Archives for August 2004

The attack on "a disingenuous filmmaker" appears in the prepared text of Sen. John McCain's speech last night to the Republican National Convention. Did he miscalculate by not knowing, as he claims, that the object of his scorn was in the house? Did he not realize his attack would boomerang, as I believe it did, for the TV audience? After Republican delegates erupted in chants of "Four more years!" at McCain's mention of the unnamed filmaker, the television cameras caught sight of Michael Moore in the press … [Read more...]

What does the Nincompoop in Chief really mean? It all depends on the nuance of "I don't think you can win it," his statement about the war on terrorism in answer to a question from the "Today" show's Matt Lauer. Now the AP reports: In a speech to the national convention of the American Legion, Bush said, "We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war we did not start yet one that we will win." ... That statement differed from Bush's earlier comment, aired Monday in a pre-taped television interview, that "I don't … [Read more...]

Because we're recovering from the anemic gathering of protesters in Central Park that followed yesterday's massive anti-Bush march, beautifully described by Robert D. McFadden as "a roaring two-mile river of demonstrators," we leave today's commentary to pop expert Ryan McGee's running account of the really important stuff: last night's MTV Video Music Awards. This not only gives us a rest. It fills a celebrity gap here at ArtsJournal, which chooses not to acknowledge this annual celebration of frivolous cultural attainment and hence dismisses … [Read more...]

They're two for the books. Both are in denial and cannot be believed. Either they're born liars or they've learned how to lie with impunity. Or, to be charitable, they're simply ignorant of their own policies and decisions. THE RUMMY After a week of news stories with these headlines about the Abu Ghraib interrogation-cum-torture scandal, "Inquiry Faults Intelligence Unit for Abuses at Iraqi Prison" and "Report Is Likely to Prompt Criminal Charges" and "A Trail of 'Major Failures' Leads to Defense Secretary's Office" and "Findings on Abu Ghraib … [Read more...]

Message from the Op-Ed editor of a major European newspaper: You have obviously not received the e-mail where I told you that you will not be paid, due to customs regulations within the European Union and to the U.S. Patriot Act. But we will send a nice tablecloth with our company logo. The guy has a great sense of humor. He assures me I'll be paid any minute now. The piece, which he requested, ran more than a month ago. … [Read more...]

MAKE 'EM PAYHere's a tip for the TV networksThat's hardly controversial:Charge the same for politcal conventionsAs for any infomercial.-- Leon Freilich … [Read more...]

A friend writes: Was one of Kerry's wounds to a vital kernel of the frontal lobe? He and the feckless fuckers in his braintrust are handing the country to the insects, and those hungry critters will devour what little of value remains. Quite an achievement. Maybe another medal for the chest of a man with the jawbone and the heart of an ass. -- Thine, Terry Dactyl The formidable Mr. Dactyl apparently agrees with what the redoubtable Kevin Phillips said in the last paragraph of REPORT FROM THE LAND OF IS in May: "If Kerry wants to be stamped … [Read more...]

Remember the mysterious black barge anchored in the Hudson River between the Manhattan and Jersey shores during our Code Orange New Year eight months ago? Well, the barge is back. Make that two of them. And just in time for the National Republican Convention at Madison Square Garden, which will be protected by "the largest armada of land, air and maritime forces ever assembled to provide security at a national political gathering." Our Upper West Side spotter, who checked the barges out yesterday with her binoculars, wonders … [Read more...]

How cozy it all is: Rummy Boy's "leadership of the Pentagon has been weighed by a jury of his peers and found somewhat wanting," The Washington Post reported today. But the conclusion of "the blue-ribbon panel" -- appointed by Rummy Boy to review the role of the Pentagon in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and led by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger -- "does not appear to threaten Rumsfeld's position as defense secretary, especially because all four panel members emphatically rejected the idea of calling for his … [Read more...]

Let's be grateful that Louis Menand did not become a brain surgeon. If he had, he probably would never have found the time to apply his scalpel to intellectual history, as he did in his spellbinding best-seller, "The Metaphyical Club," or as he does in "The Unpolitical Animal," his dissection of how voters think, in the current New Yorker. To get a true sense of Menand's surgical skills, you have to read the New Yorker piece in its entirety. It's short anyway, and a mere summary won't do. But just to whet your appetite, here … [Read more...]

But where? The Army's investigative report of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, to be released this week, names the top U.S. commander in Iraq at the time it all happened -- Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez -- for leadership deficiencies and failing to deal with rising problems at the prison, according to this morning's Washington Post. But Sanchez "will not be recommended for any punitive action or even a letter of reprimand," the Post says. Sy Hersh must be laughing like hell. … [Read more...]

If you've never received an email message calling for a boycott or a petition to sign, you're probably the only one who hasn't. The latest that came to me said that Germany had decided "to stop all arms sales to Israel," followed by similar bans by other European countries, and asked for a retaliatory boycott of travel to and products from these countries, to show support for Israel. The Europeans and their Muslim allies should understand that boycotts works both ways. When we said NEVER AGAIN, we meant it. Europe is stuck in the mentality of … [Read more...]

Systemic failure, the fondly brandished euphemism for failure to take personal responsibility, came in for more bashing yesterday. This time it was the Bush administration's former weapons inspector David Kay who did the bashing. In what Philip Shenon reports this morning as "uncharacteristically caustic remarks," Kay pointed out that "until people and organizations are held responsible" at the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency for the "overwhelming failure" of intelligence in Iraq, he can't see how the … [Read more...]

Anyone with a brain who has ever worked in a corporate setting can appreciate Corinne Maier's complaints that 1) "corporations are not meritocracies," and 2) "work is organized a little like the court of Louis XIV, very complicated and very ritualized so that people feel they are working effectively when they are not." Maier's critique of corporate culture, which comes in the form of what reporter Craig S. Smith describes as "a slacker manifesto," is all about working in France. She is French, after all. But what Maier complains about, which is … [Read more...]

A friend writes: My own Golan Cipel has kept me in stitches for the last 35 years. Over breakfast he alluded to the Newsweek article on Jim McGreevey, "Gov. McGreevey's affair to forget." He said it should have been subtitled: "The Down Low -- It's Not Just a Black Thing Anymore." [See the Down low blues or J.L. King's "On the Down Low."] By the way, the first "standing [different strokes] governor" to come out of the closet is not McGreevey, but WAS Lord Cornberry, Governor of East and West Jersey and New York, circa the late 1600s. A major … [Read more...]