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Cohen on Palin
There’s been much to admire in Nick Cohen’s savaging of the George Galloway-John Pilger wing of the left in Britain. But to me, the point of all this, and the reason I launched this blog almost exactly three years ago, was to shore up liberalism and social-democratic politics against attacks from the know-nothing left and the know-nothing right. Cohen has
Surge PS
Steve Coll of The New Yorker describes the situation in post-surge Iraq as “patchwork calm,” and here’s one feature of said calm: “Violent deaths of Iraqi civilians, while difficult to measure, have also dropped steeply, although the figure remains high: about five hundred per month, at a conservative estimate.” Five hundred violent deaths per month, and this is what the
Rage Against … the Machine, Obama, whatever
David Carr reports on Rage Against the Machine’s protests at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. According to Rage and its delusional followers, there is no difference between Obama and McCain. I suppose they’re waiting around for the Democratic candidate to champion Che and Mumia and the writing of crackpots like William Blum, as Rage’s website does. Way to
The week on disc (26)
In case you missed the last one… Sumi Tonooka Trio, Long Ago Today (Arc) Donny McCaslin, Recommended Tools (Greenleaf) Ted Nash, The Mancini Project (Palmetto) Pandelis Karayorgis, Betwixt (Hatology) Blink., The Epidemic of Ideas (Thirsty Ear) Mark Weinstein, Straight No Chaser (Jazzheads)
Palin, earmark queen
Timothy Noah explains: “[Alaska] is a state that preaches right-wing libertarianism while it practices middle-class socialism.” “A pit bull with lipstick? I’d describe Palin as a hog who recommends diet books while feeding at the trough.”
“Obama and the suicidal left”
William Jelani Cobb asks: “Why it is that a group of progressives would spend about 40 minutes discussing how to critique Barack and virtually no time discussing how to elect him?” Perhaps the most biting irony is a kind of reverse affirmative action, where Obama seems to face a higher bar for support than the white candidates who preceded him.
Quagmire reality check II
You’ve got to hand it to Sarah Palin: she’s got the brass balls to try to put the Iraq war in the plus column for McCain and the Republicans, trashing Obama on the campaign trail on the issue of the troop surge. As I argued here, the Iraq war did not begin in early 2007, it began in early 2003,