One Utah

I admit it - I’m hooked on BBc America’s Torchwood. I’m not the only one - apparently it’s their highest rated show. Last night’s episode Captain Jack Harkness was one of the best they’ve done yet, demonstrating their usual mix of sci-fi and character growth; Torchwood is also unique in having an openly gay man, [...]

Over the weekend, I read Andrea Tone’s Devices & Desires: A History of Contraceptives in America.  Tone tracks the history of American use and attitudes toward contraception - and records a striking and historic gap between the two.  To sum up the history: the loudest voices in America seem to have always been opposed to the [...]

I couldn’t write this any better myself, so I’ll quote Spencer Ackerman from Talking Points Memo this morning:
What? Permanent U.S. bases in Iraq? I’ve never heard of anything so absurd! Why, you — you — you conspiracy theorist! How can you be so shrill, so irresponsible, so, so, so…
Oh, wait.

Yes, after years of denial and [...]

U.S. Scales Back Political Goals in Iraq, from the New York Times:
While Bush officials once said they aimed to secure “reconciliation” among Iraq’s deeply divided religious, ethnic and sectarian groups, some officials now refer to their goal as “accommodation.”
In a discussion yesterday on CNN’s “This Week at War,” Michael Ware in Baghdad said that American [...]

I swore to myself - No conversations about politics over the holiday. Yeah, right. That worked out well.
The conversation turned to politics, covering a wide range of topics, including but not limited to immigration.
About midway through, I had an epiphany. Talk about immigration is occurring in the wrong frame - it is [...]

Neocon “Prince of Darkness” Richard Perle was interviewed recently by BBC’s Stephen Sackur. Perle advocated an attack on Iraq in 2003 with utter disregard of the consequences, saying “I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.”
From Think Progress:
“I’m not happy about the way events [...]

The Bush administration is ranked by historians as the worst ever in U.S. history, and they still have 423 days left in office. What to do? Try to rewrite history, of course.
In a cozy Air Force One interview with sycophant/columnist Kathleen Parker, President Bush made some interesting counter-factual claims:

“[W]e’ve got to support these [...]

If you watch enough TV, ingest too many newspapers, and read a lot of blogs, my own and this one included, you get the impression the world is driving a flaming red Hummer in the fast lane to Hell. That may be true- but it depends on what Hell you’re talking about: the actual ones [...]

Amendment II: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Here we go, the U.S. Supreme Court is going to try to reinterpret the Second Amendment. The collective right of the People to keep and [...]

The Mortgage Meltdown is getting scary.  I see at Americablog that next year could be the ugliest yet.
The banking industry sadly has no one to blame but itself (consumers are more complex).  Banks and mortgage companies got greedy, figured they’d do anything and everything the could to get customers signing mortgage papers, and then worry [...]

The people of Utah also picked this presentation as the the program they would most like to be rebroadcast last Friday night on PBS. No, it has absolutely nothing to do with O. J. or “The Simpsons”. It has more to do with who we are and what we believe.
This time it wasn’t a teacher [...]

In comments last week, I argued that Bill Clinton failed to build the Democratic brand in the 1990s. This argument has been made elsewhere throughout the progressive blogosphere and in a number of books. Ed Kilgore and Thomas Schaller have some thoughts on the topic that predated my comment.