Seth D. Michaels

Senate 2006: Pickups We'd Like to See

2006-06-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Here's my list of Senate seats the Democrats could pick up, in the order in which I'd like to see them happen, along with likelihood of same.(1) MONTANA Jon Tester just won his primary yesterday and is, frankly, awesome. He's a chubby, flat-topped organic farmer who lost a finger in a farming accident and rose to become the Democratic state Senate leader from a pretty Republican district in the

And we're back.

2006-06-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here we go again: since sethdmichaels.com was bought out from under me, I've decided to return to my shiny old blogging location here. Look for daily political updates, pop-culture critiques and my inimitable drollness to ensue. Huzzah!

2003-06-20T13:00:00.000-07:00

Hot Stuff, Kids! Seth D. Michaels Presents the Seth Bulletin is now at a shiny new site! Please update your blogrolls accordingly, and enjoy the new site.

2003-06-19T10:32:00.000-07:00

Andrew Northrup: Twenty Pounds of Common Sense in a Five-Pound Bag Andrew Northrup of the Poorman is cranky today, and there are few things better in all the world than when he's cranky. He's cranky about two things: a) people who talk about how old video games are great and how it all started going downhill with ColecoVision don't have any idea what they're talking about...I can't believe

2003-06-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Snaxis of Evil Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings points out a proposal for government action that makes even touchy-feely-lefty me recoil at the encroachments of the nanny-state. He's responding to this column advocating a tax on high-fat, low nutrition foods, with proceeds going to "fight the epidemic of child obesity." I happen to agree with Henley that sales taxes as a combined means of

2003-06-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Blast from the (Fairly Recent) Past Did they just put this up online? It's the first time I'm seeing pictures online of this adorable little theater festival, which took place on a perfect night in the ominous air of late September of 2001. They haven't held the festival since, even though it seemed pretty successful; instead they're holding outdoor film screenings, which I suppose require the

2003-06-16T15:47:00.000-07:00

Announcement. First of all, happy belated Father's Day, Flag Day, and Pride Weekend to everyone who is a father, patriotic, gay, or all of the above. Second, my ardor for Dean Esmay will never sour, and his name should be praised highly, for he is going to assist me - as he has done for many others - in improving my weblog. Specifically, in a week or so, you'll see an all-new Seth Bulletin on

2003-06-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

A Tale of Two Senators John is wrong. Ted is right. The Medicare-reform bill before the Senate right now might not be precisely the right size and shape, but it's a step in the right direction, and it would be unfortunate if, as several Democratic Senators are suggesting, we rejected the good because it isn't the perfect. Some Democrats and advocates for the elderly are still unhappy with the

2003-06-11T13:08:00.000-07:00

Attention Must Be Paid Andrew Sullivan has printed a host of anagrams of "Howell Raines." Damn, I'm impressed. And I practically do this shit for a living. Unfortunately, Sully, the best tribute I can do on short notice is "LAVA-URN SWINDLE" and "UNRIVALED LAWNS."

2003-06-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Lord. Here we go. It's going to be a fun next seventeen months.

2003-06-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

On Dean I haven't yet decided who I'll be supporting for the Democratic nomination. [That phrasing makes it sound like the candidates are lining up for your endorsement, Seth. -Ed.] I like several of the candidates just fine, and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. That said, several things have turned my attention of late towards the Deaner. 1) Undeniably, he has the "buzz." In a

2003-06-09T08:16:00.000-07:00

Casus Belli? Via South Knox Bubba, we see that some chemical weapons supplies have been found in Iraq. Nothing particularly surprising - small amounts of chemical weapons production facilities, allegations of other sites destroyed. More updates later today.

2003-06-07T11:09:00.000-07:00

Remember When... ...a few days ago, I wished people were paying more attention to Myannmar, Zimbabwe, and the Congo? You can always count on CalPundit. Make it a point to read Calpundit. He's one of the good ones.

2003-06-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

Four Good Things about Today First of all, it's gorgeous out, and we may actually have an entire weekend without cold rain. It's about time, being that it's June. Second, the Back Page in the latest New Yorker is by Roz Chast, who in all honesty is as big an influence on me as anybody I can think of. Third, my occasional commenting at Tacitus has resulted in productive email exchanges with

2003-06-05T14:38:00.000-07:00

New Discoveries Funny. Via Alicublog.

