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The Expanding Blogosphere By / American Journalism Review — Permalink When political bloggers bay in the blogosphere, do political reporters hear them? The answer, I quickly learned, depends on four factors: how you define "political blog"; which political bloggers you mean; which political reporters you mean; and—not to go all Bill Clinton on you—what the meaning of "hear" is. | |
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Jan Haugland: Blogosphere feedback — AJR's Rachel Smolkin has a very interesting article on the relationship between blogs and... Will Baude: This article, which I just found via Jacob Levy, is better than the Times piece, though it still doesn't really answer any of those questions. Daniel Drezner: This American Journalism Review article by Rachel Smolkin is particularly interesting. |
Dan Gillmor: Political Blogs and the Election Landscape — The American Journalism Review has a long, nuanced article this month... Kevin Drum: Rachel Smolkin of the American Journalism Review weighs in with the latest addition to the genre today, naturally focusing on the intersection of blogs with mainstream journalism. Jacob T. Levy: Political blogging: Rachel Smolkin of the American Journalism Review— a very sharp writer and an old friend from... |
| Also: Glenn Reynolds | |
From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity WaPo — Permalink It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine. Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all" and said the senator... | |
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Taegan Goddard: Bush's Negative Attack Is Unprecedented — In a must read Washington Post piece, political strategists say the Bush... Deacon: Extra, extra — Milbank thinks Bush's campaign is dishonest — The Washington Post features a page 1 story by its... Oliver Willis: From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity The charges were all tough, serious — and wrong, or at least highly misleading. |
Noam Scheiber: (As one Democratic strategist recently reminded me, James Carville complained about this tendency during the 1992... Digby: It's Nightime In America — From Bush, Unprecedented Negativity "Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious... Harley: Not The Kind Of History Thay Had In Mind. Or Is It? The Bush team is making history. Again. Unprecedented negativity. |
| Also: Jon Henke, Pejman Yousefzadeh, Jesse Taylor, Tom Schaller, Josh Marshall, The Poor Man, Kevin Drum | |
Obama gets early boost from voters Chicago Tribune — Permalink Though the U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois has months to go, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll finds Democratic nominee Barack Obama holding a lopsided lead over Republican Jack Ryan, who also must overcome a serious perception problem with voters. | |
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Christopher Kanis: ILLINOIS SENATE RACE — I know it's early, but as of know, Obama leads Ryan by 22. I'm surprised it's that lopsided this far out. Jerome Armstrong: Obama the #1 takeaway for the Dems in the US Senate — A new Tribune/WGN-TV poll finds Democratic nominee Barack Obama... |
Taegan Goddard: In Illinois, Obama Takes Command — "Though the U.S. Senate campaign in Illinois has months to go, a new Tribune/WGN-TV... |
The Source of the Trouble By / New York Magazine — Permalink For critics of the Iraq war, the downfall of Ahmad Chalabi occasioned a hearty, unapologetic outpouring of Schadenfreude—a loud cheer for a well-deserved knee to the administration's gut. In fact, it was possible to detect a bit of this spirit on the front page of the New York Times. | |
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Angry Bear: For more on Miller, see Franklin Foer's New Yorker story, "The Source of the Trouble. Atrios: Our Dear Judy — It's New York Magazine's turn. Is there a bigger tool than Bill Keller? |
Kevin Drum: THE MILLER CHRONICLES...Since Judith Miller and her prewar WMD "reporting" are Topic A at the moment, I suppose I'm... |
Focus Swings to Vietnam, With a Roar WaPo — Permalink A younger generation of war veterans swept into town yesterday, shifting the tone of the city's Memorial Day celebrations from the long-ago heroism of World War II to the still-raw wounds of Vietnam. | |
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Glenn Reynolds: READER JED KANE sends this update from Washington, along with a couple of photos: [snipped quote] Kane is certainly right... |
James Joyner: Rolling Thunder Endorses Bush — WaPo — Focus Swings to Vietnam, With a Roar "A younger generation of war veterans... |
