ROLLING STONE: The right wing shows no signs of letting the manufactured controversy over Common’s White House invitation die. Even though last night’s Evening of Poetry went off without a hitch, Fox News and other right-wing outlets continue to devote ever more attention to the issue. At the event, Common didn’t address the firestorm surrounding his 2007 poem “Letters To The Law” – which conservative pundits have seized upon as evidence of his anti-Americanism. Instead, he read a work that referenced both Martin Luther King Jr. and President Obama, who hugged the Chicago rapper at the end of the evening. […]
EGYPT: How To Take The Wind Out Of A Revolution
WASHINGTON POST: The power struggle between Egypt’s would-be revolutionaries and its defiant ruler wobbled to a standstill Monday as both sides girded for a prolonged test of wills that could shape the political future of the Arab world. President Hosni Mubarak sought to defuse a mass revolt against his 30-year reign by offering further concessions to an opposition movement that continued to jam Cairo’s central Tahrir Square with tens of thousands of protesters. Reports of arrests and clashes with security forces, meanwhile, appeared to ebb, and protesters said Mubarak seemed to be trying to split the opposition by compromising on […]
THE BIG SHORT: There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Sarah Palin is a singular national industry. She didn’t invent her new role out of whole cloth. Other politicians have cashed out, used the revolving door, doing well in business after doing good in public service. Entertainment figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and even Ronald Reagan have worked the opposite angle, leveraging their celebrity to make their way in politics. And family dramas have been a staple of politics from the Kennedys—or the Tudors—on down. But no one else has rolled politics and entertainment into the same scintillating, infuriating, spectacularly lucrative package the way Palin has […]
THE BIG SHORT: There’s A Sucker Born Every Minute
NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Sarah Palin is a singular national industry. She didn’t invent her new role out of whole cloth. Other politicians have cashed out, used the revolving door, doing well in business after doing good in public service. Entertainment figures like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and even Ronald Reagan have worked the opposite angle, leveraging their celebrity to make their way in politics. And family dramas have been a staple of politics from the Kennedys—or the Tudors—on down. But no one else has rolled politics and entertainment into the same scintillating, infuriating, spectacularly lucrative package the way Palin has […]
U BETCHA: Sarah Palin Is Shopping A Reality Show
[Illustration by ALEX FINE] REUTERS: The former Alaska governor is teaming with uber-producer Mark Burnett (“Survivor”) to shop a reality series about her home state, network sources confirm. Palin and Burnett made the rounds at least three of the major broadcasters (NBC, ABC and Fox) while in Los Angeles for her taping of “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” this week. Palin and her family would be on-camera in the show, which one executive described as “‘Planet Earth’ meets Alaska meets her family,” referring to Discovery’s high-definition nature hit. MORE ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The former candidate for the vice presidency was seen leaving […]
ARMBINDER: An Annotated Takedown Of The Denialist Drivel That Is Sarah Palin’s WaPo Op-Ed
THE ATLANTIC: Once again, the Washington Post has given Sarah Palin the chance to harness herself to the political story of the hour. The former Alaska governor has written an op-ed, published Wednesday, about the “Climate-gate” controversy at East Anglia University. Palin calls on President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen climate summit because the leaked e-mails allegedly cast significant doubt on the scientific consensus about global warming. With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point. By “radical,” Palin means the overwhelming scientific consensus; virtually every […]
HITCHENS: Guilt By Association Cuts Both Ways
SLATE: The person who has been introducing Palin into the more exalted social and political circles of the capital, and who has already arranged her appearance at the Alfalfa Club, is Fred Malek. Two things about Malek are worth bearing in mind.The first is that he was an important member of the Nixon administration, a senior figure on the Republican National Committee, and the campaign manager for the re-election of George H.W. Bush in 1992. With his Carlyle Group and other corporate connections and his mansion in suburban McLean, Va.,* Malek is almost the prototypical “establishment” Washington insider and consiglieri […]
THE HATE NOISE: Anthrax Hoaxes Shutdown Obama Campaign Offices In Philadelphia And New York
CBS: PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) — A threatening letter containing a suspicious powder forced evacuations at a Barack Obama campaign office in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon. According to police, a letter with a suspicious powder was sent to an Obama-Biden field office in the 1500 block of Christian Street. The letter was apparently opened by a volunteer at the office.”The letter was somewhat threatening in nature and it contained a substance that we believe to be a hazmat,” Captain Mike Gillespie said shortly after the incident. Police, fire and hazmat crews responded to the scene shortly after a 911 call was […]
PANIC: McCain ‘Suspends’ Campaign, Desperate To Stem Free Fall In The Polls, Getting Crushed By Econ.
POLITICO: McCain suspends his campaign, and asks to postpone Friday’s debate, to address the financial crisis. Both candidates have been marginal players; McCain, though, seems to have the potential to make himself a major one, and his move is a mark, most of all, that he doesn’t like the way this campaign is going. But in terms of the timing of this move: The only thing that’s changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling. MORE WASHINGTON POST: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll gives Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama a nine-point lead over Republican nominee John McCain. […]
LIPSTICK ON A WARPIG: Palin Tells ABC News’ Gibson That War With Russia Might Be Necessary
ABC NEWS: When Gibson said if under the NATO treaty, the United States would have to go to war if Russia again invaded Georgia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help. “And we’ve got to keep an eye on Russia. For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable,” she told Gibson. MORE OBVIOUS FOLLOW-UP QUESTION THAT WAS NEVER ASKED: Governor, you are aware that […]