BUSH AND ROOSEVELT, EMPIRE AND HISTORY. Karl Rove, it seems, thinks Bush‘s foreign policy is modeled on Teddy Roosevelt‘s. Ross Douthat sees irony: It’s funny, because so far the military conflict that the Iraq War most resembles isn’t Vietnam or World War II, but the TR-boosted Spanish-American War – a quick and painless military victory […]
Matthew Yglesias
Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.
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The Blogofascistas
First they came for Joe Lieberman, and I did not speak out — because I was not Joe Lieberman. Then they came for the liberal hawks, and I did not speak out — because I was not a liberal hawk. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak out […]
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A DESERT WIND…
A DESERT WIND AND A PERVERSE DESIRE TO WIN. For a while over the weekend, it looked like the Bush administration stumbled into a golden ticket out of Iraq — a draft national reconciliation plan written by Iraq’s prime minister that, among other things, called on the United States to develop a timetable for withdrawal. […]
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ASSYMETRICAL WARFARE. I…
ASSYMETRICAL WARFARE. I wanted to highlight something Ezra passed along from the breakfast with Grover Norquist: “The left, he argued, shouldn’t seek to simply mimeograph the right’s structure — CAP for Heritage, Media Matters for Media Research Council, etc. ‘You don’t have to have the same weapons in politics because both aren’t structured the same.’” […]
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A MAN, A…
A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, IMPERIALISM. I hate to ruin a good suggestion about political messaging with a lefty observation that Democrats should arguably refrain from making, but I think Josh Marshall is mistaken about this: Let’s work through a bit of this. If the president had a plan for success he would say, […]
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INORDINATE FEAR OF…
INORDINATE FEAR OF COMMUNISM. The harder I think about it, the less I understand why Bill Perry and Ashton Carter want to bomb North Korea to stop them from testing the Taepodong 2 missile. They say we don’t need to worry that the DPRK will retaliate since “an invasion of South Korea would bring about […]
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HOUSES, POX ON….
HOUSES, POX ON. The really great thing about the Daily Kos versus New Republic war is that the more each side opens their mouths, the worse you think of them. Markos‘s initial impulse to stay silent in the face of Chris Suellentrop‘s allegations seemed sound. Suellentrop didn’t really have the goods. Let some time pass […]
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SOFT BALANCING. In…
SOFT BALANCING. In an important post on the TNR soccer blog, Alex Massie notes that it’s not just the World Cup we’re losing, American performance in international athletic competitions generally has been poor in recent years. He asks, “So what, fellow Goal Posters, is it about the United States that makes this country so apparently […]
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FUN WITH INFLATION….
FUN WITH INFLATION. Man, monetary policy is the most boring subject ever. Nevertheless, it’s utterly, crucially important to people’s lives. Ergo, it’s worth pointing out that Robert Samuelson‘s column on why we must fear inflation is bunk. As he notes, the trouble with inflation is “that inflationary psychology, once embedded in price- and wage-setting practices, […]
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WHEN PRINCIPLE MATTERS….
WHEN PRINCIPLE MATTERS. See, man, you try to insert a little nuance into your argument and the young punks jump all over you. But here’s the rub — on issues that are going to be before Congress one way or another, principles don’t really matter. Does Joe Lieberman really think the Employee Free Choice Act […]
