The Dish

A story to break your heart.

The book Rumsfeld could have spent a little more time on.

… and Condi Rice. Money quote:

Rice wasn’t just on Chevron’s board when the company was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein, she was in charge of the company’s policy committee, which existed to look for potential political problems.

Uh-oh.

The latest in the US Attorneys scandal from the Seattle Times.

Amory Lovins explains how.

A reader writes:

Not so much accidental Nazi aesthetics as reflecting the influence of Soviet Constructivism. The aesthetics of the "YouTube Propaganda" video echo the iconic style of early Soviet design, such as that of El Lissitsky and any number of classic Soviet posters from the twenties through WWII. Nazi propagandists freely appropriated constructivist imagery, so it’s not at all surprising to see a resemblance. Given the references, I’d be surprised if the aesthetic was a coincidence. It can be viewed as both an extension of the visual rhetoric of Soviet propaganda and a means of portraying the U.S. in terms of fascist iconography.

He keeps getting slicker.

He told Hughie he was a fan.

Sarkozy gives us a reason:

"I want to launch a call to all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, of liberty, of democracy and of humanism, to all those who are persecuted by the tyrannies and by the dictators, to all the children and to all the martyrized women in the world to say to them that the pride, the duty of France will at their sides, that they can count on her. France will be at the sides of the Libyan nurses locked up for eight years; France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt; France will not abandon the women who are condemned to the burqa; France will not abandon the women who do not have liberty. France will be by the side of the oppressed of the world. This is the message of France; this is the identity of France; this is the history of France."

Wow. And Amen.

(Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP/Getty.)

You may have noticed I’ve adopted Matt’s and Ross’s practice of cutting short some of my longer posts with a "Continue reading …" link to the full version. It keeps the blog packed with items and helps it move more quickly. Really long posts tended to crowd out others, and the pace of blogging has meant only a day’s worth of posts can be viewed on one page at the same time. So I’ve made the adjustment. Let me know if you have any objections or experience any problems.