Kurt Vonnegut would not have been surprised but I am amazed. After the debacle of Joe Barton apologizing to BP for Obama's "shakedown" to create a $20 billion escrow account, the entire conservative blogosphere came to Barton's defense. Even after Tan Man Boehner threatened Barton with the loss of his committee seat, we see Newt Gingrich and other conservatives appear on Fox News and call Barton courageous. This is like the conservative support of the South Carolina congressmen who yelled "You Lie" at the State of the Union address. The Wall Street Journal warned that this fund set a precedent and wanted the government to pursue BP through legal means. And the capo di tutti, Rush Limbaugh called this "organized crime". Forget for a moment, that BP actually consulted the Republican leadership about this idea before they brought it up with Obama and the leadership approved. It's not like there is a wall between the corporate world and the Republican party.
The best defense of BP was Freedomworks' own Dick Armey, who said that the White House acted unconstitutionally in "forcing BP" to create the escrow account. This is rich coming from someone whose President enthusiasically embraced the doctrine of the unitary executive as the rationale for almost total power. Just days earlier Armey, head teabagger, told teabagger candidates to hide their affiliation because people think there are kooks. There is a rich irony here. Teabbaggers imitate American colonists who protested the East India Tea Company, while coming to the defense of British Petroleum. It's no mistake because Freedomworks enjoys the financial support of BP and Koch Industries, America's largest private oil company. Part of their work is to lobby for the lifting of all bans on offshore drilling.
(P.S. There were between 85-95 corporate agreements similar to the Escrow Fund during George W's administration. Remember Chevron agreeing to create a fund when they were caught violating the Iraq embargo? And the list goes on.)
The Baked Alaskan gave a full-throated defense of corporations claiming that support for corporations was the "American way". The absolute brazen support of corporations at this time is amazing. David Broder woke up from his coma long enough to suggest that while President Obama is mired in the Gulf crisis, he should look over his shoulder at the American corporations sitting on over $1 trillion that could be invested in the economy right now. What Broder didn't report is that Republican Senate leadership told the corporations to hold back until after the elections to move on this.
The Corporate Crime Reporter noted yesterday that EPA investigators have been trying to get BP prosecuted since 2005 because of safety violations, oil spills in Alaska and other problems but were stopped because BP provides 85% of the fuel for our military in Iraq.
So Washington pundits keep criticising Obama's Oval Office speech, saying the magic has worn off--probably for them. Darkness at Noonan called Obama a snake-bitten President.
I have to check myself with the flood of criticism from the right and the left and see whether any of this is really taking hold in the public. Remember the healthcare debate and all Americans opposed it except when the specific provisions of the bill were polled, which showed overwhelming support for them? The same is appearing now with Obama's proposals on the Gulf crisis.
Support for creating a fund of billions of dollars to compensate workers and businesses that have been affected. 82% Approve.
Support for increasing the amount of federal regulation of the oil industry. 68% approve
Support for changing the law so there is no limit to the amount of money BP can pay: 63% approve
Support for suspending all new drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and other offshore sites for six months. 58% approve
Support for filing criminal charges against BP. 53% approve
(CNN poll)
In addition over 70% support developing alternative sources of energy and nearly the same percent believe this will create more jobs.
If you notice,my posts this year have already surpassed the entire volume of last year. the reason is that I want to keep up the same rate as GOP Senate filibusters, which are now looking to top all of last year.
President Obama's Saturday morning address to the nation focused on Republican efforts--so far successful--in filibustering a new Jobs bill, that includes vital payments to state governments to save the jobs of teachers and law enforcement officers, extends unemployment benefits and also corrects the Medicare payments to doctors. Last year the Republican tactics were aimed at stalling the healthcare bill. This year it's flat out to kill aid to states and the unemployed. President Obama merely is asking for a vote on the bill. So far this has 57 votes. Nelson and Joe Lieberman (I-Knesset) are opposed.
I will return to the great deficit debate in a later post because this is where things will really get nasty. But for now I am absolutely astonished that Republicans can be so raw in acting against the public good. You really would have to look at the war against FDR in his first term to find such a precedent. I wish the opposition to Obama was all racially motivated. At least George Wallace was a populist racist. This is a total war by the wealthy and corporations to render us an undeveloped country. The final looting of the country.
I leave you with the true words that someone who voted four times for FDR and was "proud of it" said to me. President Ronald Reagan said to me," Remember large corporations are generally not very patriotic." You might recall this was when Pepsi and Archer-Midlands were actively trying to sabotage his policy toward the Soviet Union. The sentiment still stands.
I think I'll take the day off and read Michael Lux The Progressive Revolution: How The Best in America Came To Be (Wiley, 2009). Lux spends a great deal of his book on the progressive responses to corporate control of America.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Tin Ear in D.C.
First, the Los Angeles Lakers are the 2010 NBA champions, winning their 16th title. But, boy, they won ugly. Or to be charitable, they spotted the Celtics 3 1/2 quarters before showing up. There are reasons for cliches--it did come down to who wanted to win it the most.
Which brings us to our battered President. For weeks, there was a drumroll of criticism that the President had not called or met with BP CEO Tony Hayward. Then he meets with him and the criticism was that it only lasted 20 minutes. The net of the meeting was an escrow fund of $20 billion for the Gulf and another $144 million to compensate oil workers during the period of the moratorium. Clearly, this was the only piece of good news from the whole BP Gulf disaster.
Republicans at the urging of Karl Rove have been planting this idea since the beginning of the Obama administration that the President would be like Jimmy Carter or we'll make him into one. The Gulf disaster for Republican strategists would not be Obama's Katrina, since that reflected on George W, but rather the equivalent of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The media would start the old Ted Koppel Day 300 and counting timeclock and Obama would be mired in the mess for the rest of his term.
Throughout the last 18 months, I have had doubts about whether the general public understood the commitment of the Republicans to destroy the Obama presidency. Most of the dirty work was done through filibusters and procedural maneuverings few people, except insiders, know or understand. Even progressives howl about why the Democrats with massive majorities can not pass the needed legislation. The net effect is to create the image of ineffective government and an inept administration. Therefore you should long for an authoritarian white father, who wouldn't believe in government but would wave the flag and invoke patriotism.
No Republican I have talked to or any of their public voices have admitted the country was or is in a Depression. The stimulus package was an unnecessary boondoggle of government spending and a vast extension of government's role in the economy. Financial reform is not the restoration of pre-1992 regulations but a government takeover of the economy and stifling of the private sector. Therefore, the mantra became "jobs" and the "deficit". Let's conveniently forget that by the end of this year, the Obama Administration will have created more jobs than the entire George W. Bush Administration.
