Bush Doctrine not working

U.S. Foreign Policy Hurting American Students' Chances of Getting Laid Abroad

"I've been in Amsterdam for two months and have yet to begin a conversation with a cute girl that hasn't ended in a lecture about how big, evil America is taking everyone's oil," said college sophomore Brad Higgs, a participant in Johns Hopkins University's study-abroad program. "I offer to buy them a drink, and they tell me I shouldn't just stand by and watch Bush destroy the world. Look, if I had that type of pull with the president, I obviously wouldn't be out trolling for anonymous Dutch pussy."

Ah who wants those Europeans with their premarital safe sex anyway?

Joe Malchow's virile buddies at The Editorial Board should take heed.

Jeff Gannon snubbed

The New York Post reports,

DISGRACED former White House reporter/male escort Jeff Gannon can't believe no one has invited him to tomorrow's White House Correspondents Dinner. "It seems to me to be odd to exclude the one person who has brought more attention to the White House press corps than anyone else in years," Gannon tells PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern.

I've posted this before, but I just can't pass up the opportunity to post it again: Jeff Gannon pics (contains nudity).

Ha ha

Fuck Clear Channel. From Boston.com:

Clear Channel Communications Inc., the nation's largest radio broadcaster, on Friday reported a 59 percent drop in earnings in the first quarter while also announcing it will split up its media empire by spinning off its live-entertainment division.

Let's hope the downward trend continues, and that the hypotheses are correct that bloated media uber-conglomerates will deteriorate on account of their own inefficiency and the rise of smaller Internet media.

GE to grace Dartmouth Commencement again

Tom Brokaw will deliver the main address at the 2005 Dartmouth Commencement. Read the official Dartmouth news release.

In all seriousness though, my first reaction is that this is much better than having General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, last year's speaker. Brokaw has had a remarkable career in journalism and will surely have some interesting things to say.

We'll likely have more thoughts on this to come, as I take the matter of who speaks at my graduation pretty seriously.

Senator Franken?

Now here is someone who'd be capable of a good filibuster. Al Franken, SNL legend, Air America anchor, best-selling author, and all-around bad-ass, is considering a run for Senate in his home state of Minnesota in 2008 against Republican freshman Sen. Norm Coleman. Read about it at Salon.

Re: "Nuclear Fission"

A friend of mine who's at Princeton posts the following comment re: "Nuclear Fission":

...I have a particular interest in judicial nominations and the filibuster thereof. I actually worked on the issue during the summer of 2003 in the Majority Leader's Office. I would like to make a few predictions. 1) Various interest groups will start a large scale campaign of advertisements in order to move public opinion in a direction favorable to the nuclear/constitutional option. This will begin quite soon. 2) Republicans will successfully exercise the nuclear/constitutional option with 51-52 Senators voting for it. 2) They will do so relatively soon, likely by the end of May. 3) Democratic retaliation will be loud but ultimately irrelevant. If they attempt a total shutdown, they will end up looking like Newt redux. If they attempt a partial shutdown, they will look petulant. The reporting of Michael Crowley in The New Republic ("The Day After," 4/18/05) is particularly interesting on this count. 4) Rehnquist will retire this summer and Bush will appoint a judge who Ted Kennedy and Chuck Schumer consider "outside the mainstream." He/she will eventually be approved with less than 60 votes.
I would love to see any comments you have.
Stephen

I've been following the developments on Liberal Oasis and other web sites, and the plot is definitely thickening. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid offered a compromise to Majority Leader Bill Frist that would have allowed two of the less extreme of Bush's nominees through in exchange for dropping the Nuclear Option. Frist rejected it. Liberal Oasis speculates Reid might have been "going through the motions" of a compromise so Democrats would be able to say they tried to compromise when shit goes down.

Polling by and large shows the American public to be against the Nuclear Option, and even to side with Democrats on taking a stand against the nominees, though one cleverly worded GOP poll produced different results. Such is the flexible nature of polling, but I think the evidence shows Americans are against the Republicans here.

So to respond to your comments, Stephen, I believe though you might be right on predictions (1), (2), and (4), you're off on (3), which is the one that'll have big ramifications for midterm elections. This situation is clearly not analagous to the government shutdown over the budget in '95. Republicans are trying to pull a completely unprecedented, absolute takeover of power here, and it's not going to sit well with people. The noise Democrats make will indeed be relevant, because Republicans will lose (even more) seats in 2006. Perhaps you Republicans have concluded the risks/costs in the legislature are worth the benefits of the power gained in the judiciary. I think that's a reasonable analysis, but I'm betting it's ultimately wrong. I'll take a Democratic House and the initiative of agenda that comes with it -- in fact, I think that might be Democrats' best bet.

That War on Terror

Reuters: World Terror Attacks Tripled in 2004 by U.S. Count

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him." — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 13, 2001

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." — George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., March 13, 2002

Paleocon, Neocon, Beacon

You may have seen The Dartmouth Beacon around campus by now; it has five issues to its name. It's a sly little publication. And it might well be the future of conservative journalism on campus.

