Dispatches

They Were Expendable
07.26.2005 05:02 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot. The New York Times is a major lobbyist seeking further deregulation of media ownership from the Federal Communications Commission. But when one of its own was impounded, it's as if it realized, never mind the mergers...

The George Miller Animal House
07.25.2005 12:29 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The Los Angeles Times has a nice profile today of California Rep. George Miller, who--in addition to being one of the more liberal members of Congress, also runs a boarding house for other Democrats who need a place to crash during the week. Miller i...

Shi'ism Schism* a Thing of the Past
07.22.2005 04:59 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot. In "The Iraq war is over, and the winner is... Iran" on Salon yesterday, Juan Cole wrote of Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's visit to Tehran. It resulted in "wheeling and dealing of a sort not seen since Texa...

Department of Improbable Research
07.21.2005 16:33 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Physicists in Hungary have performed a series of quantitative analyses to explain the dynamics of the wave. Not the wave as in the ocean, but the wave as in the vaguely annoying ballgame ritual that forces you to stand up every few minutes while hopefully...

What if John Roberts were John Kerry?
07.21.2005 10:33 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The Daily Kos runs an excerpt from blogger Billmon, who fantasizes about how a Karl Rove-led campaign against John Roberts might unfold: Blasting Roberts as a corporate lawyer is an excellent smear tactic. People hate lawyers. They dislike and mistru...

Peak Oil and Economics
07.20.2005 16:26 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
It's an old story: geologists, biologists and engineers proclaim the impending depletion of some vital resource, and speculate as to the various catastrophes that might ensue. Economists yawn and tell everyone to relax. So far the economists have been...

The Effectiveness of Foreign Aid
07.20.2005 09:26 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
The folks at the Marginal Revolution point us to the current New Yorker, where James Surowiecki makes the levelheaded case for aid to Africa. Yes, money is often stolen. Yes, aid alone is insufficient to end poverty. But no, this does not mean all forei...

Valerie Plame - Desk Jockey?
07.20.2005 08:43 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
More than one conservative pundit has said so, the implication being that her outing just wasn't that big of a deal. Now, however, a bipartisan group of 11 former intelligence officials has released a letter vigorously disputing those claims. The grou...

Can we get 100 mpg?
07.19.2005 09:27 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
This past Sunday's Los Angeles Times had a nice article by Dan Neil about Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs). Neil drove a PHEV Toyota Prius--basically a regular Prius that some rogue engineers had souped up--and got mind-boggling fuel efficiency....

A Good Question
07.19.2005 09:20 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
From the White House Press Briefing: Q: Two years, and [President Bush] can't call Rove in and find out what the hell is going on? I mean, why is it so difficult to find out the facts? It costs thousands, millions of dollars, two years, it tied up ho...

The Iraqnid Cometh
07.19.2005 08:32 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot. When last we left Autumn of the Superpower, Russia and China were planning to hold joint war games. According to Russian President – and enthusiastic (overly perhaps) NFL memorabilia collector – Vladimir Putin, th...

Sidney Blumenthal on PlameGate
07.15.2005 14:28 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
A nice article in Salon.

The Consistency of the GOP
07.15.2005 14:26 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
From Think Progress: Appearing on Fox this morning, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey said the following in regards to his assessment of the growing leak scandal: We’ve got Karl Rove, who is under this constant attack of political ma...

Aviation Tip of the Day
07.15.2005 10:47 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Don't buy a last minute ticket when you have dossiers of the 9/11 terrorists in your carry-on.

Who Really Is Karl Rove?
07.15.2005 05:45 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot. Karl Rove was born in 1950 on Christmas day. We'll leave the question of whether it was God's idea of a holiday gag gift to the earth for another day. Bet you didn't know, though, that he didn't find out the man who rai...

Feds Won't Fund Transit Safety
07.14.2005 12:28 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has told the AP and testified before Congress that states and localities must fund security upgrades for public transportation, because federal money needs to go toward aviation. "The truth of the matter i...

Bush's Legacy: Making Richard Nixon Look Like a Candidate for Mount Rushmore in Comparison
07.14.2005 09:51 | RUSS WELLEN
When the State Department's Office of the Historian declassified its most recent Foreign Relations records on June 28, the press had a field day. The tone of Nixon and Kissinger's conversations ranged from backroom to basement to gutter. In fact,...

Save the Brain!
07.14.2005 05:38 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot. The sight of reporters like NBC’s David “This is ridiculous, Scott” Gregory shaking off the voodoo spell Karl Rove had cast on them has been eliciting be-still-my-beating-heart reactions from political observers....

Party of National Security No More
07.13.2005 09:55 | MICHAEL MANVILLE
Although the White House won't talk about Karl Rove ("sanctity of the investigation" and all that) the rest of the Republican spin machine is in high gear, busily smearing Valerie Plame (career public servant) and Joseph Wilson (also a career public serva...

Living in a Notopia
07.13.2005 09:11 | RUSS WELLEN
From the Dossier of an Ex-Patriot.Charles Shaw, founder and editor of the essential Newtopia Magazine (and a former editor at equally vibrant 3AM Magazine), was recently sentenced to one year in prison for possession of small amounts of marijuana and ecst...