The latest Rolling Stone piece from Matt Taibbi, our Tiresias of Wall Street, was horrifying enough for Halloween (as Susie Madrak points out), with its latest details of how it all came down. It also gave the best summary I’ve seen of the whole Dantean reality created by it all. Back when I was writingContinue reading “Matt Taibbi: "The entire economy was a fake"”
Category Archives: politics
Why I'll be the First Amendment this Halloween
Illinois prosecutors must be getting really desperate. Their own governor has already declared a moratorium on executions, after all. Bur targeting journalism students is really beyond the pale. Among the issues the prosecutors need to understand better, a spokeswoman said, is whether students believed they would receive better grades if witnesses they interviewed provided evidenceContinue reading “Why I'll be the First Amendment this Halloween”
about President Obama's Nobel
Lots of complex feelings about this, reflected well here by Andrew Sullivan. But the one I loved best was that of Farai Chideya, a role model of mine for years. so I’ve reprinted it here, with my own thoughts below that. What do you think? —————————— When I woke up this morning to find outContinue reading “about President Obama's Nobel”
about President Obama's Nobel
Lots of complex feelings about this, reflected well here by Andrew Sullivan. But the one I loved best was that of Farai Chideya, a role model of mine for years. so I’ve reprinted it here, with my own thoughts below that. What do you think? —————————— When I woke up this morning to find outContinue reading “about President Obama's Nobel”
Roman Polanski: The 1970s Are Over, Thank God.
This week’s arrest of Roman Polanski felt weirdly unsurprising. It fit somehow with all the flashbacks to 1969 the media’s treated us to this year — as that TIME cover put it, “From the Moon to Charles Manson.” What will the 1970’s reminiscences be like, one wondered? Maybe like this. But who really remembers 1977?Continue reading “Roman Polanski: The 1970s Are Over, Thank God.”
operation pink slip, first draft
Another blast from the past: from an invasion whose memory is mostly now buried under those now bleeding our soldiers. Thinking about it now, I’m struck how how Bush I’s 1989 “Operation Just Cause” set the template for his son’s Iraq actions — a former CIA “asset” run past his pull date turned Public EnemyContinue reading “operation pink slip, first draft”
Unstuck in time again, in a good way
It’s been forever, I know. I should have at least updated my other shop’s cheers as Sotomayor became a Justice, especially the soulful essay about how she, a wise Latina herself, felt during that confirmation ceremony. But given the demands of that other shop (go look! Make comments!) and that I’ve been writing the lastContinue reading “Unstuck in time again, in a good way”
and then there's June 9th, when McCarthy met his match
Joseph McCarthy, that is. As I was helpfully reminded by the Times’ “On This Day” feature, June 9th 1954 was the day U.S. Army counsel Joseph Welch asked that fateful question of the chair of the Un-American Activities Committee: “Sir, have you no sense of decency?”
and then there's June 9th, when McCarthy met his match
Joseph McCarthy, that is. As I was helpfully reminded by the Times’ “On This Day” feature, June 9th 1954 was the day U.S. Army counsel Joseph Welch asked that fateful question of the chair of the Un-American Activities Committee: “Sir, have you no sense of decency?”
A salute to another Bronx girl- gettin on the SCOTUS!
Last night, President Obama called all three of the women we last mentioned as potential Supreme Court Justices and told them he had chosen the very first on our list, 55-year-old New York judge Sonia Sotomayor — despite a whisper campaign that had already questioned her intelligence and called her a “fiery Latina” instead ofContinue reading “A salute to another Bronx girl- gettin on the SCOTUS!”
I Ain't Marching Anymore 