Daniel W. DreznerPolitics, economics, globalization, academia, pop culture... all from a tenured perspective.Monica Crowley's jet black pot- May 29, 2008 On her blog, Monica Crowley disapproves of Scott McClellan's new tell-all book: For someone who was once the president's confidante, someone he knew and trusted, someone who gave him the opportunity of a lifetime, to write a tell-all while that history is still being made, is not cool. There will be plenty of memoirs coming out of the Bush administration. Most will be cover-your-tushy affairs, as memoirs often are. Some will paint a glossy picture. Some will be critical. But their timing is...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003838.html Al Qaeda is losing- May 28, 2008 Last week, we sawquantitative evidence that terrorist tactics in general -- and Al Qaeda in partcular -- appears to be on the wane. This week, there's some qualitative evidence that Al Qaeda is losing, and losing badly, among its core constituency -- Muslims sympathetic to the cause of jihad....http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003837.html Speaking of karma....- May 28, 2008 Appropos of my last post, it's worth remembering that five years ago western investors were fretting about the implosion of China's financial sector. In the here and now, you have this sort of gleeful comeuppance as reported by the FT's Jamil Anderlini: Western governments must strengthen their oversight of financial markets and improve cross-border regulatory co-operation if they are to avoid future global financial crises, a senior Chinese banking regulator told the Financial Times on...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003836.html The blog post that writes itself- May 28, 2008 From the Hollywood Reporter's Karen Chu: Sharon Stone, who last year was a guest of the Shanghai International Film Festival, now faces a boycott of her films in China after she suggested the devastating May 12 earthquake there could have been the result of bad "karma." Stone's remarks, made Thursday at the Festival de Cannes, pondered a link between the earthquake -- which to date has taken the lives of more than 65,000 -- and China's treatment of ethnic Tibetans and their exiled spiritual...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003835.html What made me laugh today- May 27, 2008 If you read much about baseball on the web, you soon discover that Kansas City Star beat writer Joe Posnanski is someone who's worth reading. Posnanski proves this today in a hysterically funny tirade against those who worship at the feet of Derek Jeter -- not Jeter himself, but rather those who deify him. In fact, he invents a word for it: Jeterate (verb) meaning to praise someone for something of which he or she is entirely unworthy of praise. Example: The father could not but jeterate his...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003834.html Where should Hillary go- May 27, 2008 The New York Times' Carl Hulse and the Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Paul Kane file similar reports: the notion that Hillary Clinton will downshift from presidential candidate to Senate Majority Leader or a similarly high-ranking position is complete fiction. To sum up: Clinton does not have a ton of seniority. All the high-ranking Dems show no signs of budging. Based on endorsements, it's not clear how many members of her caucus really like Clinton all that much. If the best post she...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003833.html There are crazy people everywhere- May 27, 2008 Lots of people are fretting about the persistent and mistaken belief of some Americans that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Not that there's anything wrong with that!--ed. Over at his Politico blog, Ben Smith puts this 10% of mistaken Americans in perspective: Large minorities of Americans consistently say they hold wildly out-of-the-mainstream views, often specifically discredited beliefs. In some cases, those views should make them pretty profoundly alienated from one party or the other. For...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003832.html Are authoritative public intellectuals extinct- May 23, 2008 In his column today, David Brooks makes an provocative closing point: People in the 1950s used to earnestly debate the role of the intellectual in modern politics. But the Lionel Trilling authority-figure has been displaced by the mass class of blog-writing culture producers. Intriguingly, Brooks' observation echoes some of the reactions in the blogosphere to my public intellectuals paper. Take Take Kevin Drum, for example: I think I might argue that even if the overall PI scene is still...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003821.html Bloggingheads 911: Miami!!- May 23, 2008 What happens when Bloggingheads.tv has three planned diavlogs collapse at the last minute Why, they break the glass and call on the most reliable media whore in the business -- and Megan McArdle!! Go check it out. Topics discussed include the recent Israel-Syria negotiations, the uber-lame-duckness of George W. Bush, Black Lieutenant Syndrome, and the difficulties women can face trying to get the top job....http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003831.html I'm huge in Ontario.... huge, I say- May 22, 2008 The Agenda with Steve Paikin is TV Ontario's equivalent of Charlie Rose...at least, that's what they tell me. Anyway, I participated in their show on "The International Order" earlier this week: The search for a new international order at a time of profound global change: Is the global system established in the wake of WWII still working Do organizations such as the UN, the World Bank and the IMF need to be reformed ... or replaced You can access the video by clicking here. Other participants...http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/003830.html |