AmericanDreamer

Lions for Lambs and Sicko

By AmericanDreamer on Wed, 11/21/2007 - 1:34pm |

Redford's Lions for Lambs did not get favorable reviews in the DC area (we're back from our stay abroad). The knocks on it were that it was almost all talk--which seems to be presumptively boring to some of our ADD-afflicted...

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2141 reads

John Edwards and the American Dream

By AmericanDreamer on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 6:40am |

I like John Edwards a great deal and, as I have said, am leaning towards voting for him in the primaries. Something he said last night in response to a Charlie Rose question on the Yahoo/Huffington/Slate Democratic candidate mashup bothers...

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2032 reads

re artappraiser's challenge, thoughts on a forward-looking agenda

By AmericanDreamer on Wed, 09/05/2007 - 3:54pm |

In Matt Y's first response to Todd Gitlin's post on his Bulldozers and Big Tent book, artappraiser asks Matt for his forward agenda, if he's not fully pleased with Todd's: http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/bookclub/2007/sep/04/how_big_a_tent#comment-... She didn't ask me, but I'll pitch in my...

Working the Election Integrity Beat: The Brad Blog

By AmericanDreamer on Sat, 08/25/2007 - 12:41pm |

Check out The Brad Blog: http://www.bradblog.com/ Just discovered this. Looks like an important source of independent information for those of us interested in monitoring what's going on and helping the election integrity cause....

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2082 reads

The Foreign Policy Disconnect--a request of management

By AmericanDreamer on Tue, 08/14/2007 - 5:25am |

Dear Josh, Andy and fellow cafe denizens: The topic of the alleged disconnect between the foreign policy community and the public is getting a lot of attention lately, here, and at Yglesias and Greenwald as examples. I'd like to request...

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2871 reads

Questions for Dean Slaughter

By AmericanDreamer on Fri, 08/10/2007 - 3:21pm |

Spurred by recent posts by Anne-Marie Slaughter and comments by denizens, I went back and reviewed the Princeton Project on National Security's report, "Forging a World of Liberty Under Law," co-authored by Anne-Marie and John Ikenberry. http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ppns/report/FinalReport.pdf I will stipulate...

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1977 reads

The End of Iraq, by Peter Galbraith

By AmericanDreamer on Mon, 06/18/2007 - 7:34am |

Highly recommended. This is the smartest analysis I've seen. Galbraith, another of JK Galbraith's sons, offers not only well-informed, biting criticism but thoughts on where to go from here: essentially, to gradually withdraw troops everywhere except perhaps in Kurdistan, where,...

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2369 reads

Choice snippets from The Ugly American

By AmericanDreamer on Mon, 05/28/2007 - 1:56pm |

(from the book, written in 1958, not the far inferior movie, where the Ambassador MacWhite character played by Brando is not much like the Ambassador MacWhite portrayed in the book) pp. 108-109, Philippine Minister of Defense Magsaysay to Ambassador MacWhite:...

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3649 reads

Movie rec: "Half Nelson"

By AmericanDreamer on Tue, 05/22/2007 - 6:04am |

In portraying a caring, unorthodox, in many ways effective inner-city high school history teacher with a drug problem, Ryan Gosling does about as good a job of acting as anyone I've seen in a long time. He completely sold that...

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1566 reads

Leaving (soon) on a Jet Plane

By AmericanDreamer on Fri, 10/13/2006 - 1:01pm |

Next month my wife and I are moving ourselves and our two kids to Tbilisi in the country of Georgia for around 20 months. Folks here know that country has been in the news a bit lately, with last weekend's...

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2197 reads

Robert Kagan (today's WashPost): "More Leaks, Please"

By AmericanDreamer on Tue, 09/26/2006 - 9:58am |

From Kagan's column, the first sentence reads: "It's too bad we won't get to see the full National Intelligence Estimate on 'Trends in Global Terrorism' selectively leaked to The Post and the New York Times last week. Indeed. Out with...

My Democratic Message

By AmericanDreamer on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 1:09pm |

The Dems will not agree on a single national message. At least if they have, I haven't heard it. So I am free to select my own. It's a formidable challenge. There are way too many targets and sources of...

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1899 reads

David Broder, cont.

By AmericanDreamer on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 12:46pm |

As I work around the corner from the Washington Post offices in DC, I took the liberty of purchasing a copy of Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson's fabulous Off Center and leaving a copy for David Broder at the Post's...

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2814 reads

Carville and Begala, Zinging Them on Military Service

By AmericanDreamer on Fri, 09/15/2006 - 12:00pm |

I'm halfway into Carville and Begala's latest, Take it Back. This from pages 132-33, in connection with their discussion about how to help with military recruitment: "But, let's face it, has-been pop stars and never-was country singers are not going...

David Broder, Getting it Wrong Again

By AmericanDreamer on Thu, 08/10/2006 - 4:23pm |

From his column in today's Post: "In the primary, Lamont found his most prominent support on the far-left flank of the Democratic Party. His organization was a hand-me-down from the Howard Dean presidential campaign, bolstered by a blizzard of Internet...

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3228 reads

Which Iraq?

By AmericanDreamer on Mon, 08/07/2006 - 4:43pm |

This past weekend's Washington Post Book World contains reviews of two books on Iraq. I am struck by contrasting accounts of the relationship between Sunni and Shia Iraqis prior to the war in these two reviews. One review is of...

Time Person of the Year

By AmericanDreamer on Tue, 08/01/2006 - 3:31pm |

If I had a vote for Time magazine Person of the Year and they picked the winner today, I would vote for Al Gore. Call it "Revenge of the Nerd" or whatever you want. Our times demand serious people who...

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2046 reads

Sound-bite version of Bush Administration policy on North Korean nukes

By AmericanDreamer on Wed, 07/12/2006 - 1:55am |

"Let's demonstrate our toughness by refusing to talk to them, say out loud as though we really, really mean it (but not to the North Koreans, of course) that we mean business about them not making nukes, hold our nose,...

The Fog of War, the book

By AmericanDreamer on Tue, 07/11/2006 - 3:47pm |

I am just finishing up the book The Fog of War: Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Including excerpts from documents declassified during the 1990s and earlier this decade, it was edited and written by James G. Blight...

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2713 reads

The Spinning of Lieberman-Lamont

By AmericanDreamer on Sun, 07/09/2006 - 12:06pm |

Steven Clemons http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/ has a piece at his site noting a July 6 LA Times lead editorial headlined "Purging Antiwar Democrats". He titles his entry "Purging Pro-Iraq War Democrats" and says: "First of all, editorialists should stop referring to everyone...

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