2003-06-05T10:04:00.000-07:00

Meta-Meta-Meta-Meta-Meta Congratulations, Professor Insty: It looks like the Howell Raines reign of terror is over. I really can't bring myself to care very much about this. I really like the New York Times, and I'm sure Raines' departure won't much change the things I like about it, nor make those whose lifestyle hinges on complaining about it complain any less. I also don't care much about

2003-06-04T14:41:00.000-07:00

Very Important News Hopefully we're a little closer to a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Bush met with Sharon and Abbas, and everybody seems to agree on the road map for the next few years: On a brilliant, sweltering afternoon on the Gulf of Aqaba, Mr. Sharon pledged immediately to begin dismantling some "unauthorized outposts" of settlements that have been set up on West

2003-06-03T12:22:00.000-07:00

Important Update Via Oxblog, we find that one of the world's real heroes, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been arrested following an uprising in Myanmar (Burma). In the heart of one of the world's worst regimes, this brave woman, technically the country's elected president, has been standing up and advocating democracy while spending most of the past decade under house arrest. Kudos are due to Bush for

2003-06-03T10:05:00.000-07:00

Privat(ized) Lives Yesterday CalPundit had a typically good moderate-left post on the free market that struck me as well-thought and well-argued (as is usually the case): ...while market-based economies are terrific at a wide range of allocation problems, free market capitalism isn't a law of nature or a command from God. It's an invention of human beings, and like any human tool there are

2003-06-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Dystopia, Part I: How to Boil a Frog Put the frog in a pot of hot water, he'll jump right out. Put the frog in a pan of cool water, he'll sit perfectly still as you turn up the heat. In this way, you can boil the frog. The FCC said a single company can now own TV stations that reach 45 percent of U.S. households instead of 35 percent. The major networks wanted the cap eliminated, while smaller

2003-06-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

That's So Oughts The Washington Post Style section has two fine, fine only-in-the-oughts articles about the intersection of love, pop-culture, and technology which simply beg for a good read. In the first, Gov. Bob Wise of West Virginia is revealed to have offered his inner workings up to a younger lover via email. The Post aptly tags the exchange an oddly hypnotic poem between two people Who

2003-05-30T07:47:00.000-07:00

Yeesh. Just read this story and this editorial carefully. Then stop to consider that some people - lots of them, actually - think this administration is honest, competent, honorable, and deserving of a second term.

2003-05-29T13:42:00.000-07:00

Too Important to Ignore Gary Farber of Amygdala wants the world to start paying attention to the Congo. Here's the situation: the center of Africa has turned into a slaughterhouse in the past five years. There is nothing resembling a government in Congo (formerly Zaire). Instead, there are warring camps of thugs who are proxies for the leading ethnic interests of surrounding nations, who have

2003-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

In Weights and Measures News... Thanks to Hit and Run, we see this terrifying article on the subject of the kilogram: In these girth-conscious times, even weight itself has weight issues. The kilogram is getting lighter, scientists say, sowing potential confusion over a range of scientific endeavour. The kilogram is defined by a platinum-iridium cylinder, cast in England in 1889. No one knows

2003-05-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

Massive Bush Stimulus Package Update Today the President signs the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, which we all know fondly as the massive Bush stimulus package. Yesterday, Bush made today's big-news signing possible by signing off on the small-news debt-ceiling increase. Ron K., guest-commentating at Daily Kos, points out that this is a potentially very bad thing. News

2003-05-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

Highbrow Lowbrow Kieran Healy expounds pricelessly on the "Second Lowest Form of Wit," but I laughed out loud (or, as the youngsters would say, "LOL") at his little joke. I plan on writing several jokes that are as painfully pretentious as they are punful, and bombarding poor Mr. Healy with them. Look, in the next few weeks, for a revamped and relaunched and lively new Seth Bulletin, if I get

2003-05-27T08:49:00.000-07:00

The Texas Shuffle So Josh Marshall has been all over the Texas redistricting semi-scandal, pointing out various juicy details, including document destruction, verifiable lies, and abuse of federal power. He says of Tom DeLay: the House Majority Leader was directly and intimately involved in activities that are now the subject of investigations by two cabinet departments and grand jury

