Paul Boutin

What Does Iraq Need? Corporations. Quick, what central component of Western culture don’t most Arabian countries have? Most of the “anti-capitalist” people I talk to don’t know what capitalism or corporations are when asked to define them. What they’re really opposed to are bullying, corrupt companies and ubiquitous consumer brands, which they’re now afraid will overrun Iraq. What better fix for that than letting Iraqis start their own companies? Anything else is still serfdom.

President Who? Iraqi contender Ahmad Chalabi goes under Chris Suellentrop’s magnifying glass.

If Iraq were New Hampshire, Chalabi would be polling somewhere behind Dennis Kucinich and Carol Moseley-Braun. But perhaps he’s learned a lesson during his lifelong project to bring American-style democracy to the Middle East: If Hillary Clinton can be a senator from New York, why can’t Ahmad Chalabi be the president of Iraq?

A more worrisome possibility is that some people inside the United States government don’t like Chalabi because he’s serious about trying to create an Iraqi democracy. Foreign-policy “realists” may prefer a pro-American dictator who is more interested in security than popular sovereignty.

Read the whole thing.

Fischerspooner’s show in New York last night ended with singer Casey Spooner standing tall and barechested in a full-length American flag coat (”This is my political statement … figure it out”), while sideman Peanuts jumped up and down next to him in fake blood and a “FUCK BUSH” t-shirt. It’s fashionable to ascribe more insight to Fischerspooner than they would ever claim to have themselves, but they’re unwittingly smarter than Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks put together.