I have a big tent policy when it comes to global warming. I’m a long, long way from being an expert, so I’ll take anyone’s opinion seriously, even if they are widely suspected of being ideological or partisan hacks. Which is my back-handed way of saying that I’m about to take Paul Krugman seriously, even though I would only do so under exceptional circumstances. Here’s the opening graf from his cover story in the NYT Magazine: If you listen to climate scientists...

I disagree with David Brooks’ comments from late last week: JIM LEHRER: What about the announcement today by Bart Stupak, the moderate Democrat from Michigan… DAVID BROOKS: Right. JIM LEHRER: … who said he is not going to run again? Of course, he was very much involved in the abortion issue during the debate. Should he be seen as a victim of the health care reform debate? DAVID BROOKS: I think so, and the evacuation of the moderates. He is a member of Congress, of whom there used...

Birther stories are generally worth ignoring, regardless of whether they’re about Barry or Trig. But this one really got under my skin: An Army flight surgeon could face reprimand or dismissal from the service after stating in an online video that he’ll refuse deployment to Afghanistan because of concerns he has about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, chief of primary care for the Pentagon’s health clinic, released a statement through the American Patriot...

Reihan Salam and Josh Barro [subscription required]: Few conservatives have distinguished themselves in the course of this debate. The unwillingness of the congressional GOP to line up behind the McCain plan [from 2008], a tough and serious proposal to move toward health-insurance coverage based on individual ownership, was an early mark of unseriousness. During the 2009–10 debate, rather than articulate a compelling narrative that accurately describes the sources of crippling cost growth, most...

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another episode of the fundraising follies. Today, I got a letter in the mail from Sean Hannity, soliciting funds from the Heritage Foundation. I learn from Sean that “the axis of Obama-Pelosi-and-Reid” has: Crippled our free-market economic system through the government’s takeover and control of private businnesses, punishing regulations, favoritism and tax hikes. Really? Crippled? Crippled is like a beggar in the streets of Mumbai...

This past Sunday, David Gregory cut off Christina Romer, head of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, when she strayed too far from reality: MR. GREGORY: You mentioned the stimulus as a huge effort by this administration to deal with people who are out of work and to deal with a recession. And yet, again, I go back to members of the president’s own party raising concerns about just how effective it’s been… Would you concede that it didn’t do as much as you thought...

I agree with Doug. This video is worth watching. But it must be watched very carefully. The video shows Iraqi men, some of them armed, being gunned down by an American helicopter. Two of the men turned out to be photographers for Reuters. The video was captured by a camera on the helicopter, and has been released by Wikileaks, on a website it calls collateralmurder.com. The video includes significant commentary from Wikileaks, intended to supports its accusation of murder. Yet based on the...

Yesterday, the NY Times Book Review devoted its cover to a pair of novels about the war in Vietnam. One dates back to the war itself: Karl Marlantes’s first novel, “Matterhorn,” is about a company of Marines who build, abandon and retake an outpost on a remote hilltop in Vietnam. According to the publisher, Marlantes — a highly decorated Vietnam vet — spent 30 years writing this book. It was originally 1,600 pages long; now it is 600. The book often dwells on the dysfunction within...

Apropo of Passover, the New Yorker takes a look at the state of tyranny in Egypt. [Subscription required] President Hosni Mubarak is 82 and his health is deteriorating. Mubarak has ruled since 1981, with the aid of a perepetual Emergency Law that allows for unlimited suppression of dissent. So what has the United States done to support Egypt’s long-suffering democratic opposition? With good reason, the New Yorker criticizes the Bush administration for talking big about democracy promotion...

The New Yorker recently ran a profile of Italian cashmere magnate Brunello Cucinelli. [Subscription only] There is much to admire both in his entrepreneurial spirit and his concern for his employees. Last week, I stopped by the Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in New York, where I discovered one of Mr. Cucinelli’s cashmere throws on sale for $3000, and a pastel linen jacket for a mere $1595. In addition to being a businessman, Cucinelli considers himself to be quite the intellectual and observer...

Kathy titled her recent post Afghan Civilians Still Being Killed By US Troops in Shockingly High Numbers. She observed, McChrystal’s ground troops are wantonly killing innocent civilians who, by McChrystal’s own admission are doing nothing to provoke such action. This charge of “wanton killing” is reckless and irresponsible. Let’s return to the facts. Kathy based her comments on a NY Times article about the killing of Afghan civlians at American checkpoints. The article reported...

Last week, all eyes were on Gallup after it reported a startling bounce in popularity for the healthcare bill after it was passed by House Democrats. On the same day that I posted about the Gallup survey with a hint of skepticism, Michael taunted Republicans, asking “I wonder what they’ll say about this new poll.” Meanwhile, Elrod described the Gallup report as “the first indications…total opposition to the Democratic health care reform bill will be a Republican Waterloo.”...

