The Editors

POSTED ON TAP ONLINE. In his column this week, Terence Samuel tells Democrats to engage in more Pelosi-in-Syria style diplomacy, while Noy Thrupkaew reviews Iranian director Jafar Panahi‘s new film Offside, a comic take on gender, nationalism, and soccer. –The Editors

TODAY IN TAP ONLINE. David Bacon reports on immigration raids in a pork-processing plant in North Carolina where workers had been organizing. It’s not an isolated incident, he notes. And much of the federal immigration legislation currently being considered would be just as bad for unions as it is for undocumented workers. Read the whole […]

TODAY IN TAP ONLINE. Lotsa stuff today. James K. Galbraith makes the case that populist progressives need to re-think their approach to trade and globalization. In a Washington Post essay published late last year, on the eve of the Democrats’ ascension to the majority, Senators Byron Dorgan and Sherrod Brown articulated a trade policy that […]

TODAY IN TAP ONLINE. Tehran-based reporter Iason Athanasiadis writes about how Iranian reform activists — especially those who agitate for women’s rights — are perceived as “Trojan horses” of Western influence, and so are loathe to accept the assistance of human-rights advocacy groups — even as those groups are able to secure shorter sentences and […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: GEORGE TENET’S TWISTED INTEL. TAP senior correspondent Spencer Ackerman takes a look at George Tenet‘s sneaky new memoir: Let’s just leave “slam dunk” aside for a moment. It’s true that in his memoir, At the Center of the Storm, former Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet goes to elaborate rhetorical […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: THE REAL IRAQ-VIETNAM CONNECTION. Iraq and Vietnam aren’t comparable situations because they’re both military quagmires, Terence Samuel argues, but because they both instilled in the American people a profound distrust of government: Proselytizing comparisons are often unhelpful in actually solving problems, so there has never been much point in comparing […]

POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: SPIDEY SENSELESS. Noy Thrupkaew says that Spider-Man 3 flops in all the predictable blockbuster-sequel ways: clunky characters, ADD-action sequences, and a series of major plot-holes papered over with CGI effects. Plus the horror of a Tobey Maguire hip-thrusting dance scene. Read her whole review here. Despite Noy’s impassioned plea to spend […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: ABRAMOFF’S GO-TO EARMARKER. With a guilty plea from congressional staffer Mark Zachares last week, Sarah Posner reports that the ties between Rep. Don “Bridge to Nowhere” Young and fallen lobbyist Jack Abramoff are looking pretty strong. Will the King of Pork fall just like the Hammer? —The Editors

SITE FOR SORE EYES. OK, it appears that comments are currently completely down for Tapped, as opposed to the normal state of them being glitchy and semi-functional. This is of course a problem, and we’re looking into it. But this reminder of the current, problematic state of our site provides a handy pretext to announce […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: MISSING THE MIDDLE. Fifteen years after the L.A. riots, Harold recalls the chaos and reflects on the city as it exists today: an embodiment of the increasingly two-tier class structure of so many American cities. –The Editors