++Susan Jacoby writes about "The First Victims of the First Crusade",which chronicles how the crusaders went amok and killed Jews in the Rhineland. No wonder Israeli press hailed President Obama's mention of the crusades in his National Prayer Breakfast speech. Of course, by the Fourth Crusades the marauders forgot about Moslems and just looted Christian cities and called it quits.
++Frank Bruni writes that we have too much religion in our politics. Amen!
++Ross Douthat in "The Caligulan Thrill" tries to fathom the cultural significance of "Forty Shades of Grey". He can't quite figure out whether this is a form of feminism or a libertarian fantasy of a billionaire making women submit to patriarchy. It should be noted that the heroine doesn't reach orgasm, which seems to have defeated one of the premises of the novel about sexual satisfaction.
++Nicholas Kristof writes about the "Unpaid,Unarmed Lifesavers in Syria", namely the work of the White Helmets, who number more than 2,200 volunteers. Kristof rings my bell about the failure of President Obama's policy and his consideration of Syria as a military adventure. For every bombing run,the Administration should match its cost with humanitarian assistance. Kristof worries that the Syrians will become like the Palestinians scattered across the Middle East.
Maureen Dowd in "Call Off The Dogs" goes after the Clinton tendency to have attack dogs and discusses the recent flap over David Brock and Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Showing posts with label Susan Jacoby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Susan Jacoby. Show all posts
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Republicans Eat Their Own; Next They'll Eat You
This Sunday we start with President Obama's quoting Thomas Jefferson at this morning's commencement speech at Hampton University in Virginia. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free,it can expect what never was and never will be."
The Republican caucus' in Utah apparently didn't get the message. Bob Bennett, a sixteen year veteran of the Senate and an eerily consistent conservative, was defeated by the teabaggers and his fellow Senate colleague Jim DeMint, who campaigned against him. Without an effective Democratic Party in the state, we are assured a teabagger Senator. In my view, a larger implication for the Republican Party is that Mitt Romney's presidential bid is DOA. He campaigned among his fellow Mormons for Bennett on the rather rational basis that Bennett actually had some knowledge of economics and had obtained seniority, which would benefit the Mormon Kingdom. With Romney-backed Scott Brown disappointing teabaggers and Romneycare mirroring Obama's program as well as his career as a hedge fund manager, the GOP can not make any mid-course corrections to be anywhere near Romney in terms of economics or policy. His recent disavowals of his past positions will convince noone as his conversion to the anti-abortion position didn't convince evangelicals during the last Presidential primaries. Besides, Mitt Romney is a Mormon, which is considered a cult by fundamentalists.
But Bennett's defeat also highlights the radical turn of the GOP. It can't really be characterized as extreme conservative since the diffuse ideology of the teabaggers is almost anarchism with a theological face. We already saw Arlen Specter drummed out of the GOP by the Club of Growth and Pat Toomey. And in Florida, a decent Govenor Charlie Crist, once considered a candidate for the vice-presidential nomination, has been driven out of the Republican party. In California, both the teabagger and Carly Fiorina are running against another consistent conservative Tom Campbell calling him a "liberal", despite his high rating by the American Conservative Union. John McCain has basically melted down during his primary challenge by J.D. Hayworth, teabagger, birther and friend of Jack Abramoff, trying to out teabag his rival. I also doubt that this will convince anyone. In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell's candidate for the Senate, Trey Grayson, is certain to be defeated by Rand Paul, Ron's son and a candidate recently endorsed by James Dobson, former creator of Focus on the Family. Here again Jim DeMint has supported Paul against his colleague's choice.
While Arizona faces an ever-growing backlash across the country for its Juan Crow law, southern states and GOP candidates for Governor are embracing the law, no matter the future damage done to the Republican Party. Tim James in Alabama, Nathan Deal in Georgia and Andre Bauer in South Carolina are embracing the law and whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment for the Republican primaries. For an excellent analysis of this read Ed Kilgore's piece in www.fivethirtyeight.com . Kilgore points out that Hispanic migration into the southern states, including Virginia, has increased but that Hispanic voters do not represent any key constituency yet. They have grown to only about 6% of the vote in some Southern states. So they are perfect to become another racial whipping boy for the neo-confederates. I believe this accounts for Lindsey Graham's recent retreat on immigration reform.
