The hardball master has taught Hillary well | Andrew Sullivan - Times Online

One of my favorite conservative writers, Andrew Sullivan, nails the thinking behind the Clinton camp's Machiavellian by way of Karl Rove political calculations and machinations of the past two weeks:

The hardball master has taught Hillary well Andrew Sullivan - Times Online: "The Chicago columnist Don Rose explained the logic clearly enough: “They’re not really racists, they just want to stress that Obama hasn’t really transcended race and that a person of colour may not be electable. Think about it, folks. Over and over again.”

The hardball tactics of Rove have defined American political life for a long time. The Clintons have now shown they have learnt from the master. The question for the Democrats is whether they want a candidate who can play the Rove game as cynically and as brutally as the Republicans. Or whether they want a new start and a new politics. That’s what is at stake now in the Democratic race. And one side has shown its true colours."

Weddings - New York Times

I don't usually blog about wedding stories, but this is a great unexpected love story and a lovely perspective on recognizing love:

"...They met on whirlwind encounters in 14 countries, and on one of those trips, they bought her engagement ring in Edinburgh.

They were married on Dec. 29 by the Rev. Glen Robyne, a United Methodist minister and Mr. Robinson’s nephew, at the Old Spanish Monastery in North Miami Beach. The nondenominational service had American Indian touches and also included a friend reading a Portuguese poem and Mr. Robinson’s oldest son, Lawrence, reading a French poem.

Several guests said that they had come halfway around the world to witness the wedding of Ms. Thompson, who had an explanation for why she finally said yes.

“When he looks into my eyes,” she said, “there is adoration there that makes me feel wonderful about me. That’s what you should really look for in someone. Because if you feel wonderful about yourself, you can do things.”"

Hillary, Barack, Experience - New York Times

Hillary, Barack, Experience - New York Times: "Mrs. Clinton’s strength is her mastery of the details of domestic and foreign policy, unrivaled among the candidates; she speaks fluently about what to do in Pakistan, Iraq, Darfur. Mr. Obama’s strength is his vision and charisma and the possibility that his election would heal divisions at home and around the world. John Edwards’s strength is his common touch and his leadership among the candidates in establishing detailed positions on health care, poverty and foreign aid.
Those are the meaningful distinctions in the Democratic field, not Mrs. Clinton’s spurious claim to “35 years of experience.”"

Jon Robin Baitz: Leaving Los Angeles (Part Three: Epilogue) - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

Jon Robin Baitz: Leaving Los Angeles (Part Three: Epilogue) - Entertainment on The Huffington Post

A heartfelt account about the personal costs of the ongoing writers' strike from one of TV's most successful and outspoken creators, Jon Baitz, formerly of ABC's Brothers and Sisters. It's interesting when the labor struggle involves some of the most privileged among us:

"It came as no particular shock that the head of ABC Studios very politely fired me Friday evening. 'What did I think was going to happen?' is not an unreasonable question. I have not, for someone with a show on the air, been particularly politic about the strike; specifically the media moguls and their polarizing intractability. The head of the studio said it was a bad day, he was making a lot of these calls. I felt sorry for him. I really did. Not so bad for myself. Still, I guess I no longer have any relationship to Brothers & Sisters or to the studio. Just a very gracious, exceptionally polite 'bye-bye.'"

American Pie in the Sky?

Columbia Law Professor Patricia Williams writes an excellent analysis/indictment of our image-obsessed national political psyche in the current issue of the Nation magazine, daring us to rise above the incessant, reductive, and ultimately degrading spin this election season. The title of her piece, "American Pie", however, betrays the persistently challenging, perhaps even impossible, nature of that goal:
American Pie:

"I hope that we Americans can resist the vicious vacuity of politics at the level of whether Tara Reid has hit 'scarily skinny.' We will have enough to deal with as the right's Rovian spinmeisters kick into action, wrapping both Obama and Clinton in sticky webs of hybridized stereotypes. She will be too 'mannish,' he too 'boyish.' She'll be too familiar, he too foreign. He'll be a wimp, she'll be a pimp. Yet this is an extraordinary moment in American history--we have our first serious black and female presidential candidates. It is my audacious little hope that the two of them, in whatever order, will become running mates by November. They must not fall prey to those who would love to see them wound each other before then, in the scramble to be top dog."

