(Mysteriously my old dashboard for this blog surfaced so hopefully I can make this more readable.)
Rachel Maddow did a good piece last night on how Obama is trying to change the narrative on our interventions. She reminded us that since Reagan every President has addressed the nation from the Oval Office to announce the commencement of military actions. If you like the authoritarian male declaring America is about to save the world again ,then you might not like having the leader of the G-8 and G-20,French President Sarkozy announce when bombing begins.
Ann Applebaum wrote a good column about why President Obama should keep a low profile on the Libyan intervention because frequent and loud denunciations of Mu'ammar Qaddafi would raise expectations which we are unlikely to meet.
The usual suspects on the right are denouncing President Obama's actions. John Bolton says that we should have acted unilaterally. Mitt Romney backs the action but disagrees with President Obama's attitude because we're exceptional or something like that. I can't understand what Mitt says anymore because he seems to be imitating a hologram with programmed answers. Karl Rove topped them all by saying W would have been tougher with Qaddafi and acted quicker. Since W didn't act quickly on anything, that's unlikely. But Karl didn't tell his Fox audience that W granted a presidential amnesty to Qaddafi for his role in the Lockerbie terrorist bombing of an airliner, one of the worst terrorist acts until 9/11. He even sent Condi over to Libya to strike up the new alliance against terrorism. So I wouldn't believe Karl.
Steve Clemons, who is still skeptical, pointed out on Rachel Maddow that this is all President Obama's initiative. He was aided by Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice and Samantha Powers but he directed the whole process. Obama faced with Qaddafi's refusal to back off turned on a dime and went to a military option. He also pointed out that the diplomatic alliance was put together in a record three days compared to the year or two years to achieve the same results for the humanitarian interventions of the Clinton years.
In fact, the Libyan intervention, even with the military strikes, might be seen as an example more of soft power than military power. The object of diplomacy is to persuade people to your own view as if it is in their best interests also. The shaky support of the Arab League is an example of this. Algeria, Syria and Yemen didn't sign on. Algeria because it is neighbor to Libya and is not sure how this will all come out. Syria because they have their own extensive opposition now. And Yemen because it is close to a civil war or coup itself. The fact that a UN Security Council Resolution of this magnitude got passed so fast is actually good news for America's standing in the world. We probably didn't have to bribe as many people or the bribes weren't that costly.
Richard Engel indirectly raised the some of the problems on the ground. Yes, we saved a massacre from happening in Benghazi. But the rebels on the ground do not comprehend what a No Fly Zone actually means. They tend to think we'll take care of all obstacles to their success. But the rebels are not professional soldiers. They started as a non-violent uprising and only resorted to military actions when Qaddafi unleashed his military. They have no training,they come from a variety of professions, and they lack any military strategic sense. Engel pointed out that the defectors from Qaddafi's army are no help because they are settling into the backlines. Even the defecting officers are going AWOL, even saying they are going on vacation and taking a few days off. Today, there is more news that Qaddafi's forces are gunning anyone that moves in areas they control.
As for all the nonsense that Obama didn't properly notify Congress or have the constitutional right to engage in this action, it's sad to point out that the last time Congress declared war was for WWII. All the talk about impeachment would have to apply retroactively to every President since FDR. The list of American military interventions around the world since then is endless. The noise in Washington about this is humorous since the Senate passed a resolution urging the creation of a No Fly Zone three weeks ago. Now Dennis Kucinich, who believes Obama can be impeached, is working on a law that no funds should be spent on the Libyan intervention. All of this would interesting and call for honest debate. But we have let the President of the United States do this for almost 70 years because Congress and the American People like it that way.
Our problem as a nation is that there are no effective checks on our military power. Neither party wants to make the President or the military accountable. Without a draft, we no longer have the type of stake in our interventions that we used to. And as to costs,neither party wants to restrict our military spending even though it is bankrupting us. When you read the blizzard of comments--wise and foolish--on the Libyan intervention,it is sobering to know that none of them matter. Public opinion doesn't matter. You could be debating Obama's bracket choices and it has the same value. We are the spectators. In the most extreme cases like the Iraq War, millions of Americans demonstrated,numbers that dwarfed the teaparty gatherings, and yet as Dick Cheney said, "So What?" Our military interventions are not influenced by the American citizenry anymore. In the words of W, you might as well go shopping.