House Republicans are measuring the drapes and they are rumored to be planning to go bold if they take back the House. Even though John Boehner has a perfect record of voting against everything Barack Obama ever proposed and against anything that could benefit the American people, he will be under enormous pressure from wingnuts like Michelle Bachman, who actually gives voice to the "new republican". In the Senate, I also expect that Jim DeMint will wage a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell, whether the GOP gains the chamber or not.
Which leaves us Sarah Palin losing thousands of facebook friends because of her endorsement of Carly Fiorina in California instead of DeVore, Jim DeMint and the teabaggers candidate. With Mitt Romney basically neutered by the teabaggers, Palin, whom I still believe is the leading candidate for 2012 despite my other posts contradicting this, faces being drummed out of the teabagger movement. Can she come back after her error? She has endorsed Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and other teabaggers. Or does her deviationist position in California mean she has to be purged from the Politburo?
The implications for the country are nasty. As I've posted before, there seemed to be a 50/50 split between the libertarian faction and the fundamentalist Christian faction of the teabaggers. I think Dobson's embrace of Rand Paul indicates that these two wings are not mutually exclusive. Of course, intellectually there are but not in real life. Sarah Palin's libertarian streak received more attention during the 2008 campaign than her Dominionist religion. Yet as this works its way through our political system, the fundamentalists can live with the total abandonment of public education and the removal of the federal government from any social welfare network. The clash comes over maintaining such a large defense budget and overseas commitments. The war against Islam and total support for a right-wing Israel are critical to the fundamentalists. Since both factions agree with total free market capitalism, the corporate funders of all the astroturf groups behind the Dick Armey teabaggers will be delighted.
Susan Jacoby in her book Freethinkers: The History of Secularism in America warns that the reason Americans don't pay attention to the fundamentalists Christians in politics is because ,by and large, Americans have been conditioned to believe that the influence of religion is almost always benign. She also recalls the moments where religion played a positive role in advancing certain reforms such as the civil rights movement. But she also reminds everyone that the fundamentalist Christians were always for segregation and always against the civil rights movement in all its dimensions. She writes that the huge expansion of the fundamentalists in America started with the civil rights movement and was propelled forward with the pro-choice decision by the Supreme Court and it has not stopped. Finally, they seized control of the Republican party and eventually the White House.
And we also forget that the Libertarians also share many of the same conspiracy theories. Ron Paul for years embraced the John Birch Society and the theories of the New World Order as did Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson had to mute his conspiracy theories because they were so anti-semitic it jeopardized the evangelicals business plans for a Bible theme park in the Sinai. Also remember that Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind series, which plays a major influence among the fundamentalists, was for years a high-ranking official of the John Birch Society.
So where the outsider sees insurmontable philosophical and policy differences, there exists a strong set of commonalities. For conservative pundits and think tanks, there doesn't seem to be anything challenging about this fusion, even though they disdain their roughness and lack of sophistication. They are perceived as useful idiots for the final dismantling of the social welfare system in the United States and the instruments of rolling back any reforms since the New Deal. In my frequent conversations with the remnant of rational conservatives, they still believe there are no enemies on the right. And they will pay a frightful price for this, just before the rest of do.
Progressives are beginning to post blogs advocating adopting some of the teabaggers strategy and technique against incumbent Democrats. Unfortunately where they are mounting primary challenges, the race will favor the Republicans such as in Colorado. While the Democratic Party is a motley crew of factions and interests, it now remains the only modern political force in the country. Fracturing it now would leave the country without any governing force.
I believe the stakes for the country could never be higher. We can debate whether the United States should remain a major power in the world. But the election of libertarian/ findamentalists would ensure--without debate--our certain demise from the world scene. I also feel that the very idea of America--the reason I voted for Obama--would be terminally challenged. And even dismissing these fears, pursuing the lack of economic policies advocated by these people would doom us to the position of a third world country within a very short time. We would be ensured even worse discrepancies in wealth, prolonged and permanent large numbers of unemployed and the final destruction of our public school system, which is being threatened daily as it is. And the chilling fact is that none of this is relevant to the worldview of these people. They simply do not care.
