Obama
When Harry Met Hugo
Harry Belafonte — a man who’s given us great music, a man who put himself on the line during the civil rights era — is one of a number of celebrities to have spent the last several years shilling for the ruthless Venezuelan autocrat Hugo Chavez. Supporters of Chavez often argue indignantly that the man is no dictator, that he
Glenn Greenwald thinks he understands Egypt
Regarding the protests against Hillary Clinton that occurred in Alexandria, Egypt, Glenn Greenwald tweeted this: And then this: As if the Arab world is one undifferentiated mass of anger at the U.S. In fact, this report (hat tip David Toube via FB) on the demonstrations includes the following line:
Remembering the fallen
The New York City Firefighters Memorial, one of the most peaceful locations in the city, two blocks from my apartment. I sat there often to reflect in the days after 9/11. Hard to believe it’s been nine years since I emerged from the N/R station at 8th Street at about 9:20 a.m., to see a huge cloud of dark smoke high in
In support of Cordoba House
I’m proud that the president of my country, and the mayor of my city, have spoken out forcefully against the bigoted campaign to block the construction of a Muslim community center on Park Place in lower Manhattan. This is a phony issue ginned up by the right, in fact part of a wider outburst of xenophobia that actually has little
Obama’s spill speech fallout
The right is blasting Obama’s Oval Office speech for pushing too hard on costly clean energy initiatives. Wait a minute, the left is blasting Obama’s speech for not pushing nearly hard enough on clean energy initiatives. What is going on here? To me it looks like a de facto left-right alliance to tear down this president halfway into his term.
Obama’s Cantor smackdown
Conventional wisdom remains that our president is a wimp, spineless, etc., which flies in the face of jujitsu moments like this (hat tip Marc Cooper): And that’s not to deny that Obama, in his way, makes use of political theater, which is what that health care summit was. But taking the opportunity to call out Republicans on their nonsense for
Hands, teleprompters
“Which is more egregious?” [McCain] asked reporters. “Reading a word from your hand or from a teleprompter?” From this story on the increasingly odious John McCain and his bumbling, near-pitiable defense of Sarah Palin. (Hat tip Marc Cooper.) I’m stating the obvious but I can’t help myself: President Obama, like his predecessors, and like Palin herself at the 2008 Republican
Giuliani vs. the facts
Via Andrew Sullivan.