Category: Politics (2002-2004)

GOP Uprising?

It appears the halved tax cut is only the beginning of Dubya’s domestic woes. As the war rages in Iraq, the Bushies’ homeland agenda comes under increasing scrutiny from GOP moderates, who are unwilling to buy the argument that American troops desperately need estate tax relief. Hmmm…I wonder if Ari and the gang will go so far as to paint members of their own party as unAmerican. Can’t say it’s beyond the realm of possibility.

One Bad Apple.

Alas, our recent Columbia teach-in on the war, which included some of the university’s leading luminaries in all departments, was singlehandedly derailed by the asinine comments of one anthro prof, Nicholas De Genova. Said De Genova, “The only true heroes are those who find ways that help defeat the U.S. military…I personally would like to see a million Mogadishus.” He also argued that all self-proclaimed patriots are in fact white supremacists. Sigh…it’s freak show guys like this who give the entire anti-war movement a bad name. As you can see, Eric Foner calls the guy idiotic in the article, and Alan Brinkley has also declared his comments “abhorrent” and “immoral.” (In fact, even Columbia’s President has now distanced himself from De Genova.) The point is, this joker in no way speaks for the majority of Americans against the war, although he’s already getting a lot of run in the warblogger nation regardless. And, while I don’t want to disparage an entire department, I’m not entirely surprised he emerged from anthropology – I’ve heard similar rants from other radical post-structuralist and post-colonialist-enamored students over in Schermerhorn.

War Games.

Who’s running this war, anyway? As the American offense tentatively bogs down, more information surfaces that the Bush Hawks ignored the Pentagon and downplayed possible guerrilla resistance by the fedayeen in order to sell their war to the American people. I never thought I’d agree with Barry McCaffrey, but there you have it. Why would you ever put American lives at risk without preparing for the worst possible consequences? God willing, the Bushies bet correctly and our forces will be able to break the back of Saddam’s regime regardless. But, if our men and women start dying because of Rummy’s unbridled optimism, there’ll be hell to pay. Update: The wartime hubris of Rumsfeld is further explored in this week’s New Yorker.

Advise and Dissent.

As the protests heat up in NYC, Slate‘s David Greenberg evaluates the many contributions of American antiwar efforts over the centuries, and reminds us anew that anti-war advocates are also more often than not pro-troop. Something for the Right to consider before they break out the paintball guns.

High-Power FM.

Paul Krugman explores Republican radio conglomerate Clear Channel’s role in inciting pro-Bush rallies around the country. (Via Medley.) You have to wonder if the people smashing Dixie Chick paraphernalia felt even a little bit sheepish. After all, it’s not like they’re French or anything.

Fleeing from History.

Speaking of silence and smokescreens, Dubya chose the biggest night of fighting yet to rewrite the disclosure rules for government documents, gutting Clinton administration policies that facilitated the declassification of papers. One could argue that Dubya is merely trying to keep WMD knowledge out of the hands of America’s enemies, but given his track record on the Reagan papers, the President doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. There’s a lot of information out there that might “impair relations between the United States and a foreign government,” and most of it has very little to do with WMDs. And, sadly, this looks to be only the first of many such wartime night massacres.

Smokescreen.

A Texas D.A. has achieved what once seemed impossible: getting the Exterminator to shut up. GOP freakshow and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay remains mum on reports that one of his PACs is on the wrong side of the law. Another story that hopefully doesn’t get lost in the crevasses between war coverage.