The Republican caucus' in Utah apparently didn't get the message. Bob Bennett, a sixteen year veteran of the Senate and an eerily consistent conservative, was defeated by the teabaggers and his fellow Senate colleague Jim DeMint, who campaigned against him. Without an effective Democratic Party in the state, we are assured a teabagger Senator. In my view, a larger implication for the Republican Party is that Mitt Romney's presidential bid is DOA. He campaigned among his fellow Mormons for Bennett on the rather rational basis that Bennett actually had some knowledge of economics and had obtained seniority, which would benefit the Mormon Kingdom. With Romney-backed Scott Brown disappointing teabaggers and Romneycare mirroring Obama's program as well as his career as a hedge fund manager, the GOP can not make any mid-course corrections to be anywhere near Romney in terms of economics or policy. His recent disavowals of his past positions will convince noone as his conversion to the anti-abortion position didn't convince evangelicals during the last Presidential primaries. Besides, Mitt Romney is a Mormon, which is considered a cult by fundamentalists.
But Bennett's defeat also highlights the radical turn of the GOP. It can't really be characterized as extreme conservative since the diffuse ideology of the teabaggers is almost anarchism with a theological face. We already saw Arlen Specter drummed out of the GOP by the Club of Growth and Pat Toomey. And in Florida, a decent Govenor Charlie Crist, once considered a candidate for the vice-presidential nomination, has been driven out of the Republican party. In California, both the teabagger and Carly Fiorina are running against another consistent conservative Tom Campbell calling him a "liberal", despite his high rating by the American Conservative Union. John McCain has basically melted down during his primary challenge by J.D. Hayworth, teabagger, birther and friend of Jack Abramoff, trying to out teabag his rival. I also doubt that this will convince anyone. In Kentucky, Mitch McConnell's candidate for the Senate, Trey Grayson, is certain to be defeated by Rand Paul, Ron's son and a candidate recently endorsed by James Dobson, former creator of Focus on the Family. Here again Jim DeMint has supported Paul against his colleague's choice.
While Arizona faces an ever-growing backlash across the country for its Juan Crow law, southern states and GOP candidates for Governor are embracing the law, no matter the future damage done to the Republican Party. Tim James in Alabama, Nathan Deal in Georgia and Andre Bauer in South Carolina are embracing the law and whipping up anti-immigrant sentiment for the Republican primaries. For an excellent analysis of this read Ed Kilgore's piece in www.fivethirtyeight.com . Kilgore points out that Hispanic migration into the southern states, including Virginia, has increased but that Hispanic voters do not represent any key constituency yet. They have grown to only about 6% of the vote in some Southern states. So they are perfect to become another racial whipping boy for the neo-confederates. I believe this accounts for Lindsey Graham's recent retreat on immigration reform.
House Republicans are measuring the drapes and they are rumored to be planning to go bold if they take back the House. Even though John Boehner has a perfect record of voting against everything Barack Obama ever proposed and against anything that could benefit the American people, he will be under enormous pressure from wingnuts like Michelle Bachman, who actually gives voice to the "new republican". In the Senate, I also expect that Jim DeMint will wage a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell, whether the GOP gains the chamber or not.
Which leaves us Sarah Palin losing thousands of facebook friends because of her endorsement of Carly Fiorina in California instead of DeVore, Jim DeMint and the teabaggers candidate. With Mitt Romney basically neutered by the teabaggers, Palin, whom I still believe is the leading candidate for 2012 despite my other posts contradicting this, faces being drummed out of the teabagger movement. Can she come back after her error? She has endorsed Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and other teabaggers. Or does her deviationist position in California mean she has to be purged from the Politburo?
The implications for the country are nasty. As I've posted before, there seemed to be a 50/50 split between the libertarian faction and the fundamentalist Christian faction of the teabaggers. I think Dobson's embrace of Rand Paul indicates that these two wings are not mutually exclusive. Of course, intellectually there are but not in real life. Sarah Palin's libertarian streak received more attention during the 2008 campaign than her Dominionist religion. Yet as this works its way through our political system, the fundamentalists can live with the total abandonment of public education and the removal of the federal government from any social welfare network. The clash comes over maintaining such a large defense budget and overseas commitments. The war against Islam and total support for a right-wing Israel are critical to the fundamentalists. Since both factions agree with total free market capitalism, the corporate funders of all the astroturf groups behind the Dick Armey teabaggers will be delighted.
