Blog: TAPPED

POSTCARDS FROM MARS. I was going to call the scenario for Iraq outlined in today’s column by David Ignatius a fairy-tale fantasy, but the column does specifically assure me that the bargains he has in mind “are not a fairy-tale fantasy, as some critics argue.” So who’s right? Well, I am. As my mid-March Iraq […]

CNN VS. TPM. This is really something. First Josh Marshall catches CNN swiping the photo TPM Muckraker posted of Brian Doyle‘s mugshot. Seems CNN accidentally left the “TPM” logo in the picture. Then, when TPM called out CNN on it, CNN posted a new version of the picture on their home-page– apparently scrubbed clean of […]

THE AMERICAN CONSUMER IS NOT A GENIUS. Given the sheer variety and innovation Andrew Sullivan exhibits in an average day’s adjective choices, there’s little doubt that he’s a bright guy. But his understanding of health economics could use a little work. Today, he’s been purring with pleasure over Mitt Romney‘s bill, and doing so for […]

A MORAL IMPERATIVE, INDEED. To add to Matt‘s point about John Kerry‘s op-ed today, I expected that there would be far more interest throughout the liberal blogosphere in the current Los Angeles Times series on wounded soldiers. The series has been extraordinary, a powerful and graphic illustration of Kerry’s insistence that keeping the soldiers there […]

BETTER THAN KIDDY PORN! This wouldn’t be much of a liberal blog if we didn’t note the arrest of DHS press secretary Brian Doyle on various child sex and kiddy porn charges. Obviously, if you’re looking to stay out of hot water with the law you won’t want to be subscribing to any kiddie porn […]

GOOD FOR HIM. No doubt this is far too late to save his 2008 presidential campaign, but today’s op-ed on Iraq from John Kerry is very good. Read it yourself if you want to know the policy details. I especially like that he’s tapped into the old-school Kerry and brought a little outrage: “Half of […]

WHERE’S THE OUTRAGE? Iraq, health care — I’ll let Matt and Ezra address the “important” issues. Meanwhile, what’s with the smear job The New Republic‘s latest cover illustration pulls on Anna Nicole Smith? Noam Scheiber�s actual article is about a go-getter lawyer named Tommy Goldstein and the democratization of Supreme Court litigation in the last […]

UHC COMES TO MA. We’ve got a meeting in a few minutes, so I’ve got to make this quick: Yesterday, Mitt Romney signed a bill bringing universal health care to Massachusetts. The state will now have an individual mandate, subsidization for low-income workers, and a minor penalty against employers who don’t offer health benefits. In […]

DECK CHAIRS, SHUFFLING, SINKING SHIPS. The latest Iraq policy gambit has the US and UK getting behind efforts to remove Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari from office and replace him with someone presumably more congenial to Kurdish and Sunni Arab opinion. As Jim Henley observes this seems to reflect “as much as anything the American obsession […]

JUST POSTED ON TAP: �Viva Aplacamiento! Remember when the Spanish �appeased� Islamic terrorists by withdrawing from Iraq? Two years later, they seem to be doing okay, explains Matt. On a completely different subject, subscriptions are still available. It’s a sweet deal for a sweet magazine. –The Editors