If you didn't follow the extent of corporate funding of the congressional Republicans and the intent of their actions, you might think their case was plausible.
The President was said to lack emotion, backbone,courage and was too professorial and, according to former Reagan speechwriter Darkness at Noonan, out of touch with the American people.
There are gaffes, there a misstatements but then there are moments when the whole game is laid bare for all to see. Yesterday was one of them. D.C. lawyers had finally wakened up to the fact that they could litigate all their lives and never achieve the $20 billion escrow account for the victims of the Gulf disaster. Seasoned lawyers called it miraculous and noted that it was done without the necessary lawsuits. It was pointed out that the victims of the Valdez had to wait almost a generation of fighting the oil companies to get compensation and even that was severely cut down by the Supreme Court. In this case, the escrow account will be administered by the "special master" who handled all the claims for 9/11 victims, someone who was praised by both parties for his integrity and diligence.
If you are on the other side of the aisle, you might want to remain quiet or shift the subject. But the Heritage Foundation rolled out a position paper criticising the deal as an infringement on the rights of BP shareholders. The Republican Study Group, composed of 100 House members, wrote that the escrow account was a "shakedown" and a "slush fund". Haley Barbour, Governor of an effected state, worried about BP financial health. Michelle Bachman said that the account was Obama's ATM.
This is the type of rhetoric we have been used to for the duration of the administration. But what changed the situation was the nationally broadcast apology to BP's CEO Tony Hayward by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas for his treatment at the White House. Barton was simply repeating the Republican talking points. He was not talking as a single person. He went on to say that BP had been shaken down with Attorney General Eric Holder in the room. The key here is that the Justice Department is actively investigating bringing criminal charges against BP. The implication was that President Obama had intimidated a private corporation into ponying up the money.
The response both in the House and from the television audience was immediate. People were outraged not that Barton attacked President Obama but that he so clearly, as did other Republicans on the Committee, side with a foreign corporations over the people of the United States. John Boehner had to bring Barton into his office and threaten him with taking away his seat on the committee. Then out of Boehner's office came a press release ,ostensibly from Barton, retracting his apology to BP and saying his use of the word" shakedown" was miscontrued.
Then Republican mayhem ensued. Other congressmen did not get the memo and kept reiterating the same talking points; while congressmen from the Gulf States demanded Barton lose his seat. It also didn't help that BP's CEO Tony Hayward came across as lying through his teeth and simply did not generate any sympathetic feelings.
But the damage was done. The Republicans had been exposed as simply shills for the big corporations and nothing else. The plight of the citizens on the Gulf Coast clearly didn't matter. They would walk over their corpses for political gain. And what was startling to everyone was that it was so obvious and clear.
Within two hours, the Democratic fund-raising machine was up and running, exploiting the moment.
There was an interesting poll this morning that showed that 60% of Americans believe that President Obama cared for people like themselves.
This was brought home to me by a letter that was sent to Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish, which spoke about this woman's father who was a "marsh rat", who wanted to retire to a small cabin in the marshes and fish all day. This father was a real Arcadian, originally spoke French as his first language. Not an Obama supporter, he listened to the Oval Office speech. The woman wrote that when Obama pivoted on the "blessing of the fleet"section of his speech, her father cried and the President had his support from then on it.
Maybe like the Lakers, President Obama will have to win ugly.
Which brings us to our battered President. For weeks, there was a drumroll of criticism that the President had not called or met with BP CEO Tony Hayward. Then he meets with him and the criticism was that it only lasted 20 minutes. The net of the meeting was an escrow fund of $20 billion for the Gulf and another $144 million to compensate oil workers during the period of the moratorium. Clearly, this was the only piece of good news from the whole BP Gulf disaster.
Republicans at the urging of Karl Rove have been planting this idea since the beginning of the Obama administration that the President would be like Jimmy Carter or we'll make him into one. The Gulf disaster for Republican strategists would not be Obama's Katrina, since that reflected on George W, but rather the equivalent of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The media would start the old Ted Koppel Day 300 and counting timeclock and Obama would be mired in the mess for the rest of his term.
Throughout the last 18 months, I have had doubts about whether the general public understood the commitment of the Republicans to destroy the Obama presidency. Most of the dirty work was done through filibusters and procedural maneuverings few people, except insiders, know or understand. Even progressives howl about why the Democrats with massive majorities can not pass the needed legislation. The net effect is to create the image of ineffective government and an inept administration. Therefore you should long for an authoritarian white father, who wouldn't believe in government but would wave the flag and invoke patriotism.
No Republican I have talked to or any of their public voices have admitted the country was or is in a Depression. The stimulus package was an unnecessary boondoggle of government spending and a vast extension of government's role in the economy. Financial reform is not the restoration of pre-1992 regulations but a government takeover of the economy and stifling of the private sector. Therefore, the mantra became "jobs" and the "deficit". Let's conveniently forget that by the end of this year, the Obama Administration will have created more jobs than the entire George W. Bush Administration.
If you didn't follow the extent of corporate funding of the congressional Republicans and the intent of their actions, you might think their case was plausible.
The President was said to lack emotion, backbone,courage and was too professorial and, according to former Reagan speechwriter Darkness at Noonan, out of touch with the American people.
There are gaffes, there a misstatements but then there are moments when the whole game is laid bare for all to see. Yesterday was one of them. D.C. lawyers had finally wakened up to the fact that they could litigate all their lives and never achieve the $20 billion escrow account for the victims of the Gulf disaster. Seasoned lawyers called it miraculous and noted that it was done without the necessary lawsuits. It was pointed out that the victims of the Valdez had to wait almost a generation of fighting the oil companies to get compensation and even that was severely cut down by the Supreme Court. In this case, the escrow account will be administered by the "special master" who handled all the claims for 9/11 victims, someone who was praised by both parties for his integrity and diligence.
If you are on the other side of the aisle, you might want to remain quiet or shift the subject. But the Heritage Foundation rolled out a position paper criticising the deal as an infringement on the rights of BP shareholders. The Republican Study Group, composed of 100 House members, wrote that the escrow account was a "shakedown" and a "slush fund". Haley Barbour, Governor of an effected state, worried about BP financial health. Michelle Bachman said that the account was Obama's ATM.
