From Salon, is time to hold conservative Blue Dogs accountable, or should Democrats wait till George Bush is history, and then decide? Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith on why we can't let the Bush Administration off the hook. Taking Liberalties: Why the "most liberal" rankings are a crock. A review of Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0 by Sarah Lacy. Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody is reputed to be the best book ever written on Web 2.0, but why the strange silence on questions of copyright, privacy and ownership? The popular computer game The Sims features sprawling tract homes, rabid consumerism and bickering families — how did creator Will Wright get it so right? An interview with Doris Lessing (and more from Bookforum). From Dissent, Shlomo Avineri on the travails of democratization after Communism; a review of From a Cause to a Style: Modernist Architecture’s Encounter with the American City by Nathan Glazer; and an article on Olympic boycotts: always tricky. From Foreign Policy, here are 5 ways Beijing will be the biggest, baddest Olympics ever. The eternal games: Simon Kuper on five books about the Olympics. Is Europe ready to renew the trans-Atlantic alliance? Anne Applebaum wants to know. A review of Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology and the Wrath of God by Amos Nur.
