Have a look at the face that launched a thousand slings and arrows. Ain’t it purty? (Scroll to photo.) It’s a reaction shot of the prevaricatin’ prez at the first debate in his real-life role as an Alfred E. Newman lookalike. He appears not to have been separated at birth. John Wayne, talking about his movie career […]

It must be something in the air. Yours truly wrote here (Sept. 29): “If you attack [our prevaricatin’ prez] on everything he’s been wrong about, you appear unfocused and you sound diffuse. But if you narrow your attack to only one or two of his mistakes, you give him a pass on all the others.” Paul […]

Verdict on the first debate: The format didn’t kill the confrontation. Kerry won on points, for substance. If he’d had the wit to shake off his image as a stiff, he might have scored a knockout. He had the prevaricatin’ prez on the ropes, but never finished him off. The prez’s “jes’ folks” style worked […]

Now that “the best debater since Cicero”(1) and the White House dolt who’s “won every debate he’s ever had”(2) have finished their warmups for tonight’s face-off, are we ready for the “naked moments”(3) live from Miami? Will there really be any “naked moments,” instead of stock phrases and mini-stump speeches? Doubtful. But please remember, “We’re […]

American Public Radio’s Marketplace has a great new feature, Power Trips, which gives the lowdown on Congressional travel. Produced by Steve Henn, it tells who has accepted the most trips, and how much they spent. Here’s the top 100. Here’s who picks up the tab. Here are the destinations: “Hideaways tucked up in the mountains. […]

Seven years from now, California will ban foie gras if it comes from force-fed geese. Ahnold found it in his steroid heart yesterday to sign a bill ending “the force feeding of ducks, geese and other birds to produce the gourmet liver product.” The ban is to take effect in 2012. That answers the question: […]

Timothy Noah’s story about the Smithsonian’s new travesty — under the headline “The National Museum of Ben Nighthorse Campbell” — is a devastating account of what’s wrong with the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. He writes: The new museum stubbornly refuses to impose any recognizable standard of scholarship, or even value, […]

The Nincompoop in Chief has been wrong on so much so often — the war in Iraq and the disastrous post-war situation, finding weapons of mass destruction, finding Osama bin Laden, democratizing Afghanistan, retaining European allies, U.S. foreign policy in general, preventing the spread of nuclear weapons via Pakistan, containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and now […]

It’s one of those I-told-you-so mornings. Is Sen. Kennedy and/or his staff reading Straight Up? Doubtful. But I couldn’t help noticing Kennedy’s reference to the “rhetorical double-twisting back flips President Bush performs” in a speech he gave yesterday. He also called our Nincompoop in Chief “the world record-holder for flip-flops.” Earlier this month, an item here, ON FLIP-FLOPS […]

James Wolcott has had it up to here with the mummified pundits: Unlike political pundits, sports guys have to know their stuff and be able to back it up on cross exam; whereas William Safire and Andrea Mitchell can spin cobwebs every time they speak without losing oracle status. Meet the Press had a political […]

Wisdom of the ages from Straight Up’s poet laureate in re: “Hu Takes Full Power in China As He Gains Control of Military.” WWWWW&H, COLUMN B [China’s president is Hu Jintao and its premier is Wen Jiabao.] Confused over WhyChina does what it does,With every wrenching changeLeading to further fuzz? Mystified by HowCapitalism’s sprungSeemingly full-grownLike instant […]

Remember the Endangered Species Menu at THE ENDANGERED SPECIES RESTAURANT in Jackson Hole, Wyoming? I forgot to mention the Wine List. Shameful. Because in many ways it is the restaurant’s greatest attraction. For wine connoiseurs with cultish tastes, the list is short but choice: 1. Genoa Blood Red Chianti, 2001 — Fullbodied, curious coagulants, redolent […]

With the presidential election in the balance, prep talk about Thursday’s debate has entered the realm of the fantastical. The Nincompoop in Chief is praised as “a great debater” by Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe. Even The Washington Post claims the ninny’s got great facial maneuvers: Although “many people recoil at his famous smirk,” the ninny “knows how to […]

A friend writes: Here’s An Excellent Exposition of the Nature, Power, and Value of Rhetoric in a Context of National Importance. It’s an article by Stanley Fish, which is timely beyond words (almost). In speaking of George Bush’s rhetoric, for instance, Fish notes: “There is of course no logical relationship between the repetition of a […]

Test your knowledge of Iraq: 1) Hepatitis is on the march, spread by sewage-contaminated water. 2) Freedom is on the march, spread by the U.S.-led coalition. Correct answers: 1) True In 2003, 70 percent more cases of hepatitis of all types were reported across Iraq than in the year before. During the first six months […]

So much has happened this week that plenty of essential reading went unmentioned here. First on the list: “With Trembling Fingers,” an angry, bitter, and most of all, truthful invective by Hal Crowther, who won the H.L. Mencken Award for column writing in 1993. A former writer for Time and Newsweek, his column has appeared for […]

We should have mentioned the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Here are some images from the opening ceremony. The First Americans Festival continues through Sunday. A friend writes: On Monday, I just happened to be enroute home from a weekend trip and changed planes in Memphis, where more […]