This is the type of rhetoric we have been used to for the duration of the administration. But what changed the situation was the nationally broadcast apology to BP's CEO Tony Hayward by Rep. Joe Barton of Texas for his treatment at the White House. Barton was simply repeating the Republican talking points. He was not talking as a single person. He went on to say that BP had been shaken down with Attorney General Eric Holder in the room. The key here is that the Justice Department is actively investigating bringing criminal charges against BP. The implication was that President Obama had intimidated a private corporation into ponying up the money.
The response both in the House and from the television audience was immediate. People were outraged not that Barton attacked President Obama but that he so clearly, as did other Republicans on the Committee, side with a foreign corporations over the people of the United States. John Boehner had to bring Barton into his office and threaten him with taking away his seat on the committee. Then out of Boehner's office came a press release ,ostensibly from Barton, retracting his apology to BP and saying his use of the word" shakedown" was miscontrued.
Then Republican mayhem ensued. Other congressmen did not get the memo and kept reiterating the same talking points; while congressmen from the Gulf States demanded Barton lose his seat. It also didn't help that BP's CEO Tony Hayward came across as lying through his teeth and simply did not generate any sympathetic feelings.
But the damage was done. The Republicans had been exposed as simply shills for the big corporations and nothing else. The plight of the citizens on the Gulf Coast clearly didn't matter. They would walk over their corpses for political gain. And what was startling to everyone was that it was so obvious and clear.
Within two hours, the Democratic fund-raising machine was up and running, exploiting the moment.
There was an interesting poll this morning that showed that 60% of Americans believe that President Obama cared for people like themselves.
This was brought home to me by a letter that was sent to Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish, which spoke about this woman's father who was a "marsh rat", who wanted to retire to a small cabin in the marshes and fish all day. This father was a real Arcadian, originally spoke French as his first language. Not an Obama supporter, he listened to the Oval Office speech. The woman wrote that when Obama pivoted on the "blessing of the fleet"section of his speech, her father cried and the President had his support from then on it.
Maybe like the Lakers, President Obama will have to win ugly.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Afternoon Coffee at the Last Manatee
Drudge reports that Obama only met with BP executives for 20 minutes today. Pretty productive meeting since he got them to fork over $20 billion for an escrow fund for the region's victims. With additonal fines of $4,300 per barrel, this is looking better than the original Louisiana Purchase.
Newt told his Fox audience that in this case it was alright for Obama to use religious language during his address to the nation.
Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, one of the states affected by the spill worried that the escrow account would affect BP's profits.
Sarah Palin said the Dutch could clean up the spill. She was referring to their skimmer technology. A little late in the day, Dutch's skimmer machines have been in the Gulf for the last few days.
The House Republicans entered an amendment yesterday to strip the health reform bill of the individuals mandates. It was defeated. Look for this throughout the next few years.
The Senate Republicans managed to block the extension of unemployment and Cobra as well as the emergency $50 billion funds for the bailout of states.
Meg Whitman put another $20 million of her personal wealth into her campaign coffers. This means she has put in $90 million of her own dough. Apparently, Meg also has anger issues, having fought an employee in 2007. The poor woman was trying to prepare her for an interview. Should be interesting if she wins the California state house.
The Christian Right is back in all its lunacy, saying that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would mean that God would make us lose wars. In case anyone has been watching, the United States hasn't won a clearcut battlefield victory in a long time. There has been so many statements and pronouncements by the Christian Right, you're better off checking www.rightwingwatch.com on a daily basis.
I think I've finally figured out this fascination of the Hard Right for the American revolution. It's the last "good war" in their minds that America fought. You can't embrace Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War because he was for big government, the wrong side won and the slaves were freed. You can't embrace WWII because FDR was the President and, in some minds on the right, the wrong side won again. And Vietnam doesn't do it because we lost and that was the period of the civil rights movement. And we know George W and Dick Cheney have been airbrushed out of the small government conservatives' history. The Spanish-American war is a no-no because it involves Hispanics and we want them deported.
Bill McCollum, who is running for the Republican nomination in Florida, is being successfully challenged by a hospital mongol, who has been convicted of felonies and forced to pay millions of dollars in fines. I guess the appeal is that this person was a CEO.
The final arguments for the Prop 8 trial are wrapping up today. The anti-gay lawyers are moving on another front to get the 18,000 legal gay marriages reversed. In my mind, the legal arguments have been all on the pro-gay side with the anti-gays having to invoke sociological studies done in the 1950s. But I am skeptical that the final arguments can move the current Supreme Court. Conservative lawyer Ted Olson disagrees but I believe he's naive about where the current court stands.
Jim Inhofe is doubling down on his anti-DADT repeal position. He went on the floor of the Senate yesterday saying that our armed forces simply won't fight with open gays in the military. Sort of like how it happened in Sparta and Rome.
All the polls this week except the AP poll show Republicans set to make big gains in the Congressional races. The volatility of these polls showing rapid changes in the generic congressional races and the vast ups and downs of Democrartic enthusiasm make me highly skeptical that we know anything about the state of the electorate. With jobs, the deficit and terrorism ranking as the top issues. I personally can't see how Republicans can capitalize on the jobs and deficit issue, although they talk a good game on terrorism.
Republicans have not created a job since 1990 and they have never acted as deficit hawks since Eisenhower. I can't see where they gain any credibility here, especially among independents. Unless something dramatic happens, terrorism doesn't trump the economy. As we've seen, Republicans are now embracing CEOs as their star candidates. But look at Whitman and Fiorina in California. Both of them gained their reputation by either outsourcing jobs or eliminating massive numbers of jobs nationwide but also in the very state they seek to represent.
On Taxes, Republicans claim they own the franchise in tax reduction but they opposed during the stimulus debate the largest tax cut for the middle class in history. Now they are framing the tax debate as if the financial concerns of the very wealthy are those of the rest of us. They may well pull that off with their spin machine. Most Americans don't believe Obama cut their taxes.
The fate of the free world hinges on Jack Nicholson just as it did in Mars Attacks. If Jack cheers on the Lakers well in Game 7, we will be saved. While not my favorite Laker team--Kareem and Magic--the Lakers must crush the Celtics if there is any justice in the world. As President Obama said, "the arc of history bends toward justice."
We salute Ken Griffey, who retired this past month. Finishing his career with 630 hrs, Griffey could have surpassed all homer records--natural or steroid infuenced--if his career in Cincinnati hadn't been plagued with injuries.
