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04.25.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin What do Arianna Huffington, Keith Olbermann, Lewis Black, Phil Donahue and Mel Brooks have in common? They all love Young Dick Cheney. Not the grumpy old Prince of Darkness, socked away in his secured, undisclosed location somewhere near Washington—but the adorable and misunderstood hero of our brand new book. One year in the making... READ POST The Latest Cheney Mystery—Solved! 04.11.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin Seems all morning the internet has been swamped with links to the White House Web site photo of Vice President Dick Cheney fly- fishing on Idaho's Snake River in Idaho. Speculation has run amok over what is reflecting in the smiling Veep's sunglasses. Is a naked woman? A naked man? Or simply Satan, out for an afternoon of recreation with his favorite earthbound compatriot?... READ POST Anatomy of a Superdelegate 03.30.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin For all the media chatter about the unprecedented power of the nation's elite army of superdelegates, we have to wonder: Who are these people? Considering that this select group allegedly holds the key to the 2008 Democratic race for the presidency, you'd figure we should at least have a sketchy idea of what makes these folks tick? Anatomically speaking, of course.... READ POST Young Dick Cheney: Great American 03.21.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin Wednesday, March 19, 2008: Martha Raddatz, ABC's Good Morning America: Two-thirds of Americans say [the Iraq War is] not worth fighting. Vice President Dick Cheney: So? How does one respond to such....chutzpah? Click on the Dick pic below. Are we plugging a book? Sure. But when you've got people like Keith Olbermann and Phil Donahue and Arianna herself giving you a high five, you'd plug, too. READ POST Hangin' Ten 2008 03.12.2008 Bruce Kluger And now a word (and a few pictures) from an old pal, New York graphic artist Ken Chaya: "I have always thought that politics and big wave surfing were a lot alike. Both employ the first three keys to human success and domination: perfect timing, crucial decision- making, and creative story-telling. The fourth key is important, too: taking the free ride..." READ POST This Week's Double-Feature! 02.26.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin USA Today: MIAMI — Raul Castro formally became Cuba's president Sunday, ending his older brother's 49-year rule, but he tempered any hopes for change by declaring that Fidel Castro will remain the "commander in chief" and will be consulted on important state matters... READ POST
02.08.2008 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin If the final numbers from this week's historic Super Tuesday primaries tell us anything, it's that the 2008 presidential election still remains impossible to predict. One thing, however, is virtually guaranteed: that all of the campaigns will continue to invoke the word "change"... READ POST A Policy Unbecoming 02.06.2008 Bruce Kluger In the first episode of the new season of The L Word, Showtime's lipstick lesbian soap opera, the character of Tasha has a crisis. Black, beautiful and enlisted in the Army National Guard, Tasha is accused of violating the Pentagon's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy... READ POST Christmas Over There 12.24.2007 Bruce Kluger Seven Christmases into the new millennium, and it's never been easier to catch the holiday spirit. Through Internet technology alone, we can swap season's greetings without licking a stamp; buy armloads of presents without leaving the house; and even log onto a flash-animated snow globe, just to shake things up... READ POST No Child Left Alone 12.19.2007 Bruce Kluger I almost lost it—and in a seventh-grade classroom, no less. It was "curriculum night" at my daughter's middle school, and all the parents were stuffed into small chairs, listening to a parade of teachers describe what was expected of our kids this year. READ POST Behold! The New Barack 11.13.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin Over the weekend, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama unleashed another round of heated rhetoric about frontrunner Hillary Clinton, accusing her of running a "poll-driven campaign" that dodged questions and lacked substance.... READ POST Body of War 10.31.2007 Bruce Kluger Phil Donahue is getting in the last word. One of the first television personalities to speak out against America's hapless adventure in Iraq, Donahue was also among the war's earliest media casualties. He lost his MSNBC talk show back in 2003 when, according to an internal memo, his bosses had begun worrying that he would turn his show into "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda..." READ POST Heaven Help 'Em 10.26.