Republicans are now plotting to replace the dime's likeness of FDR, who (for all his illiberal faults) presided over a historic expansion of the conception of government as a force for social justice, the end of a Depression, and a war against Nazism, with one of Reagan, who presided over historic government deficits, the expansion of the military-industrial complex, the erosion of civil liberties, and the turning of the government's back on the suffering in society. No surprise there.

To those of you sent here when you googled... aclu supports internment camps Sorry, but no. Zinn argues that in the 50s the ACLU "withered" and muffled its criticism of McCarthyism to remain politically viable - heavy charges that I don't have the background to support or refute. But the ACLU was one of the few groups to visibly and stridently condemn the Japanese interment - raising the contemporary ire of Ann Coulter, who argues that it's hypocritical for a left organization to support J. Edgar Hoover's left stances (opposition to internment) and not his right ones (opposition to privacy and democratic oversight). I should apologize for already having given her argument too much ink back in July when she wrote it - as well as her equally silly one that since Democratic FDR shamefully caved to conservative animus towards Japanese-Americans in supporting internment, Conservative Republicans must be the real defenders of civil liberties. For anyone who still believes Coulter that FDR and the ACLU (and, for that matter, everyone from Bill Clinton to Cynthia McKinney) get their marching orders from the same playbook (care of Karl Marx), I should perhaps also clarify that the ACLU also opposes HOLC red-lining and the racial segregation of blood donations. Kissinger the war crimminal That about says it right there. That, and lemme know if you want to take a trip with me to look through his archives after his death for some tidbits about the full depravity of the man. IBEW chatroom Is there one? Hot. Sign me up. Ed Rendell hoagie photo Populism is not about eating a hoagie better than John Kerry (although I don't know who eats a hoagie worse than John Kerry). Populism is about wanting to see the Democratic Leadership Council go the way of the AFL-CIO's CIA-tool the AIFLD. Populism is most certainly not having the DLC choose Philadelphia for its annual celebration of prostitution to big business and scorn towards the American people to celebrate you as the kind of Democratic candidate that will reassure the bosses that they have nothing to worry about from the Democrats. Oh yeah - and the Philly soft pretzel is the real icon, not the hoagie or the cheesesteak. Matt Naclerio Should run for Mayor of New Haven. Katie Krauss Should've gone for Ari Fleischer's job while it was still open. Schwarzengger and antisemitism The most thorough and judicious article-length discussion of Schwarzenegger's relationship with Kurt Waldheim I'd say is Timothy Noah's here. Schwarzenegger's refusal to condemn a member of the Wehrmacht "honor list" for the Kozara massacre - or even his actions - raises troubling questions about his political courage and his sense of justice. Although on the question of how he'd govern the state of California, this is more disturbing. auth cartoon philadelphia inquirer israel, auth antisemitism, etc. I think I spilled enough (virtual) ink on this here. Josh Cherniss' thoughts to which I was responding (a response to my original piece here), are here. If he posts a response to mine, it'll be posted here - I suspect we've both exhausted the topic for now however. If you're one of the several who entered one of the searches above and you want to talk more about it, lemme know. Al Franken and Arianna Huffington's political show in bed It's been too long. Bring it back. Maybe we could get Arianna Huffington, Cruz Bustamante, Peter Camoje, Gray Davis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Simon, and Gary Coleman in bed together on TV - who says the American people don't have the patience for substantive political coverage? verizon cwa strike Read about smart tactics, support from Senators, and what you can do to help. arianna huffington verizon Know something I don't? Lynda-Obst Bitch Now I don't know the woman personally, but that's just not nice. Interfaith religious symbol I have been known on occasion to refer to James Baldwin as God...But I have to say Jim Lawson really wowed me this weekend. So he may be my nominee. Unless you found this site thinking it was an interfaith religious symbol, in which case sorry to disappoint... And for all of you who came here searching for wild bouquet If you're looking for a gift, get something here. Trust me - it'll make him/her swoon. Or buy me something and make me swoon...

Ann Coulter's latest column demonstrates all the talents that have so endeared her to her fans - farcically forced fury, painfully flat humor, recklessness with facts and incoherent logic. A choice selection: Absurdly, liberals claim to hate J. Edgar Hoover because of their passion for civil liberties. The left's exquisite concern for civil liberties apparently did not extend to the Japanese. As President Franklin D. Roosevelt rounded up Japanese for the internment camps, liberals were awed by his genius. The Japanese internment was praised by liberal luminaries such as Earl Warren, Felix Frankfurter and Hugo Black. Joseph Rauh, a founder of Americans for Democratic Action – and celebrated foe of "McCarthyism" – supported the internment. There was one lonely voice in the Roosevelt administration opposed to the Japanese internment – that of J. Edgar Hoover. The American Civil Liberties Union gave J. Edgar Hoover an award for wartime vigilance during World War II. It was only when he turned his award-winning vigilance to Soviet spies that liberals thought Hoover was a beast. Here Coulter employs a favorite tactic - citing illiberal choices made or perpetuated under Democratic administrations and using them, despite contemporary criticism from the left or pushes from the right for even more draconian moves, as evidence of the moral bankruptcy of the left as a whole (she does this masterfully with segregation, for example). The fact that FDR, bowing to the pressures of fear and jingoism within and outside of the government, betrayed the values of the left and trampled on the Constitution and principles of human decency in signing Executive Order 9066 simply demonstrates that FDR was neither as courageous nor as Left as history makes him out to be. The fact that a man like Daniel Pipes, who refuses to condemn internment, is considered a distinguished scholar and an ally of this administration in foreign policy, and that a man like Howard Coble (R-NC), who came out in support of the camps last February, chairs a house subcommittee on domestic security raises troubling questions about the agenda this administration (Republican, for those of you keeping score at home) wants to lead this country. Coulter, for her part, spent her last column gloating about a Department of Justice report acknowledging abuse of immigrants detained after September 11 as evidence that the government isn't letting details like the constitution get in the way of the Bush Doctrine (but this is the same woman who maintains both that we should "bomb their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity" and that conservatives are the most compassionate suffering people in the world). Coulter, in fact, seems not to have ever met a regressive policy towards immigrants that she couldn't countenance, spin, and celebrate - but at least she's against internment camps... Congressman John Rankin famously declared, "I'm for catching every Japanese in America, Alaska, and Hawai'i now and putting them in concentration camps...Damn them! Let's get rid of them!" He was also instrumental in securing the place of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in American Government. The final lines excerpted above raise the self-parody to an even higher plane. Faced with the information she provides - the leftist ACLU praised Hoover for opposing FDR assault on civil liberties and condemned him for later launching his own - a logical person might conclude that the left supports protecting civil liberties - maybe even that some on the left are willing to condemn political allies who pursue regressive policy and work with political opponents for shared progressive goals (the ACLU's coalition against the PATRIOT Act - one of Coulter's favorite pieces of legislation - is a contemporary example as well). Instead, Coulter judges the left as hypocritical for supporting Hoover's left-wing moves and opposing his right-wing ones. One can understand why this might bother Coulter - for her, personality trumps politics every time.