The Dartmouth Review is past its prime. Several of its staff members have told me as much, even going so far as to speculate it'll fold in the next few years. I don't know about that, but I do know TDR represents the old guard of conservatism -- what is now often referred to as paleoconservatism. Libertarian small-government Classical humanist skeptic with a hint of Old Testament moral electness. It's a kind of conservatism the Bush administration has made seem quaint, and, well, liberal. As we're all aware, the new order equals neocons and fundamentalists.

The Dartmouth Beacon pretty much fits the mold of the new order. You wouldn't think so at first, just by glancing at the cover, with its homely layout and unremarkable article titles. But the signs are all there.

Take the naïve March article by Jim Throckmorton '06 on the Iraqi elections:

Of course, despite the best arguments for hope, responsibility, and a strong society, the Iraqi elections are no panacea. It won’t be long before they too are talking about soft money, special interests, and the like. But for now, hope reigns.

While America may be the most conspicuous democracy in the world, it still has much to learn from places like Iraq, where freedom and self-determinism have not always existed. We can learn to hope that the fate of tomorrow depends on our decisions today. We can grasp that hope, and take responsibility to ensure it is nurtured to fruition. And we can find an appropriate place in public affairs for such an intensely private thing as religion.

When the dust settles, the situation in Iraq is not unlike many situations faced here during America’s younger days. Divided and war-wearied, the people and leaders of Iraq are stepping up to a far greater degree than those here at home. In such an environment, it is Iraqi leaders who sound more like Lincoln when he called for our country to act, “With malice towards none...With Charity for all; With Firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right”. With hope, Iraq will follow that call.

The Beacon is replete with this kind of righteous romantic rhetoric, which sounds like a scrapped first draft of Bush's inauguration speech. It's hard to find any substance behind it. Jim Baehr's coverage of the actual inauguration speech is even more fluffy, to the point of being highly misleading and insidious: "If past is prologue, Bush’s second term will continue to bolster his place among the most audacious and idealistic of American Presidents. As the years pass, increasingly free peoples from Florida to Fallujah will come to remember him with the respect his ideals and conviction demand." Florida, world symbol of democracy -- epicenter of Bush v. Gore and the Terri Shiavo intervention, the two most glaring breaches of the Constitution's separation of powers in our time, both by the Right. It's unfortunate, because I know Jim and he's a great guy. (In all fairnesss, he wrote that piece before the Schiavo spectacle, and surely he respects both the Constitution and the right to die just as much as those sacrosanct cultures of life.) He just needs to step back and examine his stances critically. We really don't need the Right's echo chamber to spread here.

Two really salient examples of the Beacon's strange mixture of journalistic amateurism and strategic spin -- some would call this the recipe for propaganda -- are the February cover photo and the most recent back-cover "Face-Off" (point-counterpoint) feature. I looked and found no credit for the February photo:



That and the thorough Photoshoped-ness of the image made me wonder, what exactly is this? If it's not a real image, it's essentially a caricature, an exploitive simulation playing on the most visible and reductive stereotypes many Americans have of an incredibly complex set of cultural and historical circumstances. Veiled women: this is what Islam is; purple finger: this is what freedom is. Even if the image were real (would anyone care to answer?), I believe my point would still stand -- this is simplistic sensationalism.

And now my favorite Dartmouth Beacon moment: the April "Face-Off" feature, titled "Terri Schiavo and the Right to Life: Should judges be permitted to make the decision?" Talk about framing -- this is the stuff of "Hannity and Colmes," pulled straight from the Republican Playbook. Might as well skip what the liberal has to say, because she's not going to be able to argue her way out of the trap set for her. Or just bring in Baxter Jones.

That's the Beacon for you, and I'm worried that's the future of conservative media -- and, let's hope I'm wrong, mainstream. Part Fox News, part Bush administration educational video, part carelessness, part calculation, wholly irresponsible, kind of disturbing. But, hey, that's why blogs are here: to do all the dirty work of cleaning the mess up.

New Revue issue

Alas, I won't be covering the new Dartmouth Review issue, at least not yet. That's because I'll be reading the new Dartmouth Revue issue out, 'The Decline of Everything'. Fartlog sums up the highlights.

Big Media Hall of Shame

Free Press, a "nonpartisan organization working to involve the public in media policymaking and to craft policies for more democratic media," is holding a contest to determine who is the most reprehensible figure in America's Big Media culture. The whole thing's a little heavy-handed, but the powers-that-be still deserve all the criticism possible, plus it's pretty funny and informative. Go watch the video and cast your vote for who should be the sixth nominee, in addition to Rupert Murdock and Michael Powell, among others.

Montreal

George Bennat and I will be rolling deep in Montreal tonight with a bunch of other people. :) Keep it real here.