Susan Jacoby in her book Freethinkers: The History of Secularism in America warns that the reason Americans don't pay attention to the fundamentalists Christians in politics is because ,by and large, Americans have been conditioned to believe that the influence of religion is almost always benign. She also recalls the moments where religion played a positive role in advancing certain reforms such as the civil rights movement. But she also reminds everyone that the fundamentalist Christians were always for segregation and always against the civil rights movement in all its dimensions. She writes that the huge expansion of the fundamentalists in America started with the civil rights movement and was propelled forward with the pro-choice decision by the Supreme Court and it has not stopped. Finally, they seized control of the Republican party and eventually the White House.
And we also forget that the Libertarians also share many of the same conspiracy theories. Ron Paul for years embraced the John Birch Society and the theories of the New World Order as did Pat Robertson. Pat Robertson had to mute his conspiracy theories because they were so anti-semitic it jeopardized the evangelicals business plans for a Bible theme park in the Sinai. Also remember that Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind series, which plays a major influence among the fundamentalists, was for years a high-ranking official of the John Birch Society.
So where the outsider sees insurmontable philosophical and policy differences, there exists a strong set of commonalities. For conservative pundits and think tanks, there doesn't seem to be anything challenging about this fusion, even though they disdain their roughness and lack of sophistication. They are perceived as useful idiots for the final dismantling of the social welfare system in the United States and the instruments of rolling back any reforms since the New Deal. In my frequent conversations with the remnant of rational conservatives, they still believe there are no enemies on the right. And they will pay a frightful price for this, just before the rest of do.
Progressives are beginning to post blogs advocating adopting some of the teabaggers strategy and technique against incumbent Democrats. Unfortunately where they are mounting primary challenges, the race will favor the Republicans such as in Colorado. While the Democratic Party is a motley crew of factions and interests, it now remains the only modern political force in the country. Fracturing it now would leave the country without any governing force.
I believe the stakes for the country could never be higher. We can debate whether the United States should remain a major power in the world. But the election of libertarian/ findamentalists would ensure--without debate--our certain demise from the world scene. I also feel that the very idea of America--the reason I voted for Obama--would be terminally challenged. And even dismissing these fears, pursuing the lack of economic policies advocated by these people would doom us to the position of a third world country within a very short time. We would be ensured even worse discrepancies in wealth, prolonged and permanent large numbers of unemployed and the final destruction of our public school system, which is being threatened daily as it is. And the chilling fact is that none of this is relevant to the worldview of these people. They simply do not care.
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Age of American Unreason
Susan Jacoby's book has been revised and updated in a post-election paperback (Vintage,2009). Inspired by Richard Hofstadler's Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, this book covers the waterfront in terms of our culture wars, the fight for real science, the deterioration of our public discourse and the rise again of Christian fundamentalism. On the later, she is very good, pinpointing the re-emergence of fundamentalism as a reaction to the 1960s and she has an excellent understanding that this is not just some Third Awakening as characterized by George W. Bush but a new institutionalization of fundamentalism in all aspects of American life. She is also very good about the deterioration of our public educational system and the losing struggle for our civic culture. This is more a cultural critique than a political treatise. But she has some keen observations of how the elite foreign policy establishment, for example, has totally overlooked the role of Christian fundamentalists in shaping our Middle East policy. And if we scoff at Jan Brewer saying that God made her Governor of Arizona, Jacoby tells us we should believe that she really, honestly believes this. She provides a very necessary caution for any analysis of the Christian Right, take their statements seriously, they really do believe these things.
It's a wonderful read for her side observations. For instance, she says that her love of books came from watching two parents read and that books were always around the house. For her, books were to provide entry into the adult world. Which is what alot of parents should share with their children. Today, 4 out of 10 American adults do not even read a book a year. If books are seen as valued, maybe children would read earlier and retain that interest through their lives. Otherwise, they'll grow up believing that humans played with dinosaurs or that the Constitution was inspired by God and is dependent on the 50 states (Sarah Palin).
Jacoby is a very good observer about our Culture of Distraction and how we became so cretinistic. In many ways, this book is a good companion to Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion. Her stints overseas as a Washington Post reporter gives her an excessive view of how cultured other countries are.
One strange fact from the book: Of all the United States Government--military and civilian--we sent to Iraq, only 6 spoke Arabic fluently. This means we waged a war for the last six years without understanding a word any of the Iraqi citizens ever said. The implications of that are mind-boggling.