2003-05-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Time Travellin' This is worth noting: When asked to estimate the duration of a 45-second time period by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, smokers and nonsmokers were equally accurate. But after not smoking for 24 hours, the smokers' inner clocks began ticking off the seconds at a more rapid clip, which slowed their sense of time to a crawl. On average, reported the study's lead

2003-05-26T09:15:00.000-07:00

Miracles of Google As a public service on this terrible rainy Memorial Day when your hero is in the office (paper's gotta come out), I'll note that one recent Google search hitting my site is for "odelay etymology," by which I can only assume that somebody stumbled across my site looking for the meaning of "Odelay," title of one of the best albums ever made. To the best of my knowledge, the

2003-05-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

In my ongoing quasi-hiatus, I refer you all to Eppy at clap clap blog, who essentially does what I do better, and to this political quiz, which is meaningless but fun (link thanks to Steve Silver). I scored a -3.75 left and a whopping -5.28 libertarian; my favorite conservative blogger Tacitus scored 6.00 right and -0.21 libertarian. Tacitus also advised me to switch from buggy buggy Blogger to

2003-05-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

And Another Thing... "Short Sporadic Entries on the Subject of GOP Hypocrisy" Week continues with the news that House Republicans want to crack down on states' rights: House Republicans want to move drug enforcement money from state and local police officers to federal agents in states that have legalized marijuana for medical use. The GOP-sponsored legislation would also allow the Bush

2003-05-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

OK, That Was a Short Vacation... But I had to alert y'all to this Washington Times article. First, the Times' website has a brand-spankin' new and very attractive layout, and second, the official internal memo of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy says that some righties are concerned that the administration isn't conservative enough. According to Donald Devine, a former Reagan official who's now a

2003-05-20T13:36:00.000-07:00

Vacation. I've been busy, and sick, and frustrated lately. Our government is in the hands of people who think the great racial injustice of our time is affirmative action and the great economic injustice of our time is the double taxation of dividends. The ever-consolidating media is divided between the hapless pretend-objective majors and the unapologetically biased Wurlitzer. The debate around

2003-05-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

Election 2004 In the surprise development of the day, it seems George Bush is exploring the idea of running for another term. Who'da thought? I Guess If We're Ever Actually Going to Achieve a Gigantic Corporate Dystopia Where Government and Entertainment Are All Part of One Unholy Entity and Individual Humans Exist Only to Work and Consume, We Have to Start Somewhere Well thank goodness. I was

2003-05-15T15:08:00.000-07:00

Did You Miss Me Yesterday? A combination of journalism and comedy kept me pretty busy yesterday. If Politics Were Ice Hockey... ...we'd be in the middle of several bench-clearing brawls right now. In Texas, the deadline for introducing legislation is midnight tonight, which means that the plan to rejigger Texas' congressional districts to elect more Republicans has failed. Charles Kuffner

2003-05-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Bad News Terrorist bombers attacked several compounds with car bombs last night in Saudi Arabia. Early reports seriously understated the extent of the damage, and the "at least one dead" headlines on today's paper editions of newspapers are replaced on websites with "at least 90 dead." Here's the president's response: President Bush reacted with anger and resolve. "Today's attacks in Saudi

2003-05-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

Election 2004, Down the Ticket I have no particular hope that the Democrats will retake Congress, and neither does Mary Lynn F. Jones, who in this Prospect article says the failure to take back Congress in 2004 may be good for the party, as it will force a focus on the White House race and allow the nominee to make a divided-government argument. Over at Daily Kos, guestblogger Ron K, in a

2003-05-09T14:30:00.000-07:00

Election 2004, Again The DNC chief suggests that both spots on the 2004 ticket could be occupied by people currently running for the nomination. Naturally the suspicion about this focuses on Bob Graham. The difficulty is that the current nine are mostly white guys, mostly legislative, and it would be tough to get a good balanced ticket out of it. Bob Graham's tax-cut plan seems reasonably smart

2003-05-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Just for a Change Today, Let's Start with Election 2004 This oft-blogged poll, in PDF, reveals that Dean and Kerry are roughly tied in the quest to win the NH primary. The more interesting part is halfway down, indicating that in GOP-keaning New Hampshire, Bush is tied 42-42 with a generic Democrat, with 15% undecided - and among independent voters, the generic Dem beats Bush 48%-39% with 19%