So now it comes down to whether President Obama does war right. Bill Kristol wrote the other day that we don't invade Muslim countries, we liberate them. And that may be the difference here. I don't have the inclination to unpack that nonsense. But we should be somewhat assured that President Obama's body language shows he has an inherent reluctance to immediately go to the military option and that in deeds he wants others to share the sacrifice. His critics lament his nuance and the sophistication of his approach to problems. I view these as strengths. That he should deliberate on something is a positive trait, not a negative. We've run off to war many times without asking questions only to find years of nightmares and arguments that we can't stop or it will weaken our position in the world.
A leftwing blogger said that we could blame almost all current problems we have on the past administration but now Obama has created one of his own. Yes, but I have a confidence in him that we will not make a commitment for a decade to pacifying Libya in the name of democracy.
Showing posts with label Dennis Kucinich. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dennis Kucinich. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Under Great White Northern Lights
Wow. Halfway through The White Stripes new album--a live set of songs played during their July-August 2007 tour of Canada. I've always said Jack White is insane--and musically gifted. The first eight cuts make me think the next step for him is to have the Melvins as his backup band. A run-through of his peculiar genius--and it is peculiar--is the album Icky Thump. But this new one magnifies his sound to a nice deafening level. Probably you shouldn't tell Glenn Beck about Jack White. Let him take another ten years to catch up.
Eric Holder is fighting back against his critics. Finally, someone in officialdom said," We aren't going to capture Bin Laden." He going to be killed or killed by his colleagues to avoid capture."We'll be reading Miranda rights to a corpse." Since the Clinton Administration, there has been this very strange conceit we want to or will capture Bin Laden. Clinton spent millions on a design for an ergonomic chair that would encase Bin Laden for a flight back to the United States. The CIA used to house it. Holder further lectured the House subcommittee just how the Administration is fighting terrorism and that law enforcement is secondary to killing them. I thought he got the better of the Republicans who sounded confused by hearing about the real policy , not the one their staff imagined for them.
J Street, the organization of moderate and liberal Jews for the defense of Israel, is offering a petition to be signed and sent to Congress supporting the Obama Administration and its calls on Israel to enter into a peace process. AIPAC has virtually declared war on J Street and sought to prevent a meeting between them and the Israeli ambassador. Fights have already broken out in Jerusalem over the Levittown idea. J Street's simple point is that the security of Israel can not be secured by the endless building of settlements and ignoring the need for entering into peace negotiations with the Palestinians. As I wrote before, Bibi has lit an exploding cigar and his actions since the rebuff of Joe Biden have not soothed things.
I received a strange e-mail from Organizing for America. It asked me to contact "wavering Republicans on healthcare." Like whom? The House with the exception of Cao is a unanimous block against the bill and in the Senate, we will have to wait to see if anyone believes they are missing an historic moment. The Medicare vote in the 1960s saw a few stragglers at the end.
The White House released a powerful video from yesterday's trip to Ohio by Barack Obama urging for passage of the bill. Watching it, I realized this really is about his mother and the impact of his mother's cancer on him. Throughout the campaign, he would talk about her on the phone to the insurance company while dying of cancer. And he frequently said that his mistake was writing a book about his father and not his mother. If that is the experience that motivates him, go for it. That's why I never understand the criticism of Barack Obama that he doesn't understand the experiences of real America. On the contrary, he has lived them much more than Peggy Noonan, who is the one talking head who keeps raising this.
The Republicans held a press conference denouncing Obama for "nationalizing student loans". This is reference to the Administration's plan to give student loans through the government and not through private banks. All he is doing is cutting out the banks, who got the money from the government in the first place. The idea is to lower the interest rates and eliminate the overhead costs. I still don't get how you can make hay out of this one.
The great state of Oklahoma has decided unilaterally to ignore the new Hate Crimes Law ,which covers gays and lesbians. This is the same state who took the President's picture down from the legislature. It's also the same state which sends Jim Imhofe to the Senate so he can declare climate change a hoax.
As Bob Dylan sang, The Night is falling from the Sky and the teabaggers have wrapped it up. Just to make them feel good, two million came out in force today. Actually, it was 300ish, according to the DNC. Of that over half were staffers from the Republican congressmen, who spoke to the throng, about another half from nearby conservative think-tanks and the remaining, actual people who drove into Washington. But they did get media coverage. I never saw the coverage of Howard Dean's first rally of over 10,000 for healthcare or Dean's rally/protest last week, which had about 2,000 marching against the insurance companies.
