WaxWorks
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Friday, December 06, 2002
Great column today by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post, discussing the end of the myth of the liberal media and how the conservative media is infultrating the mainstream media. Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler has been making this point quite convincingly for over 3 years now. He's worth a read on a daily basis.
O.K. -- let me get this straight. Bush's top three economic policy appointees resign -- Harvey Pitt, Paul O'Neill and Lawrence Lindsey -- all within a month after the midterm elections, as sure a sign as any that Bush's economic policy is a complete disaster. (I've told friends for months that this man would do a better job on the economy than our soon-to-be-departed Treasury Secretary.) Yet Bush is the most popular politician in the country and the Republicans control all three branches of government. 911 trumps It's the Economy Stupid, I guess. We'll see if that's the case in 2 years, if the economy doesn't improve and Bin Laden and Omar are still around, sticking out their tongues at us.
Bush's policy on the economy reminds me of the scene in Planes, Trains and Automobiles when John Candy and Steve Martin are stopped by a cop (played by Michael McKean of Spinal Tap), while driving their (literally) burned-out car. The cop notes that they don't have a single working gauge and Candy affirms, "No, not a one." The cop then asks rhetorically, "Do you think this car is suitable for highway travel?" Candy replies, earnestly, "I do. I really do, Officer."
Thursday, December 05, 2002
Be sure to check out this link fast (because I'm sure Amazon won't keep it up for long), but it's hysterical. Check out "Our Customers' Advice" about the book.
Wednesday, December 04, 2002
Here's a question: why is that no one (or almost no one) in the press referred to Judith Nathan as Rudy Giuliani's "mistress" or discussed his open adultery? Nathan was always referred to as his "good friend" or even just his "friend." Not "mistress" or "girlfriend." Yes, I know that they are now engaged, but was I the only one who found the coverage of this relationship interesting, compared to, say, Clinton. The myth of liberal media bias is no more.
Tuesday, December 03, 2002
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I know this piece is a little bit long, but it is essential reading to any Democrat who thinks that the press coverage of Gore in 2000 was a little bit off. Bob Somerby, who runs an excellent site called dailyhowler.com, breaks down how a completely accurate and innocent comment by Gore about the "information superhighway" (a term, by the way, that Gore himself coined) ultimately engulfed his whole campaign, and led to the press lazily following the script that Gore "lied" for the rest of the campaign.
This great parody of John McCain on Meet the Press on SNL has been brought to my attention. I found it "ha-ha" funny.
Excellent Krugman today, although he is really just following up on a great piece by E.J. Dionne commenting on the Wall Street Journal's editorial suggestion that low income taxpayers should be paying more taxes, because otherwise they won't have the same outrage at the government that the poor, overtaxed "wealthiest 1%" do. The Wall Street Journal even calls the low income taxpayers "lucky duckies." (No, I swear I'm not making this up.) That statement alone justifies why we need the Democratic party.
Here's the very interesting letter by John DiIulio to the Esquire writer describing the disturbingly policyless-goings-on at the White House. DiIulio's trying to distance himself from the article, presumably under great pressure from the White House. Good for the New York Times though -- they caught on to the fact that DiIulio's statement was clearly scripted by the White House -- note that he and Fleischer "earlier in the day" both use the phrase "groundless and baseless." Apparently, that was the chosen phrase of the day by Rove's Mayberry Machiavellis.
If only the Democrats had been as strong in describing the utter lack of a domestic policy by this Administration the elections might have turned out differently.
Monday, December 02, 2002
My take on the Texas case concerning sodomy is that if Romer v. Evans has any bite to it, then Bowers has to be overruled. Kennedy did not mention Bowers a single time in his Romer majority opinion, and Scalia took him to task for the ommission in his characteristically strident dissent. Scalia, however, has his sights on the CJ post when Rehnquist goes (and Kennedy surely does too, although his Casey and Romer opinions have probably sunk him), so I wonder if Scalia or Kennedy will pull their punches on this case.
On the affirmative action cases, I think this guarantees that this will be the huge issue when the next court resignation happens. It also could mean that Alberto Gonzalez, already considered to be the favorite to get the first opening and rumored to be more moderate than other Hispanics on the short list, could have his chances for a nomination improved if he supports affirmative action, because that would cut off opposition from the left on that point.
The Supreme Court term just got a lot more interesting today, as the Court granted cert on two huge cases -- first, in connection with the University of Michigan's affirmative action program at its undergraduate and law schools, it will consider whether diversity is a compelling state interest to justify an affirmative action program, as Powell indicated it was in his Bakke opinion. It also will decide whether Texas' ban on sodomy violates the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution, with the potential to overrule Bowers v. Hardwick and be a huge gay rights victory.
Remember how Bush, in the 2000 campaign, slammed the Clinton-Gore Administration as being too poll-driven, and more concerned with politics than what was best for the American people? Remember how Bush promised that things would be different in his administration? Well, it turns out Bush was right: things are different -- they are even more poll-driven and politically motivated. Meet the new boss, worse than the old boss.
John DiIulio, former head of Bush's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives is widely quoted today from an Esquire magazine article where Mr. DiIulio states that the Bush White House is the most political he has ever seen and that Karl Rove is "enormously powerful, maybe the single most powerful person in the modern, post-Hoover era ever to occupy a political-adviser post near the Oval Office."
I mean, we all already knew it, but it's never nice to be forced to come to terms with the fact that Rove is running the country first thing on a Monday morning.
