Summaries of what's in Time, Newsweek, etc.

Rebel Rousers

By Julia TurnerUpdated Friday, Aug. 8, 2003, at 12:36 PM ET

New Republic, Aug. 18 and 25
Ne'er-do-well foreign rebels and the conservative pols who love them! Franklin Foer notes that conservatives—for whom "skepticism about revolutions and revolutionaries" used to be a core belief—are now so gung-ho about spreading democracy that they see "any thug, charlatan, or hopeless dreamer who happens to align himself with U.S. interests as a budding Thomas Jefferson." Take, for example, Ahmed Chalabi, who was hailed as Iraq's "president-in-waiting" but proved to have little support. Conservatives have also praised the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, but an alliance with those brutal Iranian dissidents would be as devastating as President Reagan's support for Nicaragua's Contras. … "TRB": Liberia's civil war is viewed less as a political crisis than as an inevitable humanitarian one—like an earthquake or a hurricane. But such treatment lets America off the hook: In the '80s, Reagan propped up Liberian leader Samuel Doe, and current tyrant Charles Taylor came to power by organizing the ethnic groups Doe oppressed.

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Economist, Aug. 9
Count on the Economist for an acerbic outsider's take on the latest American shenanigans: With the Terminator's announcement of his candidacy, "Has California, a legendary gathering-ground for America's kooks and crazies, finally gone off the deep end?" Not necessarily, the magazine concludes, but Arnold does have a decent shot at the governorship: He's more shrewd than he seems, his liberal brand of Republicanism is likely to appeal to left coast constituents, and (above all) he has a "compelling story," one that "cannot help melting the hearts of a people obsessed with celebrity and upward mobility." Who, us?

New York Times Magazine, Aug. 10
The cover story—on the "Neuva Nouvelle Cuisine"—argues that today, Spain is the center of culinary innovation, while France is a backwater of tasty but unimaginative food. The piece's best bits are set in the laboratory of Ferran Adrià, the inventive chef whose wacky dishes are regularly chronicled in the foodie press. But Arthur Lubow gets to watch as Adrià tests out new concepts—like skimming the skin off boiling milk and using it as a crepe—and the process is methodical and fascinating. … Writing from Mexico City, Tina Rosenberg argues that corruption can be fought with basic administrative reforms. She describes how Mexico's customs bureau simplified the import process from 16 steps to three, thereby reducing opportunities to solicit bribes. … In Baghdad, when Iraqi trash collectors submitted inflated invoices, reconstruction officials fought corruption with a bluff: They said they were using aerial photography to double check the garbage men's work.

The New Yorker The New Yorker, Aug. 11
Hypochondriacs whose friends insist they're not really sick may be relieved to learn that hypochondria is considered a debilitating disorder in its own right. As Jerome Groopman notes, however, very few researchers poke into its causes and cures, and doctors hate to "embarrass" patients by diagnosing them with it, even though Americans spend $20 billion a year on "patients whose psychological distress requires repeated tests and procedures." Potential treatments are pharmacological—handle hypochondria as a form of obsessive compulsive disorder and prescribe Prozac—or therapeutic. … In Jon Lee Anderson's "Letter From Baghdad," the city hits 120 degrees Fahrenheit and teems with varied stories: There are U.S. soldiers lolling on inner tubes in Odai's pool; soldiers who believe al-Qaida terrorists are responsible for local attacks; a Baghdadi French professor who defends Saddam; and an Iraqi student who has found himself on a guerrilla hit list because he translates for Americans.

Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 11
On Dean's ascendance: Both Time and Newsweek plop Howard Dean's mug on their covers and examine the increasingly plausible candidacy of the former Vermont governor. The stories hit the same points. Time: The "brusque New Englander," once pegged as an "antiwar one-noter," is "raising cash in unprecedented ways" thanks to the "Internet-driven engine of the Dean insurgency." According to Democratic organizer Donna Brazile, Dean "shows no sign of peaking too early." Newsweek: The candidate with the "brusque political bedside manner" has been "revolutionizing political fund-raising with his clever cyberstumping." But rival John Kerry's campaign hopes that his "antiwar image will linger," and Dean's own staff worries that "he may have peaked too soon." … Also: Newsweek profiles Dean's wife, who sounds less than enthusiastic about Howard's decision to forgo medicine for politics. … Another Time piece wonders which Dean is popular, the perceived fiery leftist or the actual Wasp-y centrist, and notably parses Dean's use of the archaic oath "Zounds!"

On spy satellites that haven't ascended: U.S. News fronts a compelling report on America's crappy spy satellite program. The Defense Department's National Reconnaissance Office, which has been in charge of the nation's orbiting peeping Toms since 1961, operates over budget and behind schedule; it hasn't launched a satellite since October 2001, and two launched that fall have been on the fritz, leaving holes in U.S. intelligence. Frustrated, Donald Rumsfeld and George Tenet have created an entirely new spy satellite office under the CIA.

On schoolmates in Gitmo: Newsweek's Richard Wolffe went to grade school with a Muslim boy now imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay as a suspected Al-Qaida terrorist; in a piece that tries to trace Moazzem Begg's path, Wolffe raises an interesting point: Many Islamists were radicalized not in the Middle East but in immigrant communities in the West.

On Dubya's fashion sense: Newsweek also writes up Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the "surpassingly sweet" reality show in which five gay men make over a hapless, fashion-challenged heterosexual. Ad Age reports that the quintet is slated to remake Jay Leno, but in Newsweek, acid-tongued fashion consultant Carson Kressley reveals his dream fixer-upper: George W. Bush. "He wears far too many dark suits with red ties. You've got to look good when you're addressing the nation, for god's sake."

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