From "Kennedy Milk" to Bush's Bombs
"I'm in my mid-40s and who grew up in poor countries like Morocco, you know, they will tell you that when they went to school in the mornings, they used to get milk, and they called it Kennedy milk because it was the Americans that sent them milk. And in 40 years, we have gone from Kennedy milk to the Bush administration rushing bombs to this part of the world. And it just erodes and erodes and erodes America's reputation." - Middle East-based reporter Neil MacFarquhar, on the July 31 edition of Charlie Rose.
A "Diverse Crowd" of Muslims
"The diverse crowd included many Arab-Americans and Muslims, college students and families, as well as veterans of prior demonstrations against the war in Iraq." - Robert Pear, August 13.
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"The National Council of Arab Americans and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation also were sponsors. Most of the people at the White House yesterday were Muslim families and students, who took breaks in the shade to feed children or bow toward Mecca for noon prayers." - Petula Dvorak and Robert Samuels in the August 13 Washington Post.
Sounds Like a Real "Varied Group" to Us
"In interviews with British news services, friends and neighbors painted a picture of a varied group, with one man described as recent convert to Islam, and another as a Muslim of longstanding piety who was also a lover of British soccer. Most of the men were in their 20's, and all had Muslim names ....The officials said they had arrested 24 men, all British-born Muslims, who planned to carry the liquids in drink bottles and combine them into explosive cocktails to commit mass murder aboard as many as 10 flights high over the Atlantic." - From an online filing by Alan Cowell and Dexter Filkins, August 11 (the "varied groups" part was later deleted).
Republicans Again Exploiting Terror
At the same time, Republicans are ready to pounce on what they hoped could be a political opening presented by Mr. Lamont's rising star, during what has been a difficult political season for them. They said this could become a crystallizing moment: an opportunity to frame the primary results in a way that has historically worked for them and that they have exploited ruthlessly, by presenting Republicans as better able to protect Americans in a dangerous world." - Adam Nagourney, August 9.
More on the Max Cleland Myth
Mr. Lieberman accused Mr. Lamont's campaign of using 'lies' and 'bogus charges' to try to defeat him. He made his remarks alongside Max Cleland, the former Democratic senator of Georgia, who was defeated for re-election in 2002 after Republicans paired him in ads with Osama bin Laden because he had opposed some domestic security." - Patrick Healy and Jennifer Medina, August 7. The ad did not show bin Laden and Cleland on screen at the same time.
Castro's the Prisoner, Not the Dissidents in His Jails?
"With his bushy beard and his booming anti-American rhetoric, Mr. Castro, who turns 80 next Sunday, will linger in the Cuban imagination far into the future as a double image - one, the romantic revolutionary of 1958, promising Cuba equality, prosperity and independence; the other, the prisoner of a half-century of confrontation with the United States that kept Cuba from evolving in a way that could deliver on the promises." - Anthony DePalma, August 6.
How Many "Ferocious" References Can We Fit IntoOur Anti-Israel Story?
"As a commander and politician, he made sure that Israel responded to armed provocation with ferocity, helping create Israel's doctrine of asymmetrical deterrence. But paradoxically he was the one who, as prime minister, did virtually nothing for five years as Hezbollah built up a deadly anti-Israel arsenal on its northern border....The result, he and others argue, is that Mr. Olmert has responded with a ferocity in Lebanon that Mr. Sharon would not have chosen. At the same time, Mr. Sharon's neglect of Hezbollah's arsenal left Mr. Olmert far more vulnerable....Leaders of Hezbollah and its sponsors said they did not expect Israel's harsh counteroffensive. However ferociously he had fought Yasir Arafat and Hamas in the West Bank and Gaza, Mr. Sharon never reacted that way in Lebanon while prime minister." - Ethan Bronner, August 6 Week in Review.
Terrorist Nasrallah: A Clergyman's Logic, a General's Steely Resolve
"Now there is Sheik Nasrallah, a 46-year-old Lebanese militia chieftain hiding in a bunker, combining the scripted logic of a clergyman with the steely resolve of a general to completely rewrite the rules of the Arab-Israeli land feud....The name instantly reminds everyone of his personal credibility and commitment to the fight." - Neil MacFarquhar, August 7.
Frank Sinatra's Career Arc Foreshadowed U.S. Imperialism
"Careers that last as long and have been as distinguished as [Tony] Bennett's have something to tell us about collective cultural experience over decades. It has been said that Sinatra's journey from skinny, starry-eyed 'Frankie,' strewing hearts and flowers, to the imperious, volatile Chairman of the Board roughly parallels an American loss of innocence. As Sinatra entered his noir period in the mid-1950's, his romantic faith gave way to a soul-searching existentialism that yielded the most psychologically complex popular music ever recorded. Following a similar arc, the country grew from a nation of hungry dreamers fleeing the Depression and fighting 'the good war' into an arrogant empire drunk on power and angry at the failure of the American dream to bring utopia." - Critic-at-large Stephen Holden, August 2.
Impression Bush "Willing to Stomach the Killing of Innocent Children"
"By refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire, even in the face of the Qana bombing, [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice was teetering on the edge of a public relations disaster, particularly in the Arab world. All day on Sunday, scenes of dead children being pulled out of the wreckage at Qana dominated the airwaves...But that left the impression that Ms. Rice and the Bush administration were willing to stomach the killing of innocent children to reach their larger aims." - Helene Cooper, July 31.