If you want to pursue the issue of what went wrong with Christianity--at least its American version, read chapter 25 of Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity--the First Three Thousand Years (Viking 2010)which covers the Culture Wars from 1960 until the present day. This 1,000-page history is what used to be called magisterial.
Susan Jacoby's book explains why our lawmakers have such a hard time figuring out what our Constitution means. It's not that the population has dumbed down but also our elected representatives as well. Joe Lieberman's TEA Act--Terrorist Expatriation Act--is a great example of a proposal that is so counter to every fiber of constitutional law. Even Tan Man Boehner scratched his head about this one, saying he didn't think it was constitutional and he has supported many a anti-constitutional measure over the last decade. Or Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions' op-ed today in the Washington Post on the founders' view of the Supreme Court and why none of Obama's choices fit the criteria even though he has chosen a new pick as yet. Or Sarah Palin's comment yesterday about the constitution that I referenced above. If political leaders can't get our own heritage straight, why expect the general population to know anything about the law or the Constitution?
Today continued the hounding of the President on his anti-terrorism strategy. Even though NYPD police chief said the coordination between all arms of government was " seamless", this has not deterred conservative pundits from proposing more illegal things. Charles Krauthammer writes today that we have to change the Miranda law in this age of terrorism, even though the Times Square bomber has been talking up a storm. Krauthammer raises the possibility that maybe one of these days the terror suspect won't talk. So far in over 300 cases brought to civilian courts, every one of the accused has talked incessantly after being Mirandized. Maybe we should create a Star Chamber of conservative pundits like Marc Thiessen who would be called upon to torture the one guy that doesn't talk. For all their bluster, maybe they should be given direct responsibility for their ideas. This would give them practical experience. Ralph Peters, now a columnist for the New York Post. claims that all these misadventures are because we as a culture have appeased Muslims and we must become tough against this religion.
The Republicans are still bleating on about how after 9/11 there were no terrorist attacks on American soil. I counted about 20 since 9/11 but that includes anti-abortion killers, the Washington sniper,two envirommental terrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest and at least one real Muslim attack. Then if we know that American diplomatic posts abroad are considered American soil, the number increases dramatically.
As for American Muslims, they're a pretty nasty bunch. Of the 14,000 murders last year in the U.S., they committed 14. They have one of the lowest crimes rates of any minority in the country. Even when you consider the Somali terrorist recruits from Minnesota and the kids from Northern Virginia and the American Muslim at Ft. Hood, this is not a vast recruiting pool for Islamic terrorists. Over 40% of the Muslim community says they are "thriving" during this time of Recession, about the same number as well-to-do white Americans. Almost all have college degrees and a plurality have more than one degree. The most upwardly mobile of the group are Muslim women.
BFD Biden was right. Today's job figures came out and 290,000 jobs were created last month, which is the largest monthly number since 2006. Yet, unemployment increased because of the expanded labor pool. This is an example of the problem I wrote about yesterday where I said even with a rapid recovery we are facing a persistant period of high unemployment. The Republicans--those great job creators--won't let you forget it. The RNC blasted off a fax today about how this level of unemployment is Obama's new normal and that all his taxes--fill in the blank--is stopping job growth and turning our economy into a European one. A few more months of these numbers and the RNC fax machine will stop on this issue.
Charlie Cook, who is a big believer in the GOP taking back the House, warned today that they are risking this by not courting the independents and moderates with their extreme right agenda. Polling numbers reveal a shrinking enthusiasm gap between the GOP and Dems but more importantly GOP-leaning Independents have cooled on today's Republicans. Only 36% say that they reflect their values--a dramatic fall from the high 70s of last year. That's why you see a Charlie Crist as an independent leading Rubio by 8 points in the Mason-Dixon poll. The same applies to Lincoln Chaffee's bid for governor of Rhode Island. As the economy heats up, some of these fissures will become apparent. Even younger Republican House members are telling Tan Man Boehner not to start measuring the drapes. I think the GOP's overt triumphalism is going to be their achilles heel.