Progress in Iraq By / NYT — Permalink WASHINGTON — Have you read the encouraging headlines from Iraq? "Monthly U.S. Combat Deaths Down by Half in May" is one. "Radical Shiite Cleric's Militia Decimated in Holy Cities" is another, and finally: "Iraqi Leaders, Defying U.S. and U.N. Dictates, Choose Prime Minister." | |
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Glenn Reynolds: WILLIAM SAFIRE'S Memorial Day column is worth reading. Captain Ed: Addendum: William Safire seems to get more news than Wes Clark. Perhaps the general should read more than Mother Jones for information. |
Clayton Cramer: The News That You Probably Aren't Seeing On TV — From William Safire's column: [snipped quote] And that tells the story. Betsy Newmark: William Safire looks at the big picture in Iraq. "Have you read the encouraging headlines from Iraq? |
Narrow loss will do, says Diedrich in S.D. By / The Hill — Permalink SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Republican congressional hopeful Larry Diedrich is effectively conceding defeat in today's South Dakota special House election before the polling booths even open. | |
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Kos: Diedrich concedes defeat — Apparently testing some newfangled form of GOTV, Larry Diedrich conceded defeat hours before the polls even open. |
Taegan Goddard: Diedrich Hopes For Narrow Loss — Larry Diedrich (R) "is effectively conceding defeat" in Tuesday's South Dakota special... |
Taking the High Road, the Low Road and Maybe a Boulder or Two By / NYT — Permalink When George W. Bush fell off his mountain bike and banged up his face the week before last, the world took modest note of the president's new hobby. What it did not know was that over the past three months the 57-year-old chief executive, sidelined from... | |
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Bill Hobbs: Bike-Rider-In-Chief — Today's New York Times takes a look at the bike-riding habits of President Bush and John Kerry. Tom Maguire: Naughty Elisabeth — Elisabeth Bumiller of the NYTimes delivers A Tale of Two Bikers, covering the bicycling thrills and spills of John Kerry and George Bush. |
Susan Q. Stranahan: Unfortunately, all she found there was her arm. Hence, her treatise on the bicycling habits of George W. Bush and John... Ezra Klein: Making Miller Look Good — This is the stupidest damn article I have ever read. What's happening to the Times? |
Political Briefs Houston Chronicle — Permalink WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry enjoyed a quiet day off the campaign trail on the Sunday before Memorial Day, riding a bicycle through the city's Georgetown neighborhood that he calls home. | |
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Captain Ed: Libertarian Nonsense No Threat To Two-Party System ... Again — Jon at QandO points out that the Libertarian Party has... |
Jon Henke: Losertarians — Well, the Libertarian Party has finished it regularly scheduled excercise in futility, and they've only... |
Audrey Hepburn 'most beautiful woman of all time' PA — Permalink Pefection personified ... experts have voted Audrey Hepburn the most naturally beautiful woman of all time. Film legend Audrey Hepburn was yesterday named the most naturally beautiful woman of all time by a panel of experts. | |
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Betsy Newmark: Check out this list of the 100 most beautiful women. I am quite content with Audrey Hepburn as the most beautiful woman in history. |
Tim Blair: BEAUTY THROUGH DEPRIVATION — An Evian-sponsored panel has named history's most naturally beautiful women. |
Tracking Why We Went to War By / WaPo — Permalink Heard any good rationales for the war lately? If not, maybe you ought to talk to Devon Largio, a new graduate of the University of Illinois, who says her research turned up 23 different rationales offered by the Bush administration in the year following the Sept. 11 attacks. | |
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James Joyner: 23 Reasons for the War — William Raspberry reports that Devon Largio, a new graduate of the University of Illinois who... |
Cori Dauber: MORPHING — The study by a U of I college student finding 23 rationales for war with Iraq used by the administration —... |
And for His Next Feat, a Billionaire Sets Sights on Bush By / NYT — Permalink Under the soaring dome of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan, the financier George Soros delivered a blistering attack on President Bush that was interrupted by applause from the graduating students at Columbia University's international affairs school. | |