Hillary’s Free Pass - New York Times

Hillary’s Free Pass - New York Times: "My own favorite theory is that this week, Hillary was a stand-in for every woman who’s overdosed on multitasking. They grabbed at the opportunity to have kids/go back to school/start a business/become a lawyer. But there are days when they can’t meet everybody’s needs and the men in their lives — loved ones and otherwise — make them feel like failures or towers of self-involvement. And the deal is that they can either suck it up or look like a baby.
The women whose heart went out to Hillary knew that it wasn’t rational. She asked for this race, and if she was exhausted, the other candidates were, too. (John McCain is 71 and tired and nobody felt sorry for him.) The front-runner always gets ganged up on in debates. If her campaign was in shambles, it was her job to fix it or take the consequences. But for one moment, women knew just how Hillary felt, and they gave her a sympathy vote. It wasn’t a long-term commitment, just a brief strike by the sisters against their overscheduled world."

Senators clash with nominee about torture

The prospective successor and solution to the Gonzales debacle is a would be attorney general who's not quite sold on the authority of the law:

"On the second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mr. Mukasey went further than he had the day before in arguing that the White House had constitutional authority to act beyond the limits of laws enacted by Congress, especially when it came to national defense."

Gonzales v. Gonzales - New York Times

Times editorial Gonzales v. Gonzales:

"If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had gone to the Senate yesterday to convince the world that he ought to be fired, it’s hard to imagine how he could have done a better job, short of simply admitting the obvious: that the firing of eight United States attorneys was a partisan purge.

Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

He had no trouble remembering complaints from his bosses and Republican
lawmakers about federal prosecutors who were not playing ball with the Republican Party’s efforts to drum up election fraud charges against Democratic politicians and Democratic voters. But he had no idea whether any of the 93 United States attorneys working for him — let alone the ones he fired — were doing a good job prosecuting real crimes. "

A Graduate Takes on the Media and VTech

From the New York Times' student journalist blog:

There has been some debate on campus about whether or not anything can be done to prevent future school shootings....As students, there is only so much we can do for one another’s psychological well-being....We need to forgive ourselves for the things we can’t control and take responsibility for those we can.We need to forgive ourselves for the things we can’t control and take responsibility for those we can.

More tangible actions can be taken, too. I realized this Wednesday night when I went online to watch Seung-Hui Cho’s videotaped confession, or what has been deemed by many media outlets “the gunman’s manifesto.” (I am sure Cho would be pleased with that title.)

I found the link to the Internet broadcast, braced myself and clicked “play.” At first I was startled by the high production quality of Seung-Hui Cho’s videotape. The sound and graphics seemed professional, and it troubled me that he had invested so much effort in glorifying his hateful announcement. When I finally realized what I was watching, I was even more disturbed.

It was a Bank of America commercial.

I tried to fast forward, but couldn’t. For 30 seconds before Seung-Hui Cho’s violent drama faded in, I was forced to watch a bunch of people saying no to unfair mortgage rates. I, too, would like to take this opportunity to say no. The deadliest school shooting in our nation’s history should not be a means of making money. For my own sanity, I will suspend logic and believe that money was not a factor in NBC’s decision to fulfill a murderer’s dying wish.

What if the video had been withheld? What would have been lost? Perhaps American audiences would not know the “whole truth” behind Monday’s events. Truth is one of those noble causes we rightly worship. But along with “the whole truth,” a pretty sick marketplace has been exposed to the world. This marketplace is predicated on violence in American schools....

A thoughtful, rational and sincere voice. Worth reading in full.

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan on the sad truth of the Haggard revelations, including the former pastor's admission of a "lifelong" struggle with his own "repulsive" sexuality. This, in November 2006.

Andrew Sullivan The Daily Dish: "'There is part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life,' - pastor Ted Haggard, referring, I suppose, to his homosexual orientation.

For those who still - amazingly - believe that being gay is somehow a 'choice,' consider Haggard. If he could have chosen not to be gay, don't you think he would have? Even though he apparently believes being gay is 'repulsive and dark' (while it is, in fact, just another wonderful way to be human), he still cannot prevail against it. It is integral to him. It has been 'all of [his] adult life'."