Blog: TAPPED

MY NEW ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUE IS UNSTOPPABLE. Via Atrios, Laura Bush took to the teevee yesterday to offer this glittering insight on the Iraq War: Many parts of Iraq are stable now. But, uh, of course, what we see on television is the one bombing a day that discourages everyone. You know when Iraq was stable? […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: THE HALF-TRILLION DOLLAR SOLUTION. Professor Bruce Ackerman and Congressman David Wu propose a way for Congress to force the president to bring his war to an end: place a fixed cap on his Iraq appropriations: “Fanaticism,” George Santayana famously observed, “consists of redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your […]

DSCC TARGETS FOR 2008. At the risk of beating a dead donkey, here�s part of a recent fund-raising email sent out by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee�s J.B. Poersch, listing the DSCC�s top Senate targets for 2008. Mind you, this isn�t me handicapping the races; these are the DSCC’s targets: Democratic Pickup Opportunities In Colorado, […]

POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: EXECUTIVE OUTCOMES. What’s a president to do when he faces a hostile Congress? As Genevieve Smith reports, he pushes key elements of his agenda more and more through executive orders and regulatory edicts: In fact, such efforts may already be underway. In January, the White House released an executive order updating […]

LET IT BREED. Ben, Mark and Ezra have missed an important point. David Brooks is annoyed with selfish, liberal, urban hipster-parents because if procreating becomes cool, the trend will eventually take the wind out of his “new red-diaper babies” theory. After all, hipster babies grow into kindergarten scenesters (see Cobrasnake photos below) and, eventually, adult […]

OBAMA SWOON WATCH. My friend Michael Crowley at The New Republic was mocking Bossman Bob Kuttner the other day for comparing Barack Obama‘s writing to Thomas Jefferson‘s, among other words of praise. To which I would reply: Have you seen this video at the Obama web site? Twenty thousand people in Texas came out to […]

HOLY SON OF JESUS. Oscar award-winning director James Cameron is working on a new documentary that focuses on the tomb of the alleged son of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. No doubt that Christians around the world will be up in arms about it. The subject of debate is located near Jerusalem. More religious tension in […]

RE: BROOKS. But Mark, that’s David Brooks‘ whole schtick! He hints at progressivism so he can criticize it, proclaims his BoBo-ness so he can mock it, plays up his youth so he can deride the “counterculture.” It is, of course, pure rhetorical affectation. Does anyone think David Brooks’ has spent enough time smearing fluids on […]

SMALL WORLD DEPT. New York newspapers are abuzz today with the revelation that the Rev. Al Sharpton‘s great-grandfather, Coleman Sharpton Snr., was a slave owned by Sen. Strom Thurmond‘s relative Julia Ann Thurmond, with whom the late senator shared a great-great-grandfather. After the initial shock of the news — the story was pushed forward by […]

DAVID BROOKS: THE VOICE OF YOUNG AMERICA. I like Ben Adler‘s headline, “David Brooks Does Andy Rooney…” It captures the most annoying undertone of Brooks’ column on “hipster parents” (which was not totally unfunny — let’s be honest, there are parents who go too far in trying to make their kids into replicas of their […]