Month: March 2006

Take the Sunnis Bowling.

“In the wake of Bosnia and Rwanda, the assumption is that ethnically divided countries can never function. But countless countries at risk of civil war have been able to avoid going over the cliff…So, how have divided countries kept the peace? Here are a few successful strategies.” With Iraq seemingly on the precipice of civil war, Princeton professor Gary Bass (who was one of my teaching fellows at Harvard back in the day) briefly summarizes possible ways to stem the sectarian violence in Slate.

Latrell AWOL.

“Inside the sprawling yellow brick home with the massive wooden jungle gym in the backyard resides the best basketball player in the world without a job, an athlete who could help some team win an NBA championship three months from now if it could just get a reading on whether he’s willing and/or able to set aside his shame and lace ’em up for the first time since the Minnesota Timberwolves played their final game last season.” ESPN’s Chris Sheridan tries to ascertain what’s up with Latrell Sprewell these days. I’d take Sprewell back in a New York minute over the ungainly gaggle of underachieving shoot-first guards Isiah’s assembled for the Knicks. If nothing else, Spree left it out on the floor most every night.

World in his Eyes.

“I saw one of the greatest films of my life not so long ago, and I’ve now seen it four times. For me it’s one of those movies above everything in the Oscars, and there were some great movies, but it was in a class by itself, way above all of it, and that was ‘The New World,’ Terrence Malick’s movie…I don’t know why it completely disappeared. In 10 years it will be a classic and everybody will say, ‘That was the movie that mattered in 2005.'” By way of Matt Zoller Seitz, Wings of Desire and Until the End of the World director Wim Wenders absolutely adores The New World.

The Senate Uprooted.

“There is no issue outside of civil rights that brings out the kind of emotions we have seen.” After a weekend of significant grass-roots protest further suggests the political perils of immigration reform for both parties, the Senate Judiciary Committee votes 12-6 to support a bill by Senators Kennedy and McCain that promotes the more moderate Dubya-backed vision of reform, such as a guest-worker program, over that of the hardline GOP border-security crowd such as Frist and Tancredo. “A confrontation between the Senate and House Republicans now appears inevitable.“

Hearing Hamdan.

“The president’s consistent refusal to try the Guantanamo detainees before criminal courts or courts-martial leads a reasonable observer to conclude that the government’s case would fail if it were subjected to scrutiny by an impartial adjudicator. And if that is the only justification for military tribunals, it must be rejected. No one denies that the war on terror presents new challenges to the rule of law. But prosecuting someone with a crime that does not exist, before a commission that does not have rules, simply does not constitute justice under any set of circumstances.” Slate files several dispatches on the important case of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which the Supreme Court (without Chief Justice Roberts, who has recused himself…as should probably Scalia) will hear today. Emily Bazelon finds that GOP Senators Kyl and Graham seem to have tried to deceive the Court about the legislative history of their Detainee Treatment Act, while Ariel Lavinbuk suggests a compromise solution: the Supreme Court could “find that ‘conspiracy’ — the only charge against Hamdan — does not violate the law of war.“

Update: The Court hears the case, and it seems a majority — Scalia and Alito notwithstanding — are not amused with the Dubya administration: “Without Chief Justice John Roberts…the argument seemed lopsided against the government.” Still, as was expected to be the norm on the Roberts Court,”the outcome of the case will likely turn on moderate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.”

Re-Shuffle.

A Dubya administration shake-up begins with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card getting the boot, to be replaced by former OMB director Joshua Bolten. But, as Dan Froomkin notes, “Card’s departure in no way addresses the two even more fundamental areas where Bush is vulnerable: His decisions and his credibility.“

Lucky Number?

It looks like the rumors are true, and Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Thirteen is a go, with everyone returning (except possibly Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta Jones) to shoot this summer for a 2007 release. Also joining in the fun this go ’round is Ellen Barkin, who will have something to do with Matt Damon’s character.

Running Scared.

“In recent weeks, a startling realization has begun to take hold: if the elections were held today, top strategists of both parties say privately, the Republicans would probably lose the 15 seats they need to keep control of the House of Representatives and could come within a seat or two of losing the Senate as well. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich…told TIME that his party has so bungled the job of governing that the best campaign slogan for Democrats today could be boiled down to just two words: ‘Had enough?’“

TIME previews the increasingly nightmarish electoral landscape for the GOP, and the “signs suggest an anti-Republican wave is building, says nonpartisan electoral handicapper Stuart Rothenberg… ‘The only question is how high, how big, how much force it will have. I think it will be considerable.’ In addition, “administration officials say they fear that losing even one house of Congress would mean subpoenas and investigations–a taste of the medicine House Republicans gave Bill Clinton.”