Alumni Magazine errata :(

Just received my first Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in the mail. Kinda strange feeling. Anyway, I noticed they have a small "Blogs to Log" feature on page 27. The five blogs mentioned are Dartlog, Free Dartmouth, Vox Baby, Dartblogs, and Joe's Dartblog. That's three conservative blogs, one liberal, and one community blog. The Little Green Blog does not get mentioned. :(

The feature was composed by Sue DuBois '05, who George says is actually a liberal. Interesting.

Also, the article on the War and Peace Studies Program is titled "More than Dostoevsky".

:(

Finally, a magazine for most Dartmouth students

Introducing New England Home, a luxury homes magazine targeting the "super affluent," to be launched in August.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

ATTENCION: The Baker Tower bells played "Love Will Tear Us Apart" right before 11s today. I don't know what exactly this means but holy fucking shit.

Nuclear fission

Liberal Oasis sums up reports that Congressional Republicans are uncertain about proceeding with the "Nuclear Option" of ending Democratic filibusters on Bush's judicial nominees in light of new poll numbers that show Americans to be wary of the tactic and even Senate Republicans to be hesitant. However, certain Democrats, including Harry Reid and Joe Lieberman, are showing signs of weakness, i.e. compromise on this issue where Democrats, as is true with the Social Security debate, should not budge, both as a matter of principle and good politics, I believe.

The developments are worth following, as this is a pivotal political moment.

Heritage Foundation corrupt?!?

I was alerted to this story through Think Progress and Liberal Oasis. The Washington Post reports,

For years, the Heritage Foundation sharply criticized the autocratic rule of former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, denouncing his anti-Semitism, his jailing of political opponents and his "anti-free market currency controls."

Then, late in the summer of 2001, the conservative nonprofit Washington think tank began to change its assessment: Heritage financed an Aug. 30-Sept. 4, 2001, trip to Malaysia for three House members and their spouses. Heritage put on briefings for the congressional delegation titled "Malaysia: Standing Up for Democracy" and "U.S. and Malaysia: Ways to Cooperate in Order to Influence Peace and Stability in Southeast Asia."

Heritage's new, pro-Malaysian outlook emerged at the same time a Hong Kong consulting firm co-founded by Edwin J. Feulner, Heritage's president, began representing Malaysian business interests.

I'm curious to know what the Dartmouth Reviewers and College Republicans who have worked at the Heritage Foundation think about this. Just business as usual?

Computers, Evolution, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy

Great little editorial over at the Independent on the new Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy film. I've never actually read the book, or anything by Douglas Adams, for that matter... yet I somehow remain fascinated by its popularity and success. I suppose I just sort of "missed the boat" on the whole affair. The book, published in 1979, seems to be trapped in that hazy period just before my birth, a time of Dungeons & Dragons, E.T., and the Amiga Computer. Stuff I can't claim as my own- and probably wouldn't want to- but nevertheless feel affected by.

I don't suppose I'll ever wind up seeing the film, either. To my mind it would feel just a wee bit like grave-digging, now- and I'll leave the nostalgia to those who were actually alive to experience it in the first place.

Self-promotion

The Dartmouth Independent just posted a nice little interview with Friday Night Rock management. Of interest to anyone who is generally uninterested.

In other news, the first serious gathering of campus music here at Dartmouth in nearly a year will be held this Friday in Fuel, sponsored by FNR. We're calling it "Spring 2004!" because its basically the same fucking show we did in, uh, Spring of 2004.

Details 4/22:
Oh No Dinosaur 10:15pm
Fashion Fashion! 10:45pm
Reaction Speaks 11:30pm

War on Drugs and Marginal Religions

In honor of 4/20, here's an interesting story from yesterday's New York Times about a case the Supreme Court added to its docket Monday, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, in which the Justice Department is arguing for the right of the federal government to "ban the importation of a hallucinogenic tea that is central to the religious rituals of a small Brazil-based church":

The case is an appeal by the Bush administration of a federal court injunction won by the 130 members of the church's American branch, who brought a lawsuit five years ago to prohibit the government from invoking the Controlled Substances Act to block the importation of their tea and from seizing the sacred drink. The church, which combines elements of Christianity and indigenous Brazilian religion, opened its American branch in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1993.

The Bush administration's appeal sums up a nice sliver of its deranged set of priorities: taking an agenda, the War on Drugs, that is both a dubious moral crusade and a proven pragmatic failure to begin with, directing it in such a way as to needlessly target some minority culture and trash their rights, and wasting resources on the entire fiasco.

New Pope=Fucking Creepy as Shit

So George just made some points about the man's life history that should absolutely be considered. But I feel like one major detail was glossed over: the dude looks fucking horrendous. Just look at this picture. Or any picture, for that matter. Who on Earth thought some creepy as shit Necromancer would make a good new face for the Catholic church? Pure evil, I shit you not.