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Tom Maguire: The paper of record has it all, and prints it on Memorial Day, which may be the slowest news day of the season. |
Harley: And now? Read all about it here. |
Why Hawks Should Be Angry By / WaPo — Permalink Zell Miller, the plain-spoken quasi-Democrat from Georgia, took to the Senate floor earlier this month to bemoan all the fuss about the prison abuse scandal. "Here we go again, rushing to give aid and comfort to the enemy," he complained. | |
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The Poor Man: And Fred Hiatt can't stand it anymore either. "Bush could have responded differently. He could have embraced the heroes such as Spec. |
Atrios: Who Woke the Post? From Hiatt: "Bush could have responded differently. He could have embraced the heroes such as Spec. |
Cheney office denies role in Halliburton deal CNN — Permalink WASHINGTON (CNN) — Vice President Dick Cheney's office denied Sunday that he was involved in a coordinated effort to secure a multibillion dollar Iraq oil deal for Halliburton, his former employer. | |
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Nathan Newman: Time Magazine found this memo showing that the VP coordinated Halliburton getting the multi-billion dollar contract for... |
Matt Davis: So perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that when he said he played no role in the no-bid contracts for Halliburton in Iraq, he was lying his ass off. |
Black Writers Seize Glamorous Ground Around 'Chick-Lit' By / NYT — Permalink It prompted viewers across the country to plunk down hundreds for Manolo Blahniks, convinced them that gold nameplates and giant silk flowers were must-have accessories and proved, time and time again, that nirvana could be found in an eight-ounce cosmo. | |
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Oliver Willis: Another Win for Equality — I think it's a good thing that black women can write books that are as much brain-candy as an author of any other race. |
Cori Dauber: Leaving the feature writers to run wild on the front page. Not just once, but twice. |
Democrats Eye Janklow's House Seat WaPo — Permalink Democrats hope tomorrow's special election in South Dakota will switch the state's only House seat to Democratic hands. The seat became vacant in January when William J. Janklow, the former Republican governor, resigned after he was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and had to go to prison. | |
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Taegan Goddard: The Washington Post notes that "regardless of the outcome," Herseth and Diedrich "are expected to face each other again in November's election for a full term." |
John J. Miller: So why hasn't he gone to South Dakota to help Larry Diedrich, the Republican candidate in tomorrow's special election for the state's single seat in the House of Representatives? |
Key to Success By / TNR — Permalink In March 2003, Americans thrilled to televised scenes of U.S. forces moving into Iraq. Well-spoken soldiers, modern equipment, and embedded reporters suggested a sense of purpose, competence, and courage that resonated across the country. | |
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Captain Ed: However, in his essay in The New Republic, Clark endorses a series of proposals more rooted in fantasy than reality and... David Adesnik: A cover story in the Washington Monthly. A share of the cover from TNR's special issue on Iraq. What is it that Wes Clark wants to say? |
Bo Cowgill: WHEN I READ Wes Clark's Washington Monthly and New Republic cover stories, I was expecting to be impressed. |
U.S. is lost in Afghanistan By / Chicago Sun Times — Permalink The handful of valiant American warriors fighting the ''other'' war in Afghanistan is not a happy band of brothers. They are undermanned and feel neglected, lack confidence in their generals and are disgusted by Afghan political leadership. | |
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Atrios: Lost in Afghanistan — It didn't take a genius to figure out that this administration didn't have any intention of genuinely following through in Afghanistan. |
Tom Schaller: And as Bob Novak also points out in his column today, Bush dare not mention Afghanistan either, where his support among... |
Terror Suspects Beating Charges Filed in Europe By / WaPo — Permalink BERLIN — The defendant, a Tunisian man with a bushy beard, sits inside a bulletproof glass box in the courtroom. Since his arrest more than a year ago, German authorities have declared the suspect, Ihsan Garnaoui, to be a terrorist and a threat to national security, a man who plotted attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets here. | |
