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Jon Stewart’s beatdown of Christopher Hitchens
Via Marginal Revolution, here a partial transcript (and video link) to John Stewart’s destruction of Christopher Hitchens during a debate about the Iraq war on the Daily Show last week. Stewart only challenges his guests infrequently (apparently for fear of being too preachy), but when he does, it’s borderline revolutionary. Before Hitchens, the best example
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Light posting this week
I was out of town over the weekend, classes start today, and I’m leaving for the American Political Science Association’s annual meeting on Wednesday, so blogging will be light this week. But I will be posting occasionally, so stay tuned…
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Tony Blankley, polling mastermind
Via Atrios, Media Matters has
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Eric Alterman on Slate
A while back, Eric Alterman had a nice precis on what’s wrong with Slate and “counter-intuitive” journalism: It’s not easy trying to be as smart as Mike Kinsley; in fact, for mere mortals like you and me, it’s impossible. I’ve always thought the biggest problem over at Slate is that nobody there got the memo
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Intelligent design: Truth in advertising
I haven’t read all of the recent coverage of “intelligent design” in the news, which I understand has been hit-and-miss due to reporters’ insistence on treating both sides of a controversy as equally valid, but here are two signs of progress. A week ago on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” host Susan Stamberg referred to “the teaching
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More smearing of dissent from the Bush administration
Via (ugh) the Progress Report and E&P, here’s presidential spokesman Trent Duffy suggesting that critics of the war in Iraq don’t want to win the war on terror: Q: Is the White House concerned about the protests that are planned in Salt Lake City today? MR. DUFFY: The President addressed that directly. He can understand
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A fun fact about 2008
Here’s a fun fact that my father-in-law on Monday thinks hasn’t gotten enough attention — assuming Dick Cheney doesn’t run for president, 2008 will be the first election since 1952 in which neither an incumbent or vice president is running on either side. 2004: George W. Bush (incumbent) 2000: Al Gore (VP) 1996: Bill Clinton
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How weak is Mitt Romney in MA?
The same poll that shows John Kerry losing to Hillary Clinton in a Massachusetts presidential primary also reveals that Governor Mitt Romney, a supposed 2008 contender for the GOP nomination, badly trails the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate: As Romney weighs whether to forgo a reelection bid to prepare a run for president in 2008, the
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Good for Bob Costas
If only TV hosts had the guts to do this more often… The longtime NBC sports and talk show host [Costas], who signed on this year to be an occasional substitute for Larry King on CNN, resisted a request last Thursday to be the host of a King program devoted to interviewing guests about the
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George Allen shows his gravitas
TNR’s Michael Crowley, who is guest-blogging for Josh Marshall, catches George Allen using a silly metaphor: When Republican senator/presidential hopeful George Allen was on ABC’s This Week today praising the Bush administration for its training of Iraqi security forces, George Stephanopoulos suggested that the Post’s story has some pretty troubling implications for that utterly essential