As part of the promotion for his new (and very funny) book, “More Information Than You Require,” author John Hodgman is answering questions at the New York Times City Room blog. Click here for the first installment, which includes an overview of hobo spices and the impact of sea serpent flatulence on Brooklyn weather.
Tag Archives: New York Times
Virtual Fold-Ins
I wrote back in April about the New York Times profile of renowned Mad magazine fold-in artist Al Jaffee, but I just noticed that they digitized a number of his fold-ins (you can even drag them into proper position using your mouse…ohhh, interactivity!)
Not all of the subject matter holds up; I prefer the earlier, anti-Vietnam stuff (and what’s up with the New York Times’ statement that “The Whitewater scandal haunted the Clinton White House for years”? Shouldn’t that be “scandal”?).
Still, it’s a fun selection from an incredible career.
Isn’t There A Term For This? Something-Something Complex
You know the generals who opine on your television about the necessity of the next war and massive defense spending? They’re being paid by defense contractors on the side.
As David Barstow reports in the New York Times:
In the spring of 2007 a tiny military contractor with a slender track record went shopping for a precious Beltway commodity.
The company, Defense Solutions, sought the services of a retired general with national stature, someone who could open doors at the highest levels of government and help it win a huge prize: the right to supply Iraq with thousands of armored vehicles.
Access like this does not come cheap, but it was an opportunity potentially worth billions in sales, and Defense Solutions soon found its man. The company signed Barry R. McCaffrey, a retired four-star Army general and military analyst for NBC News, to a consulting contract starting June 15, 2007.
Four days later the general swung into action. He sent a personal note and 15-page briefing packet to David H. Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, strongly recommending Defense Solutions and its offer to supply Iraq with 5,000 armored vehicles from Eastern Europe. “No other proposal is quicker, less costly, or more certain to succeed,” he said.
Thus, within days of hiring General McCaffrey, the Defense Solutions sales pitch was in the hands of the American commander with the greatest influence over Iraq’s expanding military.
“That’s what I pay him for,” Timothy D. Ringgold, chief executive of Defense Solutions, said in an interview.
Nobody thinks they can be swayed by a conflict of interest. That’s why rules are in place requiring their disclosure.
Krugman on the Obama Win
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman offers another apt summation of how many of us feel at this moment.
Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.
What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.
And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was “shrill.”
Four years ago it seemed as if the monsters would dominate American politics for a long time to come. But for now, at least, they’ve been banished to the wilderness.
Palin Profile in the New York Times
The New York Times continues to probe Sarah Palin’s record. The most recent profile, “Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes,” explores the governor’s history of favoring loyalty over competence in Alaska political positions. Alarmingly, there’s also a history of nontransparency, with Palin using private e-mail addresses and behind-the-scenes dealings to conceal the workings of government.
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.
So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.
Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.
When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.
And four months ago, a Wasilla blogger, Sherry Whitstine, who chronicles the governor’s career with an astringent eye, answered her phone to hear an assistant to the governor on the line, she said.
“You should be ashamed!” Ivy Frye, the assistant, told her. “Stop blogging. Stop blogging right now!”
Ms. Palin walks the national stage as a small-town foe of “good old boy” politics and a champion of ethics reform. The charismatic 44-year-old governor draws enthusiastic audiences and high approval ratings. And as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, she points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as speechmakers who never have run anything.
But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.
Throughout her political career, she has pursued vendettas, fired officials who crossed her and sometimes blurred the line between government and personal grievance, according to a review of public records and interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials.