In the Arena In the Arena

Neoliberalism: The Actual Record

Well, everyone’s talking about the David Brooks column I mentioned below. Obviously, I think Matt Yglesias is on the right track and Atrios is careless and wrong .
In fact, the “liberal successes” of the Clinton presidency weren’t experienced–or much noticed–by academics and upper-income libs…but they sure were significant if you …

Hagel’s “Announcement”

Hagel’s big announcement this morning? Apparently, he’s still maybe possibly kinda thinking about potentially running.

Also, the war is bad.

UPDATE: From MSNBC: “One of the most bizarre political statement’s I’ve ever heard.” Guess he sat out the Perot cycle.

The real losers here are the press, who got play-ay-ed. Shows to go you …

In the Arena In the Arena

The Neighbors

The photo-op summit in Baghdad this weekend reminded me of this column I wrote in April of 2003, even before Bush declared “Mission Accomplished.” I had been working for Time Magazine all of four months at that point, and various editors thought I’d gone off the deep end: The Bush Administration would never take part in a meeting of …

Halliburtonomics

Is this about tax breaks? Getting beyond the reach of congressional subpoenas? And what about all that sensitive information that Halliburton has had access to? At a minimum, reincorporating in Dubai would mean that Halliburton will be paying less taxes to the U.S. Treasury, even as it collects billions from government contracts.

The …

In the Arena In the Arena

Dead Again

Now, what on earth would motivate David Brooks–behind the Times firewall–to find common cause with some of the wilder voices in the blogosphere and declare neoliberalism, if that’s what you want to call it, dead? A few thoughts:

1. If moderate liberalism is dead, then the Democratic Party is chock-a-block with extremists.

2. If …

In the Arena In the Arena

Just Desserts

You could see this coming a mile away, and it’s appropriate pushback by the Democratic Party. The reason why you could see it coming was Fox’s outrageous treatment of Barack Obama, going back to the “madrasa” story–and Obama’s reciprocal treatment of Fox: he wouldn’t let the Fox crew on his charter plane the weekend he announced. It was …

John McCain’s Swift Boat Problem

Raw Story has this development.

Update to commenters: Okay, I should have said POTENTIAL Swift Boat Problem. (It’s Friday, cut me some slack.) But don’t forget, the SBVFT started out with almost no money. A relatively small ad buy became a big problem for Kerry. The point is, as the election sets itself on fast-forward, this is a sign …

Re: The Next Big Problem at the Justice Department?

In his comment to my earlier post, Cfaller96 had some good questions regarding just how the Justice Department was given this new, broader power to replace US attorneys, which it got as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act:

Something’s always bothered me about that PATRIOT act provision that was slipped in by a Specter staffer (that

In the Arena In the Arena

What to do About Iraq

As predicted, David Petraeus is refusing to play along with the administration’s scenario regarding the surge. The only thing we are likely to know about the new tactics by August is if they’re not working. My guess is, the reports will be inconclusive: some quieter neighborhoods in Baghdad, but continued violence–especially in the ring …

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