Rhetoric

RICK PERRY is not George W. Bush. Texas Monthly insists that is so, in an article entitled "Dear Yankee, Eight things you ought to know before you start writing stories about Rick Perry. " But to Eastern ears, the current Texas governor who is running for president sounds just like the other one who ran and won. To smug liberals, those eerily familiar cadences amount to a career-killer. But one attendee who left yesterday's Politics & Eggs breakfast said that sounding Bush-like is not a bad thing - especially in New Hampshire.

Afghanistan's president has branded his U.S. allies as corrupt, wasteful and contemptuous of Afghan lives. Once he even threatened to join the Taliban. Nonetheless, Hamid Karzai signed a deal that could keep thousands of U.S. troops in his country for years. Despite his rhetoric, Karzai needs international support if Afghanistan is to survive economically and avoid descending into civil war like it did when the Soviets left two decades ago. The signing of the long-term strategic partnership, which will govern the relationship between the two countries from the end of 2014 until...

DES MOINES - Gabe Aderhold arrived at the Iowa State Fair early, planting himself on a hay bale in front of the soapbox where Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota was scheduled to speak. The 17-year-old had driven four hours from his Minneapolis suburb to ask the presidential candidate to respond to a rash of teen suicides in her district, many of them by gay students. Bachmann breezed onto the stage 30 minutes late and spoke for less than three. When she declined to take questions, Aderhold jumped atop the hay and shouted: "I am a second-class citizen because of you, Michele!

Jeff Jacoby'S column ("Obama a unifying force? Hardly," Op-ed, April 22) almost perfectly summarizes my tremendous frustration, disappointment, and frequent anger with our president's leadership and rhetoric. I am a registered Republican who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 with a sincere hope for change. I was disgusted with what I felt was the smug, arrogant, insular, and quite possibly dishonest leadership of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc. administration. I had hoped for change from Obama, but what I have seen and heard is reflected in Jacoby's column.

FOR MORE than 30 years, the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have relentlessly persecuted religious minorities and political dissidents, led and supported a program of worldwide terror, and declared their intent to destroy Israel while threatening neighboring Arab states. Now these same leaders are engaged in an effort to build nuclear weapons. A consensus has emerged among the United States and its allies that a nuclear Iran would pose a grave worldwide threat. James Carroll, however, ignores years of failed negotiations and Iran's well-documented commitment to...

Jeff Jacoby'S column ("Obama a unifying force? Hardly," Op-ed, April 22) almost perfectly summarizes my tremendous frustration, disappointment, and frequent anger with our president's leadership and rhetoric. I am a registered Republican who voted for Barack Obama in 2008 with a sincere hope for change. I was disgusted with what I felt was the smug, arrogant, insular, and quite possibly dishonest leadership of the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-etc. administration. I had hoped for change from Obama, but what I have seen and heard is reflected in Jacoby's column.

Who'da thunk a book about classical rhetoric would be such a big seller. "Farnsworth's Classical English Rhetoric," produced by the Boston-based David R. Godine Publishers, is a surprise hit, ranking in the top 100 at Amazon for both education and reference. Out nearly a year, the book, which cranky playwright David Mamet has called "not only educational but delightful," is written by Boston University law professor Ward Farnsworth .

IN ALL OF the coverage of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative firebrand and Internet mogul who died suddenly last week, this tidbit was the most telling: In his final days, Breitbart told friends that he was in talks with CNN to co-host a "Crossfire"-style show. Breitbart, obviously, would have held the conservative chair. In the liberal seat? Anthony Weiner. Yes, that Anthony Weiner, the liberal New York congressman whose political career Breitbart helped to derail when he posted Weiner's racy tweets on his website BigGovernment.com.

WATERTOWN — An air of tumult suffuses the New Repertory Theatre’s production of David Gow’s “Cherry Docs.’’ A chair is smashed against a metal table, denting the table and shattering the chair. Legal papers are flung to and fro. Curses, sobs, and shouts rend the air. But the power of this bracingly intelligent play derives less from its explosive moments than from the interior struggles that register on the faces of two exceptional performers — Benjamin Evett and Tim Eliot — when they are not saying a word or breaking a thing.

By Gary Washburn, Globe staff SPRINGFIELD -- Commissioner David Stern, despite NBA owners and players being far apart in reaching a labor accord, told the Globe tonight that he "expects" an eventual agreement that would prevent cancellation of the season. "I would say that we have very smart players who recognize that this system is very good to them," he said. "You've got 13 players on a roster averaging $5 million apiece, that's $65 million and what the owners have said is, 'we're going to try very hard as we reset this thing to keep you as close to that number as we...

