Archives for February 2006

Not too long ago the idea of comparing the American misadventure in Iraq with the Vietnam War was strictly limited to anti-war activists. To mention Iraq and Vietnam in the same breath made neocons roll their eyes, and even pro-war establishment liberals wouldn’t hear of it. How things have changed. Stephen Biddle in the March/April […]

A friend writes, The ones who don’t enjoy themselves, even when they laugh. Oh yeah. The ones who worship the corporate image, not knowing that they work for someone else. Oh yeah. The ones who should have been shot in the cradle… Pow! Oh yeah. The ones who say “Follow me to success, but kill […]

Iraqi death squads doing America’s dirty work? Sunni genocide, hasn’t it? In public, “Police Tied to Death Squads” shows, possibly without meaning to, how contradictory and difficult the distancing is: Leading Sunni figures have blamed the reprisals on Jabr. … In a recent interview, Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Peterson, who is leading the multibillion-dollar effort […]

The subject of torture is latest Abu Ghraib photos obtained by Salon, but in “The Memo,” Jane Mayer’s latest exposé, which pins the blame on a gang of war criminals running the U.S. government. So before it disappears into the past, here’s a must-see: “A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to […]

It was Some anxious-looking patriot paddles up, identifying himself as the Washington correspondent of The New Yorker bringing tidings of comfort and joy: namely, that if the Little Calumet were the Volga I’d be up to my ears. And paddles away as contentedly as if he’d really done something for me. He hasn’t done a […]

Cheney Boy’s 78-year-old reported by the Associated Press, “His voice was a bit raspy, but strong, and he had what appeared to be a line of scarring on his upper right eyelid and scrapes on his neck.” This is what he said: “I regret that I couldn’t have been here earlier so you could see […]

Before the week is out I want to clarify an issue of burning interest to film hogs, critics, scholars and other lower forms of life. There seems to be a sudden interest in “deep focus” and its original Hollywood practitioners. It’s a simple cinematic technique, and yet its history and meaning are somewhat misunderstood even […]

From his Mother Goose: This is the rat, That ate the malt That lay in the house that Jack built. Postscript: And now for the topper:

The stuff coming out of the White House is too funny to stop. Coupla hunnerd proof at least. Can’t help it. Here’s more: he loves the smell of gunpowder. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

I dunno who Don Krupp is, but I say give him an op-ed column. His letter to the editor in this morning’s New York Times works for me: To the Editor: Re “No End to Questions in Cheney Hunting Accident” (front page, Feb. 14): The debacle of Vice President Dick Cheney’s misfire while quail hunting […]

“minor heart attack” he suffered or from any other injuries he sustained as a result of being accidentally shot, can Cheney Boy be charged with negligent homicide? If so, will he be? And if that were possible, would it be too much to ask Cheney Boy’s victim to give his life for the good of […]

Before the record blizzard of ’06 disappears into the murk of history, I want to let everyone know that I’m alive and well. One friend out West, hearing about “da big blow,” messaged me: “I hope you’re comfortably dug in for the duration. Thass lotsa white stuff. Coraggio!”

Ron Lauder is liable to be bent out of shape by a story in The Forward today. It nails the billionaire business mogul-cum-philanthropist’s deceptive, contradictory, and hypocritical stance on the restitution of Nazi-looted art as 1) a prominent collector who may or may not own some of it, 2) a former treasurer of the World […]

Here’s what a friend calls hems and haws, what Sam Harris calls threats to press freedom on both coasts, what David Ehrenstein calls fait divers à la Cronenberg, continuation, what Filmstrip International calls The Battle for America (also a video). Postscript: Uh, dint mean to forget popcult maven Ryan McGee’s PPS: Regarding the first link […]

So Cheney Boy’s ventriloquist dummy (the Alberto Gonzales). That’s been clear from the time Gonzales was appointed attorney general. But it was never clearer, right down to the crooked grin, than it was in And as long as I’m posting today — when the regime has just released a The cost of the Iraq war […]

Muslim rioters offended by the 12 cartoons of Mohammed first published in Denmark — I’m quoting that from a friend’s e-mail message, though I don’t know where the information originated. But I think it’s reliable or I wouldn’t be posting it. The message came with an attached image, left, which shows a miniature of Mohammed […]