Liberal Talk Radio

Bruno’s been talking a lot lately about Rummy’s distinct squeamishness when it comes to announcing criteria for success. As anyone who’s ever run an organization knows, without stakeholder-approved metrics, any business decisions quickly devolve into a nasty “he said, she said.” The strongest (man, usually) wins, and there’s ultimately no way to tell whether or [...]

Has anyone wondered if maybe the reason the White House isn’t getting anywhere with their proposals for Social Security “reform” is because they’re only talking to people they already agree with? Seriously, if you make these events invite-only, if you pre-screen so that only supporters show up, doesn’t that, um, undermine the whole purpose, which [...]

He gets it: But to my mind, the hysterical attacks on Durbin and now this outburst (and the White House’s subsequent endorsement of it) are an indication of some level of panic. We face at least three more grueling years of warfare in Iraq with our current troop level, and it’s not at all clear [...]

I tend to support Cap and Trade models for reducing greenhouse gasses. In a nutshell, here’s how it works: Companies in a specific industry get a set of “pollution credits.” If they pollute more than they’re allowed (the “cap”), then they have to buy more credits from competitors. If they pollute less than the cap, [...]

As someone who hasn’t watched basketball in years, I want to give a hearty shout-out to the Pistons and Spurs, who put on one of the most entertaining Finals I’ve seen in a long time. Okay, so I admit that until the Pistons/Lakers last year, I hadn’t actually WATCHED the Finals in about a decade [...]

My favorite Republi-hack, David Brooks (who, to his credit, does a remarkable job of actually sounding intelligent while blindly following the leader), writes about the latest polls showing rapidly declining support for US involvement in Iraq. Brooks writes: “I can’t believe majorities of Americans really want to pull out and accept defeat” Brooks then goes [...]

Now we know what Conlin was talking about! In an article focusing on the new high cost of building and financing the Monorail, we read this gem in the 14th graf: State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a nonvoting member of the monorail board, said recent messages to SMP board members are still running 2-to-1 in favor [...]

David Brooks quotes FDR: Biden’s speech brought to mind something Franklin Roosevelt told the country on Feb. 23, 1942: “Your government has unmistakable confidence in your ability to hear the worst, without flinching or losing heart. You must, in turn, have complete confidence that your government is keeping nothing from you except information that will [...]

“Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror,” Donald Rumsfeld said in a famously leaked memo some 20 months ago, when America had barely heard of Howard Dean, and when the Iraqi insurgency was…well…, “in its last throes.” In June of 2005, with the War in [...]

The techies among you probably saw this long ago: Craigslist transmitting postings into deep space. In an age of GM foods, business jargon on steroids, and joyless, frightened masses voting in lockstep to shoot themselves in the ass, this kind of earnest silliness is one of the few things that gives me hope for the [...]