Another Wingnut For Internment

Johann Hari on psuedo-toff tosser Andrew Roberts:

Much of Roberts's advice to Bush is based on similarly skewed and surreal misreadings of history. For example, he has advised Bush to adopt "the whole idea of mass internment," saying: "I think it is the way the administration of Iraq should go." At his lunch with Bush, according to economist Irwin Stelzer, who was present, Roberts cited Ireland as a place where internment worked.

America, The World's Jailer. It's so crazy it just might work.

Exactly like it did the last the time we tried it in Iraq.

Le siege de Paris, by Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier

For those who want to appear well read without the hassle of reading or those who can't stomach the vast wasteland that is broadcast radio, I'm happy to let you in a solution that's quite bearable: audiobooks.

I've just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Judgment of Paris by Ross King, a history of French art in the 1860-70s and the birth of French Impressionism. I was surprised how much of the content I remembered from a college art history class, but even more surprised by how much I'd forgotten about the political history of the period, including the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris.

It's not the book I'd pick up if I saw it in a bookstore or library, but it was an entertaining "listen" and easy to follow in audio format despite the cast of hundreds (perhaps because I was familiar with the story and some of its protagonists).

The main drawbacks with audiobooks is that they're significantly more expensive than regular books and not as versatile. You can't skim them or search them via an index. And the quality of the readers and performances varies widely -- something you don't know until you listen. I've been borrowing them on CD from the public library, which eliminates the first drawback, but means that the selection is fairly limited and often depressing. (Think Steven King and Mary Friggin' Clark, and scratched disks.) But ocassionally I come across something worth listening to, like Gore Vidal's Point to Point Navigation, read by the author, or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, read by Simon Prebble. (Even something I'd surely never read, such Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman, was made enjoyable in audio through the performance of Lenny Henry.)

Late last year, when I was driving to the hospital daily and at odd hours, these things kept me awake and away from driving into a bridge abutment. What more can you ask for from a CD?

The Replacement Killers

Chuck Schumer will probably get a bit more love in the leftwingosphere in the near future:

"Please treat this as confidential," Mr. Sampson wrote in the [January 9, 2006 e-mail] message. He concluded, "If a decision is made to remove and replace a limited number of U.S. attorneys, then the following might be considered for removal and possible replacement."

Mr. Sampson testified under oath on March 29 at a hearing of Senate Judiciary Committee that he had no candidates in mind to replace any of the fired prosecutors. In his prepared statement, he said that "none of the U.S. attorneys was asked to resign in favor of a particular individual who had already been identified to take the vacant spot."

At one point in the hearing, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, asked Mr. Sampson, "Did you or did you not have in mind specific replacements for the dismissed U.S. attorneys before they were asked to resign on Dec. 7, 2006."

Mr. Sampson, testifying under oath, replied: "I personally did not."

That's Libby-style perjury, that is. And Sampson handed it to Senator Schumer on a silver platter.

A Noonan Flashback

I missed the fourth anniversary of this Peggy Noonan Classic:

Weeks later, after all the news--the invasion, Saddam gone, more al Qaeda arrests--the president of the United States had a meeting that he'd been looking forward to. It was in the Oval Office. It was early evening and the lamps seemed to light it with a golden glow. The door opened, and in marched the men who got Osama. The Ranger crew, the Screaming Eagles who guarded them.

The president gave them great medals and thanked them on behalf of a grateful nation. Then he asked for the Rangers who'd stormed the hideout. They stepped forward. Bush said he was sorry their names would have to stay secret but it was best under the circumstances, too much still going on, didn't want to let them be a target for some nuts.

"But when the time is right," Bush said, "your country will be told who you are, and what you did. And then -- better get ready for the sculptors and all the statues."

Bin Laden may live on, but Karl Rove's e-mails will never terrorize another American ever again, that's for damn sure.

Hoo-ah.

Howie The Empty-Headed Ho

Howie Kurtz, forced to address the ravings of his racist pal, provides the KKK man with a defense. In a column insanely titled "The Race Debate" (What, exactly, is being debated - whether the Rutgers team really are hos?), Kurtz writes:

Journalists like me who have gone on Imus's show have done so because we enjoyed the opportunity to talk about politics and media without the stuffiness of so many other programs. And it's probably true that too many of us looked the other way when he went over the line with some of his cruder comedy bits. He's now vowing to clean up his act, and I hope he does.

...

In my view, Imus is not a hater or a bigot. He supported Harold Ford when the African American congressman ran for the Senate. He's raised tens of millions of dollars for kids with cancer, of all races, who are put up at his New Mexico ranch. Imus practices a form of insult comedy that too often goes up to the line of decency, goes over the line or, as in this case, obliterates it. But he seems truly chastened by this bit of stupidity.

Here's a hint, Howie. If you enjoy talking about politics and media without the stuffiness of many teevee programs, talk about those topics with like-minded friends off the teevee. You still exist if no one's there to film you. Or get yourself invited on the hundreds of teevee and radio programs that don't star a racist clown. (Yes, that means stay away from O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Savage and the Salem Radio Network.)

The reason you "looked the other way," Ho, is that Imus's bigotry never bothered you. In fact, 11 years ago, you wrote that "Imus's sexist, homophobic and politically incorrect routines echo what many journalists joke about in private." Unstuffy journalists like you, Howie?

Never mind what Imus said, sez Kurtz. Black people invented the word "ho," Jesse Jackson impregnated someone other than his wife, and Al Sharpton supported Tawana Brawley. In other words, they started it.

Thanks for showing us your colors, Howie.

Conflict-of-Interest Kurtz Rides Again

Howard Kurtz can't be bothered with the Don Imus story. It's not in his column today, or his online "Extra" column. And it wasn't on his CNN media program, The Jonah Goldberg Show, this weekend. And somehow no one managed to mention Imus during Kurtz's weekly chat, in which Kurtz controls the questioning.

To be fair, Howie's all over the time-sensitive breaking news about Meredith Vieria.

A cynic might speculate that Howie's covering his own ass about his professional friendship with Imus and/or trying to ensure that his frequent appearances on the Imus show (most recently, March 19) don't stop coming.

A realist knows that's the case.