It's Just a Kooky, Though Deadly, Coincidence

That's what the CDC says anyhow.

Let's hope the small pox expert's son-in-law doesn't like to fly.

Good Gracious Guinness!

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan

The Slowly Shifting Wind

The palpable sense that the public -- more specifically the elctorate -- is slowly waking up to the follies, failures and falsehoods of the Bush administration continues to crystalize. And its taking hold in a strange and widespread swath of the public.

Two very different articles -- this one on Falwell in New York Magazineby John Heileman, and this one in today's Times. Both show movements away from Bushism across a wide swath of the right and middlge.

Cats Sleeping With Dogs!

The WaPo has it here.

But who's the feline, and who the canine? Is the immigration embroligio -- among many other things -- a sign that bipartisanship is dead, its just infeesible to an overly polarized electorate?

Welcome To the USSR, 1951

How much traction will this story in today's Times get?

Here's the crux of it in one paragraph...the US in 2007 has something ugly in common with late Stalinist Russia:

While billions are spent each year to upgrade satellites and other high-tech spy machinery, the experts say, interrogation methods — possibly the most important source of information on groups like Al Qaeda — are a hodgepodge that date from the 1950s, or are modeled on old Soviet practices.

The whole subject of torture and interogation surprsingly still seems to create little outrage or concern in the general public, and arguable, much of the mainstream media, particularly television. Two years after Abu Gahrib, it's still expert panels, hearings and shocklingly small -- though diverse -- chorus of dissent.

Burgers, Burgers EVERYWHERE!

Its the Wednesday before Memorial, so food sections are helpfully telling everybody how to make that rare and exotic treat: the hamburger. Look here, here and here.

Of course, those in the know know what we know...the way to make the real deal exceptional flavored hamburger. But out secrets shall not be revealed.

Awwwwwww....

New Baby Elephant at the Berlin Zoo.

They sure know how to market the baby mammals in the Fatherland.

Just What Are They Up To?

AP has this report on an increasing show of US naval strength off the Iranian coast.

Combined with Cheney's battle ship threats to Iran and his creepy shuttling around the region, they couldn't be planning anything. They'd rattle sabres more and more publicly before just going ahead and bombing Iran. Right? Right???

Follow The Money

The Financial Times has a story that is being covered, but covered very little, in US press.

You might have heard about it -- the missing billions of dollars in Iraq. To be fair, it could be shoddy bookkeeping, and would you really expect buttoned up bookkeepping from this Bush-Cheney Junta?

But really kids, why suspect anything other than corruption -- especially when the White House is -- as usual -- loathe to be accountable. Keep watching this story...

Really...who cares?

This article in today's Times is a perfect example of the danger facing the current crop of '08 presidential candidates. How can this level of interest possibly be maintained through primary season and into the general election -- more than a year away?

We still believe that there is a very strong chance that the major party nominees are not yet in the race....

Dems to Bush: See You in September!

Well, Senate democrats today threw in the towel and are prepared to drop timelines or troop withdrawl from the next funding bill.

However, if the situation in Iraq continues as is or worsens, come September, then overide will be the order of the day. This is a battled whose lines have FINALLY been drawn, but the real battle is yet to come.

Anoying lefties and moveoners will do anything but move in, as they claim that the '06 midterm was a mandate for Iraq withrawl -- which of course it wasn't.

Leonard Cohen. Who's Cooler?

Will He? Won't He? Does He Really, Really LIKE us?

Politico works it all out for you. Now you can be Al Gore-smart at all those chic Memorial Day cocktail parties coming up.

Pitty General Patreaus

Its perfectly clear that his "plan" or the "surge" simply cannot work. Its getting worse than ever.

What American Muslims Believe Just May Shock You

The Pew Center today released a public opinion poll conducted among American Muslims. You can see the complete report here.

Interesting thing: the results are either banal or extremely disturbing, not much in between. For example, a signifcant majority of US muslims (60%) refuse to believe that a group of Arabs perpetrated the attacks of 9/11. Now, this is not Muslims in a Palestinian refugee camp or under the thumb of Egyptian dictatorship. These are American Muslims with access to our (degenerating) marketplace of ideas.

But that's nothing compared to this: one out of four (26%) of American muslims between the ages of 18 and 29 believe that suicide bombing can be justified! 15% -- not a neglible percentage -- believe that suicide bombing is often or sometimes justified.