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Jan Haugland: Terrorist suspects beat prosecution in Europe — The legal battle against terrorism is failing in Europe. |
Cori Dauber: The strategy hasn't worked out well. And it comes with a price. |
Common Sense and Computer Analysis By / WaPo — Permalink Irrational paranoia about computer technology threatens to shut down an entire front in the war on terror. A prestigious advisory panel has just recommended that the Defense Department get permission from a federal court any time it wants to use computer analysis on its own intelligence files. | |
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Cori Dauber: It's harder to accept the fact that we need to act now to arm the intelligence community with the tools it needs to see the dots it's supposed to be connecting. |
Mary InLosGatos: Nevertheless, there are some on the right (our budding Gestapo) that call this concern an "irrational... |
Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan By / Telegraph — Permalink "In the evening, the Janjaweed attacked. The area was full of crying from every direction, and shooting," says Ilham Isaak Abakker Abdullah. Aged 13, and light-voiced, she wears a pink dress and scarf and hasn't shown her face in weeks. | |
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Clayton Cramer: Too Depressing To Read—But You Need To Know — It's about the widespread use of rape camps by Arabs as part of their campaign of ethnic cleansing. Michael DeBow: "Arab militia use 'rape camps' for ethnic cleansing of Sudan" From the Telegraph: "After 50 years of conflict that... |
Glenn Reynolds: MORE NEWS FROM THE SUDAN: [snipped quote] And yet Sudan is on the U.N. Human Rights Commission, and nobody seems to care much about what's happening in Darfur. Andrew Stuttaford: SUDAN — I wonder how this story is being covered in the Arab press, so conscious now of human rights in the wake of Abu Ghraib. |
A Saddam Souvenir By / Time — Permalink When Saddam Hussein was rousted from his spider hole in Dawr, a town near Tikrit, by U.S. soldiers last December, Iraq's fallen dictator was clutching a pistol. He is now in detention at an undisclosed location, being questioned by American authorities and awaiting charges for war atrocities and crimes against humanity. | |
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Jon Henke: Quick Hits — A few scattered thoughts that don't require a full post..... *** From the Time story about Saddam's pistol - now in the White House: Non-Sequitur Alert! Mathew Gross: Memorial Day — He gets a pistol; we get 810 dead. And increasingly, they're from the Reserves and National Guard. David Allan Pell: The Gunfighter — One presumes that special visitors who are connected enough can hear the whistling theme song to Clint... |
Jan Haugland: Now the gun, mounted and unloaded, is in the posession of President George Bush, who reportedly is very proud of it. KJL: SADDAM'S PISTOL IS AT 1600 PENN. AVE. |
Clashes in Najaf and Kufa Put the Cease-Fire in Peril By / NYT — Permalink BAGHDAD, Iraq, Monday, May 31 — A cease-fire between American forces and insurgents loyal to a rebel cleric appeared to be unraveling as fighting erupted Sunday and early Monday in the centers of the cities of Najaf and Kufa. | |
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Billmon: Jumping the Gun — It looks like Shi'a insurgent leader Moqtada Sadr has been targeted for a little Saddam-style law... |
Andrew Olmsted: ; Iraqi Politics & Polls; More connections between Iraq and al Qaeda; Spotlight on Abu Ghraib; How to support the... |
Turn off Rush, turn on Salon By / Salon — Permalink Do America's servicemen and -women get the full story from American Forces Radio and Television? Not according to Eric Boehlert's Salon cover story on Wednesday. | |
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James Joyner: Free Salon — Amusing: Salon.com is offering free one year subscriptions to its premium contents to anyone on active duty in the U.S Armed Forces with a .mil e-mail address. The Poor Man: Memorial Day Offer — Salon has a pretty cool offer for active-duty soldiers, where they give you a free subscription to Salon Premium just for being you. |
Tom Schaller: All they need do is send an email to: militaryoffer@salon.com. For more info, click here. |
D-Day 1899 and President Denzel Washington is leading liberation of New Zealand from the Nazi's Telegraph — Permalink It is 1899 and Denzel Washington, the American president, orders Anne Frank and her troops to storm the beaches of Nazi-occupied New Zealand. This may not be how you remember D-Day but for a worrying number of Britain's children this is the confused scenario they associate with the events of June 6, 1944. | |
