The Smithian

May 18th, 2013

thesmithian

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[look of the hour]

May 16th, 2013

thesmithian

'The Internal Revenue Service, it turns out, is an equal opportunity offender of nonprofit groups. In 2004...the agency targeted the NAACP for allegedly being critical of then-President George W. Bush. Tax-exempt nonprofits are required to be politically nonpartisan.'

May 6th, 2013

thesmithian

The contest between liberty and security has been…fought on the public stage by every President from George Washington to Barack Obama. Each generation, from those facing rebellion in the 1860s to those pushing back against government intrusions a century later, has debated where to strike a balance. But in the…world of 21st century law enforcement, where terrorist threats can hide behind our most cherished freedoms, the battle sometimes takes place in government documents so obscure that they escape public notice.

more.

The contest between liberty and security has been…fought on the public stage by every President from George Washington to Barack Obama. Each generation, from those facing rebellion in the 1860s to those pushing back against government intrusions a century later, has debated where to strike a balance. But in the…world of 21st century law enforcement, where terrorist threats can hide behind our most cherished freedoms, the battle sometimes takes place in government documents so obscure that they escape public notice.

more.

April 28th, 2013

thesmithian

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“The post-presidency has evolved since World War II into a big business…”

“The post-presidency has evolved since World War II into a big business…”

April 27th, 2013

thesmithian

Bush brought an unprecedented level of systematic dishonesty to American political life, and we may never recover.

more.

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art: collage by Jonathan Yeo

April 27th, 2013

thesmithian

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ourpresidents:

Program from this morning’s dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.

So many Presidents on one page AND “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

[look of the hour]

Reblogged from Politi-gal

April 26th, 2013

thesmithian

Zoom

There was George Bush himself, on Thursday…at the dedication of the Presidential library whose archives will hold evidence of the disaster of his war. It is important to…wonder which Iraqi ghost we are confronting. We have heard about false intelligence before, and, rightly, want to know why it’s different this time. But there is also the question of how to deal with chemical weapons if you do know that they’re there. If, in the first few days in Iraq, we had secured a cache of sarin, would we now be content with the images from Fallujah, with the bungling of the occupation, with the terrible human price that ordinary Iraqis paid? The falsity of the opening adds a sordid layer to it all—but war, even scrubbed of lies, isn’t pretty. Of course, unlike in Iraq, Syria is already engaged in an increasingly unhinged civil war, and, in a basic, human, way, we are…keen to do something. But what?

more.
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art: A Free Syrian Army fighter practiced using a Dragunov semiautomatic sniper rifle during training exercises in the countryside outside of Homs in June 2012

There was George Bush himself, on Thursday…at the dedication of the Presidential library whose archives will hold evidence of the disaster of his war. It is important to…wonder which Iraqi ghost we are confronting. We have heard about false intelligence before, and, rightly, want to know why it’s different this time. But there is also the question of how to deal with chemical weapons if you do know that they’re there. If, in the first few days in Iraq, we had secured a cache of sarin, would we now be content with the images from Fallujah, with the bungling of the occupation, with the terrible human price that ordinary Iraqis paid? The falsity of the opening adds a sordid layer to it all—but war, even scrubbed of lies, isn’t pretty. Of course, unlike in Iraq, Syria is already engaged in an increasingly unhinged civil war, and, in a basic, human, way, we are…keen to do something. But what?

more.

+++++

art: A Free Syrian Army fighter practiced using a Dragunov semiautomatic sniper rifle during training exercises in the countryside outside of Homs in June 2012

April 25th, 2013

thesmithian

Dallas, Texas today, where they will join former presidents in inaugurating the presidential library and museum of George W. Bush…

more.

April 24th, 2013

thesmithian

'Ugly stuff. This is the equivalent of slash fiction for conservatives.'

April 18th, 2013

thesmithian

'...there had to be an enemy-industrial complex...a network of crucial figures and institutions ready to pump up the threat we faced and convince Americans that we were in a world so dangerous that rights, liberty, and privacy were small things to sacrifice for American safety...any number of interests from Bush administration figures eager to “sweep it all up” and do whatever they wanted in the world to weapons makers, lobbyists, surveillance outfits, think tanks, military intellectuals, assorted pundits...well, the whole national and homeland security racket and its various hangers-on had an interest in beefing up the enemy. For them, it was important in the post-9/11 era that threats would never again lack a capital “T” or a hefty dollar sign. And don’t forget a media that was ready to pound the drums of war and emphasize what dangerous enemies lurked in our world with remarkably few second thoughts.'

March 28th, 2013

thesmithian

[MSNBC] managed to hang on for a couple more years before accidentally hitting upon an identity that worked. Right after Hurricane Katrina, in the summer of 2005, Keith Olbermann delivered a “Special Comment” at the end of his show about the Bush administration’s incompetence. Even though it was an instant sensation, picking up millions of hits online, [it was] demanded that Olbermann stop…But Olbermann, being Olbermann, persisted…This is how MSNBC as we know it developed: haphazardly…

more. and see Olbermann’s comment, above.

March 24th, 2013

thesmithian

'...even though Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney weren’t culture warriors or evangelical Christians, in the popular imagination their legacy of incompetence has become a reason to reject social conservatism as well. Just as the post-Vietnam Democrats came to be regarded as incompetent, wimpy and dangerously radical all at once, since 2004 the Bush administration’s blunders—the missing W.M.D., the botched occupation—have been woven into a larger story about Youth and Science and Reason and Diversity triumphing over Old White Male Faith-Based Cluelessness. Of all the Iraq war’s consequences for...politics, it’s this narrative that may be the war’s most lasting legacy, and the most difficult for conservatives to overcome.'

March 21st, 2013

thesmithian

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Texas Monthly

March 12th, 2013

thesmithian

[look of the hour]

March 12th, 2013

thesmithian

Republican reformers are reluctant to admit the obstacle that Bush’s legacy poses to public confidence on foreign affairs. Although they acknowledge that the wars have been unpopular and expensive, they present these facts…as if the deaths of nearly 7,000 Americans were the result of weather or other uncontrollable forces…Who do they think they’re fooling? Then there’s the economy…long-term problems of unemployment, wage stagnation, and rising health-care and education costs…they are reluctant to acknowledge that the Bush administration did little to reverse these trends, and in some ways exacerbated them…the Bush administration regarded tax cuts as a signature achievement. Ordinary citizens have long…memories.

more.

Republican reformers are reluctant to admit the obstacle that Bush’s legacy poses to public confidence on foreign affairs. Although they acknowledge that the wars have been unpopular and expensive, they present these facts…as if the deaths of nearly 7,000 Americans were the result of weather or other uncontrollable forces…Who do they think they’re fooling? Then there’s the economy…long-term problems of unemployment, wage stagnation, and rising health-care and education costs…they are reluctant to acknowledge that the Bush administration did little to reverse these trends, and in some ways exacerbated them…the Bush administration regarded tax cuts as a signature achievement. Ordinary citizens have long…memories.

more.