Month: September 2007
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Mukasey-related cheap shots begin
The New York Times story on the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey as Attorney General included this unfair passage regarding conservatives’ reactions to his nomination: But Mr. Mukasey is not viewed as a political partisan, which has troubled conservatives, many of whom were hoping the president would select Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general,
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A great old USA Today headline
A New York Times article about the increased stature of USA Today features an exceptionally mundane headline from the old days: Several former reporters and editors remember a 1983 headline as emblematic: “Men, Women: We’re Still Different.” Indeed, it could have been a contender against the selections from Michael Kinsley’s 1986 boring headline contest at
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Buchanan likes Kucinich?!
Pat Buchanan’s favorite Democrat isn’t who you would expect: Favorite Democrat: I like Congressman Dennis Kucinich. He’s running for president. He’s a very feisty guy. He’s a purist. I don’t think he’s going anywhere, but I tend to like true believers. On reflection, though, it makes sense — they’re both anti-trade and anti-war extremists who
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Giuliani suggests limits on free speech
During an appearance on Sean Hannity’s radio show yesterday, Rudy Giuliani attacked Hillary Clinton and MoveOn.org for their criticism of General Petraeus and suggested that such criticism “should not be allowed” (MP3 audio). For most of the interview, Giuliani characterized Clinton’s mild statement to Petraeus that “the reports that you provide to us really require
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Asserting that McConnell “lied”
Annoyingly, Think Progress has a post up headlined “DNI McConnell: I Lied To The Senate” that states “McConnell unapologetically acknowledged he lied to the Senate.” (Matthew Yglesias also accuses McConnell of “lying to Congress.”) Their proof? A statement (PDF) in which McConnell contradicted his previous testimony and clarifies that “information contributing to the recent [terror
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The “Al Qaeda” shorthand problem
The Atlantic’s James Fallows objects to CNN’s use of “Al Qaeda” to refer to the insurgents there. I also heard NPR and the BBC describe an Al Qaeda in Iraq attack as the work of “Al Qaeda” today on the radio. It’s a seriously misleading phrase to use. The problem is that the administration spin
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The Erwin Chemerinsky sacking
I’m sad to report that Erwin Chemerinsky, a law professor here at Duke, lost the deanship at the new UC-Irvine law school due to political pressure: In a showdown over academic freedom, a prominent legal scholar said Wednesday that the University of California, Irvine’s chancellor had succumbed to conservative political pressure in rescinding his contract
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The blind spots of economists
A profile of the Berkeley economist Raj Chetty in The American includes this unfortunate passage, which has to be amusing to non-economists (via Tyler Cowen): In a study entitled “Consumption Commitments and Risk Preferences,” published this year in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Chetty and Berkeley colleague Adam Szeidl contest the popular belief among economists
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The Petraeus incentive problem
Regardless of how you feel about the war, can’t we all agree that General Petraeus has a terrible incentive problem? The Army culture dictates against saying you can’t accomplish your mission, and no general wants to be remembered as the person who lost the war. As a result, his incentive is to tout our “progress”
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Norquist’s tax cuts=civil rights claim
In a TNR Online debate with Jon Chait over Chait’s The Big Con, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist trots out the bizarre argument that a progressive tax system is equivalent to discrimination based on race and sexual orientation: In the 1950s it was considered by too many acceptable for the state to discriminate against gays and