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James Joyner: Don't Know Much About History — The Telegraph reports that 10-year-olds in the UK lack a detailed knowledge of the events of WWII, with some of them giving amusing answers. Andrew Stuttaford: Given that, it's depressing to read that, sixty years after D-Day, disturbingly large numbers of British children have little idea of what happened on June 6th, 1944. |
Betsy Newmark: A depressing, but predictable, survey of British elementary and secondary schoolchildren finds them appallingly ignorant about D-Day. |
Cool gunmen hunted down Christians By / Reuters — Permalink Hell's gates . . . a Saudi official inspects a bullet-riddled car at Khobar after the attacks. Gunmen apparently scaled an unguarded gate to gain access. Photo: AFP/Saudi Television "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. | |
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Wretchard: Knock, knock — A Reuters article by Samia Nakhoul entitled Cool gunmen hunted down Christians begins with a question... Tim Blair: AL-QAEDA QUESTIONNAIRE — Suspected al-Qaeda "militants" — such a useful word — have killed 25 people in Khobar,... |
Arthur Chrenkoff: Al Quaeda associates have just slaughtered 22 people, including 19 foreigners, in Saudi Arabia (being particularly careful this time to only kill infidels, and not Muslims). |
We will ban junk food TV adverts, says Labour By / Telegraph — Permalink The producers of junk food are to to be banned from advertising during children's television programmes in an attempt by the Government to reduce obesity in the young. Labour MPs expect an official announcement at their party's annual conference in Brighton in September. | |
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Radley Balko: Here Comes the Hysteria — England is set to ban the advertising of junk food to children. |
Andrew Stuttaford: JUNK POLITICS — The war against the 'obesity' epidemic continues in all its absurdity over in the UK. |
Kerry Says Security Comes First By / WaPo — Permalink Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. | |
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Gene @HarrysPlace: Or as John Kerry observed in a recent interview: "It is one of the ironies of the Middle East. Tacitus: With the twin publications of interviews by NYT and WaPo on that subject, that moment has passed. |
The Poor Man: From Kerry's interview with the Washington Post, which you can listen to here. |
The President: Paying the Price . . . By / WaPo — Permalink When presidents take big chances, they have two choices. They can take all the responsibility on themselves and hope that when things go well, they will reap allthe rewards. Or they can choose to draw in the opposition from the beginning and count on some help and a feeling of solidarity if things start to go wrong. | |
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The Poor Man: More Brutal — I don't know what got into them over at the Washington Post, but they are mad as hell. |
Ezra Klein: Dionne Sez — E.J Dionne's latest deconstruction of George Bush is an absolute must-read. |
. . . Or Proving His Resilience? By / WaPo — Permalink It's the summer right before the presidential election. The president's approval numbers have sunk, and he finds himself in the midst of a dangerous international crisis. Many pundits have written him and his policies off, when he says with the straight talk that has become his trademark, "We will stay in Berlin." | |
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Jack Balkin: Just Wild About Harry — Billmon notes this Washington Post essay suggesting that George W. Bush will beat John Kerry in... |
Billmon: We're at phase one: "It was June 1948 and the president was Harry S. Truman, who bucked conventional wisdom, the... |
America, Recuse Thyself! Opinion Journal — Permalink John Kerry says America shouldn't cut and run. George Bush says America mustn't. But we don't have to retreat ignominiously from the war on terrorism and from our other international responsibilities and commitments; we can recuse ourselves. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: JUST IMAGINE IF P.J. O'ROURKE WAS SECRETARY OF STATE — The same world that condemns us for "imperialism" would be... Deacon: Scalia wouldn't do it, but America should — P.J. O'Rourke in a must-read column, explains why America should "recuse"... |
