First Looks category archive

If you don’t want to spring for the digital edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and you don’t trust Wikipedia, you might try this.

Your favorite person might just be there.

Via Rubber Hose.

There has much hoopla in the news lately about Iraqi refugees returning to Iraq.

Generally, this phenomenom has been portrayed as some kind of indication that the situation in Iraq is somehow being s(pl)urged ™ into some kind of Bushie success.

Phillybits digs into the facts behind the headlines.

It was a Philadelphia thing.

Bill nailed it (see the comments here). And the term had more to do with the Army-Navy game than with shopping.

Listen to the entomology here.

Balloon Juice.

Dwindling.

Via Huffington Post.

The blankety-blank DOD sure doesn’t.

Oh, yeah, and Bushie incompetence is losing Afghanistan, too.

Everything the Current Federal Administration touches turns to shit.

Have a thoughtful Thanksgiving, whether you are in the USA, where it is a holiday, or somewhere else, where it may not be a holiday.

Think about what is good, what is okay, and what could be worse.

And be glad it isn’t worse.

Remember, the Pilgrims didn’t have anything to do with it.

Oh, yeah, and while I’m on the subject, the Pilgrims didn’t come here for religious freedom. They came here to start their own little theocracy.

They were the original Religious Right.

But they sure had a great PR firm.

Think about it.

Jon Swift on Thanskgiving.

Give it a read.

ASZ.

Dick Polman has more.

Frankly, I think Duncan is right. A normal person wouldn’t want the job. Maybe we should just try to vote for the least abnormal (but don’t go for the “folksy guy“–go for someone who can think):

But generally the sad thing is that literally everyone who really wants to be president right now is basically nuts. That’s true generally, and it’s extra true now.

Tomorrow.

6 p. m., Tangier Restaurant, 18th and Lombard, Center City Philadelphia.

Make it there, say “Hi” to Brendan and the gang, and hoist one (Scotch, rocks, “if God ha’ wanted water in it, he’d ha’ put water in it”) for me.

I’ll be doing the cooling tower thing. It’s deadline time in the world of billable hours.

Beyond comprehension. Follow the links.

Via Rubber Hose.

Glenn Greenwald:

It’s genuinely hard to believe that the writers of George Bush’s speech last night to the Federalist Society weren’t knowingly satirizing him. They actually had him say this:

When the Founders drafted the Constitution, they had a clear understanding of tyranny. They also had a clear idea about how to prevent it from ever taking root in America. Their solution was to separate the government’s powers into three co-equal branches: the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Each of these branches plays a vital role in our free society. Each serves as a check on the others. And to preserve our liberty, each must meet its responsibilities — and resist the temptation to encroach on the powers the Constitution accords to others.

(snippage)

And when the Gonzales-led Justice Department issued a 42-page single-spaced Memorandum in 2006 justifying the President’s decision to spy on Americans in violation of our “laws,” it was explained to us that the President is the “sole organ for the Nation in foreign affairs”; that “the President has independent authority to repel aggressive acts by third parties even without specific congressional authorization, and courts may not review the level of force selected”; and that statutes restricting the President’s actions relating to war “could probably be read as simply providing ‘a recommendation’ that the President could decline to follow at his discretion.”

These are the still-valid premises that led the Constitution-revering George W. Bush to spend the last six years ignoring and violating statutes whenever he wanted to, keeping Congress completely in the dark about what he was doing, and issuing one signing statement after the next explaining why he has no obligation to comply with what Congress adorably calls their “laws.”

It boggles the mind.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

TBogg.

Steve has a truth theory. I urge you to read the whole post–he covers a lot more ground than this excerpt indicates:

One must question the lack of substantive action on the part of the Bush administration with regard to tainted toys from China…toys that are often manufactured in China by large corporations seeking cheap labor and higher profits. If we’re willing to make the argument that it is prudent to prevent ill Americans from obtaining Canadian medications that are arguably safe and beneficial, then why aren’t we also acting forcefully and preemptively to protect healthy American children and prevent them from obtaining unsafe toys manufactured in China?

I’ll answer my own question. We do so because the Bush administration places more weight upon cozying up to corporate interests and protecting their profits than he does upon looking out for the welfare of American citizens. Should the two concerns intersect, all the better; should they not, then we apparently turn a blind eye to danger.

There was a small furor over a planted question at the Democratic candidates’ debate last week.

(Full disclosure: I avoid the debates, whether in primaries or general elections because I think they are more of a waste of time than Windows solitare.)

Susie has more.

Tbogg:

Repeat after me: George Bush is not America.

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