Blog: TAPPED

PROTECTIONISM. If you haven’t already, read Dean on copyright. –Sam Rosenfeld

PLAYING THE RELIGION CARD. Atrios has had a week of posts on religion and its role in politics, and in particular in progressive or liberal politics. Today’s posts are especially interesting, having to do with the proper way of incorporating the religious left into the movement. So sad that the religious right has successfully appropriated […]

CAJUN POLITICS. Last week came the rumor that former Democratic Senator John Breaux may come out of retirement to run for governor, because incumbent Democratic Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco is in a danger of losing re-election. I�ve got a new Salon piece out on the Democrats� declining fortunes in Louisiana. A few key excerpts for […]

CLOSING ARGUMENTS. The prosecution has offered its summation in the Libby trial and the defense is in the midst of its own summation, then Patrick Fitzgerald will offer the prosecution’s rebuttal closing out the afternoon. It is riveting stuff. (Marcy Wheeler‘s liveblogging of them is here, here, and here.) The judge will give the jury […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP ONLINE: FITTING THE BILL. Matt wonders just what it is that makes Bill Richardson‘s presidential candidacy so “unserious,” and concludes that we’ve moved to a “new era in which, to be president, you need to be a famous celebrity.” –The Editors

MATH IS HARD! More evidence for the social construction of women’s “natural” abilities comes in the form of an American Psychological Association study on the impact of sexualized media on girls and young women. Salon‘s Broadsheet blog reports: The report also mentions a particularly fascinating study in which college students were put into dressing rooms […]

DEFINING ROMNEY. Rich Lowry‘s take on Mitt Romney seems very smart: A couple of (uncommitted in ’08) friends have made good points about Romney lately. One was telling me the other day that Romney is the victim of the rules changing. It used to be that it was expected that Republicans would become more conservative […]

EL CRUJIR DE DIENTES. Slate‘s Molly McCloy has a nice little piece today about the common practice in the southern border states of dealing with America’s health care affordability crisis by going to Mexico for medical care. Molly and her parents crossed the border from Arizona in search of elaborate dentalwork, just as my parents […]

NEW FRONT IN WAR ON TERROR: G.O.P. DONORS The AP has just reported the arrest of a donor to the Republican Party — a self-described lifetime member of National Republican Senatorial Committee’s ”Inner Circle” and appointee to the NRCC’s ”White House Business Advisory Committee” has been indicted on terrorism charges for allegedly providing aid to […]

NEWS OR PROPAGANDA? A writer for Britain’s The New Statesman is reporting that the U.S. has completed preparations for an invasion of Iran and that “military operations for a major conventional war with Iran could be implemented any day. They extend far beyond targeting suspect WMD facilities and will enable President Bush to destroy Iran’s […]