Alex Massie

Alex Massie

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Watch out, Moonbat about…

Elsewhere in today's Guardian, George Monbiot admits that it's awful that he's profting from the unfortunate fact that newspapers continue to run advertisements paid for by awful car companies and airlines who are - as you know - hellbent on destroying the planet. Happily he has an ingenious solution: But some lines seem clear. Why could the newspapers not ban ads for cars which produce more than 150g of CO2 per kilometre? Why could they not drop all direct advertisements for flights? The reason is that newspapers derive around three quarters of their income from advertising, and most of them are struggling. The media companies will not volunteer to lower their chances of survival. So the campaign for a ban on fossil fuel ads will have to begin elsewhere.

Alex Massie

NHS advice for Cameron…

He wrote this nearly a month ago but it's still pertinent. So, in a bid to encourage my old friend Neill Harvey-Smith to post more frequently, take a gander at his (excellent) advice to David Cameron and the Tories: The message coming from the Tories has been that Brown's pre-Queen's speech was "nothing new", that "he is implicated in the failures of the last decade", that "the only way to change the country is to vote Conservative". Saying this is madness. He put new restrictions on the Academy programme, praised by the NUT. This is a lurch to the left. He signalled a halt to super-casinos, restricting free enterprise. This is a lurch to the left. He sent ministers across the world to criticise, in well briefed code, American foreign policy. This is a lurch to the left.

Alex Massie

For Gerson is an honourable man, yes?

I must say I haven't enjoyed a hatchet job as much as this one in, well, far too long. It is deliciously, extravagantly spiteful. I have no idea  - and frankly care not - if Matthew Scully's hilarious assault on the reputation, person and character of Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson is at all accurate. It doesn't matter a jot. The piece, published by The Atlantic (who seem to be on a roll right now), is so unexpectedly and refreshingly vindictive that I'm almost surprised it was published. A taster: Without fear of contradiction—because it’s all in the presidential records—I can report here that Michael Gerson never wrote a single speech by himself for President Bush.

Alex Massie

Late night sillyness: Sniping at neighbours edition.

Norm alerts me to the concept of the googlenope (similar to the googlewhack, just less common). So I'm delighted that (until now I suppose), the phrase "Happiness in Galashiels" has been beyond google's reach. This will come as no surprise to residents of Selkirk, Hawick, Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh... etc ad infinitum.

Alex Massie

The Days When the Composers Took on England’s Finest.. And Other Halcyon Times of Yore

Americans or, for that matter, anyone unfortunate enough to know little about - and worse, care nothing - for cricket may be advised to pass by this post. You've had your warning. As a kid I used to spend rather more time playing imaginary games of cricket than might have been considered wholly healthy. Actually, to say I was playing is inaccurate. I was selecting teams that would do battle for hours on end in my own modified - and more complicated - version of Dice Cricket (modified in part to take account of different ground conditions: thus a test at Headingley would take place with a grid more thinly populated with run-scoring opportunities than one prepared for the more comfortable batting enjoyed at the Oval).

Alex Massie

Not everyone gets a prize…

A by-god-he's-right post from Julian Sanchez: A little while back, I heard a band that introduced me to a new and particularly tragic category of artistic badness: They were exactly good enough to suck...  Read on, dear friends, read on...

Alex Massie

Cheney’s anti-war argument…

Cheney makes the anti-war case rather convincingly (in the light of recent events). Of course he's speaking in 1994, explaining why the first Bush administration declined to press for regime change in Iraq after the liberation of Kuwait (or, rather, after restoring Kuwait to its own less than liberal regime): Now, sure, this clip is doubtless amusing many people. But perhaps Cheney was wrong twice? Wrong not to have pressed on to Baghdad in 1991 and wrong to have supported doing so in 2003. Perhaps all he predicts in this exchange would have come to pass. On the other hand, perhaps the George HW Bush administration would have managed any resulting chaos rather more effectively than has George W Bush's.

Monday

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Barry Bonds Passes Hank Aaron

Even political bloggers and policy wonkers seem to feel the need to write something about Barry Lamar Bonds. Matt Yglesias says he must be the best ever; Brian Beutler - being a self-respecting Dodgers fan - must and does decline to endorse that opinion; Megan McArdle is infuriatingly non-commital while Dan Drezner reminds one that Tom Glavine should receive more respect for winning his 300th game (though of course the "wins" statistic is one of the most misleading and useless in all baseball; this is the only explanation for its continued existence) Clearly this is one of those situations that can only be judged by a foreigner. That being the case, it's quite clear that Bonds get into the starting line-up for your All-Time baseball team.

Saturday

Alex Massie

Alas, one of these people may be the next President…

Dave Weigel is doing yeoman work, live-blogging the Presidential candidates' forum at YearlyKos in Chicago. Even allowing that politicians are at their worst when speaking to baying mobs of their own crazed supporters this sounds unspeakably grim. Reading Dave's commentary it's clear that it's as vital to stop John Edwards as it is to derail Mitt Romney or Rudy Giuliani. Like Romney, Edwards seems to be trying to be the panderer-in-chief; like Giuliani he seems without shame. So who to choose*? Beats me. Obama by default, perhaps?  *I mean, I'd quite like to see Joe Biden win it, if only because he makes me laugh almost everytime he appears on TV. He's preposterous, but in an engaging sort of way. But Biden's not going to win, so we'll have to settle for someone else.

