March 28, 2008 12:09
Sweet and Sour (or Vice-Versa)
• "Stafford Smith advised Binyam that when he appeared before the military tribunal he should represent himself. "His words, not mine, were going to be published by the media," Stafford Smith writes. Binyam understood. His military commission hearing transcript, as reported by Stafford Smith, reads like a script for a farce. First comes the matter of Binyam's last name, which has been spelled several ways on different government documents. Therefore, Binyam tells the judge, a Marine Corps colonel named Ralph Kohlmann, that the government is prosecuting a wrongly identified defendant. 'Four years of—what do you call it?—enhanced torture techniques, and we have the wrong person in court.' Finally, he says, 'Call me Count Dracula.'" [NYRB]
• "For a strong, vampire-free, America: Whedon/Minear in '08" [CafePress via Whedonesque]
• "Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country -- for all its flaws -- then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church." [Ben Smith]
• "Fox News' fate isn't a simple political equation, as in bad news for Bush = bad news for Fox. In a way, its really the same kind of aesthetic problem that faces any super-hot TV program that's getting long in the tooth. That is: when you become a hit by perfectly embodying the zeitgeist—as Fox did with its lusty, Starship Troopers-like journo-aggression after 9/11—then you run the risk of seeming like yesterday's news when that zeitgeist starts to change." [Tuned In]
• "There's 800 of them and 450 of them have already said who they're for...I'd like the other 350 to say who they're on between now and the 1st of July so we don't have to take this into convention." [CBS News]
• "Have you been wondering why Americans are so overweight? Or why certain foods are so cheap? Have you heard our average life expectancy is headed down, not up? Two college friends set out with director Aaron Woolf in search of answers to these questions and were surprised by what they discovered. You will be too as this film follows a crop of corn from seed to your dinner plate." [AOL via Slashfood]
About Swampland
Ana Marie Cox, Washington Editor of Time.com, is the founding editor of Wonkette and the author of the novel Dog Days. Read more
Joe Klein is TIME's political columnist and author of six books, most recently Politics Lost. Read more
Karen Tumulty is TIME's National Political Correspondent and has also covered the White House and Congress. Read more
Jay Carney is TIME's Washington bureau chief. He has covered the Clinton and Bush 43 White Houses as well as Congress. Read more
Jay Newton-Small has covered the Bush 43 White House and Congress since the DeLay era. Read more
Michael Scherer is a TIME Washington bureau correspondent covering the 2008 presidential campaign. Read more
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Reader Comments (21)
AMC:
Thank you for doing your part to help lighten my day.
Posted by Cliff | March 28, 2008 12:21 PM
Whedon_Minnear in 08... Shiny!
Posted by superterrificdelegate | March 28, 2008 12:24 PM
Ana, as a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan, I will forgive many things for including the Whedon/Minear link!
Posted by Southern Bell | March 28, 2008 12:50 PM
AMC
I saw the documentary about our cheap food supply - King Corn. It was very enlightening and more than a little scary. As a public health professional, I was astounded by the amount of corn in the American diet.
Posted by Snoopy | March 28, 2008 12:55 PM
Ana - this last bit is a really serious issue -we subsidize simple carbohydrates and actually prohibit farmers from converting some of that land to growing fruits and vegetables. The costs in health issues for the next few generations are enormous, until consumers trigger changes in the farm bill.
It would be nice if some conservatives would come to understand how many tax dollars this whole policy wastes. This is the best reason to change the system of primaries so Iowa isn't first.
Posted by KathyR | March 28, 2008 1:04 PM
According to Pew:
"White Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim."
Viva Ohio & PA!
Posted by Oregon JC | March 28, 2008 1:05 PM
Who knew there were so many Buffy fans in the Swamp! As a recent convert to Firefly as well, I have to insist that you all try that out, too. It's up -- for free! -- at Hulu.com.
(Obv, you, std, already up to speed on the Whedonverse.)
