Phoebe Connelly

With the rehabilitation of George W. Bush through the largely flattering coverage of his memoirs, the stage is set for the resumption of the Bush dynasty. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida is keeping his powder dry. He mostly disclaims any interest in running for president in 2012 but manages to keep the door open […]

Mark Schmitt says progressives may have lost this election — but conservatism and the Republican Party are hardly stronger for their success: Many pundits, from the right to the center, will write this morning that Obama misjudged the country, that it’s still more conservative than it appeared to be in 2006 and 2008. Unlike some […]

Gabe argues convincingly that “Rally to Restore Sanity” is a chance for “young people to express the frustration we feel.” Who cares if it is satiric, or substance-less, so long as it is cathartic? I’m all for getting people enthused, and certainly for expressing frustration with the dog-and-pony show of modern politics. But the Stewart […]

On Sunday, David Carr profiled The Awl, a news and culture site started by two former Gawker-ites. One of the co-founders, Choire Sicha, tells Carr: “Writers who work on the Web are taught to flee whenever the guy from business side comes around. But we can build all the nice little audiences we want, somebody […]

Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature today. Why should you read him? The committee praised Vargas Llosa for “his cartography of the structures of power and his trenchant images of the individual’s resistance, revolt and defeat.” His first novel, The Time of the Hero (I’ve always preferred the Spanish […]

For this video. We promise, it’s the best 10 minutes of Internet-meme catch-up you’ll ever do. Cache Rules Everything Around Me from Evan Roth on Vimeo.

Ann Friedman went to Saturday’s Glenn Beck rally and wrote about it for Longshot magazine. The real America snorts. It is absolutely certain it will not be counted today. Have you seen that there are people all the way to the Washington Monument? When Glenn says, “I just got word from the media that there’s […]

Via Barry Estabrook: if you’re in the Northeast, you should make a point of going to the Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum as it tours over the next month. (Full schedule here.) The museum is a project of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a workers-rights group that has been fighting for fair conditions for migrant […]

Or, at least, our deputy editor does. The two-minute TV hit has its problems, but watch the clip for Ann‘s take on why Twilight is the film of the summer. And on a more serious note, the Washington Independent’s Annie Lowrey (whom you should have in your RSS) talks GOP obstruction on unemployment benefits. Watch […]

Vice President Joe Biden lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. (Army/Jacqueline Leeker)