2003-05-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Supervillian Returns for the Sequel It looks like Dick Cheney will once again do the honors of sharing a ticket with Bush. Speaking of 2004... Here's this week's Daily Kos Cattle Call. It goes Kerry, Gephardt, Dean, and on down predictably. Cleverest copy of the day: Mark Leibovich's Graham announcement coverage, which mimics the detail-happy style of Graham's obsessive-compulsive

2003-05-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Election 2004 If the Note has a favorite horse among the D9, it seems to be Bob Graham, who formally announced his candidacy today: We cannot figure out to save our lives why Graham is not being taken more seriously as a formidable candidate...He is from the ultimate mega-state of presidential politics; he's been an overwhelmingly popular governor and senator; he can tout his electability,

2003-05-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

Team Bush vs. the D9 The biggest Election 2004 story of the past few days is not the Democratic debate but the court decision that invalidated several portions of McCain-Feingold, the campaign finance reform law that rejiggered rules for fundraising and advertising. The repercussions of this are too big for the country's top election-law experts to figure out, which naturally means they're

2003-05-02T15:03:00.000-07:00

All Eyes on South Carolina Today's Seth Bulletin is brought to you by the letter D and the number 9, in honor of the nine Democrats who will debate tomorrow in Columbia, South Carolina, hoping to get an edge in the quest for the nomination. Here's what political journalists refer to as a "curtain-raiser" to the big event. South Carolina isn't the first primary, and it isn't even the only

2003-05-01T15:49:00.000-07:00

May 1 Happy May Day - it's a perfect day for hanging baskets of flowers on the doors of your loved ones, or for enormous parades of tanks and rockets and flags like they used to have in the Soviet Freakin' Union. I'd like to think I'm kidding about this, but the President isn't: I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day. I call

2003-04-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Election 2004 "This Dean-Kerry stuff has the political world in a tizzy, huh?" says an alert reader. It sure does: check out the sniping going on at Dean's campaign weblog, the loving analysis of every minute of the fight at the Note, and the Kos's suggestion that the campaigns "cool this shit." Meanwhile over at Ezra and Matt's fine blog, Ezra points out (permalinks shoddy)that Kerry's attack

2003-04-29T15:35:00.000-07:00

Whenever God Closes a Door, He Opens a Window And whenever Team Bush does something monumentally stupid, they often do something half-decent, which pisses off their base. For instance, although he stuck up for Santorum, Bush is also backing a pretty good international AIDS funding bill that's driving the hard right crazy by being too soft on condoms. Speaking of Santorum, thank goodness we'll

2003-04-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Bonus Update Section David Brooks argues that several dream palaces - a Borgesworthy phrase if ever there were one - have collapsed in the wake of the war: the dream palaces of the Arab street, of the European left, and the domestic left. What he doesn't recognize is that he's living in a dream palace that still, temporarily, stands: the dream palace of Team Bush, where military power has the

2003-04-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Election 2004 ABC News has a cute new feature today: the Notepad, wherein the various 2004 campaigns can update the Note's political-junkie readership of what's happening. Each campaign gets 200 words to drop some lyrical bombs. Today's debut Notepad has some downright useful info - Kerry, for instance, will be picking up the endorsement of Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a conservative African-American

2003-04-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

Clayton Cramer's BLOG

2003-04-25T16:19:00.000-07:00

The Observer | Review | 300 reasons why we love The Simpsons

2003-04-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

Election 2004 In the ongoing case-for-Gephardt saga, Paul Krugman asks: Why shouldn't the American people favor a proposal like Mr. Gephardt's? Never mind the details; why shouldn't the typical citizen, faced with a choice between Bush-style tax cuts and a plan to provide health insurance to most of the uninsured, choose the latter? Nothing like Mr. Gephardt's plan is going to become law anytime

2003-04-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Special Good News Update Huzzah! Tacitus is back, after too long an absence, and hopefully back with his usual regularity and good commentary.

