When is a benefit cut not a benefit cut? When does the repeal of planned future tax cuts constitute a tax increase? When White House spokesman and idiot non-savant Scott McClellan says so. The day after the President's press conference announcing his support for the Pozen scheme for Social Security progressive price indexing, McClellan was […]

The political and entertainment worlds are abuzz with discussion and analysis regarding the contents of President Bush's iPod. The list, released by the White House on Tuesday, reveals a bland and predictable mix of rock classics and country. What is much more interesting - and surprising - are the songs comprising Bush's previously secret playlist. […]

Now for a moment of shameless self-promotion. If you're at all curious to see where Perrsectives content is appearing online, check out the "Perrspectives in the News" page. From newspapers like The Oregonian and the Philadelphia Daily News and magazines like The Nations and Slate to Atrios and Wonkette, you'll find Perrspectives news, kudos and […]

Once again, the conservative punditocracy and blogosphere is learning the painful lesson that the truth does not necessarily set you free. From Fox News and Rush Limbaugh to virtually the entire right-wing blogosphere, the regiments of right-wing venom were all wrong about the much-hyped "GOP Schiavo talking points memo." Over the past 10 days, they […]

Among the certainties of today's American conservative movement is the hostility towards objective truth and the scientific method. As I wrote in "The Potemkin President", the Lysenkoism of the Right requires an attack on any finding that runs counter to its policies or ideology. The Right's same fierce denial, it appears, also applies to journalistic […]

Among her legacies, Russian Empress Catherine the Great brought the term "Potemkin Village" into the vernacular. It refers to the elaborate villages erected by Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to impress Catherine with her new Crimean conquests. In today's political parlance, the term has become synonymous with the sophisticated facade and the clever ruse - […]

Three critical points have been almost entirely absent from the media's discussion of the Terri Schiavo affair. I've written about two and others in the blogosphere have done a great job addressing the third: 1. Moral Arguments Favoring the End of Life Support A thorough discussion of the very strong moral arguments in favor of […]

These are pretty heady days for the White House and its fellow travelers. In Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Ukraine, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia, movements for popular, democratic change seem to rule the day. The wisdom, rightness and prescience of the Bush Doctrine, they say, have been vindicated. In triumphant and self-congratulatory tones, the President and […]

George Lakoff's advice for Democrats in Don't Think of An Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate continues to be the focus of much discussion within the left-of-center blogosphere. In the last week, while Perrspectives took Lakoff to task, Matthew Yglesias praised Democratic efforts to stop President Bush on Social Security as an example […]

In the wake of November?s disaster for Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes have been seeking guidance and comfort in the work of cognitive scientist and linguist George Lakoff. All the rage among Democrats, his book Don?t Think of An Elephant has introduced the term ?framing? into the daily lexicon of political animals. For […]