Yankee statisticians claim that Derek Jeter surpassed the 3,000 hit mark this week--if you include his playoff and world series hits. Hey, that's cheating. Let him do it straight. It should take two more months.
Meanwhile Nick Johnson made it another year in which he made the Disabled List. That makes every year that I have been following his career.
Shame on Brazil for only beating North Korea 2-1 in the World Cup. The North Korean team was made up of all males in the country who are given daily meals. Double shame on Spain for losing to Switzerland.
Washington is abuzz with the Rookie pitcher Stephen Strassburg, who struck out 14 in his first start and 7 of his last 10 and at one point 7 in a row. So far, he's won his first two games in the big leagues and won every start at all levels of the minor leagues. Unfortunately, the Nationals still blow.
The German austerity package if passed will trigger another Great Depression. So far the euro is barely hanging on with defaults in Greece and upcoming defaults in Spain and Portugal. As European commentators have mentioned, austerity does not necessarily lead to prosperity. So far we have been insulated from this stage of the European crisis but we can't be for long. With deficit hawks in the ascendency in the United States and Britain, these austerity programs may be this century's equivalent of protectionism in the 1930s.
Newt told his Fox audience that in this case it was alright for Obama to use religious language during his address to the nation.
Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi, one of the states affected by the spill worried that the escrow account would affect BP's profits.
Sarah Palin said the Dutch could clean up the spill. She was referring to their skimmer technology. A little late in the day, Dutch's skimmer machines have been in the Gulf for the last few days.
The House Republicans entered an amendment yesterday to strip the health reform bill of the individuals mandates. It was defeated. Look for this throughout the next few years.
The Senate Republicans managed to block the extension of unemployment and Cobra as well as the emergency $50 billion funds for the bailout of states.
Meg Whitman put another $20 million of her personal wealth into her campaign coffers. This means she has put in $90 million of her own dough. Apparently, Meg also has anger issues, having fought an employee in 2007. The poor woman was trying to prepare her for an interview. Should be interesting if she wins the California state house.
The Christian Right is back in all its lunacy, saying that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell would mean that God would make us lose wars. In case anyone has been watching, the United States hasn't won a clearcut battlefield victory in a long time. There has been so many statements and pronouncements by the Christian Right, you're better off checking www.rightwingwatch.com on a daily basis.
I think I've finally figured out this fascination of the Hard Right for the American revolution. It's the last "good war" in their minds that America fought. You can't embrace Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War because he was for big government, the wrong side won and the slaves were freed. You can't embrace WWII because FDR was the President and, in some minds on the right, the wrong side won again. And Vietnam doesn't do it because we lost and that was the period of the civil rights movement. And we know George W and Dick Cheney have been airbrushed out of the small government conservatives' history. The Spanish-American war is a no-no because it involves Hispanics and we want them deported.
Bill McCollum, who is running for the Republican nomination in Florida, is being successfully challenged by a hospital mongol, who has been convicted of felonies and forced to pay millions of dollars in fines. I guess the appeal is that this person was a CEO.
The final arguments for the Prop 8 trial are wrapping up today. The anti-gay lawyers are moving on another front to get the 18,000 legal gay marriages reversed. In my mind, the legal arguments have been all on the pro-gay side with the anti-gays having to invoke sociological studies done in the 1950s. But I am skeptical that the final arguments can move the current Supreme Court. Conservative lawyer Ted Olson disagrees but I believe he's naive about where the current court stands.
Jim Inhofe is doubling down on his anti-DADT repeal position. He went on the floor of the Senate yesterday saying that our armed forces simply won't fight with open gays in the military. Sort of like how it happened in Sparta and Rome.
All the polls this week except the AP poll show Republicans set to make big gains in the Congressional races. The volatility of these polls showing rapid changes in the generic congressional races and the vast ups and downs of Democrartic enthusiasm make me highly skeptical that we know anything about the state of the electorate. With jobs, the deficit and terrorism ranking as the top issues. I personally can't see how Republicans can capitalize on the jobs and deficit issue, although they talk a good game on terrorism.
Republicans have not created a job since 1990 and they have never acted as deficit hawks since Eisenhower. I can't see where they gain any credibility here, especially among independents. Unless something dramatic happens, terrorism doesn't trump the economy. As we've seen, Republicans are now embracing CEOs as their star candidates. But look at Whitman and Fiorina in California. Both of them gained their reputation by either outsourcing jobs or eliminating massive numbers of jobs nationwide but also in the very state they seek to represent.
On Taxes, Republicans claim they own the franchise in tax reduction but they opposed during the stimulus debate the largest tax cut for the middle class in history. Now they are framing the tax debate as if the financial concerns of the very wealthy are those of the rest of us. They may well pull that off with their spin machine. Most Americans don't believe Obama cut their taxes.
The fate of the free world hinges on Jack Nicholson just as it did in Mars Attacks. If Jack cheers on the Lakers well in Game 7, we will be saved. While not my favorite Laker team--Kareem and Magic--the Lakers must crush the Celtics if there is any justice in the world. As President Obama said, "the arc of history bends toward justice."
We salute Ken Griffey, who retired this past month. Finishing his career with 630 hrs, Griffey could have surpassed all homer records--natural or steroid infuenced--if his career in Cincinnati hadn't been plagued with injuries.
Yankee statisticians claim that Derek Jeter surpassed the 3,000 hit mark this week--if you include his playoff and world series hits. Hey, that's cheating. Let him do it straight. It should take two more months.
Meanwhile Nick Johnson made it another year in which he made the Disabled List. That makes every year that I have been following his career.
Shame on Brazil for only beating North Korea 2-1 in the World Cup. The North Korean team was made up of all males in the country who are given daily meals. Double shame on Spain for losing to Switzerland.
Washington is abuzz with the Rookie pitcher Stephen Strassburg, who struck out 14 in his first start and 7 of his last 10 and at one point 7 in a row. So far, he's won his first two games in the big leagues and won every start at all levels of the minor leagues. Unfortunately, the Nationals still blow.
The German austerity package if passed will trigger another Great Depression. So far the euro is barely hanging on with defaults in Greece and upcoming defaults in Spain and Portugal. As European commentators have mentioned, austerity does not necessarily lead to prosperity. So far we have been insulated from this stage of the European crisis but we can't be for long. With deficit hawks in the ascendency in the United States and Britain, these austerity programs may be this century's equivalent of protectionism in the 1930s.
