It feels great to watch my own daughter progress as a writer. To have someone in the family doing such excellent writing relieves me of any guilt about not working as hard as I used to. Don’t have to with talent like this around. Take a gander at Natasha’s report on the opening week of [...]

When I lived in Chile in the pre-Pinochet days it was always a treat to go see folksinger Victor Jara … to call him the Bob Dylan of Chile is an understatement. I can’t say that I knew him but my wife went to the university where he was a beloved teacher, singer, poet and [...]

The Republic is in Great Peril. Thanks to Barack Obama we know have a Supreme Court nominee who some claim capable of empathy.  What a chilling thought. Horrors! In even greater peril is the future of the Republican Party.  In opposing such a supremely qualified and relatively moderate nominee as Sonia Sotomayor, the GOP has [...]

How much is Dick Cheney paying the media to somehow portray him as Barack Obama’s debating partner.  Excuse me, but we already had the debate back in November and Cheney’s team got crushed. Or was I just imagining all that? Nevertheless, there was day-long panting about the Obama-Cheney face off. The only thing more absurd [...]

There are many stupid things I could write about tonight. Like the nauseating NIMBY ploy by Congressional Democrats who — pandering to irrational, xenophobic if not to say primeval fear– are blocking funding to close Gitmo. Or perhaps the way the media has shamefully  decided to offer such a wide platform for the feverish rantings [...]

A couple of small rattlers near LAX the last few days elicited more attention among Californians than did a key election today whose results could have deep devastating economic consequences. Most of the Golden State’s residents just shrugged at the half-dozen ballot measures served up before them on Tuesday and failed to show. A sound [...]

Goodbye to the Tucson Citizen. And, frankly, good riddance.  I agree with Jay Rosen on this one. I’m no gravedancer…but… what a sour, nasty, petty self-absorbed, off-the-wall. pathetic editorial did the Citizen choose for its close-out editorial. A straight-on fug-you to the New Media at which it openly sneers with contempt. I’m not going to [...]

Nancy Pelosi offered her own twisting, tortured account of what she did and did not know about waterboarding torture.  There was a lot of needle-threading during the Speaker’s 19 minute attempt at explanation but the headline is that she was lied to by the CIA. Lied to because she claims her staff was “briefed” by [...]

I’ve just donated $100 to the ACLU. I hope you will join me and give what you can. I think this is the proper response to the inexcusable decision by President Obama to reverse course and try to block the release of dozens of photos of U.S. troops abusing prisoners and detainees. The administration is [...]

The Brilliant Daughter is back and writitng away furiously, having abandoned the dramatic life of a union organizer for that of an Official Writer. And, frankly, she’s pretty darn good (says her Dad). Natasha comes out swinging on Alex Balk’s new high-brow blog, The Awl, with a zesty dive into the innards of Soderbergh’s latest, [...]

No, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth. Just really busy with end of semester stuff. ALSO… in the midst of redsigning, upgrading and expanding this blog. So hope I will make your wait worth it.

This report confirms something we already knew. Moral jellyfish come in all sorts of colors: red and blue. Let it be noted, in fairness, that Speaker Pelosi was briefed only once on the details of then-current use of torture. That’s a good excuse, no?

Sorry. Been real busty and sorta absent from blogging this past week. I’m back. And I’m tired. Sick and tired of Arlen Specter. And he’s only been with  “us ” a week.  He’s the 60th vote like I’m Pee Wee Herman. Let us count the ways. Specter doesn’t support a number of Obama’s appointees. He [...]