2003-04-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Rebuilding Josh Marshall sure does have a way with words that cuts right to the heart of the matter: Which is worse? That there are five or six different exile groups vying to control post-war Iraq? Or that each of those five or six groups is allied with a different arm of the United States government? Or put it this way: "They expected a much warmer reception, and as a result it would be

2003-04-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Some Good News Reformist elements in Palestine dragging Team Arafat kicking and screaming into modernity, as new Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas appoints a new cabinet. Everything seems to be falling into place for a credible new Palestinian apparatus, except for one complication: Abbas' mandate to reform the Palestinian Authority, and most specifically its security services, is largely dependent

2003-04-22T14:53:00.000-07:00

Earth Day Happy Earth Day, all. Team Bush Gets Ready for the Big Game Without the slightest hint of irony or shame, the re-election squad announced their plans to exploit the memory of thousands of dead people: Mr. Bush's advisers said they chose the date so the event would flow into the commemorations of the third anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks...The strategy,

2003-04-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Patriot's Day What's the deal with Paul Revere getting all the credit when equal parts in the story were played by Samuel Prescott and William Dawes - the ones who didn't get captured by the British regulars? I blame Longfellow. No matter - look at this map of the historic battle, when local militia held at bay the greatest military power in the world through a combination of traditional

2003-04-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

The Age of the Feuilleton It's a lovely Sunday, a good day to take a walk and pick up a coffee and a Sunday Times and put some Stevie Wonder on the record player and settle in for a good read. After a cursory glance at the front page, I read the book review section, Arts and Leisure, Sunday Styles, and the Week in Review: it's an information junkie's dream fix, a giddy walk through Helen Keller

2003-04-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Quick Update Just talked to my PA correspondent, an old friend and Democratic activist now working as a legislative aide for the PA Dept. of Ed. He said something that struck me kind of funny: I think Gephardt's the only one that can do it. He laid out the following reasons: -if he had any really awful skeletons, they would have come out by now. -he never won back the majority in the House, but

2003-04-19T14:15:00.000-07:00

Foreign Policy and the 2004 Squad In this week's Phoenix, Seth Gitell looks at the people advising the current crop of Democratic candidates for President - people who, if all goes well, will occupy important undersecretary positions and advisory jobs at State and Defense and the NSA, much as Bush tapped into his 1999-2000 campaign brain trust of advisors like Wolfowitz and Perle. Most of these

2003-04-18T13:09:00.000-07:00

$550 Billion or $350 Billion? Team Bush goes into full-court press mode to convince the Senate GOP to support a $550 billion tax cut. The Bush cabinet and conservative lobbying groups are taking the case to Snowe, Breaux, and O-hi-o in order to scare the deficit hawks into reversing their demand for no more than $350 billion. Where the heck are the Democrats on this? Smiling, I'd think. Either

2003-04-17T14:47:00.000-07:00

Frist Blood, Part I The new majority leader isn't just getting the smackdown from mean ol' Hillary anymore: this Washington Post story details the tough time Frist is having managing the ol' sausage factory, getting heat from rivals for the leadership like Don Nickles and Rick Santorum and from the hard right that dominates the House. PS: Billmon has another lovely section-header for this story

2003-04-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

2004 Is Just Around the Corner! It's that time of the week again, kids...time for the Comment period for the Daily Kos "Cattle Call." If you want to know what a fairly large portion of active Democrats are thinking about and reading about, scroll through the many comments. The consensus seems to be that Kerry's in the lead. And speaking of Kerry in the lead, here's the report on the money chase

2003-04-15T14:57:00.000-07:00

Team Bush Team Bush is takin' the message out state-to-state about Bush's big plans, just in time for tax day, and as a little warm-up for this election business we'll be having soon. Two dozen administration officials will visit 40 cities in 26 states over the next two weeks to promote Bush's plans for economic growth. For some information on just what I mean by "Team Bush," this article

2003-04-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Big Story The writers of today's Note are baffled that the positively enormous story of the massive Bush stimulus package isn't considered bigger news: We are about to tell you about a Tax Day Eve story that by Note standards is huge, but there is going to be some cognitive dissonance and incredulity as we go through it, because you are going to say, "If this story is so big, why isn't it

2003-04-11T14:55:00.000-07:00

While You Were Away... I spent the last two days in Vermont, home to Howard Dean, Green Mountain College, soft-spoken guys in beards and plaid flannel, deep snow in mid-April, top-quality recreational horticulture, the sort of bar where open mike night includes a flute and a freestyle rap on the same song, and, most importantly, the Quechee Gorge. While I was there, sheltered by the mountains