Michael DeBow: Oh, and P.J. O'Rourke considers isolationism as an option. Vanderleun: The Benefits of Staying Home — P. J. O'ROURKE LOOKS AT THE BENEFITS of going home: America, Recuse Thyself! |
Saudi Commandos Free Hostages, Ending Standoff With Militants By / NYT — Permalink CAIRO, May 30 — Saudi commandos stormed a residential compound in the oil-producing region of eastern Saudi Arabia today, freeing dozens of Westerners and other foreigners held hostage for 24 hours by armed militants. | |
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Dan Darling: The terrorists also tried to distinguish between Christians and Muslims when going about their bloody work, even to the point of ignoring an Iraqi American because of his religion. |
Jan Haugland: The total death toll is at least 19, but most of those died before the commandos attacked. |
Gunmen hunted "infidel" Westerners By / Reuters — Permalink KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. Show us where the Americans and Westerners live," Islamic militants told an Arab after launching a shooting spree on Westerners in Saudi Arabia. | |
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Charles Johnson: Islamic supremacist bloodlust on full display: Gunmen hunted "infidel" Westerners. (Hat tip: Colt.) |
Tacitus: Update [2004-5-30 11:59:3 by tacitus]: Still more on the motivation. |
Hostages Freed After Deadly Attack By / AP — Permalink KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia — Saudi commandos in helicopters stormed an expatriate resort early Sunday to free hostages seized by suspected al-Qaida gunmen in an attack on the kingdom's vital oil industry that killed 22 people — mostly foreigners including one American. | |
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KJL: KSA HOSTAGE SITUATION OVER |
Cori Dauber: But that didn't stop the AP from describing these terrorists as gunmen in the opening graf. |
Transcript for May 30 MSNBC — Permalink PLEASE CREDIT ANY QUOTES OR EXCERPTS FROM THIS NBC TELEVISION PROGRAM TO "NBC NEWS' MEET THE PRESS." Guests: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, (D-Calif.), on the Democrats' view of Iraq, former Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) , World War II veteran on the WWII Memorial, plus a political roundtable. | |
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Kos: Andrea Mitchel's turn — I'm sick and tired of lying media. So I'm going to crib from Atrios again to help get the word out: [snipped quote] No letup against the liars. |
Atrios: Liars — Andrea Mitchell today on Meet the Press: But I think what's most unhelpful to John Kerry in this regard is Al Gore. |
This is one armchair warmonger still fighting By / Telegraph — Permalink After a couple of weeks away, I return to spend a lonely evening talking to myself at the eerily deserted Armchair Warmongers Club (Fleet Street Branch). Where'd everybody go? | |
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Ezra Klein: The Lies, The Lies — Behold the lies, the aspersions cast, the projections thrown, the rationalizations of the wrong... Emperor Darth Misha I: Thanks to a link to one of Steyn's always excellent columns that we picked up at Sir George's, we bring you this excerpt: [snipped quote] He's absolutely right, you know. Glenn Reynolds: MARK STEYN: "It is already worth it for Iraq. There are more than 8,000 towns and villages in the country. |
Michael DeBow: Must reading on Iraq: Mark Steyn today, and this post on Instapundit (where I saw the Steyn article in the first place). Jan Haugland: "Now listen here, you chicken fairweather armchair warriors...." Read Mark Steyn Now! Yeah, what he said. Tim Blair: HAWK-DOVE CONVERSIONS CONTINUE APACE — Noting a reversal of opinion among the previously hawkish, Mark Steyn writes:... |
Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction? By / NYT — Permalink FROM the moment this office opened for business last December, I felt I could not write about what had been published in the paper before my arrival. Once I stepped into the past, I reasoned, I might never find my way back to the present. | |
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Clayton Cramer: Those intent on calling Bush a "liar" for arguing that the thread of Iraq's WMDs ending up in terrorist hands should read this article by the New York Times' Daniel Okrent. Steve Lovelady: "To anyone who read the paper between September 2002 and June 2003," Okrent writes, "the impression that Saddam Hussein... Dan Gillmor: NY Times' WMD Credibility Gap — The NY Times' ombudsman, Daniel Okrent, has written an appropriately scathing... |
