Semi-Daily Journal

Matthew Yglesias's Indispensable "Weekend Update"

Matthew Yglesias's now-indispensable "Weekend Update" at TAPPED:

Weekend Update: WEEKEND UPDATE. Spent the weekend trying to free humanity from a computer-generated simulation? Here's what you missed:

The Columnists

• David Brooks. Internet dating represents a return to traditional mores. It's really hard to come up with something to write about twice a week.
• Nicholas Kristof. Sanctions never work, except in South Africa where I also said they wouldn't work.
• Colbert King. There sure is a lot of crime in Matthew Yglesias' neighborhood.
• Maureen Dowd. Iraq is like The Untouchables . . . or maybe it's like a Disney movie . . . or maybe . . .
• Thomas Friedman. This occupation is humiliating Iraqis, so we need to hand power over to them, which is what I've been saying for a while except when the French were proposing it and I thought the status quo was OK.
• David Broder. Democrats really need to do better in the South, but instead of offering a constructive solution I'll criticize Howard Dean's lack of a constructive solution.
• George Will. I'm getting bored with this whole "political commentary" thing, so here's a movie review instead.
• Jim Hoagland. We must win Sunni hearts and minds with harsh, harsh repression.

The Op-Ed You Actually Need To Read:

• Joe Biden makes the case that internationalization of the campaign in Iraq is necessary and achieveable.

The Shows:

• Fox News Sunday. Pat Roberts pronounces himself "shocked" that Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats would have the temerity to develop a plan to expose the Bush administration's misuse of pre-war intelligence.
• Meet The Press. John Edwards spends an hour maintaining the polite fiction that he's running a viable presidential campaign.
• Face The Nation. John Kerry explains Howard Dean's fundraising advantage: "We did not focus on small donors."
• This Week. Richard Perle acts as the lone voice of unreason as a pan-ideological panel tries to make him face the grim realities in Iraq.

--Matthew Yglesias