Forgotten Loot(ers).

Warriors, come out and play…With help from Columbia’s own KJ, David Greenberg attempts to explain the lack of NYC looters during the blackout, particularly as compared to the events of 1977. Also, in blackout news, the Dems (Edwards excepted) point the finger at Dubya’s lousy energy and infrastructure policies. Works for me.

The Conversations.

On one of Lyndon Johnson’s tapes, one archivist said, he was heard to refer to a ‘pack of bastards,’ but he was really speaking of the ‘Pakistani ambassador.’ Another transcript stated that someone ‘lied. He gets his information from the Joint Chiefs,’ when the speaker actually said he
‘implied he gets his information from the Joint Chiefs.’
” David Greenberg examines the trouble with White House recordings as a transparent window into History.

Turning the Tide?

Between the rescue of Pvt. Lynch (which seems an interesting comment on the Greenberg piece linked yesterday) and the advance of American forces to within 20 miles of Baghdad, we’ve gotten a recent spate of good news on the war front. But, as Terry Neal of the Washington Post notes, trouble is now brewing in the rest of the Arab world. And given both Saddam’s deliberate attempts to incite Muslim rage and the shocking, extremely graphic images of civilian carnage being broadcast on Al-Jazeera, it’s little wonder why. (I caught ’em via Week in Review, but the Al-Jazeera site seems to be down now.) Even if Saddam’s regime falls soon, and let’s hope it does, we have our work cut out for us in rebuilding the region’s faith in America. And, as I said before, it will take reservoirs of diplomacy and goodwill that the tone-deaf and heavy-handed Bushies have yet to manifest.

Advise and Dissent.

As the protests heat up in NYC, Slate‘s David Greenberg evaluates the many contributions of American antiwar efforts over the centuries, and reminds us anew that anti-war advocates are also more often than not pro-troop. Something for the Right to consider before they break out the paintball guns.