Conor Friedersdorf:

If you told the average American that there was a very powerful politician who, after leaving office, tried to speak out when his conscience was bothered by the actions of his fellow political insiders; if you told them that he abandoned partisanship, calling out even members of his own political tribe; if you told them that he said what he thought to be true even when it was uncomfortable, even when it lost him friends, even when it was seen as a betrayal by other powerful people, who shunned him; if you told Americans all that, you would think they’d express admiration for the mystery man.



Yet few celebrate Jimmy Carter.



He criticizes America. People don’t like that.



Here’s his latest critique, published in The New York Times:

Zeynep Tufekci:

Wow. Datagrid spokesperson says they have matched 80% of offline voter records to an online cookie. She’s proud. I’m worried. #pdf12

via the “Personal Democracy Forum” 2012.

The Telegraph:

Other disguises also came in useful. On the run in occupied Bordeaux he dressed as a nun. In later life he helped Maurice Papon to flee to Switzerland.


Robert Jean-Marie de La Rochefoucauld was born in Paris on September 16 1923, one of 10 children of an aristocratic family which lived in old-fashioned splendour on Avenue de la Bourdonnais, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. An ancestor was François de La Rochefoucauld, famous for his maxims. Robert’s mother (née Wendel) was daughter of the Duke of Maillé. His father’s family retained a private carriage which was hitched on to trains during rail journeys.


Considered a sickly child, Robert was sent to a succession of private schools for the jeunesse dorée in Switzerland and Austria where, in 1938, he was taken on a school trip to Berchtesgaden, Hitler’s Alpine retreat. When Hitler’s convoy drew up, the Fuhrer approached and patted Robert on the cheek affectionately. It was, La Rochefoucauld later recalled, a dream come true for his 15 year-old self. Hitler was then the great statesman of Europe; young Robert and his schoolmates had attached swastikas to their bicycles in admiration.

Ed Wallace:

And so 2012 has followed the same energy pricing cycle as early 2011. Pricing for oil and gasoline started climbing in February, infuriating many by late March – when the pundits came in suggesting that gasoline could possibly reach $5 a gallon by summer. And then, miraculously, prices started falling in May right before the summer driving season, when prices are supposed to be rising. What was interesting this year, as last, is that when those driving oil prices were asked what was causing the massive price increases, they pointed to the booming world economy. The usual suspects; China, India, the European recovery, our own GDP’s improvement and so on.

Sure, everyone would mention the upcoming Iranian oil embargo; just as last year it was the civil war in Libya, not to mention the constant mantra that oil supplies worldwide were tightening. Of course, it made for a rivetingly story – but now we know that little of it was true.