Alex Massie

Top UK political blogs. (Shameless self-promotion alert)

Iain Dale, the eminence grise of the UK blogosphere, is asking for submissions for his latest guide to the best political blogs. Apparently the top blogs will be decided by a public vote this time, meaning that you, dear reader, can have a say. Exciting stuff, no? Iain tells me that he may compile a ex-pat category too which means blogs that criss-cross the Atlantic such as, well, this one, would be eligible. My friend Toby Harnden's blog would also be eligible, for that matter. No compulsion, of course, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you did feel like nominating this blog. What harm can it do? You can do so either by dropping Ian an email at iain-at-iaindale.com or by submitting your selections for top UK political blogs in the comments section here.

Friday

Alex Massie

Two tribes go to war: progressives and, er, liberals…

This eyebrow-raising quote comes from Ezra Klein: "Insofar as there's a tension between the army and progressives, it's cultural and ideological...Progressives are quite skeptical of using military force, if not of those who make up the military ad that creates his own frictions. To say that the argument is between progressives and the military is to personalize what's actually an ideological dispute. The issue is much more about differing conceptions of the use of force and our capability and responsibility to carry out certain missions than it is about the groups involved. The same arguments and tensions and frictions occur between progressives and the liberal hawks." Really? But what happens when the progressives are the liberal hawks?

Alex Massie

Why Wes Clark failed?

Wes Clark is, once again, doing well at YearlyKos. One of the oddities of the 2004 election was the feebleness of Clark's campaign. True, he lacked political experience and that showed, but even so the lack of focus and the strategic failures of his campaign were palpable. Then again, not everyone would have been surprised. I've been reading Alastair Campbell's diaries this week and came across this passage, dating from the Kosovo war: Sunday April 18, 1999: TB [Tony Blair] saw [Charles] Guthrie [Chief of the Defence Staff] and he basically levelled and said we were likely to have to put in ground troops... Guthrie called me later and...[his] assessment was that [Wesley] Clark was not a 'proper' general...

Alex Massie

How europe works…

Anther snippet from Alastair Campbell's Diaries which, despite being partial in every sense of the word, are packed with crack for political junkies: Saturday December 15th 2001: TB [Blair] told me from the [EU] summit that Berlusconi was arguing that the food agency should go to Parma because of the cuisine there. TB said he really did seem to believe that it was a food agency, like a kind of glorified restaurant. The favourite was in Finland and Chirac had asked TB 'Why do we want to send the food agency to a country that only eats reindeer?' TB said somehow Europe seems to work, but if we are being frank, a lot of it is haggling, deals and people missing the point.

Alex Massie

Your Friday Galloway

Reason's Michael Moynihan reminds me that I've been remiss in not posting the video of George Galloway pretending to be a cat while appearing on Celebrity Big Brother. There's no pressing need to post this, beyond reminding oneself just how vile Galloway is. And to think that this is a Member of Parliament...

Alex Massie

Come by! Come by!

Once more across the transatlantic divide, my friends... I'm not sure televised sheepdog trials would ever be likely to become a hit in the United States. This, then, is another difference between the old and new worlds. So it is sad to record the end of an era: Phil Drabble, the long-time presenter of One Man And His Dog has died. As always, we turn to The Daily Telegraph's obituary to lament - and yet be entertained by - the passing of another (albeit minor) British institution: Phil Drabble, who died on Sunday aged 93, came to fame presenting BBC2's sheepdog trials programme One Man and His Dog, a series based upon the guaranteed stupidity of sheep.

Alex Massie

Supper with Rupert

I've defended Rupert Murdoch's purchase of the Wall Street Journal, but that's not an endorsement of his political sensitivity. From the Campbell diaries: Thursday January 17th, 2002:Murdoch was coming in for dinner and... brought James and Lachlan [his sons]...Murdoch was at one point putting the traditional very right-wing view on Israel and the Middle East peace process and James said that he was 'talking fucking nonsense'. Murdoch said he didn't see what the Palestinians' problem was and James said it was that they were kicked out of their fucking homes and had nowhere to fucking live. Murdoch was very pro-Israel, very pro-Reagan.

Thursday

Alex Massie

Game, set, match to TNR? In a better world maybe…

If you've not tired of the "Baghdad Diarist" pseudo-controversy, The New Republic has published a statement defending and, to my mind, confirming the essential accuracy of their story. I doubt even this will be good enough for the hacks and harpies on the loony right, but it ought to satisfy reasonable observers. (Then again, being a pro-TNR type I would say that, wouldn't I?) Meanwhile, comic relief is provided by the fact that one of the Weekly Standard's main sources in their effort to discredit Scott Beauchamp's story allegedly turns out, according to Media Matters, to have been a former male escort who has appeared in a number of gay porn films, a detail he felt it prudent to leave off his resume before joining the Marine Reserve.