“Woodward reports that in July 2002 Bush ordered the use of $700 million to prepare for the invasion of Iraq, funds that had not been specifically appropriated by the Congress, which alone holds that constitutional authority. No adequate explanation has been offered for what, strictly speaking, might well be an impeachable offense.” Sidney Blumenthal sees the behavior underlying Reagan’s Iran-Contra fiasco revived, while law professor Cass Sunstein delves deeper into the illegality and unconstitutionality of Dubya’s likely misappropriation of funds.
Category: The Eighties
This Modern Life.
AICN points the way to the trailer for Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, soon to be re-released at a theater (possibly) near you. Hmm…I wonder if free-market conservatives will try to protect Frederick Winslow Taylor the way they recently did Ronnie Reagan?
Lyrics Carry.
By way of Cheesedip and Do You Feel Loved?, test your knowledge of 80’s lyrics. As a child of the Eighties, I got a 97.
Don’t Know Much About History.
Sorry about the lack of updates since Sunday….As it happens, encroaching November has frightened me into working harder on my US history orals site. My note-taking is still two months or so behind my reading, but – in case you’re interested – I’ve recently put up notes and reviews on the following books:
| John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961-1974. William Leach, Land of Desire, Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. Robert Schulzinger, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. Robert Weisbrot, Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement. Gary Wills, Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home. |
Updates to the orals site should come relatively frequently for the next few months, so expect more to come.