2003-04-09T09:09:00.000-07:00

Soundbitten notes the folly of those who criticize the "actorvists," the anti-war celebrities who are about as ill-informed and inarticulate as your average American and have aroused the deep ire of everyone from Bill O'Reilly to Professor Insty. His contention is that celebrity culture, in all its tackiness and transitoriness and utter banality, is indeed a sign of a healthy democracy and a

2003-04-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

War Update Bombing journalists: does this strike anybody else as a particularly bad idea? TV station al-Jazeera says the US knew the location of its headquarters and the Palestine Hotel was well-known as the base for western TV and newspapers since the start of the war. The US admitted it had made "a grave mistake" bombing al-Jazeera and said it had opened fire on the Palestine Hotel after

2003-04-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

Check out this interview withBritt Daniel of Spoon, who says the following wonderful thing about their latest record, "Kill the Moonlight:" When we were making this record, my idea was to make it a loose record. Like when you listen to London Calling by the Clash, it just seems like they were having a party in the studio, voices popping up here and there, beginnings and ends of songs just go on

2003-04-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

First Things First It's not the beginning of the end, it's the end of the beginning: U.S. troops are surrounding and enterting Baghdad proper, arriving in the palace district first hit by bombs in the "decapitation strike" of three weeks ago. Ask for an Arm, Settle for a Hand The following item is brought to you by the letter R and the number $350 billion. Team Bush is trying feverishy to

2003-04-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

According to this handy tax table, I owe the gu'mmint something like $300, as my employers have withheld a smidge too little from my paycheck. As far as I can calculate it, without all relevant information (I don't know yet whether I have $5 or $10 in interest), my fair share of the nation's tax burden is $1,766, approximately the budget for pastry at the meeting of the committee formed to

2003-04-05T11:49:00.000-08:00

More Thoughts on Paying My Taxes According to Tom DeLay, "Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes." According to Ted Stevens, firefighters and police getting overtime pay is unpatriotic. According to United for a Fair Economy, rather a lot of my tax dollar is paying interest on the national debt - which, by the way, ain't getting any smaller, thanks in part to the

2003-04-04T21:17:00.000-08:00

Interesting news via Sean-Paul Kelley. In other news, I have to get up early tomorrow to do my taxes. I'm one of the "lucky duckies;" as I only make $21,000 a year, I pay very little in income taxes. I pay a fair amount in Medicare taxes (and Medicare is about to be privatized) and I pay a good portion of my income in Social Security taxes (and Social Security may be subjected to the elaborate

2003-04-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

Michael Kelly, an Atlantic Monthly editor and Washington Post columnist, is the first embedded journalist to be killed in Iraq. I was never a big fan of the direction he took my favorite magazine, but my thoughts are with his family and friends and I want to remember him as someone who believed in what he did and in a very real way gave his life in the line of duty. Thanks to Instapundit for

2003-04-04T10:53:00.000-08:00

Special Seth Bulletin Report: The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action Affirmative action is coming to the political forefront as the Supreme Court considered the University of Michigan's admissions policy on Tuesday. It's a really big case for many reasons. while this case is about access to education, the court's ruling could have rippling effects on affirmative action programs in job hiring

2003-04-02T12:37:00.000-08:00

Baby, I Got Your Money, Don't You Worry The first fundraising reports are trickling in from the campaigns of Democratic hopefuls, and here's the biggest surprise: $7.4 million worth of people - that's at least 3,700 people - think that John Edwards is a winning horse this year. Nobody was expecting him to make that kind of money - were they? Kerry has $7 million, Lieberman has $3 million, and

2003-04-01T20:34:00.000-08:00

Eight Eerie Powers Possessed by Dick Cheney: 1) Kept a straight face on national television during the State of the Union Address after Bush said that the nation was cracking down on corporate criminals. 2) Iron grip over fierce armies of mercenaries. 3) Technically holds office of the presidency if Bush has anything up his ass. (Note: his head does not count.) 4) Chaired efforts to pick a

