Judging from this article from Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, appearing to favor policies of the United States – even if they are in the interests of Iraq in general – could be dangerous to your political health. Kitabat columnist Zahraa’ Al Hussayni warns politicians who appear to be turning their backs on past resistance to the U.S. that ‘lovers of power and self interest’ will...

I am one of those misguided, clueless people who, when writing about our military men and women slugging it out in Iraq and Afghanistan, engaged in combat, just trying not to get killed or maimed by an IED or just driving a truck with supplies across the desert, instinctively and invariably refers to them as “heroes.” However, a piece appearing today in the Los Angeles Times tells me how utterly wrong and...

Both the Sherrod matter and the Journolist revelations have one thing in common that the ideologues from both sides remain blissfully and determinedly unaware; the controversies are excellent examples of epistemic closure on both sides. To jog your memory, Julian Sanchez defined epistemic closure thusly: One of the more striking features of the contemporary conservative movement is the extent to which it has...

Our political Quote of the Day comes from MSNBC’s must-read First Read team which looks at the Shirley Sherrod media-created controversy/distraction and writes: The three-ring circus in Washington: In Obama’s first year and a half as president, there haven’t been any sex scandals, any stories of widespread corruption, or any plans to wage war against a nation without WMD. But what does it say —...

With falling approval ratings, Barack Obama is getting advice from all sides on how to “save” his presidency. In the latest round of parsing by pundits, Richard Cohen of the Washington Post concludes: “The bank bailout averted a financial crackup and the stimulus package pulled the economy back from the abyss. Along with reform of the financial industry and health care, these are considerable...

RJ Matson, The New York Observer This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

Is America so unreliable and does it have such a long history of lies and deception, that Pakistan leaders should dismiss out of hand U.S. offers of aid and its professed desire for greater cooperation? Stretching language to the limit to express boiling outrage and exasperation with U.S. claims that Pakistan is harboring terrorists like Osama bin Laden, this Frontier Post editorial says in small part: Although...

If there is one thing we should have learned from the Shirley Sherrod fiasco, it’s to beware of snippets posing as journalism — particularly from sources of ill-repute. It is a lesson we should have abided then, and one we should remember now as the “Journolist” faux-scandal continues to flex its wings. Alas, many, including TMV’s own Logan Penza, have managed to forget that lesson...

I was so angry at myself and the craft I serve yesterday that I did what Keith Olbermann does, take the rest of the day off. My sin was rushing to judgment in the firing of Shirley Sherrod, the black USDA official in Georgia based on a video from a website I don’t trust and this conspiratorial account on another website about the now defunct Journolist blog, a group of liberal journalists and academic advocates. On...

Everyone reading this knows that there are presently some raging media hullabaloos that in a month no one will talk about or remember. It’s just the latest round in a fight that should have been called long ago. I’m conflicted about these things because on one hand the specifics of the outrage du jour are almost always pointless and arbitrary, but on the other hand they are symptomatic of a failed...

Of Junk Food and Junk News by Tina Dupuy Once on a flight I ate a cheeseburger-in-a-bag. It was a wonderfully microwaved beefy dough ball of cheesy-type goo. It tasted amazing! Of course, it’s designed to taste amazing. Mission so accomplished. The sandwich had the right amount of fat and salt to appeal to my ancient binge-to-survive-winter DNA. It was laced with artificial scents, laboratory flavors and...

Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. All rights reserved.

A century ago, Americans spent only a few minutes a day learning about the world beyond their own senses–”the unseen environment,” as Walter Lippmann put it in his 1922 study, “Public Opinion.” Back then, he despaired of “the original dogma of democracy; that the knowledge needed for the management of human affairs comes up spontaneously from the human heart. Where we act...

I looked at a summary of my TMV posts over the past 2 years and I think I’ve been rehashing some ideas and talking points too often. I also noticed that when I (or other TMV writers) discussed matters of sex, we got the most cross-posts on other blogs and the most reactions from readers. Thus, let’s go back to everyone’s favorite subject: Sex. I certainly hope deep down (and pray as only a Catholic agnostic...

When I was a child and completed my chores I went in search of amusement. Here it is, some 60 years later, and I find old habits don’t disappear with age. For amusement purposes after scouring the news sources for partisan politics, the sour economy and the dreadful oil blowout that is a daily soap opera, I head directly to the Huffington Post to indulge in their vast assortment of offerings. The HuffPo never...

Dana Priest has won two Pulitzer Prizes for her investigative reporting, and I’m betting she’s going to get a third one for this new series exposing a vast post-9/11 network of intelligence agencies and operations that has grown beyond the ability of anyone — even those at the highest levels of access — to understand, manage, or control. And it continues to grow, like a metastasized cancer:

The “Tea Party Federation” – a group that purports to represent tea party groups across the country – has exorcised a demon from its midst. Mark Williams, a radio talk show host by trade, and a self-proclaimed “tea party leader” has been banished from the TPF for writing what might be the most tone deaf, racially insensitive blog post this side of an article praising the...

This time with Mike Pence, who is making the rounds trying to win back the majority for Republicans by telling the American people that he knows they want tax cuts for the rich instead of extended unemployment benefits for the 15 million Americans who don’t have jobs. Yesterday, on Fox, Wallace pushed back on Pence’s claim that the Recovery Act (aka “the stimulus”) had “failed.”...

My last post convinced some TMV readers that I had reached rock bottom as far as negativity, pessimism, despair and cynicism. But Noooooo – I can descend even further into the great abyss. Let us imagine that the 2010 U.S. economy and our political, financial, and social systems are analogous to a toilet after an “unprecedented” large and ugly bowel movement. We have an array of know-it-all pundits,...

Judging from the the last few articles we’ve translated from Iraq, the closer the United States gets to leaving, the more jittery become Iraqis. The mixed emotions are clear: a hatred for the invasion but a fear of the withdrawal. In this article from Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, columnist Ghaalib Zanjeel, while lamenting America’s conduct for the last seven years, rips the United States for...

Navigating the Second Amendment in Washington DC by Tom Purcell “When you get mugged, there are certain rules you must follow,” my friend and his wife explained to me as we walked from a Washington, D.C., pub to their condo. “When I get mugged?” “Muggers are polite when you follow their instructions, but they get surly when you are rude,” said his wife. “How can you...

THIS JUST IN! Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express have been booted from the Tea Party Federation. But this political news story of the hour actually contains has three unsurprises: 1. The Tea Party Federation has kicked out Mark Williams and his Tea Party Express due to a blog post he wrote that even a can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli sitting on a shelf in Vons Supermarket on Adams Avenue in San Diego would...

Aislin, The Montreal Gazette This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

And so that oh, so playful spirit of today’s American politics — that madcap, happy tone of American politics that makes you smile as you monitor right and left talk radio, ideological cable talk shows and politically anchored weblogs — continues with this latest twist: buying the name of someone with whom you don’t agree so you own rights to their domain name. First Tucker Carlson bought...

Link to This by Peter Fun There are several things, Barack Obama, that I’m going to do, Tea Party, to promote what I write, Lady Gaga, and generate more buzz, oil-covered birds. The first is to include as many tags as possible in the first sentence so that Internet searchers are directed to my articles whether they care about them or not. It’s part of my SEO, or search engine optimization. **A...