Mitt Romney's Etch A Sketch moment is at hand. Now that he's the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Romney is shifting away from the "red-meat" issues of abortion and immigration and instead holding more events highlighting his appeal as a regular guy. The transformation played out Friday when he emerged publicly for the first time in days at a central Ohio university carrying a hamburger and fries in a Styrofoam container....

ACCORDING TO the Associated Press article "No signs French gunman tied to militant groups" (Page A3, March 24), investigators in Paris found that Mohamed Merah, the cruel assassin of young Jewish children who filmed while he shot his innocent victims point blank, was not "under orders from Al Qaeda or any militant group. " However, millions of young Muslims are fed a steady diet of anti-Semitic rhetoric from their imams and leaders. If inflammatory, demonizing, and dehumanizing lies are filling airwaves, speeches, and websites, is it any wonder that...

VIENNA - Three days of protracted negotiations held under the specter of war highlighted the diplomatic difficulties ahead for nations intent on ensuring that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons. In a statement Thursday that was less than dramatic, six world powers avoided any bitter criticism of Iran and said diplomacy - not war - is the best way forward. The cautious wording that emerged from a weeklong meeting of the UN nuclear agency reflected more than a decision to tamp down the rhetoric after a steady drumbeat of warnings from Israel that the time was approaching for possible attacks...

IN ALL OF the coverage of Andrew Breitbart, the conservative firebrand and Internet mogul who died suddenly last week, this tidbit was the most telling: In his final days, Breitbart told friends that he was in talks with CNN to co-host a "Crossfire"-style show. Breitbart, obviously, would have held the conservative chair. In the liberal seat? Anthony Weiner. Yes, that Anthony Weiner, the liberal New York congressman whose political career Breitbart helped to derail when he posted Weiner's racy tweets on his website BigGovernment.com.

FOR MORE than 30 years, the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have relentlessly persecuted religious minorities and political dissidents, led and supported a program of worldwide terror, and declared their intent to destroy Israel while threatening neighboring Arab states. Now these same leaders are engaged in an effort to build nuclear weapons. A consensus has emerged among the United States and its allies that a nuclear Iran would pose a grave worldwide threat. James Carroll, however, ignores years of failed negotiations and Iran's well-documented...

Public outcry over the killing of Woburn police officer John Maguire on Christmas weekend in 2010 by a hardened criminal out on parole gave state Representative Bradford Hill a chance he had been waiting a decade for — winning approval in the House for his tough-on-crime three-strikes bill. Now he has another ally in his push to get it passed: an election year. With November looming, analysts say lawmakers may already have in mind a nugget of political wisdom — that voting against crime bills like the three-strikes proposal could become potent ammunition for opponents to accuse of them of...

WASHINGTON -- One Senate Democrat called Condoleezza Rice a liar yesterday and others said she was an apologist for Bush administration failures in Iraq, but she remained on track for confirmation as secretary of state. Rice, who has been President Bush's White House national security adviser for four years, was one of the loudest voices urging war, Democrats said. She repeatedly deceived members of Congress and Americans at large about justifications for the war, said Senator Mark Dayton, Democrat of Minnesota.

CAMBRIDGE — Arthur Nauzyciel’s ‘‘Julius Caesar’’ at the American Repertory Theatre is visually stunning, musically moody, and unceasingly stylish. What it isn’t, particularly, is William Shakespeare’s ‘‘Julius Caesar.’’ Sometimes that doesn’t much matter, because the atmosphere this young French director creates is so hypnotically seductive that we find ourselves drawn into his dream of Caesar instead of wondering what happened to Will’s. Nauzyciel’s approach, which bears the strong imprint of his training in visual arts and film as well...

IN RECENT weeks, Republican presidential contenders have repeatedly attacked President Obama for being soft on Iran. Mitt Romney criticized Obama for his failure to put "crippling sanctions" in place to take out Iran's suspicious nuclear program. Not to be out-hawked, Rick Santorum crowed on a Sunday talk show that if he were president, he'd announce airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities. These political attacks are likely to get more heated as tensions with Iran rise. On Monday, Iranian television announced that an Iranian-American had been sentenced to death for...

WASHINGTON - When US Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts sought to illustrate the divide between average citizens and the oil industry recently, his words echoed from the ragtag protests on Wall Street. "These companies aren't just the 1 percent of America, they are the 1 percent plus, making billions off the backs of Americans," Markey declared in a news release. Harry Reid also adopted the words of the Occupy Wall Street movement, when he railed on the Senate floor against "millionaires and billionaires" who get richer while the rest of America stagnates.