Obama at the Big Murky
President Obama finally gave a speech that was panned by virtually every beltway pundit. His 17 minute speech from the Oval Office on the BP oil disaster was seen as not Big enough and didn't call for an Apollo-type response to our energy needs. Chris Matthews, who has turned against Obama, felt that he should have called for schoolchildren to "volunteer" their summers to clean up the mess. Former Bush speechwriter Gerson lamented the use of such an august setting for such a mundane series of policy proposals. Remember his boss said that the purpose of America was to "eliminate evil" on this planet. That's thinking big. The Left seems to have abandoned Obama while the Right believes that, ready for this, government regulations were the fault of the BP disaster. We even had Sarah Palin's immediate tweet that Obama was playing into the hands of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
For these situations, I recommend watching an Obama speech on C-Span, without the self-aggrandizing talking heads. The call-in response to the speech from average Americans--pro and anti-Obama--was uniformally enthusiastic and supportive of the President. By this morning NPR was flooded with e-mails from around the country, which criticized all the naysayers by challenging them to come up with constructive answers to the spill. The general theme from the NPR listeners was that Obama didn't cause the spill, BP did and what is it precisely you think he should do that he's not doing.
While I love Obama at his rhetorical best, last night's speech was succinct, plain-spoken and fact-based ( a rarity in Washington these days). He may have gone too religious for me but he was trying to communicate to the average American without the filters of the press. It seemed to me that the speech worked in ways that those I love have not. While I found his suggestions about an energy bill too vague and not time specific, he would have lost his intended audience if he went into the type of detail he did in his MIT speech. I just fear that his generalized desire for an energy bill will end up with the nonsense we saw on the health reform debate. To invite conservative reaction, I found the speech Reaganesque and probably as effective.
Conservative invocations of the sanctity of the oval office strike me as offensive. The Right worships ritual and patriotic symbols. Remember the flap over Obama's lack of a flag pin or his not saluting the flag. Obama puts his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office. He bows to foreign leaders. Not like say Junior who French-kissed the Saudi King. Conservatives are the only patriots, even though for the last year and a half they have supported sedition. As Lee Atwater used to say,"Put out alot of flags, say the pledge of allegiance, sing the national anthem, and you can say anything you want." That's a formula that still works.
I'm beginning to worry about the American Left. We're hearing everything from nationalize the oil companies to the federal government must seize control of the entire Gulf State. Bill Maher has decided Obama is not his guy and says that he should just tell people who work in the industry--Screw You. Since we only have one mature adult in Washington, it seems to me the Left shouldn 't abandon ship when anarcho-fascists wait in the wings.
For these situations, I recommend watching an Obama speech on C-Span, without the self-aggrandizing talking heads. The call-in response to the speech from average Americans--pro and anti-Obama--was uniformally enthusiastic and supportive of the President. By this morning NPR was flooded with e-mails from around the country, which criticized all the naysayers by challenging them to come up with constructive answers to the spill. The general theme from the NPR listeners was that Obama didn't cause the spill, BP did and what is it precisely you think he should do that he's not doing.
While I love Obama at his rhetorical best, last night's speech was succinct, plain-spoken and fact-based ( a rarity in Washington these days). He may have gone too religious for me but he was trying to communicate to the average American without the filters of the press. It seemed to me that the speech worked in ways that those I love have not. While I found his suggestions about an energy bill too vague and not time specific, he would have lost his intended audience if he went into the type of detail he did in his MIT speech. I just fear that his generalized desire for an energy bill will end up with the nonsense we saw on the health reform debate. To invite conservative reaction, I found the speech Reaganesque and probably as effective.
Conservative invocations of the sanctity of the oval office strike me as offensive. The Right worships ritual and patriotic symbols. Remember the flap over Obama's lack of a flag pin or his not saluting the flag. Obama puts his feet up on the desk in the Oval Office. He bows to foreign leaders. Not like say Junior who French-kissed the Saudi King. Conservatives are the only patriots, even though for the last year and a half they have supported sedition. As Lee Atwater used to say,"Put out alot of flags, say the pledge of allegiance, sing the national anthem, and you can say anything you want." That's a formula that still works.
I'm beginning to worry about the American Left. We're hearing everything from nationalize the oil companies to the federal government must seize control of the entire Gulf State. Bill Maher has decided Obama is not his guy and says that he should just tell people who work in the industry--Screw You. Since we only have one mature adult in Washington, it seems to me the Left shouldn 't abandon ship when anarcho-fascists wait in the wings.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Glenn Beck--Next Civil Rights Hero?
Glenn Beck has published a novel called The Overton Window, taking its name from a theory of Joseph Overton, a free-market theorist who claimed that there was a window of acceptable political ideas, which could be expanded to include the most outrageous. The plot for this potboiler is that a giant PR firm, which creates the images for political movements, is asked to advance the "progressive agenda". To do this, a nuclear weapon is supposed to be detonated in the Majority Leader's state and blamed on the right. Then conservatives will be rounded up and placed in FEMA camps. And somehow characters are invented to stop this plot and post-coital conversation consists of discussions about the flat tax.
The title of the post refers to Beck's claim that his August 28th rally here at the Lincoln Memorial will "reclaim the civil rights movement" and "be remembered as the moment America turned the corner." For an important take on Beck's meglomania , you should read Media Matters' June 9 post "Glenn Beck: Self-proclaimed world-historical figure". The rest of this post is paraphrasing the highlights of this insanity.
Beck believes his rally will be an "iconic event". "We are on the side of individual freedom and liberties, and damn it we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that moment because we were the people that did it in the first place." I really need a translator for that quote. He claims the rally will"make you weep all night". Beck's legendary weeping has an honorable tradition in Mormon testamentary speaking. Mature men are expected to weep uncontrollably as a sign of their sincerity. And the rest of us thought he was just fruit loops or had alot of glycerine on hand.
Our political system will be fixed if we stand between Washington and Lincoln. And just as Matrin Luther King faced German shepards, Glenn Beck himself has had to face SEIU and leftist thugs." He compared his plight to being "rounded up" by Che Guevara in Cuba. He calls his followers the "real reformers" and warns them that "a few of us will get a billyclub to the head."To the day he dies or the checks cease, Beck vows to hunt down progressives "like Israeli Nazi hunters". He also likens himself to Tom Paine, Ben Franklin and Paul Revere. Luckily God has given him a plan, which he will unveil in August. Like the Founders , Beck is an instrument of God and claims the Vatican informed him that what he is doing is "wildly important" because we
are "entering a period of great darkness". He says that all Americans should fall on their knees and "thank God every day for the people at Fox" for airing his show.