Kevin Drum: The individual mandate may be an essential part of healthcare reform, but it’s also the part that’s easiest to hate. One pro-reform blogger suggests you think of it this way: the government is subsidizing your health insurance, the same way that most employers would (if they offer insurance). But even if you think about it that way, what should Democrats call the-policy-formerly-known-as the individual mandate? Kevin: For better or worse, the term “individual mandate”...

FYI, you can still comment on my posts, which all go up at Conventional Folly as well as TMV. Each of my posts on TMV will continue to have (at the end) a link to the equivalent post on Conventional Folly. Also, I will be glad to publish e-mails from those who wants their opinions to go up on TMV. You can reach me at . Please put ‘TMV’ in the subject line, so the message gets sent to my inbox, not the trash. Opinions are welcome about my posts, about other posts and about anything...

If you’re Jewish like me, you spent the past two night partying at the SEDA CLUB!

As Elrod pointed out, a post-showdown poll on healthcare shows that 49% percent of the public supported passage of the bill. One day earlier, CNN released a poll showing that the public (pre-showdown) disapproved of Obama’s record on healthcare by a margin of 58-40. It was also the first CNN poll that showed a majority of the public (51%) disapproving of Obama’s overall performance as president. But what is driving the disapproval? Could it be that Obama is not liberal enough? Matt...

If you want to hear from some of the smartest men and women on the front lines in Afghanistan and around the globe, visit the official blog of the Army and Marine Corps Counterinsurgency (COIN) Center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. The COIN Center also has its own page on Facebook and its own feed on Twitter. For starters, read this post on the importance of even the lowest-ranking soldiers establishing close personal relationships with the people of Afghanistan. And finally, a hat tip to Small...

Three long weeks ago, I made the case that Scott Brown single-handedly broke Washington: As recently as January 18, the day before Scott Brown’s election, there was no firm consensus that Washington was broken. Now it is a staple of high-minded conversation. Imagine for a moment, that instead of Scott Brown, Massachusetts voters had elected Sen. Martha Coakley. The House and Senate would’ve worked out a compromise on healthcare and Obama would’ve signed the titanic bill into law. The conversation...

What does victory mean for the Democrats? Yglesias: Barack Obama will go down in history as one of America’s finest presidents. Drum: Even if this is [Obama's] high point, then, his presidency will have been pretty successful based just on his first year. But if he manages to grow in office and accomplish even more? Then he’ll be the most successful president of the past half century. Although I’m skeptical about the workability of healthcare reform, there seems to be a pretty good...

I’ve been pondering the common analogy between President Obama’s support for healthcare reform (HCR for short) and President Bush’s support for the surge in Iraq, both in the face of strong popular resistance. The political arguments for and against have been essentially the same, except with the parties reversed. Three years ago, President Bush spoke of the need to do what is right for the nation, even though the public may not have agreed with him at time. Today, President Obama...

You wouldn’t expect it from such a moderate guy, but consider this, from Meet The Press: MR. [TOM] BROKAW: Let’s begin with you, if we can, David. There are lots of declarations that are being made in Washington this week, either apocalyptic, that this is the end of the Obama presidency, or it’s the deliverance of the Obama presidency. Are they both exaggerated? MR. DAVID BROOKS: No. No. The, the White House has said, “We’re all in.” They’re betting their...

Kevin Drum, on deem and pass: If you have a life, you don’t care about the subject of this post and have never heard of it. Damn it. I heard about “deem and pass” and I even sort of care about it. And I’m annoyed with Kevin for letting people know I don’t have a life. (Well, I have a wife, but that’s neither here nor there.) Anyhow, here’s Kevin’s bottom line: Like it or not, process has become a big issue as healthcare has dragged along into its...

Peter Feaver has a very interesting post up about the assertion in Karl Rove’s new book that “if the administration had known the true extent of Iraq’s WMD stockpile and programs it would not have pushed the use of force resolution in October 2002 and invaded in 2003.” In other words, if our intelligence were right, there would’ve been no invasion of Iraq. As Peter points out, this is especially interesting because President Bush insisted in 2005 that he would’ve...

Are liberals and conservatives coming together to add President Grant to our pantheon of heroes? This morning, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz argues in the Times, Although slandered since his death, Grant, as general and as president, stood second only to Abraham Lincoln as the vindicator of [American] principles in the Civil War era. The occasion for Wilentz’s op-ed is a proposal by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) to replace Grant’s portrait on the $50 bill with one of Reagan. To support...

From the Times: An indictment this month from one of Spain’s top judges assert[s] that Venezuelan intelligence officials were involved in training Basque separatists and Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela… Judge Velasco’s indictment, based largely on testimony from demobilized FARC guerrillas and FARC computer files obtained by Colombia’s army, describes a 20-day training course led by [Basque exile Arturo] Cubillas in 2007 in Apure State for 13 FARC rebels and 7 members of a smaller Venezuelan...