Cherry Blossom Time

The Japanese ambassador kicked off the Cherry Blossom Fesival here by saying that with all the snow he thought he would have to 'deem and pass" the festival. A real wiseguy.

The FBI claims the raids on the militia were to thwart a plot to sell pipebombs through the Midwest. Seems alot of firepower for that purpose. Tea Baggers should have avoided posting on their blog that the raid was at a Tea Party Compound. That raises more questions about the whole affair.

David Frum had said"... and now we work for Fox News." I'm sure he didn't mean it literally. But the RNC sent me an e-mail request to buy Sean Hannity's book on how to stop the Obama agenda. Hmmm.

Right-wing e-mail of the day was an article explaining how the health insurance mandates would not apply to Muslims. The author dutifully listed opinions from various mullahs about the Quran's view of health insurance (all negative.).

President Obama left town today to drop in on President Kazai in Kabul. Kazai only found out about it an hour before the President landed. Obama was said to have read Karzai the riot act about promises he had not fulfilled. The Free Republic did a mock announcement that "Press Secretary Gibbs would not confirm or deny whether Obama will have a meeting with Osama bin Laden." Another Freeper posted a veiled assassination threat against the President.

"I may be skinny but I'm tough." President Obama was under constant pressure from Dimtry Medvedev to change the Start treaty. Moscow analysts said that the Kremlin believed that Obama was weak and facing massive internal opposition to his presidency and therefore could be pressured to make more concessions. Unfortunately for Medvedev, the President said "a deal is a deal but I can understand if you walk away from it." Moscow decided not to walk.

Next up--Financial Reform is scheduled to be enacted by Memorial Day. Meanwhile Senator Lindsey Graham is moaning that President Obama hasn't told him his views on immigration reform. He claims he can't sign onto Chuck Schumer's bill until he knows what the President thinks. Seems to me special pleading for a White House meeting.

Nate "the Great "Silver claims that there is both good news and ot so good news for Democrats in polling after health care reform. Approval for Democrats, among Democrats, got a boost as well as a sharp rise in approval from independents. He attributes this more to the perception that the Democrats are perceived as getting things done than approval for the bill itself. On the other side, approval for Republicans among Republicans has sky-rocketed. Silver claims the mid-terms come down to two different ways of perceiving Congress and that the winner depends on which frame dominates.

President Obama made 15 recess appointments over the threats of GOP Senators. The most controversial was Craig Becker, the labor lawyer for the ACLU and SEIU, to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker's appointment was bitterly opposed by the Chamber of Commerce and the Republicans. Now the Democrats have the majority on the NLRB.

Mike Huckabee made the mistake of asking Jim Baker on Fox to discuss the Israeli settlements. This is not the man to have as a guest to defend Israel as Huckabee soon found out. Baker explained the American policy toward the Middle East and said that disputes with Israel occurred from time to time. Then Huckabee said that how could Obama object to Israel building settlements on Jewish land. Then Baker went steely and said abruptly," That's not Jewish land. That's land that would go to the state of Palestine." The interview ended shortly thereafter. Earlier in the year, Huckabee travelled to Jerusalem and publically supported Israel's planned settlements.

Apparently, the Obama Administration has reopened the investigation of the death of an Afghan militant at the hands of the CIA in 2002. Gul Rahman, a 30-year old suspected militant of the Hezb-e-Islamic Gulbuddin, was apprehended by the CIA in Kabul and sent to the Salt Pit "secret prison" northeast of the capitol. Salt Pit had been an abandoned brick factory the CIA converted into a prison with small cells. Gul Rahman was stripped naked and hung from the ceiling for several hours at a time. CIA agents would take him down and jump on his stomach. Left half-naked, the prison was freezing and he apparently died of hypothermia. His death at the time triggered an investigation of the CIA's methods of enhanced interrogation and the establishment of some rules. The CIA agent in charge of the Salt Pit was a new recruit on his first assignment abroad, a theme that runs through all the torture stories. The CIA investigator concluded that Gul Rahman was not deliberately killed and a Virginia Court refused to press charges. This is one of the cases that Eric Holder alluded to early in the Obama Administration that occurred before the torture memos had been written. The sooner some punitive measures are taken against personnel involved in these acts the better for the United States.

"Obama is destroying the America I knew as a boy." said a Teabagger in his 60s. There are alot of answers to this but it underlines what Frank Rich wrote today about "the national existential reordering". This is explained in the study I cited yesterday-- Bob Atemeyer's "the Authoritarians", which examines the group mind of the right-wing male. Written in 2007, Dr. Atemeyer added a postscript after Barack Obama's election that there would be several years of turbulence from now on because the rigidity of the right-wing white male can not accept a change in the political assumptions of the country. The new rightwinger that emerged in the Bush years believes he is in sole possession of the "absolute truth" and will not tolerate debate or discussion about this. In some ways, Atemeyer predicted the total obstructionism from the GOP to any of Obama's initiatives. That's why 9/11 is a talisman for the radical right. It's used to justify an entire political worldview.