Beck says that his life is at stake because of the vast conspiracy against him. Members of this conspiracy include: President Obama, the IRS, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, Media Matters, Sojourners president Jim Wallis, Van Jones, Congressman Anthony Weiner, George Soros and Robert Craemer. He claims that his detractors are "relentless" (with cause) and that he "can't go anywhere without major security". He claims that if you associate with him, Congress will come after you. He said he told everyone about the "horror" over three years ago. (Actually, it's not true. he was a run-of-the-mill libertarian then and had not tasted the apocalyptic fruit.) he asserts he is willing to think the unthinkable and now can see life as it really is. The coming threat is that we will all be part of a global community as envisioned by progressives beginning with Woodrow Wilson.
The show biz aspect of this is interesting. Mike Huckabee had a show of madcap inventors who claimed to have made special things to clean up the Gulf oil spill. The whole tone of that show was that these inventors were like faith healers, something former Baptist preacher Huckabee is familiar with. With Beck, alot of the presentation is derived from Mormon revival meetings and how testaments are given by the males in the family. With pre-Vatican Council Catholics, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, Fox now introduces us to the rest of the fundamentalist spectrum with a political message. Dominionist Sarah Palin completes the cast.
Just make sure you're not in Washington during the dates for his appearance.
I am waiting for the day Beck appears like the great Jimmy Swaggert and cries out, "I have sinned."
The title of the post refers to Beck's claim that his August 28th rally here at the Lincoln Memorial will "reclaim the civil rights movement" and "be remembered as the moment America turned the corner." For an important take on Beck's meglomania , you should read Media Matters' June 9 post "Glenn Beck: Self-proclaimed world-historical figure". The rest of this post is paraphrasing the highlights of this insanity.
Beck believes his rally will be an "iconic event". "We are on the side of individual freedom and liberties, and damn it we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that moment because we were the people that did it in the first place." I really need a translator for that quote. He claims the rally will"make you weep all night". Beck's legendary weeping has an honorable tradition in Mormon testamentary speaking. Mature men are expected to weep uncontrollably as a sign of their sincerity. And the rest of us thought he was just fruit loops or had alot of glycerine on hand.
Our political system will be fixed if we stand between Washington and Lincoln. And just as Matrin Luther King faced German shepards, Glenn Beck himself has had to face SEIU and leftist thugs." He compared his plight to being "rounded up" by Che Guevara in Cuba. He calls his followers the "real reformers" and warns them that "a few of us will get a billyclub to the head."To the day he dies or the checks cease, Beck vows to hunt down progressives "like Israeli Nazi hunters". He also likens himself to Tom Paine, Ben Franklin and Paul Revere. Luckily God has given him a plan, which he will unveil in August. Like the Founders , Beck is an instrument of God and claims the Vatican informed him that what he is doing is "wildly important" because we
are "entering a period of great darkness". He says that all Americans should fall on their knees and "thank God every day for the people at Fox" for airing his show.
Beck says that his life is at stake because of the vast conspiracy against him. Members of this conspiracy include: President Obama, the IRS, the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, Media Matters, Sojourners president Jim Wallis, Van Jones, Congressman Anthony Weiner, George Soros and Robert Craemer. He claims that his detractors are "relentless" (with cause) and that he "can't go anywhere without major security". He claims that if you associate with him, Congress will come after you. He said he told everyone about the "horror" over three years ago. (Actually, it's not true. he was a run-of-the-mill libertarian then and had not tasted the apocalyptic fruit.) he asserts he is willing to think the unthinkable and now can see life as it really is. The coming threat is that we will all be part of a global community as envisioned by progressives beginning with Woodrow Wilson.
The show biz aspect of this is interesting. Mike Huckabee had a show of madcap inventors who claimed to have made special things to clean up the Gulf oil spill. The whole tone of that show was that these inventors were like faith healers, something former Baptist preacher Huckabee is familiar with. With Beck, alot of the presentation is derived from Mormon revival meetings and how testaments are given by the males in the family. With pre-Vatican Council Catholics, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, Fox now introduces us to the rest of the fundamentalist spectrum with a political message. Dominionist Sarah Palin completes the cast.
Just make sure you're not in Washington during the dates for his appearance.
I am waiting for the day Beck appears like the great Jimmy Swaggert and cries out, "I have sinned."
Monday, June 14, 2010
Things I Don't Care about
In previous years, I only cared about foreign policy issues because I felt that the economy would creep along and that there existed a consensus that our social net was worth preserving, even if it meant tinkering around to make it solvent. With the attack of the last Administration on our basic civil liberties and the collapse of our financial system in 2008, I have tended more inward. I find it strange to have the only sane discussions on democracy, human rights and the rule of law in seminars conducted in African states who don't practice these concepts. But the political debate in the United States has become too surreal and unsettling. Perhaps, it is simply the economic tensions of the times--a generation seeing boom years disappear over night and structural unemployment become the norm--that accounts for the eruption of the extremes. Perhaps, it is the latent racism that has plagued our society from its foundation. Whatever the cause, the increased polarization of our society threatens the union. Concepts in our democracy that have been accepted and assumed by all now are debated as if they were foisted on a large unsuspecting sector of our society.
Since there are so many issues coming to the fore, it's best to be selective about what one cares about. The first step in this process is to list what issues one doesn't care about.
I don't care about:
1. The estate tax. I won't have anything to brag about and it will escape taxes anyway. Beside, I will be dead.
2. I don't care about increasing taxes for the upper income brackets. Although I have few chances of reaching those brackets, if I did I would be grateful enough of my good fortune to willingly pay taxes. I also don't believe Americans will cease overnight to want to become rich. I wish they would refrain from this dream.
3. I don't care about capital gains taxes since people with 501Ks don't pay that anyway and I never hold stocks as long as a year anyway.
4. I don't even care about real estate taxes. This year was the first year where my real estate taxes exceeded what I paid in New Jersey on a home worth one-fifth of mine in Virginia.
5. I don't care if I am compelled to buy health insurance. I'm compelled to buy car, home and do pay life insurance. So what's the big deal?
6. I don't care about corporate taxes. Only 26% of American corporations pay taxes anyway and these solid citizens didn't create any jobs in ten years and are sitting on trillions of dollars to bluff our President.