It's All About Al!

Quote for the day from E.J. Dionne's good collumn on Al Gore in today's WaPo:

Gore, to his credit, won't talk about Florida, but I will. Whatever flaws he has, Gore suffered through an extreme injustice with great dignity. His revenge is to have been right about a lot of things: right about the power of the Internet, right about global warming and right about Iraq.

Well put, but, oh! the consequences of that "extreme injustice." We've bought the book and will let you know what we think. Have you bought it yet?

Planet Earth: Movie Star

Did you see this amazing series when it ran on the Discovery Channel this spring? Animal documentary nut that I am, I somehow missed it... and what a big miss that was.

This is really super spectacular stuff, that easily elevates the nature documentary to the level of cinematic art. The cinematography (done in ground breaking high definition) alone is jaw dropping, but there's more than mere spectacle. Structurally, the series approaches the planet with a orgainzed holiticism that is utterly new -- at least to this viewer. And the narration -- always litterate, occasionally soaring -- is delivered by the incomporable David Attenborough in a tour de foce of voice over.

Stop reading!! Order it at once, right here.

Subpoena Showdown?

Very little main stream media coverage of letters from Senator Leahy to Gonzalez. Isn't the AG not being in compliance with a Senate subpoena and an absolutely threatening letter from the Judiciary committee chairman newsworthy? I guess not, or not until this showdown goes to its next level. Or maybe the level after that. Or after that...

The Boyfriend

"I have been caricatured as a boyfriend who used his position of power to help his girlfriend."
Mr Wolfowitz said this was why he had been "fighting so hard to defend myself".

Called a boyfriend! Imagine!

Ah! Jacques Brel...

To Be Young, American and Not White

Collapse

According to this article, Iraq is on the brink of collapse. This piece in today's Times says pretty much the same thing, just a tad less definatively.

What's interesting is the mass media and aparatchiks in Washington have pretty much sold the "See You in September" line into conventional wisdow...come the end of summer, we'll know if Gen Petraeus's plan has worked.

Right. Has anybody told that to the various insurgent factions in Iraq, I wonder? They seem to be getting more and more violent every single day. Gen. Petreaus can try to surge all he wants, these reports paint a picture of a society in the midst of apparantly irreversible melt down.

Senate Sounds Gonzalez Death Knell. Again.

Arlen Specter openly predicting the demisre of Gonzalez:

''I have a sense that when we finish our investigation, we may have the conclusion of the tenure of the attorney general,'' Specter said during a committee hearing. ''I think when our investigation is concluded, it'll be clear even to the attorney general and the president that we're looking at a dysfunctional department which is vital to the national welfare.''

The whole story, including pending no confidence vote, is here.

How long can the President continue to ignore the clear and justified lack of confidence of his own party? It will be quite telling to see -- indefinitley is doubtful; but not impossible.

Julie Christie...

...impossibly magnetic and beautiful at 67!

Al Gore's New Book

Another (big) step forward into the ring?

A succinct, strong and dead serious summary of present danger?

Both. An excerpt is here. Pre-order here or buy it next week.

And, yup...he lost the weight.

A Really Stunning Web of Lies

The Washinton Post has this.

Apparently, the rule of law set at the Justice Department wanted to fire about 25% of all US attorneies more than 3 times the number the attorney general has said, under oath, were considered for dismissal.

This story is a hard one for people to get. There is no question of any laws being broken, none were. Its not unheard of, although the "Clinton Did It, Too" argument put forward but the few remaining Republicans in America odd. Did they really elect George Bush to do the kinds of slimy political tricks they love to pillory Bill for? Guess so.

No, what's awful here is:

1. The attempt to weed out the ideologically impure from a conrnerstone beaurocracy on a wholesale level. Does anyone doubt they would have eventually replaced all US attorneys?

2. The thuggish indifference to being caught. The president still thinks highly of his AG. The AG, caught in lie after lie after lie, and with virtually no support on the hill continue to hold on to his job. In the face of this tempest, like mobsters, the Bush Adminstrations ugly stance is "Fuck 'em! They can't touch us."

Phil, Kurt Hardly Knew Ye!

What's enough to wake this blog from its long slumber?

Kurt Andersen's super duper good essay on Phil Spector in the current New York Magazine.

For the last quarter of centruy, who has been writting smarter, funnier and more zeitgest capturing work than Kurt?