Yesterday a Democratic blogger outlined his reasons why he didn't believe Democratic losses this year will be as bad as believed. He pointed to the 1994 elections and how Democrats misplayed their agenda and were perceived as incompetent. He also pointed to the 2006 elections and how the Republicans literally didn't have a legislative agenda and that voters rebelled at their lack of time in session. This year he says that no one can accuse Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid of being incompetent and not getting results. For that reason, he concluded that while Americans are mad at government--they often are--, that doesn't mean they want to trade the status quo in for new Republican leadership. I think that's a point well-taken. Losses yes but nothing to totally shake up the current situation. I would campaign against Tan Man--who must be the creepiest person we've seen around town in years. Even Newt at his most obnoxious never made one's skin crawl like Boehner.
TPM caught John McCain going to a fund-raising lunch at the Chamber of Commerce as the Senate debates a new camapign reform bill opposed by the Chamber. John's remarks to the ambush was to attack Labor's campaign financing, despite the fact that too would be limited. He has travelled a bridge too far.
Rev. Long Stroke Rekers was set up by "liberals" according to the religious right,because he had been an effective campaigner against gay rights. For his part, Brent Bozell claims that Obama is anti-gay for his remarks about teabaggers. He says that if Bush said the same thing about the Tea Party people he would be severely criticized.
The oil spill threatens the Redneck Rivera on the Gulf Coast and Bobby "Small Government" Jindal has sent to the Obama Administration a laundry list of aid requests to virtually bail out the entire economy of Louisiana.
The UK election is over and if you are in the least bit interested you might consult Andrew Sullivan's blog. He's the only one really interested.
Call me very skeptical about all the news reports about the Times Square Bomber wannabe. I don't believe he was actually trained and I don't believe with what has been said that he's connected to any real terrorist group. The only one who seems skeptical along with me is Rachel Maddow, who the last few nights keeps knocking all the reports down. I'm still of the belief that he did it because Chase Manhattan closed on his house.
It's a wonderful read for her side observations. For instance, she says that her love of books came from watching two parents read and that books were always around the house. For her, books were to provide entry into the adult world. Which is what alot of parents should share with their children. Today, 4 out of 10 American adults do not even read a book a year. If books are seen as valued, maybe children would read earlier and retain that interest through their lives. Otherwise, they'll grow up believing that humans played with dinosaurs or that the Constitution was inspired by God and is dependent on the 50 states (Sarah Palin).
Jacoby is a very good observer about our Culture of Distraction and how we became so cretinistic. In many ways, this book is a good companion to Chris Hedges' Empire of Illusion. Her stints overseas as a Washington Post reporter gives her an excessive view of how cultured other countries are.
One strange fact from the book: Of all the United States Government--military and civilian--we sent to Iraq, only 6 spoke Arabic fluently. This means we waged a war for the last six years without understanding a word any of the Iraqi citizens ever said. The implications of that are mind-boggling.
If you want to pursue the issue of what went wrong with Christianity--at least its American version, read chapter 25 of Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity--the First Three Thousand Years (Viking 2010)which covers the Culture Wars from 1960 until the present day. This 1,000-page history is what used to be called magisterial.
Susan Jacoby's book explains why our lawmakers have such a hard time figuring out what our Constitution means. It's not that the population has dumbed down but also our elected representatives as well. Joe Lieberman's TEA Act--Terrorist Expatriation Act--is a great example of a proposal that is so counter to every fiber of constitutional law. Even Tan Man Boehner scratched his head about this one, saying he didn't think it was constitutional and he has supported many a anti-constitutional measure over the last decade. Or Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions' op-ed today in the Washington Post on the founders' view of the Supreme Court and why none of Obama's choices fit the criteria even though he has chosen a new pick as yet. Or Sarah Palin's comment yesterday about the constitution that I referenced above. If political leaders can't get our own heritage straight, why expect the general population to know anything about the law or the Constitution?
Today continued the hounding of the President on his anti-terrorism strategy. Even though NYPD police chief said the coordination between all arms of government was " seamless", this has not deterred conservative pundits from proposing more illegal things. Charles Krauthammer writes today that we have to change the Miranda law in this age of terrorism, even though the Times Square bomber has been talking up a storm. Krauthammer raises the possibility that maybe one of these days the terror suspect won't talk. So far in over 300 cases brought to civilian courts, every one of the accused has talked incessantly after being Mirandized. Maybe we should create a Star Chamber of conservative pundits like Marc Thiessen who would be called upon to torture the one guy that doesn't talk. For all their bluster, maybe they should be given direct responsibility for their ideas. This would give them practical experience. Ralph Peters, now a columnist for the New York Post. claims that all these misadventures are because we as a culture have appeased Muslims and we must become tough against this religion.
