Is anybody listening? More than 1,000 dead U.S. soldiers and $132 billion already spent in Iraq, with insurgents in control of key regions. Bunker Boy’s latest scare tactics. A record federal budget deficit. Medicare data illegally withheld from Congress. Freshly detailed charges of a 9/11 cover-up by the White House. A Bush the Cokehead scandal brewing, with attendant media […]
AMERICAN DREAMER
He’s not the only “impoverished Caribbean orphan who immigrated to the United States,” as the flack for the New York Historical Society describes him in a press release. But I’d bet he’s the only one ever to be given an exhibition by the society. The reason, of course, is that this particular impoverished Caribbean orphan immigrant was Alexander Hamilton. […]
RUSSIAN ROULETTE
Doing it the Putin way, here’s a new approach to the “war on terror”: During School Siege, Russia Took Captives in Chechnya: “Soldiers entered homes of rebel leaders’ relatives and seized 40 people, including children. … One day into the seizure of more than 1,000 hostages by suspected Chechen separatists in the town of Beslan, […]
POST-LABOR DAY HANGOVER
And now for an irresponsible video report from Iraq that might make you laugh. But seriously, without subtitles, take your pick: Thomas Powers on How Bush Got It Wrong: “No tyrannical father presiding over an intimidated household was ever tiptoed around with greater caution than is the figure of President George W. Bush in the […]
PERLE DOES A KENNY BOY
Richard Perle is offering the old “I was misled” dodge to explain his role in the Hollinger “corporate kleptocracy.” We thought Kenny Boy had sucked all the helium out of that stratagem.
SWAGGER AND PREVARICATION
If any further proof were needed after Zell Miller’s pit bull performance the other night that reality and Republicans do not share the same universe, it was demonstrated once again from the podium in Madison Square Garden by a president so proud of his Texas swagger that he inevitably creates the impression of a prevaricating […]
TWO DEMAGOGUES WITH 76 TRUMBONES
The Republican Convention starred two different kinds of demagogues last night: Zell Miller, a pit bull who looked as ugly and vicious as he sounded, and Dick Cheney, an oily conman who played the role of wise old grandpa. But their goal was the same: the character assassination of John Kerry. Miller — who had […]
TOUCH OF EVIL
The report of another “corporate kleptocracy” is making news this morning. It’s not Kenny Boy’s Enron or Bunker Boy’s former company, Halliburton, or any of the no-bid contract players in Iraq. This time it’s Hollinger International, a media company formerly led by Conrad Black and F. David Radler with the connivance of a board of […]
WHERE’S THE BOOZE?
Here, from mild-mannered poet Leon Freilich, is what mild-mannered Laura Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t talk about last night in their speeches to the Republican National Convention: BUSH’S PROGRESS W. triumphed over boozing,Denouncing it as a force he hated;Raising a question not of his choosing:Could sobriety be over-rated?
THE LITTLE FUCKER
And don’t you forget it: “I’m the commander, I do not need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the President. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”— George W. Bush, 2002
READING MICHAEL MOORE’S LIPS
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 […]
WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING
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 […]
REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF
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 […]
THE RUMMY AND THE DUMMY
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, […]
HOW TO GET RICH — NOT
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 […]
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM
MAKE ‘EM PAYHere’s a tip for the TV networksThat’s hardly controversial:Charge the same for politcal conventionsAs for any infomercial.— Leon Freilich
DAVID HOCKNEY: DRAWING BY OTHER MEANS
Now that David Hockney’s controversial theory about the use of lenses and optical devices by Renaissance painters is being disputed again — this time by computer experts, as reported yesterday by the Sunday Herald in Scotland and today by The New York Times — it may be worth revisiting a lecture he gave on the […]