More stuff you should be reading instead of this lousy blog…

• Please… if you don’t read anything else, read A Short History of 21st Century Iraq. This article by Stephen Soldz pieces together the jigsaw of mismanagement, hypocrisy, and brutal stupidity that has marked America’s campaign in that country. (via Eschaton)

• If, like me, you missed Bill Clinton’s speech last night, you can read it here. It’s pretty damn good.

• Arianna Huffington lets us know that Big Media Faces couldn’t find their balls if they were interviewing them. Ah, well. At least some anchors aren’t paralyzed by objectivity. (via The National Debate)

• Though Kevin Drum equivocates a bit on whether or not the networks should cover the conventions in depth, I think he’s right on to be “swayed by the argument that that’s the whole point: they are long commercials for the candidates, and once every four years the networks ought to suck it up and let the candidates make their pitch to us raw and unedited.”

• Funny Flash movie at ACLU about ordering a pizza in a privacy-free society (via Boing Boing)

• Damn. That JFK sure spoke some great speeches. (Sid’s Fishbowl) What I’m consistently struck by whenever I encounter Kennedy’s speeches – and, I suspect, it’s part of the reason why he remains such an icon today – is how he managed to focus everyone’s eyes in the same direction. He would gather threads of the past and present and knot them into a rope and sling it – with virtuosic verbal alacrity – across the chasm of the future and say, “There! That’s where we’re going.” And you just—even today, I find myself nodding and saying, “Yes, he’s right, let’s go there.” Clinton also has undeniable speaking ability, but his speeches are more evocative than forward-pointing.

• Just want to give a shout out to Talking Points Memo for a second. I gave Josh a teensy bit of scratch to help him cover the convention, and I’m liking what I see so far. I’m looking forward to seeing the results of some of his interviews.

• No Related Post

Tuesday, July 27th, 2004 @ 9:57 am Nothings
RSS 2.0 Both comments and pings are currently closed.