Again we had the Death Panel lies. All the media nonsense on the procedural process and the Democrats not wanting to vote on the bill was all lies, concocted by the Republicans, who actually did this over eight years. When the dust settles and the ceiling doesn't cave in,will the people who lied about this bill be held accountable? Will people who lean Republican just shrug their shoulders and claim the GOP had to do these things to stop the bill and to get the media's attention or will some voters understand you can't trust these people with any real authority?
President Obama made it clear today that any Democrat who opposes healthcare reform will not get funding from the party and he won't campaign for them. The last time a President did this was Ronald Reagan on his tax cuts. He told Republicans the same thing. Hopefully, this time it works again.
Bart Stupak is camping out at Fox News. He's complaining that the House leadership no longer consults with him. Fox, which enables Stupak's lies about the 12 votes he controls, asked him why. He says they are waiting to the end of the process. He did admit they are getting his colleagues separately.
Besides Lawrence O'Donnell, who continues his one-man bummer campaign, I also nominate "fake progressive" Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, who writes such nonsense about the bill. Today, she said she was doing whip counts with--tea party people. Both sides, luckily, concluded the house had the votes. But she is shameless. First her alliance with Grover Nordquist to kill the bill. Then her piece in Huffington Post about Obama's attacks on women who are defending "choice". Puh-Lease!
Michael Moore championed Dennis Kucinich as the only politician with courage to stand up for the right kind of health care. Terrific, that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Tonight, Howard Fineman claims that Dennis the Menace will vote for the bill. Dennis actually sent out a press release late this afternoon announcing he would declare his decision around 9am.
I am waiting word from Iraq about how far the fraud has gone in this election and whether the results will be honored. But Mookie Sadr is inching into third place. In some ways, that country deserves him.
General Petraeus ruined his Republican presidential prospects by testifying why it's time for openly gay people to be allowed to serve in the military.
This week there was a pretty disgusting episode where a woman Jene Newsome was thrown out of the National Guard because some cops saw her Iowa marriage license naming her female spouse through a window and contacted her base. Previously, she had been obeying the DADT policy. The ACLU is taking up her case.
NOM, the organization who campaigns against same-sex marriage, is now back in California. Their target now is the very staid, conservative Republican Tom Campbell, who is running for the GOP Senate nomination. You see Campbell is socially a libertarian and he wrote an article against Prop 8 in Reason magazine. So now he is the moral equivalent of Barbara Boxer. I always liked Campbell, even though he is ineffective and his economic philosophy is not suited to these dire times.
Yes, the Cleveland Clinic, who is treating Natoma Canfield, the heroine of Obama's speech, says she will not lose her house. So I think Tan Man Boehner should address the House that this fact alone means healthcare reform isn't necessary.
Eric Holder is fighting back against his critics. Finally, someone in officialdom said," We aren't going to capture Bin Laden." He going to be killed or killed by his colleagues to avoid capture."We'll be reading Miranda rights to a corpse." Since the Clinton Administration, there has been this very strange conceit we want to or will capture Bin Laden. Clinton spent millions on a design for an ergonomic chair that would encase Bin Laden for a flight back to the United States. The CIA used to house it. Holder further lectured the House subcommittee just how the Administration is fighting terrorism and that law enforcement is secondary to killing them. I thought he got the better of the Republicans who sounded confused by hearing about the real policy , not the one their staff imagined for them.
J Street, the organization of moderate and liberal Jews for the defense of Israel, is offering a petition to be signed and sent to Congress supporting the Obama Administration and its calls on Israel to enter into a peace process. AIPAC has virtually declared war on J Street and sought to prevent a meeting between them and the Israeli ambassador. Fights have already broken out in Jerusalem over the Levittown idea. J Street's simple point is that the security of Israel can not be secured by the endless building of settlements and ignoring the need for entering into peace negotiations with the Palestinians. As I wrote before, Bibi has lit an exploding cigar and his actions since the rebuff of Joe Biden have not soothed things.
I received a strange e-mail from Organizing for America. It asked me to contact "wavering Republicans on healthcare." Like whom? The House with the exception of Cao is a unanimous block against the bill and in the Senate, we will have to wait to see if anyone believes they are missing an historic moment. The Medicare vote in the 1960s saw a few stragglers at the end.
