Marshall Grossman

Wait a minute. What's that smell? Big Daddy might detect a powerful odor of mendacity coming off the Paulson Bailout Plan, but I'm just picking up more rotten fish from the man from Goldman Sachs.

The Bush administration, now presumably winding down, has pursued three activities relentlessly over the...

"Sen. Barack Obama is risking his brand as a political reformer, according to reports today in the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. In recent weeks, he has moderated or changed positions on a number of politically-charged issues, leading to criticism from demoralized Democratic activists and charges of "flip-flopping"...

Those old new Democrats are at it again. Working feverishly to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, Maryland Representative and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has managed to maneuver FISA telecom immunity through the house, along with another supplemental to fund the war. Disgusting! Why did he do it...

The nomination of an African-American candidate for president is a very big deal. It reminds us that there are really two distinct kinds of American exceptionalism. This phrase is often used to describe the conviction or sense that America is a unique agent in and of world history, a special...

"The revelation of Mr. Spitzer's involvement with the high-end prostitution ring gripped the nation, and more than 70 reporters and photographers clustered outside the governor's Upper East Side high-rise, separated from the building by a metal barricade erected by the police" ("Spitzer Wrestles over Response," NYT)

Let me begin...

Hic Rhodus, hic saltus

In an earlier post ("A Modest Proposal in Lieu of Badly Wrecked Train") I proposed two possible options to get the Obama and Clinton trains off the mainline back to Chicago 1968. For those who don't remember that was the time and place when...

Our plesance heir is all vane glory,
This fals warld is bot transitory,
The flesche is brukle, the Fend is sle;
Timor mortis conturbat me.

It so happened that when I awoke this morning from uneasy dreams these words from a poem written by William Dunbar...

"The coordinated statements released late Friday afternoon by two Democratic senators [Schumer and Feinstein] that they would break ranks and support President Bush's attorney general nominee largely muted opposition from a Democratic base that has become increasingly frustrated with Congress, activist leaders said Monday"-- Manju Raju, The Hill.com 11/06/07

With the great Obama "praises" Reagan flap continuing apace, it is fortunate that the lead paragraph of Eric Jong's Friday rant (Barack Hearts Ronnie: An Old New Song) includes a link to video of what Barack actually said (Obama: Reagan Changed Direction of Country in Way Bill Clinton...

For someone interested in the material effects of discourse -- for example, the kind of things that George Lakoff and others call "framing" -- the current political season is almost as interesting as it is frustrating and depressing.

I'm talking, of course, about the Democrats, the Republicans...

Something is seriously wrong. The pollsters tell us a majority of Americans opposes George Bush's war on Iraq. The one poll that counts--the 2006 Congressional Elections--gave the Democrats a majority in both houses of Congress, with the apparent intent of replacing the rubber stamp Republican Congress with one that would...

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or...

"It was a concession to reality," said Representative James P. Moran, Democrat of Virginia, who said he intended to oppose the war spending portion of the bill.

"I would never vote for such a thing," Ms. Pelosi said as she entered the office of Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the...

A Happy Day After Lieberman Lost Day to All!

In the run up to the Connecticut primary, and now the responses to it, I keep seeing Joe Lieberman referred to as "a moderate." Here, for example, is the generally liberal and intelligent E. J. Dionne in the August 8th Washington...

As usual, I'm confused. Bear with me while I try to work through this.

On July 8, 2003, Scooter Libby told Judy Miller stuff that was in the classified October 2002 National Security Estimate. On July 12, 2003, he passed similar information to Matt Cooper. But Libby claimed in...

Forwarding, cutting, pasting permitted and encouraged.

Dear Senator:

Will you vote no on Senator Frist's cloture resolution to cut off debate on the Alito nomination? I feel strongly that you should. Everything about Judge Alito--his record of pandering to the most hard-hearted and repressive expressions of the Reagan justice department,...

“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or...

“We will take the fight to the terrorists. We will help the Iraqi people lay the foundations of a strong democracy that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself. And by laying the foundations of freedom in Iraq, we will lay the foundation of peace for generations to come.”—G....

He that has suffered this disordered spring
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf.
The weeds which his broad spreading leaves did shelter,
That seemed in eating him to hold him up,
Are plucked up root and all…

By the middle of the third...

“Well Brain, what are we going to do tomorrow?”
“What do we do every day, Pinky? Try to take over the world.”

Already back in May, Jay Leno was letting Bright Eyes sing his “protest song,” “When the President Speaks to God,” in America’s living room. Contrary to Leno’s...