Despite the fact that only two cases of swine flu have been confirmed in the region, the top stories around the Middle East have been about the H1N1 threat—even to the point of edging out reports of violence in Iraq in the news lineup.
This week’s episode of “Left, Right & Center” is jam-packed full of news, much of it having to do with words beginning with “s,” incidentally. Also, did Obama pass his first 100-day test?
Cliff May, president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, was clearly on the defensive as he took the hot seat during Tuesday’s “Daily Show” with the unenviable task of debating whether or not waterboarding is torture, whether American officials have to follow the Geneva Conventions under all circumstances, and whether President Truman was a war criminal.
Tired of making machines that beat humans at chess, IBM is prepping a computer competitor for “Jeopardy,” which makes sense since Alex Trebek himself is computer-generated. Japanese researchers, meanwhile, have created walking goo.
The New York Times gets an inside look at a Pakistani fetish factory located next door to a fundamentalist Islamic mosque. Globalization doesn’t get more entertaining than this.
The “Real Time” host marvels at Republican rage in the era of Obama: “The conservative base these days is absolutely apoplectic because ... well, nobody knows.”
Even Fox News’ Shep Smith said it: America doesn’t torture ... although the recently released set of torture memos belies that declaration. Meanwhile, President Obama’s none too pleased with credit card companies, and Chrysler has hit the skids. Was there any good news this week? Tony Blankley thinks so.
So, Sean Hannity told Charles Grodin on Wednesday night that he would agree to be waterboarded “for charity”—and you’d better believe that that sort of talk wasn’t lost on Keith Olbermann. On Thursday’s “Countdown,” Olbermann upped the ante for Hannity’s date with “enhanced interrogation techniques” by offering to open his own pocketbook for the cause.
What has emboldened Dick Cheney and Karl Rove to so brazenly criticize the new administration? Has Cheney lost his trademark sneer since he left the White House? All this and more in this clip from Wednesday’s “Daily Show” episode.
What is it with politicians who don’t seem to understand that anything they say these days may later haunt them on TV or even The Internets? Consider, for example, former President Bush’s three-word declaration of yore: “We don’t torture.” Oh, really?
Clearly, several dozen delegates at the United Nations anti-racism conference in Geneva, Switzerland, disagreed with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s assessment of Israel as a “racist government” on Monday.
Celebrity gossip impresario and Miss USA pageant judge Perez Hilton didn’t get the answer he wanted when he asked Miss California whether states should legalize gay marriage, but he saved his ire for a post-show video blog, where he called the contestant a “dumb bitch (okaaaaaay?).”
It hasn’t taken Benjamin Netanyahu long to show his true colors by creating new hoops for the Palestinians to jump through in order to resume peace negotiations with Israel. This week’s “Mosaic Intelligence Report” has the story.
Did the nationwide “tea parties” on April 15 constitute a much-needed boost for the Republican base? Was the Obama administration right to release the latest batch of torture memos from the Bush years?
Now that the Department of Justice has released the latest stunning Bush-era torture memos, this Al-Jazeera English interview with former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in which he admits that the Bush administration flouted the Geneva Conventions and that he probably should have resigned, is even more alarming.
Stephen Colbert is a big fan of the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad—“It is like watching ‘The 700 Club’ and The Weather Channel at the same time!” But now the storm is hovering over Colbert’s own state, and he’s getting nostalgic for more traditional times of yore.
With an electorate estimated at 714 million voters, India began a massive five-part election on Thursday. The U.S. could learn a thing or two from the world’s biggest democracy. Indians have used e-voting since 2004, without the kinds of shenanigans that have become so familiar. Check out the BBC’s mega-coverage, including this gallery.
Yes, Keith Olbermann and other pundits (paging Anderson Cooper) had a field day with the right wing’s adoption of “tea bagging” as the driving metaphor behind their Tax Day protests. But no, the double entendres didn’t start “on the blogs,” as Bill O’Reilly’s “nice lady” guest Amanda Carpenter suggested on his show.
The first family showed off new puppy Bo on Tuesday. He’s a Portuguese water dog, which appears to be a kind of mutant poodle with webbed feet. President Obama claims they are used to herd fish, though we’ll believe that when we see it.
It’s hard to say what made Columbia University professor David Buckner pass out during Monday’s episode of “Glenn Beck,” but perhaps standing so close to the Fox Newser and being obliged to describe a complex economic scenario with the aid of a cheesy graphic entitled “Path to Destruction” had something to do with Buckner’s sudden need to take a break from full consciousness.
Well, he actually meant piracy, but we get the picture: President Obama followed up on this weekend’s Somali pirate showdown with a salute to the crew of the Maersk Alabama and a pledge to crack down on the problem in the future. Looks like the pirate contingent is planning to take a similar tack toward American sailors.
The whip-smart and ever-sly Gore Vidal visited “Real Time” on Friday, giving his historical and sometimes hysterically funny take on the state of the United States. He also revisited a few key moments from his personal history, illustrated by some priceless archival footage found by Bill Maher’s crack research team. Is it too soon to make an Amelia Earhart joke?
President Barack Obama draws upon the traditions and meanings behind “two very different holidays”—Passover and Easter—as his jumping-off point for his weekly address about the state of the country and the world ... and about his time rubbing elbows with other world leaders during the past week.
The economy’s not the only thing that “Left, Right & Center” co-conspirators Matt Miller, Tony Blankley and Robert Scheer are thinking about this week, but it’s a biggie again, as are the Obama administration’s announcement about defense spending and the changes under way in American foreign policy. Also: Somali pirates!
Two protesters storm the stage during a talk by Lawrence Summers, who tries to laugh off the incident. If only there were something funny about President Obama’s top economic adviser making $8 million last year from some of the financial firms that have benefited from his economic policies.
Polls Show Conservative Ahead as Honduras Vote Nears