The White House released a powerful video from yesterday's trip to Ohio by Barack Obama urging for passage of the bill. Watching it, I realized this really is about his mother and the impact of his mother's cancer on him. Throughout the campaign, he would talk about her on the phone to the insurance company while dying of cancer. And he frequently said that his mistake was writing a book about his father and not his mother. If that is the experience that motivates him, go for it. That's why I never understand the criticism of Barack Obama that he doesn't understand the experiences of real America. On the contrary, he has lived them much more than Peggy Noonan, who is the one talking head who keeps raising this.
The Republicans held a press conference denouncing Obama for "nationalizing student loans". This is reference to the Administration's plan to give student loans through the government and not through private banks. All he is doing is cutting out the banks, who got the money from the government in the first place. The idea is to lower the interest rates and eliminate the overhead costs. I still don't get how you can make hay out of this one.
The great state of Oklahoma has decided unilaterally to ignore the new Hate Crimes Law ,which covers gays and lesbians. This is the same state who took the President's picture down from the legislature. It's also the same state which sends Jim Imhofe to the Senate so he can declare climate change a hoax.
As Bob Dylan sang, The Night is falling from the Sky and the teabaggers have wrapped it up. Just to make them feel good, two million came out in force today. Actually, it was 300ish, according to the DNC. Of that over half were staffers from the Republican congressmen, who spoke to the throng, about another half from nearby conservative think-tanks and the remaining, actual people who drove into Washington. But they did get media coverage. I never saw the coverage of Howard Dean's first rally of over 10,000 for healthcare or Dean's rally/protest last week, which had about 2,000 marching against the insurance companies.
Again we had the Death Panel lies. All the media nonsense on the procedural process and the Democrats not wanting to vote on the bill was all lies, concocted by the Republicans, who actually did this over eight years. When the dust settles and the ceiling doesn't cave in,will the people who lied about this bill be held accountable? Will people who lean Republican just shrug their shoulders and claim the GOP had to do these things to stop the bill and to get the media's attention or will some voters understand you can't trust these people with any real authority?
President Obama made it clear today that any Democrat who opposes healthcare reform will not get funding from the party and he won't campaign for them. The last time a President did this was Ronald Reagan on his tax cuts. He told Republicans the same thing. Hopefully, this time it works again.
Bart Stupak is camping out at Fox News. He's complaining that the House leadership no longer consults with him. Fox, which enables Stupak's lies about the 12 votes he controls, asked him why. He says they are waiting to the end of the process. He did admit they are getting his colleagues separately.
Besides Lawrence O'Donnell, who continues his one-man bummer campaign, I also nominate "fake progressive" Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, who writes such nonsense about the bill. Today, she said she was doing whip counts with--tea party people. Both sides, luckily, concluded the house had the votes. But she is shameless. First her alliance with Grover Nordquist to kill the bill. Then her piece in Huffington Post about Obama's attacks on women who are defending "choice". Puh-Lease!
Michael Moore championed Dennis Kucinich as the only politician with courage to stand up for the right kind of health care. Terrific, that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Tonight, Howard Fineman claims that Dennis the Menace will vote for the bill. Dennis actually sent out a press release late this afternoon announcing he would declare his decision around 9am.
I am waiting word from Iraq about how far the fraud has gone in this election and whether the results will be honored. But Mookie Sadr is inching into third place. In some ways, that country deserves him.
General Petraeus ruined his Republican presidential prospects by testifying why it's time for openly gay people to be allowed to serve in the military.
This week there was a pretty disgusting episode where a woman Jene Newsome was thrown out of the National Guard because some cops saw her Iowa marriage license naming her female spouse through a window and contacted her base. Previously, she had been obeying the DADT policy. The ACLU is taking up her case.
NOM, the organization who campaigns against same-sex marriage, is now back in California. Their target now is the very staid, conservative Republican Tom Campbell, who is running for the GOP Senate nomination. You see Campbell is socially a libertarian and he wrote an article against Prop 8 in Reason magazine. So now he is the moral equivalent of Barbara Boxer. I always liked Campbell, even though he is ineffective and his economic philosophy is not suited to these dire times.
Yes, the Cleveland Clinic, who is treating Natoma Canfield, the heroine of Obama's speech, says she will not lose her house. So I think Tan Man Boehner should address the House that this fact alone means healthcare reform isn't necessary.
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