Andrew Sullivan's Blog, page 2852

The Deepwater Horizon Speech Reax, Ctd

A reader writes:

For whatever it's worth, I'm a native of and currently live in Louisiana, about 20 miles outside of New Orleans. My dad is a Cajun river rat in the truest sense, born and raised in Southeastern Louisiana. His father's native language is Cajun French -- literally, he had to learn English as a boy. My dad has never fished commercially, but it defines his out-of-work, weekend persona -- it dominates his spare time. He often talks about a dream life living in a shack somewhere...

O'Reilly Pwns Palin

A moment of truth on the Factor:

First, [O'Reilly:] challenged Palin by saying, "49% of Americans still want BP
to run the show and only 45% want the government to run the

If you stop the video at about the 3:00 point, you can see the look
of dismay on Palin's face, followed by nervousness, moments after he
said that, as she must have realized this was not going to be the kind
of cakewalk she has

O'Reilly went on to ask, "What is your...

Mercede Backs Levi On Palin's Calling Trig "Retarded"

Here's the relevant blog-post:

Have I ever seen Sarah Palin refer to Trig as the "retarded one"?

No I have not personally heard her use that term, but I do remember my brother twice coming home and telling me about it.

So we now have independent confirmation that Palin, after making a huge song and dance about the use of the word "retarded" by Rahm Emanuel to describe - metaphorically - some Democrats, referred to her own Down Syndrome son - literally - as "retarded" in front of him at...

The Deepwater Horizon Speech Reax

Josh
Green:

What
stood out was that for all his praise of the House climate bill and talk
about the "consequences of
inaction" and so forth, not once did he utter the phrase, "It's time to
put a price on carbon." And that suggests to me that this speech was
primarily about containing the damage to his administration,
and was not the pivot point in the energy debate that many people were
hoping for.

Drum:

The whole point of a prime time Oval Office speech (transcript here)is that it...

Netanyahu Moves?

A shift on the blockade:

The prime minister told Blair that he never thought the
blockade as constituted was particularly wise, as he understood that
the civilian population, and not Hamas, bore the primary brunt.

"It's important for me to have a policy that I can defend before the
world," Netanyahu told Blair.

Hamas - Tony Blair - Prime minister - Middle East - Benjamin Netanyahu

Trying To Understand The Tea Party, Ctd

Kevin Drum counters J.M. Bernstein's dependency theory with polls showing that tea-partiers are wealthier than the average American. He concludes that the current movement is nothing new:

[T:]hey're the usual reactionary crowd that goes nutswhenever there's a Democrat in the White House and they're looking forsomething to be outraged about. And right-wing media and the RepublicanParty have decided (correctly, I think) that banging on about thedeficit is a handy way to gin up opposition to...

The Holocaust's Enduring Impact

Here's a fascinating study on the correlation between areas of the former Soviet Union that were the most aggressive in the mass murder of Jews in the 1940s and subsequent levels of economic growth. Yes: genocide is not good for prosperity - although this is possibly the most absurd standard by which to judge such evil.
















Soviet Union - Holocaust - Jews - History - Mass murder

The Speech

I guess I am not feeling the same visceral stuff that Maureen is tapping into, but I did not watch the president's Oval Office speech last night. I did not feel the need to be reassured that the feds and BP are doing all they can to stanch this open wound and deal with the awful, ongoing clean-up and consequences. And I did not expect a detail-specific rallying cry for climate change legislation, however much I would have liked to hear it. You don't issue a rallying cry of that kind from...

Fallows Bait

Chinese companies are paying white men to pose as fake businessmen to burnish their global profile.
















White people - Chinese - China - Ethnicity - Asian

How Not To Respond To New Media II

First a congressman assaults an amateur reporter, now a verbal assault from the NYT's James Risen, who caught flak for his story on Afghanistan's mineral bonanza:

"Bloggers should do their own reporting instead of sitting around in their pajamas," Risen said. "The thing that amazes me is that the blogosphere thinks they candeconstruct other people's stories," Risen told Yahoo! News in anincreasingly hostile interview that he called back to apologize foralmost immediately after it ended. "Do...