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The presidential/parliamentary choice
A reader poses a good question to National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru: An email opens up a new topic: “The United States has been the world’s greatest inspiration to freedom-lovers and young democracy movements for over 200 years. So why is it that worldwide — including now in Iraq — new democracies overwhelmingly choose the parliamentary
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Edmund Andrews on Bush Social Security trickery
Edmund Andrews documents some classic White House goalpost-shifting and tricks with numbers in the NYT: While Mr. Bush has alluded only vaguely to the idea [of “progressive indexing”], White House officials have promoted it in considerable detail. According to one White House chart, people at every income level appear to end up winners. Middle-income workers,
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The parallel Star Wars/Simpsons debates
Has anyone noticed that the debate among fans of the old and new Star Wars trilogies mirrors the debate over the old and new Simpsons almost perfectly? Here’s USA Today on Star Wars – check out the parallels: We’re not talking Jedi knights vs. Sith lords, Obi-Wan vs. Anakin or even good vs. evil. When
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My profession stands up
Via Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber, I see that the American Political Science Association (of which I am a member) has taken a strong stand (PDF) against the boycott of two Israeli universities by a British higher education union: The American Political Science Association, through action by its Council and its Committee on Professional Ethics,
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When “transcription errors” attack
Via Editor and Publisher and Gawker, one of the best corrections ever: Because of a transcription error, an article last Sunday in Summer Movies, Part 2 of this section, about the director Don Roos rendered a word incorrectly in his comment about the use of onscreen titles in his film “Happy Endings.” He said, “I
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The nuclear option clown show: Tom McMahon
Tom McMahon, DNC executive director, sent out yet another email full of nuclear option agitprop today: Reports say that this week the fringe Republican leadership plans to make its final move in the battle over judicial nominees — they will change the rules to crush dissent in the Senate and throw out the principle of
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Never trust the Center for American Progress
The intellectual hooligans at the Center for American Progress are up to old tricks. Here’s how they present President Bush’s Social Security plan in today’s edition of their Progress Report newsletter: LEG ONE – SOCIAL SECURITY: The first leg of retirement security is Social Security. President Bush’s new plan to privatize Social Security will mean
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Loose cannon watch: Howard Dean
Here’s the DNC chairman displaying some of his trademark subtlety and discretion: Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Party, said yesterday that the US House majority leader, Tom DeLay, ”ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence,” referring to allegations of unethical conduct against the Republican leader. Dean’s remark,
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George Allen’s ugly history on racial issues
I’ve done some additional digging, and it turns out that George Allen, the Virginia senator who is being touted as the GOP presidential frontrunner for 2008, has more ugly racial history than I first thought. First, there’s the noose he hung from a tree in his law office, which suggests an approving attitude toward lynchings.
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Conflict of interest watch: Ron Brownstein
The personal lives of journalists are none of my business — except when they involve the public figures whom the journalists cover. A case in point is NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, who frequently comments on matters involving the Federal Reserve without disclosing that her husband is Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. It’s inappropriate. So I was dismayed