August 25, 2003
Monday Reading
And taking a brief break in the 'All Dean, All The Time' blogging of the last few days (not that there's anything wrong with that), it's time to catch up on my reading:
Liberal Oasis breaks down the Sunday talk shows, which showed a clear trend towards bipartisan criticism of Bush's handling of Iraq.
Joe Conason takes on Chris Matthews' estimate of just how many times Ann Coulter came on his show to promote her book.
Notes on the Atrocities talks about today's bombings in Mumbai and their historical context, and just below that are Emma's impressions of Bush's recent visit to Portland.
Al-Muhajabah discusses the treatment of Palestinians in Saudi Arabia, noting that the solidarity extended to Palestinians in word is often lacking in follow through. The post was spurred by a recent case where a Palestinian from Saudi Arabia petitioned for asylum in the US.
skippy has more on the Portland Bush protests.
Pen-Elayne on religious freedom.
Ruminate This discusses the chances of an independent Clark candidacy, and (this is a relink, but too important not to) tells us how to voice opposition to the PATRIOT act.
Nathan Newman talks about why it would be a good idea to raise minimum wage to $8/hr, and draws our attention to one of the best cases yet for why we need affirmative action: "a white criminal gets more job interviews than a black person with no record at all."
Estimated Prophet vents full steam on George Will, but has included in the piece some interesting notes on fascism. A long read, but good stuff.
Avedon catches up on her reading and then swings into a discussion of tax cuts and her interpretation of political labels. And in a post I'd previously missed, we get this Arlo Guthrie inspired tribute to "Fair and Balanced" Friday.
DailyKos on the regrouping of the Taliban, progress for gay rights in corporate policy, and points us to riverbend's take on what it's like to be a woman living in Iraq.
Magpie points up flawed EPA reports in the wake of 9-11 regarding air quality in New York, and gives us her impression of the Portland Dean rally.
Theresa Nielsen Hayden finds an especially frank neighborhood selector, and what may be the oldest known 'resistance is futile' depiction of menacing aliens.
Teddy posting at It's Still The Economy, Stupid, discusses some of the issues involved in upgrading the national power grid, and what a real recovery would look like.
Digby has quite the Wesley Clark post up at the blog, keying off an article in Esquire. Money Quote, emphasis mine: "In other words, he is the man who George W. Bush is pretending to be."
Dave Pollard, who talks a lot about building communities, is actually participating in his own. However, as a big Buckminster Fuller fan, I disagree with his suggestion that the planet needs fewer people in order to pull off the broad increase in quality of life he advocates. The history of progress has always been to do "more and more with less and less."
Tom Tomorrow finds that the media is finally noticing that yes, the Bush administration lies a lot.
Billmon finds a Scott Ritter article on the Frank Drebbin style mishandling of the Iraqi government's records for their weapons programs, and points up Al-Qaida's new fascination with Iraq. Also, an archive repost of a terrorist real estate listing spoof.
Shock and Awe discusses a disturbing story about a racially charged attack on a black student in California, and posts about Donald Rumsfeld's interview with a 9-year old. Money Quote: "Abizaid: That’s the hardest question you’ve gotten all day Mr. Secretary."
Dwight Meredith finds some good news about life extension research, which he probably needed badly to read after writing the post immediately below, which discusses the death of a young autistic boy at a church service.
Seeing the Forest brought us last Friday's sneak announcement by the Bush administration, the people who routinely release awful things just as people prepare to stop paying attention for the weekend. Loads of good stuff below, so scroll down a ways.
Body and Soul discusses the difficulties involved with dismissing the entire Iraqi army.
Talk Left brings our attention to the Mother Jones article on the right's new fascination with the idea of promoting a war on 'narco-terrorism'. I guess if you fail in the War on Drugs, and then fail in the War on Terror, if you combined the two then maybe it only counts as failing at one war?
Posted by natasha at August 25, 2003 03:45 PM | TrackBackThanks for the link to Estimated Prophet. That was a fantastic post. Although I struggle as hard as I can to avoid declaring in print that I despise anyone, George F. Will's columns and public pronouncements have revolted me my entire life.
Also, I'm totally with you about population. The real problem is not (normally) with the global population; it's with patterns of consumption, and in the case of land use and water, with patterns of production. The debate about population growth often has a pointless preoccupation with behavuior modification in the regions least susceptible to it, in the least effective way.
Posted by: James R MacLean on August 26, 2003 02:50 AMThe thing is that people don't realize what a revolutionary effect our use of our technical know-how can have.
It used to be that over 90% of the populace worked at food production. In the developed world, only 6% does so. If we can accomplish that, if we can build stealth aircraft, put people in space, put people on the ocean floor, build skyscrapers, and get more processing power in a tiny Sony Vaio than we used to be able to get out of a room full of vacuum tubes... If we can do all that, and much of it just in the last century, then we can d*mn well figure out how to sanely allocate our resources so that none of us have to starve or live in squalor.
And if we manage that, the intellectual capital and human potential that will be released will catapult us to heights of achievement that we never dreamed could be possible. We just need to believe in ourselves, and in each other, and raise our expectations every single day.
Posted by: natasha on August 27, 2003 01:27 AM