how on earth is it unprofessional ?

She was giving an on the record interview. And one she had agreed was on the record. If power lacks the professionalism to avoid making stupid remarks then it's certainly not the journalist's job to clear up after her.

The 'no takebacks' is absolutely standard practise in fleet street.

Unless you've agreed what's on or off the record before the interview then anything you say will be reported. After all, at least in the UK press, the journalist isn't there to act as some sort of unpaid PR flack.

Posted at March 7, 2008 4:04 PM in response to Power Hour (Open Thread)

"ideally involving both the FBI"

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Oh you're not joking.

And once the 'FBI' had 'found out' that whoever did it was that particular group of people who the US had decided was their 'enemy of the week' do you really think that anyone else would believe you ?

After all it was a 'slam dunk' that iraq had WMD etc etc.

Maybe if the US just tortures (oh sorry 'interrogates') some of its victims in gitmo they could 'remember' something about Pakistani assassination attempts.

Posted at December 30, 2007 12:35 PM in response to Musharraf Regime, R.I.P.

well south korea hasn't used the death penalty in 10 years and their justice ministry is talking about abolishing it altogether.

Taiwan's president has also stated he wants to get rid of it.

Posted at June 25, 2007 4:16 PM in response to A Response to Dan K

Except in the case of the US this has been a constant theme in the public discourse across the board since the country was founded. This isn't a line being pushed by a particular party or group for a period of time, it's part of the very bedrock of the US.

As someone who occasionally visits the states it really does stand out at how often the whole 'exceptionalism' line is pushed.By the politicans , the press, in the media etc etc.

After all it wasn't bush's Sec of State who remarked that "If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future."

Posted at June 20, 2007 10:51 AM in response to American Exceptionalism by any other name...

Trouble is all this preening in the mirror admiring themselves for just being so darned special ,has knock on effects in the Us's relations with the world.

After all a constant diet of how wonderful and special america is leads both to a complete inability to understand how any other country could possibly disagree with american policies ('its just pure anti-americanism' 'they hate us for our freedoms' etc etc ) and a belief that even if the governments of other countries are opposed then surely the people of those countries must actually support america.After all is not america loved and admired by people around the world and don't they really deep down want to be americans?

And that road leads to 'we will be welcomed as liberators' and other such sentiment ('irans population is really pro-american so if we can just overthrow the goverment.....').

It also leads americans to believe that as they are such a noble country then anything they do abroad must be noble and for the best interests of the foreigners even if the foreigners can't see it. (see interventions in latin america, support for dictators etc).

Posted at June 19, 2007 3:57 PM in response to American Exceptionalism by any other name...

for a unique reason: Although we inhabit a common land that we love, we do not share a common race, creed, or national origin.

And canada ? Australia ? New Zealand ? Argentina ?
How do they fit into this 'unique' category?

Posted at June 19, 2007 12:35 PM in response to The Idea that Is America

"The numbers covered by private medical insurance
have remained virtually static for more than a decade , while the numbers prepared to pay for treatment our of their own pocket have declined"

Key phrase there is "own pocket". Yes less people now have private medical coverage they pay for themselves. And many more people have coverage paid for by their employer.

Posted at May 11, 2007 5:11 PM in response to Tony Blair and His Presidents

"600,000 fewer children in poverty;"

Woops. the no of children in poverty rose by 200,000 in the last year. In the meantime there are more childless adults living in poverty than at any time since 1961.

"children able to read at 11 rose from 59% to 79% "
It's amazing what you can do when you simply change the definition of literacy , oh and drive up the no of kids attending private school.

"in 1997 283,866 people had waited over 6 months for operations on the National Health"

Again, simply tweak the definition of what you mean by 'waiting'. A large no of NHS areas simply stopped putting people on the 'waiting list' for an operation.

"use of the private medical sector ( for which Nye Bevan specifically provided at the creation of the NHS )actually declined despite the substantial increase in median income."

Given the UK's largest private healthcare company treated 4.4 million patients last year, this is quite frankly ridiculous.

A word to the wise, toynbee is often guilty of simply making up statistics to back up her somewhat wild claims.

Posted at May 10, 2007 5:55 PM in response to Tony Blair and His Presidents

I would really like to see a cite for the 'stagnant wages' claim.

http://www.petersoninstitute.org/publications/papers/lardy0304-tables.pdf
claims that nominal manufacturing wages trebled in the years 1993 to 2003.

http://www.iie.com/publications/papers/paper.cfm?ResearchID=201
has more details.

Certainly a quick google on china wages would seem to disagree with your claim.

Posted at February 28, 2007 10:36 AM in response to Two Thin Reeds

"Absolutely right. The question is which claim do you agree with?"

Iran hasn't launched one invasion of another country. The US has.

"Do you see any qualitative difference between Iran's government and America's?"

As a non american ?

Well the US goverment has invaded other countries.
The US goverment has set up torture prisons throughout the world.
The US government has made torture legal in the US.

None of that is true of the Iranian government, so yes the US government is clearly worse than the Iranian government.

If i go to iran then the the head of state has not given himself the right to have me taken away and tortured. If i go to the US then the head of state has.

Now both governments might torture me, but at least one has the self respect not to bleat on about how their country is special.

Posted at December 16, 2006 1:42 PM in response to Democratic Allies and Alliances