Lessons From "jesus' Son"
Frank Rich's column yesterday begins and ends with a suicide. The first is that of Charles D. Riecher, the Air Force's second-highest procurement officer, who killed himself two weeks after a Washington Post expose; the last that of Col.
Huckabee's Willie Horton?
A story about the Values Voter Summit in this morning's Washington Times featured a fairly tawdry blind quote about Mike Huckabee: Then, referring to Mr. Huckabee, he said, "He's finished, I think. Bad things will be coming out about him," referring to long-standing accusations surrounding Mr. Huckabee's clemency for a rapist who later murdered someone in another state. The weird thing about the Washington Times quote is that this story--as the reporter acknowledges--has been out for a while.
Our Fancy New Site
Why, hello there! We didn't see you come in. Welcome to the all-new TNR.com. Please take a look around. We're still working out some kinks, but if you see anything buggy, go ahead and leave a Comment in this thread. And thanks for reading. --The Editors
Greening Ghettoes
This morning the Center for American Progress hosted a forum devoted to "Green Collar Jobs," in service of a hybrid message on race, class, and the environment. Van Jones, an environmental activist and CAP's newest fellow, reported for his first day of work fresh on the heels of Thomas Friedman's kingmaking op-ed in last week's NYT.
Large Fry
Over on what is undoubtedly one of the more peculiar (though highly entertaining) celebrity blogs going, Stephen Fry offers another of his infrequent and very-nearly-interminable "blessays," this time on the subject of his own addictive personality. He has this to say, for example, about his long romance with tobacco: Imagine that one day someone hit himself lightly on the head with a parsnip. Instead of stopping (for this is a foolish thing to do) he carried on doing it.
How Palestinians Build Confidence
On August 6, Ehud Olmert was on his way to the truly charming West Bank town of Jericho for one of those confidence-building meetings with Mahmoud Abbas. Alas, Israeli security had found out -- their intelligence is superb! -- that Fatah operatives attached to the Palestinian Authority had planned to target Olmert's party as it entered Jericho and assassinate him and others. The Israelis discovered the plot, and arrested some of the principals. Since these were security officials, they knew the details of the visit.
Those Self-righteous Swiss
On Sunday, the Associated Press carried a dispatch about the controversy surrounding the campaign of the Swiss People's Party and its zillionaire leader Christian Blocher against allowing more immigrants into Switzerland. The party says that it is only against expelling foreigners who are criminals. But there is every good reason to suspect their honesty.
China's Foreign Policy
A Reuters report tells us the Burma dictatorship lifted its curfew and otherwise began relaxing its grip on Saturday. This will be taken -- and is -- at least partially a victory for Chinese foreign policy and for the indifference of the Communist leadership to who suffers under the rule of their trading partners.
The Erosion Of The Political Color Line
It's no surprise that the Democrats lost the governorship of Louisiana the other day, what with their record of sheer incompetence and more sheer corruption that actually made voters forget that George Bush presided over the Katrina disaster. But the winner, as Adam Nossiter reported in the New York Times, was no white man. He was Bobby Jindal, the son of immigrants from India and a conservative Republican congressman. Jindal will be the first non-white governor since a Reconstruction era black politician was elected 130 years ago.
A Makeover For Larry Craig
I have an idea for how Larry Craig can make lemonade out of his current nightmare. With a scandal so tacky and tawdry, keeping a low profile doesn't offer much potential as a path to redemption, assuming Democrats and the media would even allow such. Instead, what Craig needs is a flashy, buzz-generating, I've-learned-my-lesson crusade--something akin to John McCain's using his Keating Five nightmare to become a loud-mouthed government reform advocate. The most logical cause for Craig to take up would be gay rights.
