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Meanwhile, here at home…
Creeping repression in regard to FBI anti-leak investigations. Journalists need defending, now more than ever.
Liar
“I don’t think in Cuba there is a lack of freedom of speech…. If you approach Cuba from the perspective of the Western world, you might think so. But there, you have the people who express themselves on many matters. There is no repression in Cuba.” –Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela More here. [Update: And here. And here.]
Nazism as a model
Sullivan points us to this immigration commentary from “Vox Day” at WorldNetDaily. This fellow, a self-described Christian libertarian, is upset that President Bush ruled out mass deportation during his Monday night speech: Not only will [mass deportation] work, but one can easily estimate how long it would take. If it took the Germans less than four years to rid themselves
Trouble in Kurdistan, continued
The shelling from Iran continues, as reported by Patrick Cockburn in The Independent. “Iran Shelling Iraq?” asks Andrew Sullivan. Um, yes — it started around April 21, as I noted here.
John McCain: sad sack
I can’t fathom all this fawning over McCain’s speech at Liberty University. The senator basically went there to retract his previous condemnation of Jerry Falwell, so that Christianist wackos might consider voting for him in a Republican primary. McCain said: It should remain an argument among friends; each of us struggling to hear our conscience, and heed its demands; each
Slow blogging…
I’ve been bogged down and haven’t had time to post… watch for my July/August cover story on Mike Stern and Richard Bona in Jazz Times. I’ll also have a short piece about Orhan Pamuk’s Snow on the weblog of Norman Geras, in about a week’s time. This will be part of Norm’s “Writer’s Choice” series — previous contributors include Hitchens,
On Colbert and a free press
A reader joins me in praising Stephen Colbert but thinks I’ve “gone a bit overboard in [my] interpretation” of the comic’s scathing routine at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner: Where has the US corporate media been over the last years? Why have they given the Bush Administration a free ride? Why has the press corps politely questioned the Bush Administration,
John Hall for Congress
Just in from pianist Bruce Barth: Guitarist and producer John Hall is putting his career on hold to run for Congress in New York’s 19th District, where he’ll try to unseat the incumbent Sue Kelly. Not only is Kelly a loyal Bushite, she serves my parents’ district, and what’s more, I once got stuck behind her pokey campaign bus for