For those of you who missed, CBS offered a fawning portrait of Google on last night's installment of 60 Minutes. Aside from a brief mention of the Microsoft threat, Leslie Stahl's lovefest had little negative to say about everyone's favorite Internet company. Well, not quite everyone. As we reported last year, Google the Internet darling […]

In the wake of the devastating tsunami that killed thousands and threatens hundreds of thousands more across Asia, much of the coverage and debate in the United States has centered around whether or not the initial U.S. $35 million aid package is, in the words of U.N emergency coordinator Jan Egeland, "stingy." Lost in the […]

As President Bush ramps up his campaign for Social Security privatization, it looks like Democrats will once again win the battle of facts while losing the war of ideas. While his proposals are widely viewed as bad public policy and enjoy only lukewarm public support, regardless of its outcome Bush's crusade for Social Security reform […]

The good news keeps on coming for President Bush. Fresh off receiving the Time 2004 Man of the Year award, rumors abound that Bush will also be recognized by Himmler Fancy magazine in its end of the year issue. Himmler Fancy, with its motto of "dedicated to advancing the age-old art of persuasion", is a […]

Every once in a while, you realize that the apparently pointless concepts you learned back in math class were not completely without value. Or in the case of the Time selection of George W. Bush as its "2004 Man of the Year", absolute value. Bush's second crowning as Man O' Year reminds us of the […]

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's comments to U.S. troops last week highlight once again the need for new leadership at the Pentagon. But while some Republicans are finally beginning to raise doubts about Rumsfeld, they have yet to hold him to the GOP's "Les Aspin Standard." That is, decisions that needlessly cost American lives in battle […]

In the latest example of what Perrspectives has called a "Faux National Tragedy", Scott Peterson was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Laci. As we described in 1997 after the Heaven's Gate cult mass suicide, a Faux National Tragedy has four identifiable traits: Unlimited Media Frenzy. This is the necessary but not […]

The race to succeed Terry McAuliffe as DNC chair is heating up and is getting very crowded. On December 8th, "front-runner" Howard Dean made his pitch. Today, Simon Rosenberg, president and founder of the New Democrat Network, will preview his case for leadership at the ASDC conference in Orlando. A Rosenberg candidacy to lead the […]

At George Washington University, Howard Dean on December 8th used a major address to make his claim for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee. Seeing a very ill, deeply depressed Democratic patient with a weak pulse and failing heart, Doctor Dean offered his usual combustible mix of rage and righteous indignation as a balm. […]

Speaking of cognitive dissonance, the Bush administration continues to merrily amble forward as the situation in Iraq degrades and the stench of American abuse of prisoners grows. Earlier today, President Bush blandly stated that "free elections will proceed as planned." . At the same time he was issuing this pablum, the New York Times and […]