast giving rise to a new 2008 presidential primary scenario among Washington’s political brain trust. If, as conservatives believe, McCain’s liberal stands
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Belafonte and Aldrich: A parade of horribles
Many good speakers come to Duke, but we’re on a bad streak lately. First, we had Harry Belafonte spouting leftist nonsense on Martin Luther King Day: The controversial musician, actor and activist did not shy away from contentious issues during his speech. Belafonte spoke against President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq, particularly
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Ken Mehlman asks a silly rhetorical question
During a speech to the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting, RNC chair Ken Mehlman insults the intelligence of the American people, asking, “Do Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean really think that when the NSA is listening in on terrorists planning attacks on America, they need to hang up when those terrorists dial their sleeper cells
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The NRCC runs scared on Social Security privatization
I recently received one of those fundraising “surveys” from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which included a remarkable question that indicates just how badly the GOP lost the debate over Social Security privatization last year (JPEG image): Question 9: As uncertainty over the huge problems that will arrive as the Baby Boomers soon begin retiring
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Why overturning Roe will create chaos
I’ve always been sympathetic to the anti-Roe pro-choice position, which argues that the repeal of Roe would de-polarize the abortion debate and return the issue to the states, where it arguably belongs. As a matter of law, Roe seems to have been poorly decided (though I’m no expert), and politically the hypothesis that it unnecessarily
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A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Presidency
Via Brad DeLong, Matthew Baldwin of defective yeti has written a hilarious satire of George W. Bush’s presidency as a text-based computer game like Zork or Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Note: It’s much funnier if you’ve actually played that type of game. I used to love to play Hitchhiker’s Guide as a kid.)