Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2572

The View From Your Window

Goshen, Virginia, 6.45 pm

United States - Virginia - User Groups - Lego - Ohio

The First Act Of A Republican Congress?

Josh Green is perplexed by the politics of Obama's proposal for $200 billion in business tax cuts:

It appears unlikely that anything but the small-business bill will
it through Congress before November. A better bet is that
initiatives that Republicans favor will get taken up early
year--meaning there's a good chance that a (probably
Congress will kick things off by passing a massive tax cut
business. And who do you suppose will benefit from that...

Humility And Humiliation

TrailerI know of few writers more interesting, knowledgeable or as engaged on the subject of the war with Islamist terror as Lawrence Wright, whose one-man play will debut on HBO tonight. And here's an insight culled by Scott Horton from an interview with him that seems to me less examined than it should be:

Humility is a highly valued character trait in Islamic culture. When bin Laden's followers praise him, they often invoke this quality. The fact that bin Laden is from a wealthy family...

Remembering The 1990s

Steve Benen warns the GOP:

Republicans have already backed themselves into a corner -- they've
made the president out to be the devil; they've all but ruled
compromising; and they've committed to a path that almost certainly
ends in a government shutdown. GOP leaders may have even deluded
themselves into thinking that they're more popular than Obama (they're
not), and that if a shutdown hurts the economy, they'll avoid blame
(they won't).

Bernstein nods and compares Obama's experiences with...

Game On

Yesterday's speech by the president, if you missed it, was a barn-stormer. Yes, it's the same old, same old pattern: he allows the opposition not just to vent and criticize (as they should) but to control the discourse for months, to drown out every other sound, to vent and crow and vilify and intimidate the cable news weenies into quivering puppies in need of crate-training. And then he comes back with a speech like that one.

I can't for the life of me see how the Democrats retain the...

In His Gut

This from my old friend and former boss Marty Peretz:

I wouldn't close my eyes or our eyes to the increasing number of both naturalized and native-born citizens who enlist in the Islamic terror networks of our time, here and abroad... [A:]mong those Muslims led by the Imam Rauf there is hardly one who has raised a fuss about the routine and random bloodshed that defines their brotherhood. So, yes, I wonder whether I need honor these people and pretend that they are worthy of the privileges of...

An Afghanistan Showdown

Joe Klein looks ahead:

TheAdministration wants to keep Afghanistan on the back burner for thenext two months, until after the election. The military is playing adifferent hand. It will try, via a surreptitious media strategy, to getthe President to delay any policy review, to give a new vote ofconfidence to a failing and deeply flawed, in my view, war strategy.Bob Woodward's new book, an account of the Administration's Afghanistandecision-making process, could well strengthen the military's...

As Summer Ends

Maybe it was the cumulative effect of blogging for a decade but I found words difficult these past three weeks of vacation. Not just writing them, but even reading them. I didn't look at a single news or opinion site online; I barely responded to personal emails; the books I intended to read lay unread. I inhaled the dunes and the air and the sea in so far as my lungs were able to operate at all; smoked a few cigars; admired a few beards; and hacked up more dark-colored phlegm than I can...

The View From Your Window

Provincetown, Massachusetts, 6.38 pm

Massachusetts - United States - Cape Cod - Theodore Roosevelt - Pilgrim Monument

Thanks for Everything

by Conor Friedersdorf

Before Andrew Sullivan returns and I descend back into the realm of the underblogger, I wanted to thank everyone for an enjoyable few weeks, especially those of you who took the time to email feedback. I read every last message I'm sent, and I wish time permitted me to compose lengthy replies to everyone.

Going forward, you're all welcome to contact me any time, whether via my Twitter feed @conor64 or by e-mail at conor.friedersdorf@gmail.com -- and to those who inquired a...