Angry Bear: For example, in his latest bit, Editor Daniel Okrent writes [snipped quote] This piece is a follow-up to an earlier unsigned piece by "The Editors." Jeff Jarvis: But post mortems are better than coverups and it is a new Times that has Dan Okrent dissecting the corpus journalism of... Jim Henley: Obudsman Daniel Okrent of the New York Times offers his own retrospective on the paper's prewar coverage of Iraq's WSD capability. |
| Also: The Ombudsgod, Digby | |
Clerical error By / US News — Permalink NAJAF—In the moments before Moqtada al-Sadr cut a deal to withdraw from this holy city, his Mahdi Army fighters were up in arms. Hundreds of bedraggled men circled the holy shrine of Imam Ali in a beelike swarm, heads swathed in black bandanas, hands clutching beat-up Kalashnikovs. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: This article discusses how Muqtada al-Sadr is viewed by residents of the city: [snipped quote] It would thus appear that... Smash: Sadr Capitulates — US NEWS reports on the last days of Sadr's Mahdi Army in Najaf. [snipped quote] Read the rest. |
Andrew Olmsted: US News notes that Sadr overestimated his own support, and so had to back down rather than press the issue. (Hat tip: Instapundit.) Glenn Reynolds: U.S. NEWS: [snipped quote] Read the whole thing, especially the final paragraph. |
Liberal media? I'm shocked! By / US News — Permalink A new survey by the Pew Research Center says journalists have political and ideological leanings more liberal than those of the general public. Or, as a sensible headline might have put it: "Researchers ferret out the obvious yet again." | |
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Tim Graham: THAT PEW POLL — In U.S. News, John Leo analyzes the latest poll showing liberals dominate the "objective" press corps. Cori Dauber: BLOGGER QUOTED IN BIT TIME MAGAZINE ARTICLE — Sorry, it isn't me, it's Patterico but we consider him a friend of the... |
Glenn Reynolds: And Jeff Jarvis has some related stuff. And this John Leo column relates to a hypothesis offered by Drezner. |
State voter support for Bush dives By / Chicago Tribune — Permalink For the first time in his presidency, a majority of Illinois voters now hold an unfavorable opinion of President Bush and also disapprove of his performance in the White House, particularly his handling of the occupation of Iraq and an economy that many believe continues to lag, a new Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows. | |
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Taegan Goddard: Kerry Way Ahead In Illinois — A new Chicago Tribune/WGN-TV poll shows Sen. John Kerry "with a commanding 16 percentage-point lead" over President Bush — 54% to 38%. |
Atrios: Illinois — Smart people there: Still, the poll of 600 likely registered voters, conducted May 21-24, shows Kerry with a... |
The Paper Trail Time — Permalink Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. Citing the company's role in rebuilding Iraq as well as Cheney's prior service as Halliburton's CEO, Russert asked, "Were you involved in any way in the awarding of those contracts?" | |
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Max B. Sawicky: Did I think the Veep connived in this deal, I was asked. Oliver Willis: Profiteering Watch — Dick Cheney strikes again Cheney's relationship with Halliburton has been nothing but trouble since he left the company in 2000. |
Atrios: Cheneyburton — Link: Vice President Dick Cheney was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press last September when host Tim Russert brought up Halliburton. |
Deferred but Lasting Gratitude By / WaPo — Permalink The sun shone on a generation yesterday, as the largest gathering of World War II veterans since 1945 assembled on the Mall to see their long-awaited memorial assume its place in the center of Washington's defining landmarks. | |
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David Adesnik: THE GREATEST GENERATION — OR THE MOST LASCIVIOUS? [snipped quote] Hey, I hope I'm that energetic at 85. James Joyner: Other links: WaPo — Deferred but Lasting Gratitude (The above-the-fold story on A1 of the print edition) WaPo — World... |
Cori Dauber: OH, ADMIT IT — YOU CRIED TOO — None of the speeches were all that good — and some of them were way, way, too long —... |
Like Ike NRO — Permalink Selleck plays Gen. Eisenhower. You have every reason to be suspicious of what National Review says about Tom Selleck. After all, the guy has been a subscriber since the age of 17. He's even appeared in television commercials for us. | |
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Arthur Chrenkoff: This from Tom Selleck, a "National Review" subscriber from the age of 17, talking about his new role as General... |
