NYT Blog + YouTube Video: Obama’s Security Stepped Up After Strange Heckling Incident

An unidentified - and clearly unhinged - man gets into the press box at an Obama event, heckles Obama to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and then engages in a lengthy argument with the press corps. The first part of the video is strange enough; the second part is truly frightening.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT Op-Ed (Krugman): Know-Nothing Politics

"Offshore drilling, Forrest Gump, and the G.O.P...Know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple answers to every problem — has become the core of Republican policy."
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT: Bin Laden Driver Sentenced to a Short Term

The Times' take on this story. However, there is no question this is a serious slap in the face to the Bush Administration and its policies.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT (3): National Politics

An "anti-Swiftboating" group takes on right-wing 527s; the role of the Clintons at the convention; and a Native American lawsuit moves forward.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT (2): International News

As all totalitarian regimes do when guests show up, China hides those it does not want the guests to see; and Britain faces its first recession in almost two decades.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT: Let the Sunshine In, and the Shadows

"It is deep summer in the late 1960s in Central Park, and nobody is keeping off the grass. A heady concentration of anarchic youth has come out to play, flooding the shaggy green patch of turf that has been made of the stage at the open-air Delacorte Theater. And the whiff of hedonism that this crowd emanates induces a serious contact high in anyone who comes near it. The pure hormonal vitality that courses through the Public Theater’s exuberant production of “Hair,” which officially opened Thursday night, is enough to make it the pick-me-up event of New York’s dog days this year. But middle-aged audience members who revisit this landmark work from 1967 in search of the feckless flower children they once were are likely to uncover more than they bargained for."
Posted by Ian Alterman, Friday, August 8, 2008

NYT Op-Eds (2)

"While John McCain was never violently opposed to offshore drilling, he has now embraced it as if it is not only the solution to our energy problems, but also the key to eternal salvation" (Collins); "With the Tibet question casting a shadow over the Olympics, the Dalai Lama has expressed an unprecedented willingness to compromise and accept Communist Party rule in Tibet" (Kristof)
Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008

NYT Editorial: Guilty as Ordered

A kangaroo court leaves The Times hopping mad...
Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008

NYT (2): National Issues

"Foreshadowing the nation’s changing makeup, one in four American counties have passed or are approaching the tipping point where black, Hispanic and Asian children constitute a majority of the under-20 population, according to analyses of census figures released Thursday"; and Obama courts the Catholics.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008

NYT (4): International News

The coalition govenrment calls for Musharraf's impeachment; a "deadly milestone" in the Afghan war; China's political "resilience"; and an indigenous and endangered South American tribe is being devastated by a type of rabies.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008

NYT (2): Environment/Energy

"The National Center for Atmospheric Research, an important hub for work on the causes and consequences of climate change, has shut down a program focused on strengthening poor countries’ ability to forecast and withstand droughts, floods and other climate-related hazards. The move, which center officials say resulted from the shrinking of federal science budgets, is being denounced by many experts on environmental risk, who say such research is more crucial than ever in a world with rising populations exposed to climate threats"; "This fairy-tale town is stuck in the middle of a utopian struggle over renewable energy. The town council’s decision to require solar-heating panels has thrown Marburg into a vehement debate over the boundaries of ecological good citizenship and led opponents to charge that their genteel town has turned into a 'green dictatorship.'"
Posted by Ian Alterman, Thursday, August 7, 2008

NYT Op-Eds (2)

"The three phrases of climate change are easy to learn. The first is: 'Just a few years ago...'" (Friedman must-read); "Not since Richard of Gloucester killed his two nephews has there been such an unseemly outpouring of boy envy" (Dowd)
Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NYT: Big Donors Are a Major Force in Obama Campaign

"In an effort to cast himself as independent of the influence of money on politics, Senator Barack Obama often highlights the campaign contributions of $200 or less that have amounted to fully half of the $340 million he has collected so far. But records show that one-third of his record-breaking haul has come from donations of $1,000 or more: a total of $112 million, more than Senator John McCain, Mr. Obama’s Republican rival, or Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, his opponent in the Democratic primaries, raised in contributions of that size." (And one of his bundlers is the current managing director of...The Carlyle Group!)
Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NYT (3): International Affairs

Compare how the public reacts to politics in Europe to how the U.S. public reacts (or doesn't!) to politics in couch-potato America; Why is the U.S. still paying for Iraqi rebuilding when the Iraqis have more money than they need?; and unsurprisingly, Chavez decides to make an end run around the voters.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NYT: Atlanta Tree Lovers See Victory for Developers in Arborist’s Firing

Firing an arborist because...he cares about trees! It's like something out of Kafka...
Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NYT: Muslim Holiday at Tyson Plant Creates Furor

Although I find the first anonymous comment utterly repugnant, I find myself agreeing with the second.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Wednesday, August 6, 2008

NYT Op-Eds (3)

"The fastest, cheapest, easiest and cleanest step toward a sane energy environment is the powerful combination of efficiency and conservation" (Herbert); "Much important work remains to be done in Iraq, yet it cannot be completed without the longer presence of a significant number of American combat troops" (Guest Op-Ed); "Barack Obama’s ability to stand apart means that people on almost all sides of any issue can see parts of themselves reflected in his eyes. But it does make him hard to place" (Brooks)
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT (2): National Politics

G.O.P. declines in the voting rolls while Democrats increase; and Denver police "brace" for the convention.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT: Ambush in China Raises Concerns as Olympics Near

The deadliest terrorist attack in China since the early 90s, just three days prior to the opening of the Olympics.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT: Trove of Endangered Gorillas Found in Africa

A small piece of environmental good news in a world full of bad.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT: Everything Has A Price, Including an Airline Pillow

How long before one has to pay to breathe the recirculated air?
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT: ‘Hair’ Revival: A Time Warp for Tears and Fun

New "Hair"" production is "shockingly relevant."
Posted by Ian Alterman, Tuesday, August 5, 2008

NYT Op-Eds (5)

"Even a slow-mo economic crisis can do a lot of damage if it goes on for a year and counting" (Krugman); "Even as China rolls out the welcome mat for Olympics visitors the government is cracking down on citizens" (Guest Op-Ed); "A columnist-cartoonist’s comment about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s son and his Jewish fiancée has stirred a French intellectual storm" (Cohen on anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head in France); "The Beijing Catering Trade Association has ordered all 112 designated Olympic restaurants to take dog off the menu" (Guest Op-Ed); "There are at least four competing theories in the John McCain camp pointing in different vice-presidential directions" (Kristol)
Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 4, 2008

NYT: Obama Asks Panel to Restore Votes

Although this is a positive development, it is more than a tad snarky for him to have rejected this when it might hurt him, only to call for it when it is "safe."
Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 4, 2008

NYT: Solzhenitsyn, Literary Giant Who Defied Soviets, Dies at 89

There is nothing to say.
Posted by Ian Alterman, Monday, August 4, 2008