Former Ambassador Joe Wilson’s little-read book from last year is finally getting some attention from journalists, but not the kind that bolsters his case against the Bush administration for supposedly leaking his wife’s identity: In The Politics of Truth, former ambassador Joseph Wilson writes that he and his future wife both returned from overseas assignments in June 1997. Neither spouse, a reading of the book indicates, was again stationed overseas. They appear to have remained in...

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm came into office as a rising star in the Democratic Party that, it was said, could sway independents and even Republicans with her tough-on-crime approach and gun enthusiasm. But she had an embarrassing reaction to an op-ed from a Michigan legislator and professor criticizing her new tax plan: Ms. Granholm was not pleased, going so far as to denounce the op-ed as “treasonous for the state of Michigan.” The authors’ high crime? Exposing Michigan...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Yet another reason why cable news is the sewer of media, as the editor of a gamers website gets lured into a supposed fluff interview on bottom-rated CNBC’s “Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” and then gets skewered: It kicked off with Donny holding up a copy of Computer Games magazine declaring that there wasn’t a single game in there that wasn’t violent, and they then immediately cut to scenes of CJ stamping on a girl until she bled over...

I’m not sure many people outside the Beltway and polarized activists gives a damn about this entire scandal that somehow involves Karl Rove, Joe Wilson (a very lazy former ambassador) and his wife. But since it’s drawing so much attention, and I’ve been sick of what seems to be a poorly executed but thoroughly “non” scandal for the past 2 years, I’d like to hightlight Joe Wilson’s admission from his little-read book last year: It was Saddam Hussein’s...

…and not a moment too soon. But I’d say they’re utterly wrong about the so-called Wall of Shame, whose construction they refuse to acknowledge coincided with the end (for the most part) of the intifada against Israel. In a great irony, a wall often condemned as a blatant violation of human rights and territorial integrity might have helped usher in a nonviolence movement in Palestine that seeks its removal. I’d hate to see regular bombings in Jerusalem return as a result...

Portland blogger Michael Totten has been checking the online forums at Portland’s Indymedia site and finds, well, what you’d expect from a group of people who still haven’t managed to blame 9/11 on terrorists. One insinuates Western governments did the attack to distract from the G8 discussions on African poverty. Various culprits – or alternately, profiteers – so far include Jews, Tony Blair, Halliburton, Bechtel, Coke, and even the media. Lou Dobbs’ seemingly...

Who is the latest celebrity activist to earn a “watch” blog from the opposition? Find out here.

Portland blogger Michael Totten – also the editor of Iraq’s Friends of Democracy group blog – has an amusing but provocative post on humanity’s difficulty in accepting social tranquility. He’s heard that cats often hallucinate their natural environment because their minds can’t handle suburban living rooms, and wonders if humans are fundamentally the same: I’ve long suspected that activistas (meaning those who protest everything for the sake of protesting)...

Who cares that London got the 2012 Olympics? Not some media-savvy New Yorkers, at any rate. New-media maven Jeff Jarvis goes off: We did not need another security threat; an expensive stadium; drug-crazed athletes; an overdose of reporters; endless gushing features on the 6 pm news; candy-colored banners festooning our city, trying to put us in a good mood; and yet more touurists. New York never needed the Olympics and as they pointed out on the radio this morning — comparing the crowd of...

Puritannical geeks of the world, rejoice! You can engage in your love of gadgets past without polluting your mind – too much – by reading about the strange and wonderful history of vibrators. I do have to say, what kind of rational person – male or female – would have used these early contraptions unless ordered by a physician?

OxBlog’s David Adesnik has been watching the first 2 seasons of the Fox action drama “24,” and as much as he loves it, thought the writers had a skewed perspective of the real enemies America faces in the 21st century. He got plenty of response, and posted some (including mine) here with his own fleshed-out thoughts. I have longer thoughts here.

If the level of thinking in this Iraqi writer is widespread among the population, and they are vocal, Iraq might turn out a relatively peaceful country with just enough regard for each other’s differences to keep most people satisfied. Also see some healthy discussions about the role of the federal government in regions far removed from Baghdad in this post.

…but this time, it’s a chain of cafes it purchased and decided weren’t raking in as much profit as the stores full of middle-aged women in sweatpants clogging their arteries with a byproduct of lab tests at DuPont. (Exaggerating, of course, but learn the details – and why it matters – here.)

