Friday, November 21, 2008

friday news roundup

how will he govern? george packer writes in the new yorker how obama's ideology is, if anything, one of pragmatism more than traditional liberalism or conservatism. he bases this on people who know obama's thinking and reading (what a pleasure itself, a president who reads!)

paleopartisanship? unfortunately the right and left are objecting to attorney general nominee eric holder from their traditional quarters. according to the nation, holder sounds like a bushie in 2002 when claiming national security bureaucrats clinging to their turf should be gotten rid of, and he was also part of the team that helped secure reauthorization of the patriot act in 2005. for the national review, the holder pick signals "a return to the September 10 mentality." quel surprise.

watch 'em squirm: salon has a feature on "the conservative crack-up" in which many of the right's leading luminaries -- and i mean actual smart people like ross douthat and renegades like kathleen parker in addition to blowdried blowhards like tucker carlson -- go round and round the bend on the fate of conservatism in america. it ain't pretty, but ah, sweet sweet schaedenfreude...

niall ferguson may well be the smartest guy out there writing about our current economic woes. he has a long piece in vanity fair which, if you're at all like me with my straight C's in college econ, you'll probably need to read two or three times, but still it's the clearest and most synoptic view i've come across. check out also his long piece from two years ago on the end of the so-called "american century," and his brand spanking new book "The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World" is on my wish list.

"liberal" media? finally, in what should keep inquiring readers busy for months, project censored has issued its list of 2009's top 25 list of censored stories. seriously folks, some of these are devastating, including my favorites:
  • #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation
  • #4. ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America?
  • #5. Seizing War Protesters’ Assets
  • #12. Bush Profiteers Collect Billions From No Child Left Behind
  • #13. Tracking Billions of Dollars Lost in Iraq

2 comments:

tyrone said...

Hey Tom--Nothing to do with this particular blog entry. I'm reading in Buffalo Fri. Jan. 23rd and New York (w/Thom Donovan) Saturday Jan. 24 Was thinking about driving it and if so I'd be coming through Cleveland the evening of Thurs. Jan. 22nd. Any possibility of a bar reading up there?

Tyrone

tmorange said...

quite likely -- will be in touch...t.