Norm Ornstein looks to dispel the notion that Obama’s agenda is stifled because the president lacks some certain, special, nameless something that forces enemies in Congress to do his bidding. For example, on the myth that arm-twisting is some kind of chief executive panacea: On the gun-control vote in the Senate, the press has focused …
Tag Archive: Politics
May 03 2013
Delicious Disunion
In Kansas, they’ve declared that they won’t abide by any federal law having to do with guns. In North Carolina, some folks tried to pass a law that would allow them to establish a state religion, and it enjoyed a great deal of popular support. Louisiana not only wants to teach creationism to its kids, …
Apr 30 2013
Bowser the Fascist, Mario the Warchief
I’ve just finished Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August, and I’m generally trying to get myself better acquainted with the societal and political conditions that surrounded the World Wars. But who needs real history? For a serious lesson in statecraft and warcraft, check out Domhnall O’Huigin’s explanation of the political context of the universe of …
Apr 24 2013
I’m on HuffPost Live, Talkin’ Nazis!
I think their usual lineup of guests must have all simultaneously perished, because HuffPost Live invited me to join a panel this evening, literally minutes before air time. I was happy to oblige, of course. (The host, Josh Zepps, has my boss on a lot.) We’re discussing he recent moves by Hungary to ban Nazi …
Apr 21 2013
Jon Huntsman, a Deeply Flawed Political Role Model
Jon Huntsman ran what turned out to be a pretty pathetic campaign for president in the 2012 cycle. Running to capture the nomination of a party that at several times was in the thrall of figures like Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum, he was already fighting an uphill battle to become acceptable to …
Apr 06 2013
Seduced by Trinkets of Power
David Kuo, 1968-2013: I have seen what happens when well-meaning Christians are seduced into thinking deliverance can come from the Oval Office, a Supreme Court chamber or the floor of the United States Congress. They are easily manipulated by politicians who use them for their votes, seduced by trinkets of power, and tempted to turn …
Mar 27 2013
Mecha-Obama and Micro-Payments
Technology guru-turned-Cassandra, Jaron Lanier, thinks he knows why Obama won reelection. In a recent interview with UK’s Spectator, he said: If you have the biggest computer and the biggest data, you can calculate how to target people with a political message, and have almost a guaranteed deterministic level of success. Politics then becomes about who …
Mar 20 2013
The Blood Will Not Come Off, Ctd.
There is a torrent of Iraq War soul-searches in the media right now, and they continue to stick in my craw for their evasiveness, especially after the brutally self-critical tone of Andrew Sullivan’s professed regrets for his support. I was looking forward to something similar from former Bush speechwriter — Mr. Axis of Evil himself …
Mar 20 2013
The Blood Will Not Come Off
This feels like an academic debate. But it isn’t. I have blood on my hands. However many times I try to wash them, the blood will not come off. Andrew Sullivan, on the explanations and mea culpas given by those like himself who supported the Iraq War. Warning: Image that accompanies the above link is …
Feb 27 2013
John Kerry, Still Tolerating It
Right wingers got all squirrelly in their pants the other day because Secretary of State John Kerry had the audacity to say, while visiting Germany, that in America we have “the right to be stupid.” because, UC, saying something like this obviously means that John Kerry thanks all Americans are stupid. Because he’s French, you …
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