An appeals court decision this week is a major setback for the right of college students at publicly-funded universities to not face censorship by school officials. Read more here.

Cross posted at The Smoking Room The Washington Post ran a rather silly evergreen (meaning it can run anytime) about the debt college students get from…buying coffee drinks everyday. What might have been entertaining as a 500-word fluffy column on curious college priorities is instead a 1,200 word, Nation-esque scold more suited to Joe Camel. OxBlog’s David Adesnik has a thorough mocking of the article for its attempt to portray college students as victims of the coffee cabal (or...

Cross posted at The Smoking Room Sitcom dads in the past 20 years have progressively gotten dumber, while mothers have become the smart ones in the virtual family. Nowhere is this more apparent than “The Simpsons.” What’s the deal with that? We spend twice as much time with our kids as we did two decades ago, but on television we’re oblivious (”Jimmy Neutron”), troubled (”The Sopranos”), deranged (”Malcolm in the Middle”) and generally...

Celebrities love to invoke the First Amendment as long as it doesn’t apply to those engaged in keeping their cosmetically-enhanced faces splashed across half a dozen weeklies and dozens more free domestic tabloids, keeping their careers vibrant if not tranquil, as Reason’s Tim Cavanaugh documents: The celebrities saw how effectively the royals managed to pin blame for Princess Di’s drunk-driving death on the press, and they’re trying to get some sort of precautionary principle...

Cross-posted at The Smoking Room Could the greatest threat to the Syrian regime be an odd coalition of seculars and fundies? In April, the outlawed Islamist organization Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement calling for free and fair elections and an end to the state of emergency, effectively martial law, in place since 1963. The Brotherhood warned the government that it would bear “sole responsibility” for the deterioration of the country if it ignored its call. The declaration from...

No, not the Washington Post after Woodstein, but a much lower-profile newspaper that has quietly impacted the lives of countless individuals around the world through its determination to avoid the pack.

The World Naked Bike Ride is this Saturday! Not that I’m planning to participate, and not just because I doubt my roommate would want me sitting on his bike in the buff (mine is 3,000 miles away). Sadly none of the rides are happening in the DC area, so I won’t be able to document the festivities as I did last year in Seattle. You’re mostly out of luck if you live between the upper Northeast and the Florida panhandle, but check here to see if your city has its own ride. Oddly,...

You would think the governor of Texas, the state that produced our most recent two-term president, would have access to the best and brightest political minds in the country. They surely want to get taken along with him for any rides higher on the political ladder. But Rick Perry made a monumentally bad decision when he signed a parental-consent bill for minors seeking abortion in a religious private school. I explore the significance of symbolic actions in politics, and especially divisive cultural...

Is Iraq bracing for a Randian revolt of the individual against the state? Probably not, but Iraq the Model makes a good point that the government structure hasn’t really changed since Saddam’s deposal, and that itself could be an impediment to civil development and clean (enough) government.

If you’re wondering how much the mainstream media in Iraq are missing, check the Friends of Democracy blog, sponsored by Spirit of America and written by Iraqis on the ground. Recent posts discuss Internet workshops with Iraqi women, a call to volunteerism and not waiting on the government to solve everything, and some pictures of Saddam’s booty (the monetary kind, not that one), with this message to Saddam’s lawyers: The tyrant collected these fortunes and stockpiled them in...

It’s the 16th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, and that defining incident is likely to continue sinking further back in the public consciousness as terrorism eclipses slow-burning human rights issues. Here’s a bit of my take: For those who remember American foreign policy between the Berlin Wall’s fall and 9/11, there was a vigorous debate on how to handle a growing and increasingly prosperous China. George W. Bush, you might recall, leaned more toward the economic...

This NYT story about Tom Cruise’s bizarre behavior in recent weeks, as he promotes the Spielberg-directed “War of the Worlds” remake, is amusing enough. But what gave me a chuckle is that the Times went to two blogs to get screen shots (actually, photos) of Cruise’s now-infamous jag on Oprah: Defamer.com, Gawker’s LA, Hollywood-obsessed counterpart, and TVGasm.com. I’m not sure what to make of the Times’ color art outsourcing. Does it mean: 1. The newspaper...