One reason I find some of the grand-standing over WMDs increasingly preposterous is that it comes from people who really want to avoid the obvious: more and more it’s clear that the liberation of Iraq was a moral obligation under any circumstances. People say to this argument that if we depose one dictator for these … Continue reading THE END OF INFANTICIDE I
Took a long weekend, as some of you noticed. The Dish will get more steam up as the day progresses and as my hangover recedes. But I’m traveling today too – back again from Chicago, where Memorial Day was spectacularly beautiful. On breaking stories, Mickey Kaus has the latest on the NYT meltdown. The scandal … Continue reading CHILLING OUT
All the signs are pointing to a serious screw-up. Patience is one thing. But the reporting from the country, including this devastating account from a pro-war writer, suggests that the state of affairs there is spiraling out of control. Even if the voters won’t punish Bush for finding no WMDs, they sure as hell will … Continue reading THE MESS IN IRAQ
The New York Times poll today must be welcome in the White House. Most people, like me, still find this president strong, likable, and focused. But there are two issues on which, in my opinion, the administration is in some denial about its vulnerability. The first is the question of weapons of mass destruction in … Continue reading BUSH IS VULNERABLE I
The New Republic weighs in: The policy Howell Raines and other Times executives were administering when they overlooked these things wasn’t affirmative action; it was the fetishization of diversity, which is a complete perversion of affirmative action. And any fetish–any monomaniacal fixation on a single goal, whether the goal is diversity or proper grammar or … Continue reading RAINES’ RESPONSIBILITY
“I think the direct case against Raines in the Jayson Blair episode is even stronger than the one you make.-This isn’t about an abstract system failure. I don’t even think motivations are the issue.-It’s about specific, arrogant, arbitrary acts by Times executives that defied the Times’ own internal controls.Up to the moment Blair was transferred … Continue reading EMAIL OF THE DAY
Peter Beinart should have the last word on Bill Bennett. (Oh, and I’ll be defending the empowered gambler on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” this weekend. I gave up being a talking head a while back for my mental health. But I figure if I can defend Bill Bennett’s privacy on cable, I should get a few … Continue reading A SLAM-DUNK
Check out this marvelous little gem from the BBC. It’s about Qusay Hussein’s theft of $1 billion from Iraq: It is not known if the money was the personal assets of Saddam Hussein, but the paper says the withdrawal was more than double the amount estimated to have been looted as the regime crumbled. Saddam’s … Continue reading BAGHDAD BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Another spectacular column by Colbert King today on the lingering pockets of urban despair in our major cities, and the apparent inability of the police or our public authorities to do much to help the situation. He’s right that non-profits and voluntary groups are doing the only seriously productive long-term work here, although many cops … Continue reading 17TH AND EUCLID
A friend’s nephew was in the Iraq war and she forwarded me this email from one Captain Jack Murphy (love the name). I liked it better than I did the president’s speech: Because of where and what we were engaged in doing, I was extremely busy and out of contact for a while, so please … Continue reading AN EMAIL FROM THE FRONT
The Dish 