Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2801

The Legacy Media And Torture

This blog, along with others, compiled some anecdotes and research to show how the New York Times had always called "waterboarding" torture - until the Bush-Cheney administration came along. Instead of challenging this government lie, the NYT simply echoed it, with Bill Keller taking instructions from John Yoo on a key, legally salient etymology. Now, we have the first truly comprehensive study of how Bill Keller, and the editors of most newspapers, along with NPR, simply rolled over and b...

Why Frum Changed

He puts it much better than I can in a March column I missed:

I don't think of myself as having gone squishy. I think of myself as
having grown sober. And my conservative critics? On them, I think the
most apt verdict was delivered by Niccolo Macchiavelli, 500 years ago:
"This is the tragedy of man. Circumstances change, and he does not."

Read the whole thing. He has not changed his core principles or beliefs and they remain, as mine do, well within the boundaries of what we might call t...

Another Voice For Medical Marijuana

Montel Williams - in a courageous burst of sanity.
















Medical cannabis - Health - Drugs - Marijuana - Illegal

Kagan's Humor

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She'll charm her way to the nomination at this rate.

Multimedia - Development Frameworks - Hosting - Web Design and Development - Free

Obamanemia

Drum is feeling it. Sprung not-so-much:

Could it be that Obama's moving the country left about as fast and far as it can bear?  Maybe it's selection bias on my part, a comforting personal myth, but I recur repeatedly -- hopefully (ad nauseam?)-- to Frederick Douglass' 1876 assessment of Lincoln: Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult...

Daily Kos's Polls

Are they all bunk? Moulitsas himself believes so.
















Daily Kos - Research 2000 - Statistics - Opinion poll - Nate Silver

Flushing The Gulf?

The first hurricane of the season is disrupting clean-up efforts, but it could be a net gain:

[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spokesman Chris Vaccaro:] said the winds and higher seas may help "weather" the oil,breaking it up into smaller droplets that are more easily consumed bymicrobes. While some weathering occurs in all conditions, he said, amajor storm "helps by stirring up the water and literally pounding awayat it." ... The rainfall may flush marshes and other...

Politics As Total War

When Andrew Breitbart offers $100,000 for a private email list-serv archive, essentially all bets are off. Every blogger or writer who has ever offered an opinion is now on warning: your opponents will not just argue against you, they will do all they can to ransack your private life, cull your email in-tray, and use whatever material they have to unleash the moronic hounds of today's right-wing base.

Yes, the Economist was right. This is not about transparency, or hypocrisy. It's about...

The Palin Model, Ctd: "Sprayin' And Prayin'"

A reader writes:

Maybe this is a quibble. But as the son and grandson of gunsmiths, and a former military expert rifleman, I just wanted to point out how godawful that Palin wannabe's shooting form is. Especially with the pistol: she leans back, doesn't square her stance, and squeezes the trigger indiscriminately before the muzzle is settled. We call that "sprayin' and prayin'".  (Also, I wonder if she or the shooting range had the required federal licensing for that Thompson submachine...

Kagan's Flip-Flop

I'm not sure why anyone is surprised that Elena Kagan now renounces her previous view that hearings for SCOTUS nominees should actually explore, well, anything. This is the most conventional careerist you are likely to meet in a town of conventional careerists - you think she's going to take a risk now? Kinsley notes that this reversal is the only one possible for Kagan, since it is the only legal opinion she has ever really expressed. So the one actual opinion we have from this person with n...