FRESH AIR Journalist Fred Kaplan offers a scathing critique of the Bush administration’s foreign policy initiatives in his new book, Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power. Here is an excerpt: Nearly all of America’s blunders in war and peace these past few years stem from a single grand misconception: that the world changed after September 11, when in fact it didn’t. Certainly things about the world changed, not least Americans’ sudden awareness that they were vulnerable. But the way the world works—the nature of power, warfare, and politics among nations—remained essentially the same. A real change, […]
YANKEE DOODLE FOXTROT: Not So Fast
WASHINGTON POST: After the Clinton campaign sent out a press release this evening claiming a win in Missouri, under the heading “Hillary’s Big Night,” the lead in the Show-Me State flipped — with Barack Obama moving ahead by a few thousand votes to claim victory. WIKIPEDIA: The Missouri bellwether is a political phenomenon that notes that the state of Missouri has voted for the winner in every U.S. Presidential election beginning in 1904 except in 1956. Between 1960 and 2004, Missouri’s popular vote was within about one and a half percent of the national popular vote margin. Missouri’s 96% accuracy […]
COLLATERAL NEWS: Something Strange Has Happened To The Internet, And Official Explanations Don’t Add Up
RELATED: CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — A repair ship began work Tuesday at the site where an Internet cable was cut last week in the Persian Gulf, and a second vessel was to arrive later that day at the spot north of Egypt where two other cables were cut just two days earlier, FLAG Telecom said. The cuts have disrupted Internet services across a large swath of the Middle East and India, slowing down businesses and hampering personal Internet usage. There has been wide speculation that the cuts were caused by ships’ anchors dragged along the bottom of the sea in […]
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Dirty Is As Dirty Does
RELATED: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton has raised more money from lobbyists than any other presidential candidate, while Republican John McCain has more of them assisting his campaign, according to a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. Clinton took in $823,087 from registered lobbyists and members of their firms in 2007; McCain, the second-biggest recipient, took in $416,321, reported the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political giving. Democrat Barack Obama doesn’t take money from registered lobbyists, though he received $86,282 from employees of firms that lobby, according to the center. McCain has 26 registered lobbyists as campaign advisers or fund-raisers, compared with 11 […]
I, VOTER: These Pretzels Are Making Me Thirsty!
As I write this, the polls here in New Jersey are still several hours from opening for their Super Tuesday vote-a-thon. This is handy, as it gives me yet more time to torture myself as I decide whether to vote for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, picking between two historic choices presented to me in this fifth presidential contest in which I am eligible to cast a ballot. It’s funny, though. Perhaps naively, I thought the choice would be easier when the time came that I had the opportunity to cast a meaningful, non-symbolic vote for […]
WINGBOWL ’08: Heavy Metal Barfing Lot
VIDEO: ScrappleTV at Wingbowl 2008
HOT DOCUMENT: Rick Santorum Robo-Slimes McCain
Per Romney sources, the call is going into California, Colorado, Alaska and a few other Super Tuesday states: “Hello, this is Senator Rick Santorum calling to let you know I am supporting Mitt Romney and urging you to support him next Tuesday. “As Republican leader in the U.S. Senate, I worked hard to stop the democrats and help pass a conservative agenda. A few senators like John McCain stood in our way. John McCain voted against the president’s tax cuts, worked with Ted Kennedy to pass what many people call amnesty for illegal aliens and he even opposes the marriage […]
OBAMELOT: Robert DeNiro Is Tired Of Waiting
NEW YORK TIMES: 1:11 p.m. — As the crowd at the Meadowlands awaited Mr. Obama’s arrival, Mr. De Niro made a surprise appearance and received a thunderous welcome. Mr. De Niro said he’d never before made a political speech, and the actor made a special appeal to the young people and first-time voters, saying that Mr. Obama gave them someone to gather behind. “You wanted to vote, you just didn’t have anyone to vote for,” he said. ” Well you know what? I felt the same way. Until now.” Mr. De Niro introduced Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts; his niece […]
NEWS CLUES: Like A Nightstick At A Pinata Party
GAMBLE & HUD: City Claims Feds Forced Discount Land Deal For Kenny Gamble President Bush’s housing czar pressured the Philadelphia housing agency to transfer land worth $2 million to Kenny Gamble, the music producer turned developer, and retaliated when the agency would not knuckle under, a lawsuit says. The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) says the top federal housing official, Alphonso Jackson, improperly sought to steer the land to Gamble at a big discount. In court filings, Carl Greene, PHA’s executive director, says Jackson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, called Mayor John Street twice to lobby on Gamble’s […]
WILL FERRELL: Bud Light Superbowl Ad
Very funny, but Bud Light still sucks.
REVEALED: The Peaceful Easy Death Of Ernie Pyle
This photo provided by Richard Strasser, perhaps never before published, shows famed World War II war correspondent Ernie Pyle shortly after he was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on the island of Ie Shima on April 18, 1945. On the third morning, a jeep carrying Ernie Pyle and three officers came under fire from a hidden machine gun. All scrambled for cover in roadside ditches, but when Pyle raised his head, a .30 caliber bullet caught him in the left temple, killing him instantly. Roberts and two other photographers, including AP’s Grant MacDonald, were at a command post […]
FOLLOW THE MONEY: Yes Virginia, There Is More To Arlen Specter’s Patriot Acts Than Meets The Eye
ATTYTOOD: When Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter went more public last week with his increasingly strange and quixotic battle against the National Football League — supposedly over the New England “Spygate” scandal — some politically savvy wags raised an interesting point. They noted that the longtime GOP stalwart’s No. 2 source of campaign funds in recent years has been none other than employees of Comcast Corp. and their families, linked to at least $153,600 in donations going back to 1989. That’s significant because Philadelphia-based Comcast has been engaged in a protracted war with the NFL over an issue that has nothing […]
PAPERBOY EXTRA: The Audacity Of Change
BY AMY Z. QUINN OK, so you didn’t hear it here first — Dan Gross broke the news this afternoon that City Paper editor Duane Swierczynski resigned today. We heard this Friday afternoon, when the Swiercz spilled his plans for a full-time leap into noir fiction (The Blonde‘s in paperback, there’s very preliminary talk of a movie) and Marvel Comics and over noodles and tea, then promptly swore me to secrecy. Never let it be said your Paperboy doesn’t know the meaning of “off the record.” For the record. Anyway, dude certainly seemed like a guy who’d made up his […]