7. I don't care if they raise the limit on social security taxes even if I pay more if it keeps the system solvent.
8. I don't care if the British are annoyed by attacks on BP if they pay their freight. I'm not responsible for British pensioners.
9. I don't care about the deficit. I will after we recover economically. I also believe the deficit can be managed without the dire cuts to Social Security and Medicare that people advocate.
10. I don't care if the President of the United States were born in Kenya. Just prove his mother wasn't an American.
Since there are so many issues coming to the fore, it's best to be selective about what one cares about. The first step in this process is to list what issues one doesn't care about.
I don't care about:
1. The estate tax. I won't have anything to brag about and it will escape taxes anyway. Beside, I will be dead.
2. I don't care about increasing taxes for the upper income brackets. Although I have few chances of reaching those brackets, if I did I would be grateful enough of my good fortune to willingly pay taxes. I also don't believe Americans will cease overnight to want to become rich. I wish they would refrain from this dream.
3. I don't care about capital gains taxes since people with 501Ks don't pay that anyway and I never hold stocks as long as a year anyway.
4. I don't even care about real estate taxes. This year was the first year where my real estate taxes exceeded what I paid in New Jersey on a home worth one-fifth of mine in Virginia.
5. I don't care if I am compelled to buy health insurance. I'm compelled to buy car, home and do pay life insurance. So what's the big deal?
6. I don't care about corporate taxes. Only 26% of American corporations pay taxes anyway and these solid citizens didn't create any jobs in ten years and are sitting on trillions of dollars to bluff our President.
7. I don't care if they raise the limit on social security taxes even if I pay more if it keeps the system solvent.
8. I don't care if the British are annoyed by attacks on BP if they pay their freight. I'm not responsible for British pensioners.
9. I don't care about the deficit. I will after we recover economically. I also believe the deficit can be managed without the dire cuts to Social Security and Medicare that people advocate.
10. I don't care if the President of the United States were born in Kenya. Just prove his mother wasn't an American.
Night Thoughts from the Last Manatee
The totalitarian right discovered the constitution when Barack Obama was elected. That's not a bad thing. However, I have been barraged by e-mails about one constitutional violation after another by our President. And we have seen what a curious constitution is being invoked. A new Arizona law will ban children of illegal immigrants born in this country from being citizens. This happens to violate Amendment 14. The Hard Right claims they are constitutionalists and want to revoke Article 17 of the constitution, which quaintly allows citizens to elect their Senators. The teabaggers embrace the very exotic tenther movement, which elevates states' rights to a paramount place in our Constitution. Glenn Beck daily proclaims that the Left--whoever that is--has hoodwinked all of us into believing that the Founders really did believe in the separation of Church and State. The Republican nominee for the Senate in Nevada claims we should no longer negotiate treaties, although that is explicit in the preamble of our Constitution. And then we have the rather bizarre group of Supreme Court Justices who believe in something called originalism, which enabled them to rule that both domestic and foreign companies have rights as individuals and can donate unlimited funds to political campaigns.
I have a basic viewpoint on all this. I believe these people seriously have given up on the idea of America. I think their efforts to deconstruct the Constitution indicate they have grown cynical about the whole idea of self-government itself. That is why I said that this theme, which appears daily in right-wing talk radio, is ominous. Newt Gingrich in his latest book attacking President Obama writes that we are at an existential moment, the equivalent of the time of our civil war when we questioned who we are as Americans. I believe this is rubbish but I do believe conservatives sincerely have been thrown for a loop and don't know why they participate in our democracy. It is clear that today's Republicans refuse to participate or even compromise unless they have total power.
The natural response to the right's recent embrace of the Constitution is to ask where they were when the Fourth Amendment disappeared for three years during George W.Bush and Dick Cheney and his minions advocated a unitary theory of the executive, which conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein argued was a form of despotism. And then we could discuss the issues of torture and American traditions.
Since this revisionism about our history and our constitution is gaining momentum and entering the mainstream of political debate, it's best to be prepared and armed. For this I recommend Seth Lipsky's The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide (Basic Books, 2009). This book provides the historical background to the various articles and amendments of the Constitution and contemporary discussions about recent cases and arguments. For the upcoming Supreme Court case on health care reform, we'll need to become specialists in the commerce clause.
A blogger at the Daily Kos posted an entry "Gingrich, Obama and American Exceptionalism". It is well-worth a read. The blogger in my mind rightfully criticizes Gingrich's definition of American Exceptionalism as exclusively a property of the Hard Right, while Newt neglects to furnish the more apt definition that we are a people who all originated somewhere else and are united in a commitment to democracy, pluralism and tolerance with a commitment to the common good. In this short essay he outlines Barack Obama's notions of American Exceptionalism based on these concepts. The one problem I have is that he tries to secure his definition as the exclusive property of progressives, not just all of us. He made the mistake that Newt did.
John Keane is back. This British, former Labor thinker popularized the notion of the civil society as it formed the basis of the democratic revolutions in Central Europe. I credit him with influencing American policymakers to incorporate the civil society in all our programs to promote democracy overseas. Intimately involved in both Poland and Czechoslovakia, Keane later wrote the definitive biography of Vaclav Havel. By that time, he had soared on Havel because he practiced normal democratic politics instead of an overarching brand of the civil society. He has a lengthy tome The Life and Death of Democracy, which makes an urgent defense and plea for democracy as it looks a bit tattered these days.
Reinhold Niebuhr is back in terms of a realism in foreign policy. But, not so much to the chagrin of William Pfaff of the International Herald Tribune. Pfaff laments the triumphalism of American foreign policy in general and warns that our global interventionism will ultimately fail. Despite Obama's embrace of multilateralism, Pfaff believes President Obama has embraced some of the worst tendencies of the past and his policies will fail. His latest book on this subject is The Irony of Manifest Destiny: the Tragedy of America's Foreign Policy (Walker, 2010). He traces the idea of Manifest Destiny and America's interpretation of its exceptionalism through our history and seems to elide with Gary Wills' National Security State, a critique of American policy after Truman.
I can't think of worst news than Afghanistan having over $1 trillion in mineral deposits such as Lithium. Think of Karzai as the Ibn Saud of Lithium, the master of cellphones. I have heard the pundits here already discuss the wonderful opportunity this provides the country. But, having lived through this with many new oil states and the mineral riches of the Congo, I can say, yes I know you can create laws that willl create transparency in awarding the mining contracts and ,yes. you can create a transparent way the nation could use the revenues for development. But it will never happen. The Mines and Minerals Ministry in Afghanistan is considered even more corrupt than the rest of the country and a few families will monopolize the industry. Whole populations will be displaced; and local warfare will be the rule like in mineral-rich Congo. And, unfortunately, the fact of minerals will enable those who want us to stay indefinitely in Washington to have greater infuence in the debate. And, the bottom line is that the Chinese will get the minerals anyway like they have the copper in Afghanistan and the oil in Iraq.
