The Jay Leno appearance didn’t bother me. Filling out a NCAA bracket for ESPN was kind of cool. But a $500,000 advance for a book deal? Had Bush done something similar, we’d all be braying about gross dereliction of duty. Granted, context matters, and so far the Obama Administration is nowhere near Bushian levels of [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘Bush’
March 3, 2009
Yet More Fascism
To follow-up on my earlier post, I think liberal and libertarian accusations of creeping totalitarianism are as obnoxious and counterproductive as the histrionics of their conservative counterparts. Yes, John Yoo’s skewed interpretation of the Constitution is downright scary, and yes, the Bush Administration’s approach to detainee treatment and warrantless surveillance was Kafka-esque. But we certainly [...]
February 13, 2009
Brilliant
“I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands…with nuts” is my personal favorite.
Happy Valentines Day Weekend.
December 11, 2008
Iraq’d
Buried in Mike Pence’s mindless Washington Times broadside is this foreign policy gem:
We must develop new strategies for strengthening our armed forces and homeland security, and be willing to oppose any effort to use our military for nation-building or progressive social experimentation.
You have to wade through several layers of Republican-speak to get to the real [...]
November 29, 2008
The Benefit of the Doubt
Andrew Sullivan fisks Kristol’s latest on torture and presidential pardons. Obviously, I don’t want to see anyone implicated in torture get away scot free, but focusing on lower-level implementers – rather than the policymakers who implicitly or explicitly authorized their actions – strikes me as a bad idea. CIA agents who participated in waterboarding were [...]
November 21, 2008
Democracy Demotion
Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has some harsh words for critics of democracy promotion:
I’ve seen too many peoples dismissed as not ready for self-government. First it was Asians, and then Latin Americans and Africans were there for a while. I know for a while black Americans were, too.I’ve [...]
November 18, 2008
Thug Life
Given Obama’s well-documented familiarity with hip-hop culture, one hopes he’ll prove more adept at flashing gang signs than our current president.
UPDATE: Link fixed – it’s funny now, I swear.
November 5, 2008
Astounding
An article manages to lament our ill-treatment of Bush without bothering to discuss the merits of his presidency. But don’t worry – in a decade or two, he’ll be seen as the next Truman.
November 3, 2008
The Case for Chilling Out
I’m probably not going to vote tomorrow. I’m also pretty sanguine about my decision. Over the past several months, I’ve had my share of harsh words for both candidates. But despite incessant media hype and the elevation of every minor dispute to world-historical importance, I’m fairly confident our country will continue to stumble forward no [...]
October 28, 2008
Recklessly Invading Iraq Means Never Having to Say You’re Sorry
Having read John Schwenkler and Daniel Larison on how the Iraq War has undermined Republican advantages on national security, I confess I had some hope that conservatives would repudiate Iraq and embrace a more thoughtful approach to foreign policy. Then I clicked over to this McClatchy poll on the presidential race and found that McCain [...]
October 21, 2008
Requiem for an Administration
Boris Johnson coins an appropriate epitaph for Bush’s disastrous tenure:
Democracy and capitalism are the two great pillars of the American idea.
To have rocked one of those pillars may be regarded as a misfortune.
To have damaged the reputation of both, at home and abroad, is a pretty stunning achievement for an American president.
On a related note, [...]
October 20, 2008
Present at the Creation
Andrew Sullivan links to a few of his old posts on Kerry v. Bush from October of ‘04. Whatever one thinks of the man – my own favorable feelings have been somewhat diminished by l’affaire Palin – it really is fascinating to go back to a time when The Corner and The Daily Dish were [...]
October 9, 2008
She Speaks To You
Fresh on the heels of my post on Obama’s intellectual appeal, Victor David Hanson writes:
Wisdom can be, but surely is not confined to, or even assured by, degree certification, rhetorical brilliance, or the ability to talk off the cuff about Niehbuhr — or the wit to write Brooks and advise him about his own ethical [...]
October 7, 2008
The Message
All politics may be tribal, but governance certainly isn’t. At the risk of sounding like David Broder, certain aspects of management – from disaster relief to appointing competent lawyers at the Justice Department – are far removed from our day-to-day ideological battles. This isn’t to say ideology is unimportant; simply that managerial competence and a [...]
September 28, 2008
Surrender! Surrender! But don’t give yourself away . . .
Not since the Cataline Conspiracy has a revolt fizzled out so quickly. Congressional Republicans are sending this gem around to justify their support for a “renegotiated” bailout. Here’s the choicest excerpt:
Myth: Blank check for $700 billion with little accountability.
Fact: In general, the Treasury Secretary is limited to purchasing up to $250 billion outstanding [...]