The Republicans are still bleating on about how after 9/11 there were no terrorist attacks on American soil. I counted about 20 since 9/11 but that includes anti-abortion killers, the Washington sniper,two envirommental terrorist attacks in the Pacific Northwest and at least one real Muslim attack. Then if we know that American diplomatic posts abroad are considered American soil, the number increases dramatically.
As for American Muslims, they're a pretty nasty bunch. Of the 14,000 murders last year in the U.S., they committed 14. They have one of the lowest crimes rates of any minority in the country. Even when you consider the Somali terrorist recruits from Minnesota and the kids from Northern Virginia and the American Muslim at Ft. Hood, this is not a vast recruiting pool for Islamic terrorists. Over 40% of the Muslim community says they are "thriving" during this time of Recession, about the same number as well-to-do white Americans. Almost all have college degrees and a plurality have more than one degree. The most upwardly mobile of the group are Muslim women.
BFD Biden was right. Today's job figures came out and 290,000 jobs were created last month, which is the largest monthly number since 2006. Yet, unemployment increased because of the expanded labor pool. This is an example of the problem I wrote about yesterday where I said even with a rapid recovery we are facing a persistant period of high unemployment. The Republicans--those great job creators--won't let you forget it. The RNC blasted off a fax today about how this level of unemployment is Obama's new normal and that all his taxes--fill in the blank--is stopping job growth and turning our economy into a European one. A few more months of these numbers and the RNC fax machine will stop on this issue.
Charlie Cook, who is a big believer in the GOP taking back the House, warned today that they are risking this by not courting the independents and moderates with their extreme right agenda. Polling numbers reveal a shrinking enthusiasm gap between the GOP and Dems but more importantly GOP-leaning Independents have cooled on today's Republicans. Only 36% say that they reflect their values--a dramatic fall from the high 70s of last year. That's why you see a Charlie Crist as an independent leading Rubio by 8 points in the Mason-Dixon poll. The same applies to Lincoln Chaffee's bid for governor of Rhode Island. As the economy heats up, some of these fissures will become apparent. Even younger Republican House members are telling Tan Man Boehner not to start measuring the drapes. I think the GOP's overt triumphalism is going to be their achilles heel.
Yesterday a Democratic blogger outlined his reasons why he didn't believe Democratic losses this year will be as bad as believed. He pointed to the 1994 elections and how Democrats misplayed their agenda and were perceived as incompetent. He also pointed to the 2006 elections and how the Republicans literally didn't have a legislative agenda and that voters rebelled at their lack of time in session. This year he says that no one can accuse Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid of being incompetent and not getting results. For that reason, he concluded that while Americans are mad at government--they often are--, that doesn't mean they want to trade the status quo in for new Republican leadership. I think that's a point well-taken. Losses yes but nothing to totally shake up the current situation. I would campaign against Tan Man--who must be the creepiest person we've seen around town in years. Even Newt at his most obnoxious never made one's skin crawl like Boehner.
TPM caught John McCain going to a fund-raising lunch at the Chamber of Commerce as the Senate debates a new camapign reform bill opposed by the Chamber. John's remarks to the ambush was to attack Labor's campaign financing, despite the fact that too would be limited. He has travelled a bridge too far.
Rev. Long Stroke Rekers was set up by "liberals" according to the religious right,because he had been an effective campaigner against gay rights. For his part, Brent Bozell claims that Obama is anti-gay for his remarks about teabaggers. He says that if Bush said the same thing about the Tea Party people he would be severely criticized.
The oil spill threatens the Redneck Rivera on the Gulf Coast and Bobby "Small Government" Jindal has sent to the Obama Administration a laundry list of aid requests to virtually bail out the entire economy of Louisiana.
The UK election is over and if you are in the least bit interested you might consult Andrew Sullivan's blog. He's the only one really interested.
Call me very skeptical about all the news reports about the Times Square Bomber wannabe. I don't believe he was actually trained and I don't believe with what has been said that he's connected to any real terrorist group. The only one who seems skeptical along with me is Rachel Maddow, who the last few nights keeps knocking all the reports down. I'm still of the belief that he did it because Chase Manhattan closed on his house.
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