Liberal Talk Radio

Quick. What middle-eastern country with a history of U.S. intervention has actually managed to turn itself into a functioning (if flawed) democracy? Hint: it’s not Iraq. Opponents of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took an early lead in key races in Iran’s local elections, according to partial results announced Monday, with moderate conservatives winning control of [...]

Remember the last time the U.S. intervened in the Horn of Africa? Yeah, that didn’t work out so well. And keep in mind that in ’91, we went into Somalia with the best of intentions, and with a kinder, gentler kind of big-stick diplomacy. There’s trouble a-brewin’ in the Horn again. War looms between Ethiopa [...]

Bruno and I devoted part of our show this week to a discussion of Bush’s latest “build it and then figure out how to pay for it” initiative — the plan to build a permanent moon base by 2024. The ever-eloquent Gregg Easterbrook makes the same points I did about the moon base — namely: [...]

Not to toot my own horn, but Kinsley makes a point in today’s Slate that I made a couple of weeks ago — namely, that the President’s daughters’ bad behavior reflects badly on the President’s commitment to America’s war effort.  Kinsley writes: [Bush's] daughters are over 21, and he can’t control them, but that doesn’t [...]

I really, really wanted to give Bush a chance to be a moderate, and help the Dems pass minimum wage hikes and amnesty for unauthorized US residents. But looks like he’s still campaigning: “When you see a young democracy beginning to emerge in the Middle East, the extremists try to defeat its emergence,” Bush said. [...]

As they say, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree. Amid a growing barrage of front-page headlines, U.S. embassy officials “strongly suggested” President Bush’s twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush, cut short their trip to Buenos Aires because of security issues, U.S. diplomatic and security sources tell ABC News. And while the Blunder Twins [...]

Just back from my Black Friday trip to the shopping mall, readying for Turkey, The Nap (Pt. II), when I saw this bit in the Gray Lady about Bush’s appointment to head family planning at HHS. Before his appointment, Dr. Keroack served as the medical director of A Woman’s Concern, a network of pregnancy counseling [...]

Listening to Bush’s speech this morning. He continues to refer to Iraq as “the central front in the war on terror.” He’s either continuing to prevaricate in the name of saving face, or he’s honestly clueless. I’m going to hope for the later. If it’s the former, there’s a very real chance that resolution to [...]

While America gets its collective knickers in a twist over what our favorite wooden carving of a man said or did not say (or meant to say), we forget (yet again) that, compared to Vietnam — and even Bush Family & Co. v Iraq Pt. I — even the most informed of us have terribly [...]

Fascinating piece in the NYT about the growing (and apparently already widespread) use of hand sanitizer among politicians. As you know, I’m a germ-o-phobe myself. Still, I hate hand sanitizer (and its evil cousin — the sanitizer spray they use at the gym). Why? Purell and its ilk are anti-bacterial. That is, they only kill [...]