In February President Bush issued an Executive Order changing the role & reporting structure of the PFIAB, the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. At the time the order was criticized & analyzed as a move to consolidate power within an organization that was already full of Bush cronies. But it now looks like all the pundits were wrong. The real reason? There was a spy in the PFIAB.
posted by scalefree on Aug 21, 2008 - 33 comments

Something about the library inspires one to jump.
posted by phrontist on Apr 1, 2008 - 33 comments

Clinton White House Spokesman Joe Lockhart does stand-up. Text, or if you prefer there is some audio at the 51min mark from This American Life.
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 on Aug 17, 2007 - 7 comments

Now we're faced with a supposedly democratic Russia where the opposition parties are established, crushed, united, their leadership changed, all at the behest of the president. China, now clearly a capitalist state, albeit one without the democratic trimmings, still calls itself communist. Vietnam has gone much the same way.

Some things remain the same, though. America's still meddling in Latin America, just like it did during the Cold War. The US Army is also fighting a guerilla resistance in Iraq, its leaders apparently ignorant of the lessons of history, yet accusing others of exactly that. It's just like the 60s, when it was just as obvious who had learnt lessons and who hadn't.
posted by imperium on Aug 30, 2006 - 48 comments

It seems that america bashing is on the increase in russia. The high water mark acheived post-perestroika seems like a distant memory.
posted by johnnyboy on Apr 10, 2002 - 17 comments

Doh! Russians believe US citizens to be zombies and fear our Plan 9 from outter space. Former communist residents still remain skeptical of HDTV, among other new American trends like the United States being called a "Superpower."
posted by Brilliantcrank on Feb 23, 2001 - 17 comments