Rick Perry flubbed the CNBC debate when he forgot his own talking points. He had campaigned on abolishing the Commerce, Education and Energy Departments. But he could only remember the first two at the debate. Me, I think it was a bad conscience that produced the gaffe. Perry is in the back pocket of Big […]
Archives for November 2011
Iraq, Iran and the Nuclear Phantasm: We’ve Seen this Picture
Nuclear issues are so complicated that the public is easily misled and frightened by nuclear demagoguery. That is why the new International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran’s nuclear program will be hyped endlessly. Iran is a theocracy in which the Supreme Leader has said that nuclear weapons are forbidden in Islamic law. In the […]
Netanyahu a “Liar”: Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy was recently overheard talking to President Obama and complaining that he couldn’t stand Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whom he called a “liar.” President Obama didn’t seem in a hurry to defend Bibi, who has in fact had a long history of prevaricating. His biggest lie? That he wants a “peace […]
Greenwald: Koch Brothers Fund Voter Suppression for Minorities, Elderly, Students
Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films exposes the most aggressive interference in the ability of Americans to vote since sheriffs in the Deep South stopped giving African-Americans that Latin exam. The number of states in which there has been a tightening of voter i.d. requirements, which are arguably unconstitutional, has tripled in recent years. Obviously, the […]
Iran Looks to China, Russia to Break out of US Sanctions
The four rounds of United Nations Security Council sanctions on Iran are likely about as far as Russia and China are willing to go. Even the new charges against Iran apparently contained in the forthcoming International Atomic Energy Agency report (which do not rise to the level of accusing Tehran of having an active nuclear […]
Newt’s new Crusade against the Arab Spring
Newt Gingrich’s poll numbers and fund-raising have improved recently, as the GOP faithful continue their quest for an ABM (not anti-ballistic missile but “Anyone but Mitt”). Gingrich in turn has begun trying out talking points again, which is good for pundits and stand-up comedians, but bad for everyone else. In his most recent foray on […]
Godzilla Carbon Emissions in 2010 Unprecedented
The spike in carbon emissions in 2010, a 6% increase over 2009, was so humongous that the scientists measuring it initially thought that there must have been a mistake somewhere in the measurements. Tom Boden, head of the Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center in Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, is quoted by […]
Berube on Libya and the Left
Michael Berube does a post-mortem on Libya and the Left, and what he finds is not a pretty picture. Woolly thinking, outrageous lies, moon-eyed Qaddafi-worship, false equivalences, and simplistic proxies for actual thought abound.
Israel’s Strangulation of Gaza by the Numbers
The Israeli navy illegally interfered with Gaza aid ships on the high seas, Friday, kidnapping the people on the two vessels and sending the ships involuntarily to an Israeli port. The Geneva Convention of 1949 on people in occupied territories forbids their mistreatment. Israel’s strangulation of Gaza by the numbers: Truckloads of goods per year […]