Has anyone else seen the webcast interview show “Off the Record” by the Republican National Committee? I reviewed it a month ago, basically objecting to 1) the nonsensical title (which I think shows the GOP’s low estimation of their base’s intelligence) 2) the flat delivery of the hosts, “Mindy & Katie” 3) Mindy’s presence at all; Katie is much better looking and has a certain glow. In the first episode I reviewed, Katie was interviewing Ari Fleischer;...

I wrote earlier this week (and linked here) that Washington Post political reporter Dana Milbank was just a little too opinionated for his stated role at the paper, given his intelligent but somewhat nya-nya coverage of Karl Rove’s speech on media trends. I also faulted the Post for giving Milbank leeway with the euphemistic “Washington Sketch” heading for the column. Now a prominent mainstream media writer (not “reporter,” so we’re clear) adds his backing to...

As Joe noted below, Dana Milbank has an good piece on Karl Rove’s speech on media shortcomings at a Maryland college. But just as interesting as Rove’s thoughts is Milbank’s less restrained style of writing here, considering he’s supposed to be a straight-news reporter. His column is a good example of what I call cop-out journalism – not necessarily dumb, but pretending to be something it’s not.

David Brooks has a good column about sex – playfully published on the least sexy day – and its simultaneous expansion in public and significant shrinkage (pun and allusion intended) in private: You could get the impression that America’s young people are leading lives of Caligulan hedonism. You could give credence to all those parental scare stories about oral sex parties at bar mitzvahs and junior high school dances. You could worry about hookups, friends with benefits, and the...

A worrisome demographic explosion is on the horizon…

New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson is expanding from his role as the first openly gay bishop in America to the new religious spokesman for a prominent interest group, but I think it’s a bad move for him – and the gay people he claims to represent.

Supporters of Howard Dean usually have the stereotype of hard, uncompromising stances on the issues of the day – war, taxes, health care, etc. – but a new Pew poll shows they are more likely than Democrats in general to shift their positions on arguably the most important issue of last year. Matt Yglesias explains: Not surprisingly, Dean folks are essentially unanimous in their view that invading Iraq was a bad idea. More surprisingly, Dean activists are much more likely than Democrats...

Convicted murderers get new trials for all sorts of reasons, but this is the first button-related reversal I’ve heard. Not surprisingly it comes from the 9th Circuit, whose decisions over the years have been “novel” to say the least.

The New York Times has a baffling piece on a gay Republican political consultant marrying his partner in a civil ceremony in Massachusetts. By most standards of the newsworthy – time to pull out your first-year journalism notes – this story has no reason for being. The wedding was in December; he lives in Massachusetts, so it wasn’t a trek; his sexuality has been known for several years at the least (40 years with the same partner); he’s a self-described libertarian who...

Prescription painkillers seem to be falling by the wayside in the FDA’s wake, but how do regular users feel about their most effective drugs getting pulled?

I can think of alternate uses for this personal technology. Fortunately I’m not an early adopter.

Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom group on my blogroll, just released nominations for freedom blog awards. Jeff Jarvis has two bones to pick with them: only one Iraqi blog, Riverbend, which doesn’t do reporting and is very anti-American: Now if they want to nominate her, that’s fine; I get it. But then for Reporters Without Borders to not nominate the many bloggers who have actually reported news in Iraq — but aren’t so anti-Ameerican — is ridiculous…...

Is the Tim Allen grunting oaf popular again with women? (And am I the lamest 25-year-old for using Tim Allen as a cultural reference?) A new poll – fittingly commissioned by Dodge Trucks – gives mixed and somewhat ambiguous results: •75 percent of women said their ideal man buys his grooming products at a grocery store or drugstore, not a salon. •72 percent of women said their ideal man spends his free time doing home-improvement projects. •41 percent of...

…abortion, that is. My college newspaper colleague Steve Barnett, now a law student in Oregon, describes his Con Law session on abortion law: We went silent because we knew blood was going to be shed. We knew after that day some of us would no longer would be friends. We knew passions would boil high, and our voices would be the piercing whistles telling others that we had reached the boiling point. But to his surprise, the discussion stayed civil, the professor kept him on his toes when...

It’s funny because it’s plausible! (Via Lost Remote.)

Blogger Michael Totten (Oregon pride!) and Spirit of America founder Jim Hake are in Beirut to help the Lebanese opposition raise money to fight the Syrian occupation: We’re focusing our efforts on the residents of the semi-permanent tent-city that has been built on Martyr’s Square, a mere two blocks from Parliament, where the opposition leaders say they will continue to reside until their country is a sovereign liberal democracy. They need food. They need bottled water. They need blankets....

Remember that alleged memo from “party leaders” to Republican senators on the “great political issue” that was the Schiavo case? It generated lots of buzz, but the original reporters are backing off the implication…only so much.

Female genital mutilation is going down in Senegal, formerly a hotbed of the activity, and setting an example in the region: Campaigners have tried for decades to bring an end to FGM. But their tactics of providing alternative employment to the circumcisers, introducing alternative rites of passage for girls, or demanding legislation to outlaw the practice have all failed to make a dent: an estimated 2 million girls in about 26 African countries are circumcised every year. The sea-change in Senegal...

I’ve been pretty outspoken here and on my site about the Schiavo case, which is nominally over. Allow me one last post that I’m sure will get attacked by Joe’s new coalition of states-rights libs and cons. If we’re judging social policy by polls, can we please get some out-of-the-box pollster to test public knowledge of the key facts in the Schiavo case? Most people will know she was judged to be in PVS and the courts tended to side with her husband. But did they know her...

Independent filmmaker Jeremiah Lewis – linked on Joe’s blogroll – is submitting his most polished work to date, “Zero Sum,” for the Inspiration Film Festival in LA. Here’s the publicity page with screenshots and trailer. I met Jeremiah through blogging and we’ve gotten together a few times when he’s visiting DC from southwestern Virginia (sadly a distance to increase when Jeremiah moves to LA later this year). Smart guy, with a certain Lileksian...

A group of well-known wealthy liberals, led by Arianna Huffington, are starting a Web ‘zine along the lines of Salon or Slate. Not that there’s anything wrong with that! They have the money, the fame and the opinions to make it take off. Take a look at the confirmed contributors to the site’s group blog: Sen. Jon Corzine, Larry David, Barry Diller, Tom Freston, David Geffen, Vernon Jordan, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Harry Evans and his wife, Tina Brown. That’s just to name a...

Behold the iPose modeling contest featuring hot University of Arizona co-eds posing with their iPods to raise money for tsunami victims. Is there anything the Jobsian gizmos can’t do? (Via Gizmodo.) This, on the other hand, makes me pine for the days of Luddite bliss.

Terri Schiavo’s parents got a rare legal victory, albeit small, when a federal appeals court agreed to consider an emergency motion for a new hearing for their daughter. She’s gone 12 days without nutrition, so it may be too late. More interesting from a political perspective is Jesse Jackson’s new involvement on behalf of the Schindler family and protestors. On the one hand, he could have done this a long time ago, and I suspect he wants his publicity back as much as he wants...

So we’ve all heard of the “religious fanatics” or quasi-Taliban fighting to keep Terri Schiavo from a slow death by dehydration, ordered with nothing more than hearsay. (What could my views be?) But Reason’s Jesse Walker, seemingly spurning the line of argument favored by his colleagues, warns of a more likely slippery slope from the Schiavo case: the expansive power of doctors against families and spouses who want to keep severely injured or incapacitated family members...

Can’t get enough organic vegetables and grains? You might want to write your representative to make sure it doesn’t hurt Indian families.