The Vexation of Charles Krauthammer
Friday, July 18th, 2008 Posted in Obama, Politics, ressentiment | No Comments »Krauthammer is not talking about his own fascination with Obama here: It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly And that he doesn't grasp that irony really sums up the sad lack of awareness represented by columns like these. Why does the Washington Post run ...
Can Kucinich Impeach?
Friday, July 18th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »We can dream, can't we? The Huffington Post is saying that Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s mission to impeach President Bush is “no longer so quixotic” since Speaker Pelosi suggested the House Judiciary Committee may hear his argument. Here’s what Kucinich ...
Identity Trumps Issues, Part II: The Fetal and the Green (Contra Lakoff)
Thursday, July 17th, 2008 Posted in Politics, abortion, lakoff, paternalism, patriarchy, taxes | 1 Comment »In Part I, I claimed that the relative benefits of McCain's and Obama's tax cut plans are a good study in how it is that voter identification trumps self-interest. Many poor and middle class voters, while they won't benefit from tax ...
Obamacans Unite!
Thursday, July 17th, 2008 Posted in Obama, Politics | No Comments »You have nothing to lose but your souls: I'm a lifelong Republican - a supply-side conservative. I worked in the Reagan White House. I was the chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for five years. In 1994, ...
David Lynch — Watching Movies on your iPhone
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 Posted in Politics, iphone | 1 Comment »SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "David Lynch — Watching Movies on your iPhone", url: "http://www.ketchupandcaviar.com/politics/youtube-david-lynch-on-the-iphone/" });
New Yorker Cover Outrage Syndrome
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 Posted in Obama, Politics | No Comments »The New Yorker cover: There's one thing to be outraged about -- and it's the level of mass hysteria and stupidity evidenced in the general outrage, in the demand that something be so taboo as not even to bear indirect ...
A Visual Guide to Josef Conrad’s The Secret Sharer
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 Posted in Politics, visual guide | No Comments »Visual Guides will be a regular feature on this blog. (And I'll be studying up on ways to do more attractive visuals). I did the following a long time ago, and it assumes a familiarity with the book; but I ...
Identity Trumps Issues, Part I — A Case Study in Tax Cuts
Monday, July 14th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »You might think that Republican voters care about economy policies that benefit them personally, and especially about middle class tax-cuts. After all, the Republican party has been luring them with promises of tax-cuts since the 1920s (why does that decade ...
Satire: a More Effective Debunker than Seriousness
Sunday, July 13th, 2008 Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »This is a mistake: The Obama campaign quickly condemned the rendering. Spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement: The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature ...
FISA 2.0: Linkedin for Wiretapping
Sunday, July 13th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »More confirmation that recent changes in FISA allow for warrantless mass-acquisition of domestic communications: The domestic spying measure approved by Congress last week will impose new rules on government wiretapping. But it will leave largely untouched what some experts say is the ...
Understanding Recent Changes to FISA — A Visual Guide (Flowchart)
Friday, July 11th, 2008 Posted in Politics | 29 Comments »Update -- a followup here ****************************************** I have to admit that despite the fact that I read Glenn Greenwald's blog and have followed his numerous posts on FISA, until recently I haven't fully understand the law or how it recently changed. I think the complexity ...
Bush Tries to Close the Brandenburg Gate on Obama
Friday, July 11th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »The respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper reported this week that a member of the Bush delegation approached Merkel's foreign policy advisor, Christoph Heusgen, at the G-8 summit in Japan to discuss misgivings about Obama's planned speech. The government is also ...
The Sorrows of Old Mac — Birth Control Edition
Friday, July 11th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »Yikes: YouTube - McCain Squirms Out of Answering on Women's Health Care IssueSHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "The Sorrows of Old Mac — Birth Control Edition", url: "http://www.ketchupandcaviar.com/politics/the-sorrows-of-old-mac-birth-control-edition/" });
Phil Gramm: These Whiners Have Nothing to be Bitter About
Thursday, July 10th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »More self-inflicted wounds: "You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said "We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" Source: Washington ...
Alert - Black Man Hangs out with White People
Thursday, July 10th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »Should be the title of this nytimes article. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Alert - Black Man Hangs out with White People", url: "http://www.ketchupandcaviar.com/politics/alert-black-man-hangs-out-with-white-people/" });
On the Other Hand
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »I'm just not sure whether this is true: The fact is that the alternative to Congress passing this bill is Congress enacting far worse legislation that the Senate had already passed by a filibuster-proof margin, and which a majority ...
FISA, Obama, and his Supporters
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »Update: See my FISA visual guide (flowcharts) and this followup on why there's not more outrage about FISA Greenwald on Obama supporters and FISA: Ultimately, it's the sheer glibness of the support for this corrupt and Bush-enabling bill among Obama and his ...
Dr. Faustus Examines Helen of Troy
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »A famous excerpt: Faustus Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?-- Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss.-- [Kisses her.] Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!-- Come, Helen, come, give me my soul ...
Oilman Boone Pickens: The United States is the Saudi Arabia of Wind Power
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Posted in Politics | No Comments »Oilman Boone Pickens -- that's really his name -- is spending his own money on television advertisements for an Energey Plan to save America. You'll be interested to learn that "The United States is the Saudi Arabia of Wind Power," among other things.SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Oilman Boone ...
Access Hollywood Interview with Obama Family
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 Posted in Obama, Politics | No Comments »SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Access Hollywood Interview with Obama Family", url: "http://www.ketchupandcaviar.com/obama/access-hollywood-interview-with-obama-family/" });
