The New Republic

Okay, so thanks to a final, heroic burst of leaks, we have a pretty good idea of who stands where, stress-test wise: Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and GMAC all need $10-billion-plus increases in common equity, which is just ordinary stock ($34 billion in BofA's case). Citigroup needs another $5 billion--this on top of up to $45 billion in bailout money it's already converting from preferred shares to equity. READ MORE >>

OK. Last quick plug from the conference before I go tend to my poor puppy who has been waiting patiently for a walk. READ MORE >>

(Though not so brief I could actually tweet it...) In response to my post on (er, about) Twitter the other day, commenter rozenson opined: [W]hat I hate is that Twitter gets so much attention while literally nobody I know uses it. Businesses, politicians, the media -- all the grown-ups -- are trying to reach out to us kids by being "hip" and tweeting, but it really comes across as condescending more than anything else. READ MORE >>

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat best-known for directing his city to recognize same-sex marriage in 2004, announced today that he's running for governor of California. But there READ MORE >>

Responding to this morning's eloquent New York Times op-ed on human rights in Afghanistan, Michelle Goldberg of the Prospect writes: READ MORE >>

I've pondered for years what to say about the Bush administration's use of torture in the years after 9/11. So far I've remained quiet about the issue because I'm so uneasy about it -- not just about what the United States has done, but also about the reactions of nearly everyone who has commented on it. READ MORE >>

Every time I see Pat Buchanan on C.N.N. I get the creeps. He hates Hispanics although they are mostly very pious adherents of his religion, Roman Catholicism. Some day a prince of the church will rebuke him and deny him communion. He also hates the Jews and Israel, the state that incarnates the nation which first gave substance to the idea of peoplehood itself.  And, of course, as a corollary of this antipathy he has enormous passion for their enemies. The Palestinians, for example. But his weirdest soft-spot is for Nazis, particular Nazis, the most vicious Nazis. Pat has a strong stomach. READ MORE >>

I just landed in Geneva, where I will be spending the next week reporting from the UN Durban Review Conference. The confab is a follow-up to the 2001  World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (which took place in Durban, South Africa). READ MORE >>

Politico's blaring headline about Obama's upping recruitment among anti-abortion groups seems like the definition of much ado about the utterly predictable. Isn't the cw that every change of regime prompts, to some extent, a reenergizing of the ideologically opposing interest groups? READ MORE >>

From “Album of My Germany”   READ MORE >>