Daniel Byman and Christine Fair in the July/August The Atlantic have an excellent article on the ineptitude of Islamic terrorisms and the Taliban entitled "The Case for Calling Them Nitwits". Reviewing recent failed bomb plots, the authors also deal with the whole issue that these guys are not so religious. The laptops seized by U.S. authorities from the would-be jihadists are filled with porn. For a while, Pentagon analysts believed they encrypted messages in the porn but after extensive exams decided that these guys were just porn addicts. Apparently, we have tertabytes of this stuff from the laptops. Our Predator drones have captured exciting images of two Taliban engaged in intimate relations with a donkey and a fighter gratifying himself with a cow. The authors believe we must root out Al Qaeda's havens in Pakistan and then fighting terrorism becomes easy once we realize the rest of them are inept. Apparently, Al Qaeda is so cunning either. The CIA did an elaborate internet sting on Al Qaeda using Facebook and the organization actually posted their operational manuals and plans and personnel. It's a good thing Bin Laden just released another message to the United States. I was getting woried for a moment. His team isn't looking good.
I have a basic viewpoint on all this. I believe these people seriously have given up on the idea of America. I think their efforts to deconstruct the Constitution indicate they have grown cynical about the whole idea of self-government itself. That is why I said that this theme, which appears daily in right-wing talk radio, is ominous. Newt Gingrich in his latest book attacking President Obama writes that we are at an existential moment, the equivalent of the time of our civil war when we questioned who we are as Americans. I believe this is rubbish but I do believe conservatives sincerely have been thrown for a loop and don't know why they participate in our democracy. It is clear that today's Republicans refuse to participate or even compromise unless they have total power.
The natural response to the right's recent embrace of the Constitution is to ask where they were when the Fourth Amendment disappeared for three years during George W.Bush and Dick Cheney and his minions advocated a unitary theory of the executive, which conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein argued was a form of despotism. And then we could discuss the issues of torture and American traditions.
Since this revisionism about our history and our constitution is gaining momentum and entering the mainstream of political debate, it's best to be prepared and armed. For this I recommend Seth Lipsky's The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide (Basic Books, 2009). This book provides the historical background to the various articles and amendments of the Constitution and contemporary discussions about recent cases and arguments. For the upcoming Supreme Court case on health care reform, we'll need to become specialists in the commerce clause.
A blogger at the Daily Kos posted an entry "Gingrich, Obama and American Exceptionalism". It is well-worth a read. The blogger in my mind rightfully criticizes Gingrich's definition of American Exceptionalism as exclusively a property of the Hard Right, while Newt neglects to furnish the more apt definition that we are a people who all originated somewhere else and are united in a commitment to democracy, pluralism and tolerance with a commitment to the common good. In this short essay he outlines Barack Obama's notions of American Exceptionalism based on these concepts. The one problem I have is that he tries to secure his definition as the exclusive property of progressives, not just all of us. He made the mistake that Newt did.
John Keane is back. This British, former Labor thinker popularized the notion of the civil society as it formed the basis of the democratic revolutions in Central Europe. I credit him with influencing American policymakers to incorporate the civil society in all our programs to promote democracy overseas. Intimately involved in both Poland and Czechoslovakia, Keane later wrote the definitive biography of Vaclav Havel. By that time, he had soared on Havel because he practiced normal democratic politics instead of an overarching brand of the civil society. He has a lengthy tome The Life and Death of Democracy, which makes an urgent defense and plea for democracy as it looks a bit tattered these days.
Reinhold Niebuhr is back in terms of a realism in foreign policy. But, not so much to the chagrin of William Pfaff of the International Herald Tribune. Pfaff laments the triumphalism of American foreign policy in general and warns that our global interventionism will ultimately fail. Despite Obama's embrace of multilateralism, Pfaff believes President Obama has embraced some of the worst tendencies of the past and his policies will fail. His latest book on this subject is The Irony of Manifest Destiny: the Tragedy of America's Foreign Policy (Walker, 2010). He traces the idea of Manifest Destiny and America's interpretation of its exceptionalism through our history and seems to elide with Gary Wills' National Security State, a critique of American policy after Truman.
I can't think of worst news than Afghanistan having over $1 trillion in mineral deposits such as Lithium. Think of Karzai as the Ibn Saud of Lithium, the master of cellphones. I have heard the pundits here already discuss the wonderful opportunity this provides the country. But, having lived through this with many new oil states and the mineral riches of the Congo, I can say, yes I know you can create laws that willl create transparency in awarding the mining contracts and ,yes. you can create a transparent way the nation could use the revenues for development. But it will never happen. The Mines and Minerals Ministry in Afghanistan is considered even more corrupt than the rest of the country and a few families will monopolize the industry. Whole populations will be displaced; and local warfare will be the rule like in mineral-rich Congo. And, unfortunately, the fact of minerals will enable those who want us to stay indefinitely in Washington to have greater infuence in the debate. And, the bottom line is that the Chinese will get the minerals anyway like they have the copper in Afghanistan and the oil in Iraq.
Daniel Byman and Christine Fair in the July/August The Atlantic have an excellent article on the ineptitude of Islamic terrorisms and the Taliban entitled "The Case for Calling Them Nitwits". Reviewing recent failed bomb plots, the authors also deal with the whole issue that these guys are not so religious. The laptops seized by U.S. authorities from the would-be jihadists are filled with porn. For a while, Pentagon analysts believed they encrypted messages in the porn but after extensive exams decided that these guys were just porn addicts. Apparently, we have tertabytes of this stuff from the laptops. Our Predator drones have captured exciting images of two Taliban engaged in intimate relations with a donkey and a fighter gratifying himself with a cow. The authors believe we must root out Al Qaeda's havens in Pakistan and then fighting terrorism becomes easy once we realize the rest of them are inept. Apparently, Al Qaeda is so cunning either. The CIA did an elaborate internet sting on Al Qaeda using Facebook and the organization actually posted their operational manuals and plans and personnel. It's a good thing Bin Laden just released another message to the United States. I was getting woried for a moment. His team isn't looking good.
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