2003-03-31T13:58:00.000-08:00

Wartime Pop Quiz 1) Is Syria's escalating behavior a sign that Assad is a) not sufficiently impressed by U.S. efforts in Iraq, proving that the reverse-domino theory plan isn't working b) taking the U.S. bait, proving that the reverse-domino theory is working way "better" than expected 2) Did Rumsfeld already lose the war? Or is he being cast as the potential scapegoat in case of a really bad

2003-03-27T15:48:00.000-08:00

War and the Possibilities of More War What war are we fighting? Tacitus, whose blog has been pretty top-notch of late, has an interesting discussion on the possibilities of "reverse domino theory," wherein the U.S. invasion of Iraq is the beginning of a campaign to create democratization in the Middle East by internal revolt or extrenal force. Comments therein debate the possibilities. Josh

2003-03-22T10:45:00.000-08:00

Keep an eye out for Sean-Paul Kelley, a writer and scholar who is doing a superhuman job of posting updates on events in Iraq.

2003-03-21T10:07:00.000-08:00

Shock and Awe Ten major buildings destroyed within two minutes...it's an amazing sight. It's like an action movie, but this is real. -Peter Arnett, reporting from Baghdad For several reasons I haven't been posting in the past few days. I don't have much to say. I hope it's over soon.

2003-03-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

14 Hours to Go I can't believe it's actually come to this. But here it is. I wonder what he must be thinking, Saddam Hussein. Iraqis have long said that Mr. Hussein's messianic complex about his role in history would not allow him to accept the humiliation of fleeing abroad. This is a man whose primary foreign policy over the last ten years has been geared at picking a fight with the United

2003-03-17T11:53:00.000-08:00

Happy Purim, St. Patrick's Day, and Evacuation Day to all. By the time you read this, the President will likely have addressed the country and given us a general time frame as to when the bombs will start falling. Picture this scenario: a war some decades in the future between the U.S. and Canada. Canada informs us that in three days, Chicago will be no more, so people had best evacuate. How

2003-03-14T16:03:00.000-08:00

All the Trouble in the World Matt Yglesias on said trouble: "the aggregate quantity of crisis in the world appears to have surpassed the information-processing capacities of both the US government and the world's media organizations." What we're pointing to here are two separate problems: the latter is what Neil Postman called "information glut," and while it's a terrible thing, it's the less

2003-03-13T10:15:00.000-08:00

War, Terror, and the War on Terror Team Bush is still pushing for the U.N. resolution authorizing military action in Iraq, even if it costs them credibility and Tony Blair's job. "I wouldn't deny that we're making progress, but I wouldn't want to mislead you that we've got it in the bag," is how State Dept. spokesman Richard Boucher put it. I have to disagree with Big Daddy Atrios on this one:

2003-03-11T14:12:00.000-08:00

Going to War in Iraq Makes Us Less Safe It takes a certain kind of mind to interpret this information as supporting the case for a war on Iraq: "The C.I.A. has warned that terrorists based in Iraq are planning attacks against American and allied forces inside the country after any invasion, government counterterrorism officials say. The agency's previously undisclosed assessment has circulated

2003-03-10T14:37:00.000-08:00

Nine Votes? Pakistan joins the chorus of nations who, for reasons noble or nauseating, may not support the U.N. resolution authorizing an invasion of Iraq. The resolution is already doomed to failure as Russia and France are planning to veto. OK, I've said it elsewhere but now I'm going to lay it out here. In order to invade Iraq successfully, for which I admit there are several necessary but

2003-03-06T10:41:00.000-08:00

Texas Poker Novak and Friedman both use unsettling gambling metaphors to describe the impending standoff in Iraq. Here's Tom: "This reminds me of the joke about the man who gets lost and asks a cop for directions, and the first thing the cop says is, 'Well, you wouldn't start from here.' No, I wouldn't have - but here is where we've been put." And here's Bob: The senator who told me the

2003-03-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Biggest News The best thing to happen in the War on Terror since this whole thing began a year and a half a ago is the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a top-ranking Al Qaeda official who was apparently a primary planner for the Sept. 11 attacks, and likely earlier attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa and U.S. troops stationed in the Middle East. This is a much-welcome blow to Al Qaeda's

2003-02-27T14:34:00.000-08:00

They Call Me Mellow Yellow What a relief! We’re back to yellow alert. The Administration The Note today is thinking outside the box on Bush, looking past the usual "popular President" and "tightly controlled Administration" storylines: "But are a balky legislative agenda; an impending war; rising gas prices serving as a hitting-home metaphor for a weak economy; and a host of other problems