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin As the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies As the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies continue their 2007 World Series face-off, sportswriters have been taking note of one unique aspect of this year's Fall Classic: religion. Last year, USA Today reported that the Rockies roster had been built according to a "Christian-based code of conduct"... READ POST An Urgent Call for Help 10.10.2007 Bruce Kluger OK—so let''s see if that whole power-to-the- people thing is alive and well (as usual) on HuffPo. I just received a mass email from a friend that begins like this: As all of you know, my wife and I are in the process of adopting a baby from Guatemala. Recently there have been some very disturbing things going on with adoptions in Guatemala... READ POST Making Anthony an Offer... 10.1.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin As the Supreme Court begins a new session this week, docket watchers everywhere will be paying close attention to how our recently reconfigured panel of Justices will be ruling— especially given the slate of crucial arguments scheduled to come before the bench in the months ahead. Most agree that if last year's rulings are any indication, Justice Anthony Kennedy will resume his role as the Court's all-important swing vote.... READ POST Alberto at Home 09.18.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin As Washington begins a new round of chatter about the President's nomination of Michael Mukasey for Attorney General, former A.G. Alberto Gonzales is now officially a private citizen. Although he has yet to give a public explanation for his resignation, like most prematurely departing officials, Gonzales has expressed an interest in spending quality time with his family. Easier said than done. READ POST Helloooo? 08.17.2007 Bruce Kluger It's starting to make me paranoid. My children never seem to hear my first three requests to pick up their shoes. The telephone sales reps never seem to grasp that I don't want a subscription to TV Guide. And the Chicken Delight delivery guy never—ever— remembers to bring the extra barbecue sauce. And don't get me started on my wife and the bathroom light. Is anybody listening? READ POST Inside Baby's Brain 08.16.2007 Bruce Kluger And here I thought I was an OK dad. What a bummer to learn that I was making my kids dumb. Researchers at the University of Washington and the Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute published a paper this month in the Journal of Pediatrics that could blow the lid off the multibillion-dollar baby video and DVD industry. READ POST Why Harry Had to End 07.20.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin It's probably a good thing that J.K. Rowling is ending her Harry Potter series with Book #7. After all, were she to continue chronicling the life and times of the world's best-known boy wizard, she would be hard-pressed to imbue Harry's later years with the usual myth and magic, especially as he fell into the more mundane, post-Hogwarts routine of real life. READ POST Scooter, Act 2 07.11.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin As partisan pundits continue to micro-analyze President's Bush's commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence—trading punches on such weighty subjects as presidential power, judicial restraint and cronyism—one question remains: What will become of Libby himself? Nothing inspires America like a good... READ POST
06.22.2007 Bruce Kluger & David Slavin San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds is just a few mighty swings away from breaking baseball legend Hank Aaron's lifetime record of 755 home runs. But Major League Baseball isn't exactly giddy about the impending milestone: Bonds remains at the center of the ongoing Balco scandal... READ POST Media Madness 04.24.07 Bruce Kluger For the past two months, American television viewers have been on a stomach-turning hellride—strapped into the front car of a kind of media Magic Mountain, then whipped about with such head-snapping fury that it's often been difficult to tell where one story ends and another begins... READ POST Shoot the Cartoonist 04.09.07 Bruce Kluger Everyone loves a good editorial cartoon— and why not? Even the wonkiest op-ed page addict eventually grows weary of all that purple-prose posturing and windy opinionating. And besides, with the constant stream of headache-inducing stories pouring in from the Middle East, the... READ POST Kids...and Black History Month 02.22.07 Bruce Kluger Forty-five years ago this spring, my brothers and I (ages 5, 6, 7 and 9) went to a Saturday afternoon showing of Pinocchio at the Uptown Theater in suburban Baltimore. Our mom had errands to run, so she sent us with our babysitter, Elizabeth... READ POST The Naked Drill Sergeant 01.19.07 Bruce Kluger And you thought the Abu Ghraib photos were shocking. Last week, Staff Sergeant Michelle Manhart of Lackland Air Force Base in Texas debuted in the pages of Playboy magazine. Posing with fellow soldiers, free weights and assault weapons.... READ POST |