Betsy Newmark: National Review has a nice interview with Tom Selleck about his role playing Eisenhower in the movie for Monday night on A and E. I'm looking forward to that movie. |
Self-Rule Is Test of Nerves on Local Iraq Councils By / NYT — Permalink BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 29 — At a recent local government meeting in the Rashid neighborhood of south Baghdad, the first item on the agenda was a moment of silence for council members in other districts who had been assassinated. | |
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Andrew Olmsted: Getting involved in Iraqi politics is a dangerous career choice at the moment, but it's one that is crucial if Iraq is to have some form of representative government. |
Cori Dauber: Thus although the CPA has been mentioning for some time that there are literally hundreds of local councils, freely... |
A Trial Balloon Made of Lead? By / NYT — Permalink Made of Lead? Senator John Kerry has just been through one of the most important tests of presidential leadership: leak management. The trial began last weekend, after The Associated Press quoted "campaign officials" saying that Mr. Kerry might delay... | |
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Betsy Newmark: John Tierney has two entries in his political notes in the New YOrk TImes. |
Captain Ed: John Tierney Attempts Spin Control — The New York Times' John Tierney reviews the John Kerry nomination two-step in his... |
Hamas leader killed in Israeli helicopter strike CNN — Permalink GAZA CITY (CNN) — An Israeli Apache helicopter fired two rockets at a motorcycle in Gaza City Saturday, killing a civilian and two Hamas militants, one of them a senior leader of the military wing of the group, according to Palestinian sources. | |
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Pejman Yousefzadeh: ANYONE ELSE WANT TO FILL THIS JOB? Being a leader of Hamas continues to be a hazardous experience. Bo Cowgill: ANOTHER HAMAS LEADER HAS BEEN KILLED by the Israeli military. |
Patrick Belton: AND DÉJÀ VU ALL-OVER-AGAIN HEADLINE OF THE DAY: 'Hamas leader killed in Israeli helicopter strike.' From CNN. |
Internet Upstart Turns Insider By / LAT — Permalink When lawyers for George W. Bush's first presidential campaign filed a federal complaint against the operator of a satirical website called GWBush.com, they did more than violate the Internet commandment to ignore obscure critics. | |
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Jeralyn Merritt: The LA Times profiles him today. "Exley's unlikely rise from union organizer and small-time software programmer to top... |
Taegan Goddard: Internet Upstart Turns Insider — The Los Angeles Times profiles Zack Exley, who "has gone from running a website... |
Mr. Kerry on Security WaPo — Permalink SEN. JOHN F. KERRY'S 11-day mini-campaign on the theme of national security appears unlikely to produce sensational headlines or seize the country's attention — which is, on balance, to his credit. | |
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Blackfive: Mr. Kerry on Security ...The emerging Kerry platform suggests that ultimately he would adopt many of the same goals as Mr. Bush. |
Dean Esmay: Kerry v. Bush — The Washington Post notes that John Kerry's war position is sober and responsible and not, on substance, much of any different from Bush's position. |
Saudi troops rescue oil hostages BBC — Permalink Dozens of foreign hostages have been freed after Saudi commandos stormed the oil worker's compound where they were being held, Saudi officials have said. About 40 commandos jumped from helicopters onto the roof of the building in the eastern city of Khobar. | |
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Jan Haugland: Commando raid end Saudi hostage crisis — Saudi helicopter drops commandosThe hostage situation in eastern Saudi town... |
Kieran Healy: Reading reports about the hostage crisis in Khobar, I wonder why the terrorists went after the oil workers rather than the refineries they work at. |
Recalling a time when setbacks didn't deter us By / Chicago Sun Times — Permalink Memorial Day in my corner of New Hampshire is always the same. A clutch of veterans from the Second World War to the Gulf march round the common, followed by the town band, and the scouts, and the fifth-graders. | |
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Charles Johnson: When Setbacks Didn't Deter Us — Mark Steyn evokes an earlier era, when the cult of victimhood had not yet gotten a grip on America: Recalling a time when setbacks didn't deter us. |
Betsy Newmark: Mark Steyn has been having those same thoughts as he visited a cemetery of Civil War dead in New Hampshire. |