2003-02-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

"'We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility,' he said in 1994. 'It's easy to say "It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem." Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.'" Fred Rogers, 1928-2003 The Bush Who Got Elected Yesterday I saw former President Bush speak at Tufts University. He was pretty good, overall,

2003-02-24T21:21:00.000-08:00

Yikes! Consumer confidence dropped 18 percent in the past month, from about 79 to about 64. 18 percent! Could it be that the prospect of a long and devastating war is making people a wee bit unhappy? Fifty Governors Walk Into a Bar... Bob "Lil' Lucifer" Novak and Broder and Balz tell us the news on the Governors' Association meeting this past week. Broder and Balz purport that the Democratic

2003-02-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

An Update on the War The latest: Powell gives Hussein the exile option, the inspectors will give another report next week, and a new resolution is in the works. These Guys Wanna Be President The Note has its brand-new shiny-and-updated Invisible Primary Report, and it's the dankest primo fix for politics junkies. I take issue with only one thing: Gephardt is listed as #1 in the "other states"

2003-02-20T09:08:00.000-08:00

War All the Time The U.S. is in the process of crafting a new use-of-force resolution, which will have quite a bit of difficulty getting through the Security Council. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi and the UK's Tony Blair are asking the U.S. to submit the resolution. "Washington's European allies, chastened by the protests in their own countries, had made it clear that they needed such a new measure

2003-02-17T23:44:00.000-08:00

The War Doubts abound all over the world, as proven by the considerable protests this weekend. The numbers are pretty incredible: a million in London, a million in Barcelona, a million in Rome, half a million in Berlin, a few hundred thousand in New York City, really staggering numbers, even if you trim down the organizers' counts. Tony Blair's popularity has plummeted in Britain thanks to his

2003-02-16T09:14:00.000-08:00

What's yellow and orange and red all over? The terrorist-warning scale on Valentine's Day. In war-on-terror news why be skeptical about the administration's ability and commitment to rebuild Iraq after a war? Well, for one thing, they FORGOT TO INCLUDE MONEY TO REBUILD AFGHANISTAN IN THEIR BUDGET. (I'm guessing these people dotted every i and crossed every t in their plans to cut taxes.) "The

2003-02-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

War, Terror, and the War on Terror Is Iraq in compliance? Not really. There's stuff unaccounted for, they've been somewhat less than honest and helpful, and their missiles are a wee bit more powerful than they're supposed to be. Are they in breach enough to trigger invasion? That's a trickier question. Another Osama tape surfaces, and he declares his intention to be a martyr. The Corner cites

2003-02-13T07:33:00.000-08:00

Code Orange Blues, or: a Tale of Two Tapes We must begin today with the Tale of the Two Tapes: the bin Laden tape, and the duct tape. First, the new purported bin Laden recording: "On the tape, the speaker urged Iraqis to profit from the lessons learned by al-Qaida fighters in the war against the Americans and their allies in Afghanistan...the speaker urged other Muslims not to cooperate with

2003-02-11T20:47:00.000-08:00

The 2004 Squad John Kerry is having minor prostate-cancer surgery. It shouldn't affect the nomination process, as a speedy recovery can be expected. Arizona is jumping on the early-primary train. It seems like it'd be a good primary for Dean to do his McCain impression, but otherwise there's no natural front-runner, and it'd be a perfect place for somebody without much hope of winning Iowa or

2003-02-10T21:00:00.000-08:00

Code Orange In what has become a yearly ritual, Dick Cheney has stuck his head out of his hidey-hole and seen his shadow, which means that we'll have six more weeks of winter and a "hisk risk" of terrorist attacks. "Ashcroft's concerns were echoed by U.S. counter-terrorism officials and federal lawmakers with access to classified information, who said the threat has been building over the last

2003-02-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

Colinoscopy OK, so Colin Powell did his best Adlai impression and revealed evidence that Iraq is disobeying U.N. orders to disarm. Here's the text of Powell's speech, and here's the money quote: "I believe that Iraq is now in further material breach of its obligations. I believe this conclusion is irrefutable and undeniable. Iraq has now placed itself in danger of the serious consequences called