The Reaction in review (June 19, 2009)

A weeks Reactions that deserve a second look:

Creature Featured: "Reactions re: Iran" -- June 19, June 17, June 15 (1), June 15 (2).


Friday
By Capt. Fogg: "The truth is too funny to be told" -- Quoting Fogg regarding another lame DOJ court defense of Bush administration missteps: ". . . our President has been to law school and yet he seems to be comfortable supporting a comical defense raised by the comical Bush administration."

By Jessie Daniels: "The tweet heard 'round Tehran: A new channel of public diplomacy?" -- This guest poster from the Truman Project writes her second great Reaction post that insightfully concludes, ". . . social networking . . . With a significant percentage of the population in Iran younger than 30, this method of connecting the Iranian and American publics could eventually lead to a level of engagement and understanding that is beyond the realm of formal public diplomacy."

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Froomkin out at WaPo" -- Michael, and others of my favorite writers he quotes, react with dismay at the paper's getting rid of one of our best bloggers, Dan Froomkin.

By Mustang Bobby: "Staying the course" -- Bobby takes on Bushie champion-of-interference Paul Wolfowitz' op-ed that urges President Obama to say something about what's going on in Iran.


Thursday

By J. Thomas Duffy: "Pennies from Loomis!" -- Duffy tells the hilarious -- though discouraging -- story of a Loomis armoured car's loss of $160,000 in cash on the freeway, and "dozens of drivers stopped to compete with Loomis guards in scooping up scads of cash lying on the roadway and in the waist-high grass leading to the service drive."

By Carl: "Whomanity" -- In support of single-payer health coverage, Carl's great essay on the perils of unrestrained capitalism as practiced by childish humans was triggered by "former President Who?'s" recent criticism of President Obama.

By Carol Gee: "The budget and foreign policy, no easy time of it for the White House" -- This post brings the latest in the protracted saga of Congress' passage of President Obama's emergency wartime supplemental appropriations bill for 2009.

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "The 'breathtaking hypocrisy of John Ensign" -- Michael reacts to the news of Senator John Ensign's admission of marital transgression in the light of Ensign's fierce and vocal opposition to previous politicians hit by scandal, pointing out the hypocrisy of Ensign's previous public stances on related issues.


Wednesday

By J. Thomas Duffy: "GREEEEEEEEEEEEN!" -- Duffy rounds up info on the Iranian soccer team's "green" wristband political statement during a recent game outside of the country.

By Carl: "Endgame?" -- Carl begins with a wonderfully written sentence: "Not that there's a formal clock for this sort of thing...world events tend to lie in the mud until they explode like an IED... but the sense I get from the news is that we're heading for a big, big conflict," then posts eight scary facts of life in our unsettled world.

By (O)CT(O)PUS: "Revelations: Who are the hate groups and why we should be very afraid" -- Michael, our Editor, introduces this very fine post:

Hate groups are everywhere. There are more of them than we think and they are more powerful than we know. And they don't just dress up in Nazi uniforms or white sheets. Some of them, some of the larger ones, are major players in Washington and around the U.S., and specifically key players in the Republican Party, where they are prominent both in the base and in the leadership. It's essential that we know who they are... and what they're up to. -- MJWS

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Quote of the Day: Joe Klein on John McCain on Iran" -- Michael lauds Klein's noting Senator John McCain's "broad extremist statements," regarding the Iran election situation; Michael concludes: "Obama continues to show he is just what America needs. . . "


Tuesday

By Capt. Fogg: "Training the Nazis" -- Capt. writes a well-done short post quoting Matt Kennard about a little know aspect of the Bush administration's acceptance of Neo-Nazis into the army, "scraping the bottom of the recruitment barrel . . . harming our military and its reputation."

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Admirable nuance: Obama's measured response to the Iranian election and its aftermath" -- To quote: "The president showed his, and America's, support for the protesters without being overly judgmental -- and thereby without threatening the fragile link that may yet allow him to promote America's interests diplomatically, if not to achieve positive results with respect to Iran's nuclear program and strategic position in the region.


Monday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "How Ahmadinejad is like Bush/Cheney/Rove" -- Quoting Andrew Sullivan, Michael applauds all that the U.S. is doing well during this dicey situation.


Sunday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Joe being Joe: Lieberman says no to 'public option' on health-care reform" -- Michael's post is written from his Canadian point of view and helps to dispel the myths under which non-Democrat, non-debater Lieberman operates.