Blog: TAPPED

THE POLITICAL IS POLITICAL. This Time column by Caitlin Flanagan is, indeed, all kinds of bad. Amidst all the usual tropes common to the unfortunate “the party left me, I didn’t leave the party” op-ed subgenre, there’s a particular claim by Flanagan in here that’s really comically disingenuous. Flanagan says her new collection of essays, […]

TAKE TWO. Let me try to explain this again. I was quoting Concerned Women for America. They and other conservative groups have, in recent years, written extensively about why even “perfectly ordinary hookers” should be considered slaves, and they have hailed President Bush for his leadership on this issue. According to Elaine McGinnis of the […]

IT’S ONLY CORRECT IF IT’S TRUE. Well, no, I wasn’t really kidding about not seeing why commercial sex adds wrongfulness to allegations of corruption. Stipulating that taking bribes is bad; I don’t see why taking bribes in the form of free hookers is worse than taking bribes in the form of money. Nor do I […]

ROZEN HEARS THINGS. Folks will want to be checking out Laura Rozen‘s blog right about now for the latest on Porter Goss. She’s hearing things. –Sam Rosenfeld

WHERE’S THE BEEF? There is a lot of good material in The New Republic‘s Darfur package and I don’t want to sound churlish. But one of Mark‘s points deserves some emphasizing. In eight articles dedicated to the subject and collectively dedicated to building the case for armed American action in Darfur, not one of them […]

THE CORRECT PHRASE IS SEXUAL SLAVERY. There�s lots of talk on the liberal blogs about Porter Goss‘s sudden resignation as director of the CIA and whether it has anything to due with the burgeoning investigation into the prostitution/congressional corruption/homeland security contracting scandal centered around Brent Wilkes and deposed Congressman Duke Cunningham. ThinkProgress, as usual, has […]

HOOKERGATE’S FIRST VICTIM! I have absolutely no evidence to support this, other than the fact that it involves the CIA, but since everyone else is speculating that Porter Goss‘s resignation has something to do with the Wade/Wilkes/Cunningham/Foggo/limos/hookers nexus, why shouldn’t I join the party, too? But instead of all this unwarranted speculation, how about tossing […]

MEDIA WARRIORS. The New York Observer media blog The Transom issues a declaration of war against Salon. Much hilarity sure to ensue. This item explaining the declaration, though, is right on: WHEREAS, Ms. Walsh cannot perceive what Observer senior editor Tom Scocca has since dubbed The Inverse Dean Scream Effect�the inverse part being that the […]

ANONYMITY VS. PUBLICITY. In the wake of Michelle Malkin‘s irresponsible decision to publicize the names and contact information of two University of California Santa Cruz students, leading to a barrage of hateful calls to them, a new online coalition of bloggers, has created a “Statement of principles” defending “basic decency” online. Spearheaded by Josh Trevino […]

DEMS ARE — GASP! — STAYING ON OFFENSE. It was refreshing to read the toughly worded statement DSCC chief Chuck Schumer put out today about the AP poll which showed far more Americans want Democrats to run Congress. Said Schumer: The chickens are coming home to roost. An administration that is incompetent on both domestic […]