More seriously, yeah, corn subsidies are a problem, and it is a political issue as well as a health issue -- hence the link. I didn't mean to imply in any way that it's a trivial subject. These wrap-ups tend to span the distance... it's a challenge, but a fun one, to try and figure out for myself what links them all.
Maybe I should start a contest...
Posted by Ana Marie Cox | March 28, 2008 1:15 PM
I love Firefly, too.
Besides politics, the only other websites I visit are those devoted to Whedonverse.
Posted by Southern Bell | March 28, 2008 1:17 PM
liu koushui de biaozi he houzi de!
Posted by Paul Daniel Ash
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March 28, 2008 1:34 PM
Ana - I didn't mean to suggest you thought it was trivial - only to add emphasis to my concern about it. And I'm thrilled to see it pop up in the swamp. These potpourri (or maybe olio) posts let us all talk about things that wouldn't otherwise work their way into threads. So thanks.
Sounds like a great idea, that contest. Maybe you could do a "compare and contrast" to go with Joe's "discuss."
Posted by KathyR | March 28, 2008 1:35 PM
New York State to revise formal marketing motto (proposals, tentative) on major in-bound highway signs...
>> Welcome to The Penis State
>> Old New York: We're Whore-tastic!
>> Better Than Bosnia
>> Hyannisport Lite
>> Deaf, Blind, and Democrat
>> Thanks for Visiting North Slutsylvania
>> Home of America's Leading Liberal Lawyer Johns
>> Monica Crept Here Too
>> Not Gubernatorially Gay Like New Jersey
>> Morals Shmorals
Posted by QUESTION HILLARY
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March 28, 2008 1:38 PM
In psychiatry, thought disorder or formal thought disorder is a term used to describe a pattern of disordered language use that is presumed to reflect disordered thinking. It is usually considered a symptom of psychotic mental illness, although it occasionally appears in other conditions.
It describes a persistent underlying disturbance to conscious thought and is classified largely by its effects on speech and writing. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, rhyming, punning, or 'word salad' when individual words may be intact but speech is incoherent.
Posted by Paul Daniel Ash
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March 28, 2008 1:52 PM
Paul Daniel Ash. Thanks for your diligence. A thought disorder with a profile, no less.
Posted by KathyR | March 28, 2008 2:06 PM
"Hillary Clinton Fondly Recalls Leading Arkansas to 1994 NCAA Title."
http://sportspickle.com/features/volume7/2008-0326-clinton.html
This will be Hillary's Invention of the Internet problem. She's stumbled into a joke loop.
Posted by KathyR | March 28, 2008 2:08 PM
Well, it's like, why get mad at the mentally ill? We have a guy like that who sleeps on a bench on my block. He's amusing sometimes, but it's not like I try to debate him on the issues of the day...
Posted by Paul Daniel Ash
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March 28, 2008 2:15 PM
Yup. And my apologies for calling a person a "thought disorder". still a person with a thought disorder.
Posted by KathyR | March 28, 2008 2:17 PM
AMC,
LOVE Firefly. I also noticed a few weeks ago that there are a lot of Battlestar Galactica fans in Swampland when a very long thread resolved into reflections on the term "frak". If you haven't yet succumbed to BSG, give it whirl.
Posted by superterrificdelegate | March 28, 2008 2:20 PM
You're frackin-A right, buddy.
Posted by Paul Daniel Ash
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March 28, 2008 2:43 PM
What we really need is a thread on who could best negotiate with the Cylons.
Posted by superterrificdelegate | March 28, 2008 3:24 PM
Anna Marie
What's up with the pictures of you parting with a prostitute?
Posted by Organic George | March 28, 2008 3:54 PM
I second succumbing to BSG. One. Of. US!
More on topic, the whole farm bill thing is a mess, but I don't see it resolved any time soon, as it doesn't really get all that attention beyond 'today, congress voted on the farm bill. yay!'. You don't see it cropping up in newspapers or on local news programs all that often if at all, at least not really digging into it.
Posted by SniperCT | March 28, 2008 8:11 PM